the North Court, are two Class Rooms, each 44 feet by 38, and containing 12 rows of seats for the classes of Roman and Greek Language and Literature, Mathematics, and English Language. Besides the principal entrance by the staircase, there are two others on the ground floor on each side of the portico; those nearer the centre lead each to two Class Rooms and Cloisters, and the others to apartments for the accommodation of the professors, and to the offices of the Institution. The rooms in the north range are respectively appropriated to Italian Language and Literature, French Language, Spanish and English Literature, and Jurisprudence and English Law, and to the Nature and Treatment of Diseases, Physiology, Comparative Anatomy and Zoology, Clinical Medicine, Surgery, and Clinical Surgery. The corresponding rooms in the south range accommodate classes for Political Economy, German Language and Literature, and the Hebrew, Spanish, and Italian Languages. Each of these rooms (46 by 24) is furnished with six rows of ascending seats, with book-boards, and a raised platform for the professor. Behind are Cloisters for the use of the students during the intervals of lectures, and inclement weather. There are also on this floor appropriate apartments for the use of the professors, the Chemical Laboratory, and the Museums of Botany and Materia Medica.

The Theatres of the Institution are provided for in back wings at each end of the building, and have access from the courts. In the first floor of the north wing lectures are delivered on Midwifery, and on Anatomy and Operative Surgery; those on Materia Medica and Chemistry, in the Theatre immediately below. The south wing is appropriated above, to Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, and below to Botany, Geology, &c. . These Theatres are 65 feet by 50, with semicircular ends, and are fitted up with ten rows of concentric benches rising sixteen inches above each other, and with such accommodation for the professors

as the respective subjects of lecture render necessary.

The basement floor contains two spacious apartments fitted up as Common Rooms, with tables, &c. for the use of the students; Refreshment Rooms for the accommodation of such as reside at a distance; apartments for the steward and housekeeper and the domestics of the establishment; and rooms for the Anatomical School.

An insulated building, separated from the north court by a high wall, is (together with apartments in the basement just referred to,) appropriated to that department of anatomical instruction, more immediately under the direction of the Demonstrator.

The whole of the building is well ventilated, and most liberally supplied with stairs and the other means of transit, by which extensive establishments are rendered commodious. The Theatres and Class Rooms are well lighted and furnished with heating apparatus. In the former a precaution is taken to preserve the bookboards and benches from the knife, which is worthy of general adoption. A coating of paint is laid over, when wet, with fine sharp sand and allowed to dry; when sufficiently indurated, the particles which have not adhered are swept from the surface, and the wood painted wainscot or whatever color may have been determined on. No boy having the least respect for his knife will, we are persuaded, after one trial and having examined its edge, be hardy enough to venture on a second.

Besides the Cloisters, there are two Courts for exercise; but they are, we are certain, by no means of the dimensions that would have been chosen had the limits of the ground permitted their extension.

The Grand Entrance, when completed, will be one of the most magnificent in the metropolis.

We cannot conclude this notice without expressing our admiration at the manner in which the operations have been conducted and brought to their present state of forwardness.

Explanation of the Print of the Fashions.

MORNING DRESS.

THIS Costume is a petticoat of fawncolored gros de Naples, with a very broad hem at the border, headed by an embroidery of Pomona-green floize silk, in a Greek pattern. A canezouspencer of white muslin is worn with it, richly embroidered in stripes formed of satin-stitch raised spots. The body is drawn, but not very full, and a falling-cape collar falls over it, at the throat, of plain India muslin, trimmed round with two rows of lace. The sleeves are à la Mameluke, and immensely wide. They are finished at the wrists by stiffened points, à l'Antique, of cambric; and next the hand are very broad bracelets of gold, clasped by a cameo-head. When this dress is adopted for the promenade, a bonnet of Pomona-green gros de Naples is worn with it, with a broad white blond at the edge of the brim. The crown is tastefully ornamented with the same blond, and with small bows of green and white ribbon the blond at the edge is caught up in front, and from thence appears to be carried up on the crown: the bonnet ties under the chin, on the right side, by ribbon similar to that on the crown. The half-boots are of Pomona-green kid.

AFTERNOON COSTUME.

This is a very favorite style of parure adopted in the country, after returning from the morning walk or drive. It consists of a dress of painted Indian taffety, in white stripes on a ground of pearl-grey. Between the stripes are delicate figures in the most beautiful pencil-work, all of one color; and on the white stripes, small detached bouquets, remarkable for the variety and splendor of their colors. A very broad, full flounce, with the stripes crosswise, surrounds the bor

der; this flounce is headed en dents de loup, and bound with bright jonquil satin. The body is made quite plain, very much pinched in, and the waist encircled by a yellow ribbon edged with scarlet, with a small rosette behind, without ends. A double frill of the same material as the dress, surrounds the tucker part of the bust. The sleeves are à la Marie, of white crêpe-lisse, and are confined only in the centre of the thickest part of the arm, and at the wrists, by bracelets of very broad gold lace, clasped by a cameo in alto-relievo. The headdress is a hat of white crape, trimmed with white satin ribbon, the chief ornaments of which are under the brim, in a bow on the left side, and layers. Under the right side is a small white feather; and white esprits, or other fancy plumage, adorn the crown. The ear-rings are of gold. Half-boots, made to fit like a stocking, are of the palest shade of willow-green satin; the fronts are of mignonette-leafgreen, and are of corded or spotted gros de Naples.

EVENING COSTUME.

A DRESS of white gossamer satin, with a very broad hem at the border of the skirt, at the head of which is a splendid wreath of embroidery in colored silks, intermixed with gold. The body is made low, with a collar-cape, en paladin, round the tucker part, and edged by a ruche of blond tulle: the sleeves short, cut in bias, and very full. The hair is arranged à la Grecque. A bandeau, which in grand costume is of colored gems, crosses the forehead, dividing the clustered curls on each side of the face. The Grecian knot, or fusée, at the back of the head, consists of many curls, confined together at the base by strings of pearls. The shoes are of white satin.

TEMPERATURE IN OWHYHEE.

In an account by Mr. A. Menzies of the ascent of the mountain Wha-rarai, in Owhyhee, we are told that in the evening the thermometer stood at 58 deg.; and he was much surprised to find the temperature so nearly the same as it was in the lower part of the wood in the morning, though he had ascended, since that time, upwards of 4000 feet of the mountain. This, he thinks, was probably owing to the strong exhalations going on in the daytime, amongst the closely-crowded trees and plants of this dense forest, keeping up a fanning breeze amongst the boughs, and tending greatly to diffuse the same temperature when at different heights. But when this cause ceased at night, and a heavy dew or small rain produced a contrary operation, the temperature next morning was found to be very different; for the thermometer was then as low as 43 deg. at half past seven,— -a difference of about 16 deg., between the extremes of which may be termed the temperate zone of these mountains.

MUSHROOMS.

The large horse-mushroom, except for catsup, should be very cautiously eaten. In wet seasons, or if produced on wet ground, it is very deleterious, if used in any great quantity.

SQUINTING.

Children, when they first begin to perceive, always turn anxiously to the light. Besides the agreeable sensation, the retina is strengthened by the action of the rays. Whenever, therefore, care is not taken so to place the infant that the light may strike both eyes equally, one generally becomes stronger than the other; and it is not

sufficiently known to parents and nurses, that one primary cause of "ocular indecision," (as we have heard it styled,) is an inequality in the strength of the eyes. This unhappy blemish should be particularly guarded against; for we are sure that the warmest admirer of free trade would prefer even a monopoly to such duplicity of vision.

CONCORD AND DISCORD.

Suspend a ball of thread and poise it in the air, giving it a push with the finger. If it is wished to carry on the swinging motion, the ball must be allowed to come to the turning point before another push is given. If it be touched in the middle of the swing, it will be stopped. This is precisely what the air does which is swung by the vibrations of a harp-string. The first furnishes a familiar illustration of unison and concord,-the last of discord.

FLY WATER.

Prussic acid has been obtained from the leaves of green tea, in so concentrated a state, that one drop killed a dog almost instantaneously. A strong infusion of Souchong tea, sweetened with sugar, is as effectual in poisoning flies as the solution of arsenic, generally sold for that purpose.

OUTWARD MOTION OF THE EYE.

We can easily conceive how the eye-ball may be pulled backwards and inwards, and even to one side, by cords placed in the back parts of the socket. But we often see the eye move outwards, and we know that no motion is performed without a ribbon, cord, or muscle, as it is termed by anatomists. How then can the eye move outwards, when there is nothing

without to which the mover can be conveniently fixed? This is the problem, and it would require a skilful mechanician to resolve it properly. It has been contrived by Providence that the mover should be placed far back in the socket, to give it power, for the longer the cord, if it have strength, the greater is its purchase in producing motion.

To produce the motion of the eye outwards, the cord is made to pass through a pulley in the eye-brow, near the point where it forms an angle with the nose, which pulley is sometimes of bone, but oftener of cartilage or gristle. After going over the pulley, the cord runs back again, and is inserted into the upper part of the eye-ball, about its middle. These two oblique muscles, particularly the last, cause the eye to roll outwards, as in the effort to perceive a distant mountain or a ship far in the offing :-a most beautiful contrivance, quite unequalled in all our works of art in elegance of mechanism and utility of design. This can only be matched with others by the same Divine hand; for example, with that of the vessel which carries blood from the heart to the brain, and which makes many a winding turn in the bone to diminish the force of the current, that might otherwise prove too violent in rushing into the brain, with onetenth of the blood of the whole body.

EXTINCTION OF FIRES.

When a chimney or flue is on fire, throw into the fire-place one handful after another of flower of sulphur. This, by its combustion, effects the decomposition of the atmospheric air, which is, in consequence, paralysed, or, in effect, annihilated.

THE ARCTIC MERMAID.

That the stories of mermaids have in most cases originated in the observer fancying a resemblance to humanity in seals and other marine animals, there cannot be a doubt. This is strongly confirmed by a very competent judge, Mr. Scoresby, jun., who informs us, that, when seen at a dis

tance, the front part of the head of the young walrus, without tusks, is not unlike the human face. As this animal is in the habit of rearing its head above water, to look at ships and other passing objects, it is not at all improbable but that it may have afforded foundation for some of the stories of mermaids. Mr. Scoresby himself has seen the walrus in such a position, and under such circumstances, that it required little stretch of imagination to mistake it for a human being; so like, indeed, was it, that the surgeon of the ship actually reported his having seen a man with his head just appearing above the surface of the water. Seals exhibit themselves in a similar way. The heads of some, at a distance, are not unlike the human head, though the resemblance is not so striking as that presented by the walrus.

POTATO MORTAR.

M. Cadet-de-Vaux found mortar of lime and sand, and also that made from clay, greatly improved in durability by mixing boiled potatoes with it.

THE HERRING.

It has been maintained by some naturalists, that herrings breed in the northern seas, from which they annually migrate southwards; but for this opinion there does not seem to be any very satisfactory authority. It has never, at least, been attempted to realize the theory by establishing herring fisheries on the coast of Iceland, Greenland, or Spitzbergen. When they make their first appearance on the coast of Scotland, it is not in shoals, but in small numbers-the precursors, as it were, of the myriads which are to follow. There is nothing to indicate a migration from the north; on the contrary, there is every reason to believe they breed in our own seas; but both the time of their breeding and of their visits are irregular and capricious. Much good money has been sunk by erecting buildings and establishing fishing stations, which the herrings afterwards abandoned.

EDUCATION.

LOOKING at the brief span of human life, and the considerable portion of it that is spent in the sedentary business of school, at an age when nature disposes to muscular exertion out of doors, no one who is accustomed to view the buoyant light-heartedness, the free and graceful movements of childhood, before it is put into the trammels of society, can refrain from wishing, that in abridging, as must be done, the natural liberty of a boy, and confining him for a certain space in a school-room, with a view of training him to habits that are to be useful in after life, we should set about it in a manner which, while it best secures the end, shall keep him at the same time most active and happy, and give him the least annoyance or mortification that is consistent with the full attainment of the object. As the vinedresser lops the wild and gadding shoots that would exhaust the plant and disappoint his hopes of an abundant vintage, so must the little freaks and fancies, and erring spirits of the child be repressed; or, to speak more properly, the elasticity of mind and incessant activity of which they are symptoms, must be directed into one channel, and made to assist, instead of obstructing, his improvement.

Often does the school-boy feel in his bones the paucity of information that is in the cranium of the teacher; and that very inquiry which is the indication of superior talents, is repressed by the ferula. No doubt there was once a succession of well-informed pedagogues who held forth the doctrine that the seeds of learning would not come to maturity if the mind was not prepared for their application by ploughing the body; and who, also, to make sure of the matter, gave that a good harrowing after the sowing was over. Perhaps when learning was a mere matter

of memory the plan was not a bad one,-the pupil had every probability of remembering the flogging, and there was a chance that the other matter might be remembered along with it. If this was not the case, there was but small chance of the saw or saying being remembered at all; for other than the flagellation there was generally nothing of interest with which it could be associated. In Scotland flagellation was once, and that not very long ago, held as being the best, indeed it was the only system of Mnemonics. When the marches or boundaries between the lands of two proprietors were determined, and "march stones" set up, it was the custom to collect all the little children and flog them soundly at the stone, and thus evidence of it and its place was preserved as long as any of them lived. Flogging has ceased to be useful in that sense in Scotland; and it is to be hoped that even there it will also soon cease to be relied on as a means of remembering the elements of knowledge.

STORY-TELLING.

A friend of mine has one, and only one, good story, respecting a gun, which he contrives to introduce upon all occasions, by the following simple, but ingenious device. Whether the company in which he is placed be numerous or select, addicted to strong potations, or to long and surprising narratives; whatever may happen to be the complexion of their character or conversation, let but a convenient pause ensue, and my friend immediately hears, or pretends to hear, the report of a gun. Every body listens, and recalls his late impressions, upon which "the story of a gun" is naturally, and as if by a casual association, introduced thus-" By the by, speaking of guns, that puts me mind of a