without smell or rancidity, it can be readily taken into the stomach with wine or milk with the addition of a little peppermint. This valuable medicine has been long known and manufactured in different parts of Europe and Asia, and in the French, English, and Spanish islands-and for about 30 years has been manufactured in the United States. The seed is pressed in the usual way with a screw and lever, sufficient for the purpose of extracting its oily particles, with as little heat as possible; the oil is mingled with clear water, which is made to undergo a degree of heat sufficient for all its mucilaginous particles to rise to the surface, and be skimmed off. The oil naturally disengages itself from the water, and if not sufficiently pure, is made to undergo the like process the second or third time. After remaining some time to settle, the oil is to be again heated, till all the watery particles are removed. This method of purifying oils has long been recommended by Chemists in various countries and its adoption in this country has proved its utility; our Oil of Ricinus is now equal, if not superior, to any in the world; owing in part to a regular supply of fresh seed, which is found to grow luxuriantly in the middle states, where the climate is more favourable to raise the seed, than in warmer latitudes; as the seed partakes less of rancidity, and of more mildness, than those which are produced in hot climates. We are obliged to our correspondent for the above statement, which we presume to be practically correct; we shall, however, remark, that considerable use in the purification of the oil may, we believe, be made of a solution of Ichthyocolla, or the whites of eggs, which inviscates and collects together many particles, as in the purification of wine, which otherwise time alone will separate. Charcoal powder is also an important article which tends to destroy the colouring matters; and may then in its turn be removed by the isinglass or albumen. We beg leave to state that these observations are partly the result of experiment on a small scale. We shall be glad to learn their result on one more extended. Our correspondent is, perhaps, not strictly correct in speaking of this medicine as "long known," (meaning, we presume, as a remedy.) If he will consult some of the periodical works of only about fifty years back-as the Gent, Mag. v. 35, p. 61-v. 40, p. 161, &c. he will find it was not then very generally employed, or at least prior to that time. It was even by many considered dangerous. It would seem as if the connexion of the plant affording it, with that which yields the powerful Croton oil had in part precluded an earlier knowledge of its real merits. We do not agree as to what is said by our correspondent in the last sentence of his communication. MEMORANDA. LONDON AND PARIS. During the past year, 20,587 deaths occurred in London and its adjoining parishes; during the same period there were 27,678 births. Of the deaths 5012 happened from cousump tion: 2189 from inflammation: 24 from suicide: 6 from excessive drinking: 22 were executed: 774 from small-pox: 332 from apoplexy: 118 drowned: 39 burnt. A twentieth part had attained the age of 70 and 80 years: more than 100 exceeded 90 years. In the year 1751, there were 21,028 deaths, 2699 less than the preceding year. Of these 925 were between 70 and 80 years-461 between 80 and 90-58 between 90 and 100-and 13 above 100. During the year 1822, the total number of deaths in Paris, amounted to 23,269. Of these 203 were deposited in the Morgue. It appears from the above, that the mortality in Paris far exceeded that of London, since the latter has 3 or 400,000 inhabitants more than the former. Those mentioned as having been in the Morgue must have died violent deaths, either by their own hands or those of others. The bodies usually found there are those picked up in the Seine, or found dead in other parts of the metropolis. It is no uncommon event to see at one time in this horrible receptacle, as many as 4 or 5 bodies of both sexes, (principally, however, males) lying there with their clothes, &c. hanging above them, and disfigured in the most frightful manner. The wretches who, from revenge or other motives, seek the lives of their unhappy victims, watch the opportunity when they are crossing some of the bridges at night, and after a dead sumption, 13. Convulsions, 10. Dropsies, 10. Dysentery, 15. Fevers, 7. Flux InSmall Pox, 3. Still born, 8. fantile, 14. Suicide, 3. ening blow, precipitate them into the stream below this too in spite of the sentinels, who are, in some instances, stationed on the bridge itself. If, however, the murder is committed elsewhere, they most generally take the body to the Aug. 16. Bilious, 4. Infantile unknown 10! river and throw it in. The friends of any persons who are missing, usually repair immediately to the Morgue, where, in the course of a day or two at farthest, they will generally discover and recognise the unfortunate objects of search. We are forcibly reminded too, when it presents itself in such gross amount, of the immense proportion of deaths from consumption-nearly one-fourth of the whole! In the statement of six deaths from excessive drinking, we cannot but think there is some mistake;-otherwise, how striking the contrast between London and one of our own towns, Norfolk, Va, where it is said two died of intemperance in the month of July-the whole number of deaths being eleven! This is a month, however, in which more always die from excessive drinking in this country, than in any other.-Liberty! thou wilt have something to answer for! MEMORANDA, Portland. (Me.)-A fever of a malignant type prevails in one part of the town, and has proved fatal to many who have been exposed to it. It is not however, considered contagious, and there is little alarm. Montpelier. (Vt.)-Frost here and in the adjacent towns the night of Aug. 3. Boston.-91 deaths for the month of July. 18 deaths for the week ending July 16. Consumption, 3. Fits, 2. Still born, 2.-15 deaths for the week ending July 24.-Consumption, 4.-22 deaths for the week ending July 30. Consumption, 5.-29 death for the week ending Aug, 6. Consumption, 2. Accidental, 2. Still born, 2.-23 deaths for the week ending Aug. 14. Consumption, 1. Dysentery, 1. Cholera Morbus, 1. Paris.-(Oneida Co.) A distressing disease of the eyes is prevailing here, which has entirely deprived several worthy inhabitants of their sight. The disease is said to be contagious. New York.-120 deaths for the week ending Aug. 14.-Cholera Morbus, 7. Con Baltimore.-38 deaths for the week ending Dysentery, 3. sumption, 3. Cholera Infantum, 8. Con Charleston.-17 deaths from the 1st to the 8th of August. Consumption,_2. Whooping Cough, 4. Teething, 3.-Thermometer (3 P. M.) Aug. 1=89°: 2=85°: 3=87° : 4= 8405-830: 6-79 1-2o: 7-810:-Not much rain. August 11th. Three new cases of yellow fever have occurred near Elliot street! The physicians have advised strangers to remove instantly from town, at least until the nature of the disease be fully developed.-August 12, five new cases of yellow fever reported, and one August 13. The papers however, declare the city to be generally healthy. August 14, teco new cases. One new case on the 16th inst. Columbia. (S. C.)-Hottest summer since 1797-but very healthy. Savannah.-Still continues healthy; 2 deaths for the week ending Aug. 10. Augusta.-185 deaths in 1823: 97 up to August 1, 1824. 6. Mobile.-3 deaths for the week ending July New Orleans-36 deaths from July 13 to July 19.-Fevers, 13. Malignant, 2! Dysentery, 2. Consumption, 3.-The city however is said to be unusually healthy, with the exception of a few sporadic cases of bilious fever. Very hot since the 10th of June-therin the afternoon. Little rain. Atmosphere mometer generally ranging at 94° in the shade clear; river full. 38 deaths from July 19 to July 26. 10 of fevers, including one of yellow and three of malignant. Several cases of yellow fever are at the quarantine hospital, but all communication cut off. Weather still very hot, upwards of 90° in the shade. The city is said to continue unusually healthy. Ther mometer (2 P. M.) July 18-91°: 19-93°; 20=960: 21=920: 22-940: 23-940: 24= 960: light showers during the week. PUBLISHED (EVERY THURSDAY) NO. 110, WALNUT STREET, PHILADA. At $3 per annum, payable in advance. HEALTH OF THE CITY. Our city at this time enjoys such an unusual immunity and exemption from the prevailing diseases of the season, that it may be deemed almost superfluous in us to descant upon a subject of such general interest and notoriety-we cannot however forbear congratulating our fellow citizens on this point, and trust that their feelings upon the occasion are at least as grateful as those of their medical brethren. Our late guest, so much dreaded, so obstinate, and of such wide spread influence, the "Autumnal Fever," seems at last to have departed, and though some of its suite may still linger, as if loth to part, we trust that all therewith connected will soon have "served and suffered the appointed time," and descend into the "tomb of all the Capulets." If the suggestion be correct, that 40 years ago, our city was similarly visited, and that probably for another 40 years we need not dread its re-appearance, few of the No. 12. present day will ever see it again. (How different its effects, the feelings it excited and the welcome it received from those arising from the visit of another guest whose absence was of like duration!) Should this disease again appear in 40 years, our descendants will not be so unprepared for it, as we have been: besides the lingering veteran who may be left to tell the tale, the periodical journals and other records of our day will furnish them with much light upon the subject, which though not so full, perfect and satisfactory as might be wished, will yet far exceed any advantages of that kind, that we at its first appearance enjoyed. Another disease with which we have of late renewed our acquaintance, and which gave still more uneasiness and excited still more interest than the preceding has also left us, though not entirelywe allude to the Small Pox, of whose existence we are now only aware by the weekly notice of a death or two from its yet lingering influence. This state of things will probably continue for some time, but we fondly cherish the hope, that 'ere many years have rolled over our heads, we shall hear of it but as a thing that was. The additional light which has of late been thrown upon this interesting subject, together with its attendant circumstances, vaccination, inoculation &c., and the interest which is taken in it not only by physicians, but also by the public at large, and by many enlightened governments, warrant the cheering expectation, that Small-Pox will be sooner or later, entirely exterminated, and driven from the face of the globe. We have now arrived at a pretty correct estimate of the powers of vaccination, and though it has not proved to be so complete and perfect a preventive, as was by many at first fondly anticipated, it has maintained its claim to the appellations of "glorious discovery" and "invaluable blessing." What though it does not always ward off or shield from the attacks of the destroyer! it deadens the blow and renders powerless its efforts it renders invulnerable an immense proportion of those who have been properly subjected to its influence-it is superior in safety and convenience to inoculation -can do no harm, but much good-in fine, what thousands, we might say millions, are now living to attest its benefits, who else, and without its powerful aid, would probably now be sleeping with their fathers! Vaccination then, has already done much, and vaccination we firmly believe, if timely, properly, thoroughly and universally performed, would in time completely annihilate its deadly foe!—Once dead, it would not easily be revived. Our ordinary summer complaints have not been, and are not at present, as troublesome as usual. Of Dysentery we have had comparatively little, and that mostly confined to particular districts; in the practice of the Dispensary for instance, this disease has been more prevalent in the southern districts than in the others, and we mention it as an uncommon fact at least, if not unprecedented, that the physician for the north-western district was lately, for upwards of a whole week without a single case of any disease whatsoever! Choleras have perhaps been pretty much as usual, though we think, if any-thing, they have been less common than in former years. One disease more, and we have done. 'The Bilious Fever which has for some years past committed considerable ravages among the coloured portion of our population, and which was hence familiarly known by the appellation of the Black Fever," has been scarcely heard of this year. Long before this, our bills of mortality in former years, proclaimed its existence; and the wards of the almshouse, with the alleys of our city, and other receptacles of the poor and coloured, presented a far different appearance from what at the present time we meet with in our observations. The season is now so far advanced, that we need hardly fear its re-appearance, and amongst other arguments in favour of our seconding and promoting the benevolent or politic (no matter which) intentions of our republican brother of Hayti, it should not be the least, that we are thus indirectly improving the health of the city. A speedy and prosperous voyage to our sable brethren, and may our parting be of mutual service! VAMPYRISM.-No. 5. pyrism are to be traced to the remotest According to Calmet, vestiges of Vamantiquity. Isaiah 34. v. 14. describing the state to which Babylon would be reduced, says it should become the resort of Satyrs, Lamiæ, Hobgoblins, (in Hebrew Lilith.) This last signifies in Hebrew, what the Greeks and Romans express by Strix and Lamia, or sorcerer and witch, who endeavour to destroy newborn children. Hence the Jews, in order to drive them away, were accustomed to write on the 4 extremities of a woman just delivered, Adam, Eve, begone Lilith. The ancient Grecians knew them under the name of Lamiæ, and believed 66 neu they devoured children, or sucked their blood until they died. Horace says pransa Lamiæ vivum puerum extrahas alvo" and Ovid speaking of the Striges, describes them as dangerous birds, which fly by night seeking for infants, to devour them and suck their blood "Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent Est illis Strigibus nomen.' These prejudices were so profoundly rooted in the minds of uncivilized nations, that they put to death all who were suspected of being Striges, or sorcerers, and of devouring living persons.-Charlemagne, in the statutes he composed, for his new Saxon subjects, condemned to death those who should believe that a man or woman were (Striges) sorcerers, and eat living persons; or who should on this pretence cause them to be burned, or give their flesh to be eaten, or should eat it themselves.-From this we may observe, that it was believed that there were persons who did eat living people; that they were killed and burned; and that sometimes their flesh was eaten, as we have before noticed that in Russia, bread was eaten that was made up with the blood of Vampyres;-That at other times their corpses were exposed to carniverous animals, as is still the case in places where these apparitions are found, after impaling them, or cutting off their head. The laws of Lombardy equally prohibit killing the servant of another, as a witch, Striga, or Masca. This last word Masca, from whence comes mask, has the same meaning with the Latin Larva, a spirit, phantom, or spectre. Many more examples are given by Calmet of the same character with those we have brought forward.-They all serve to show the imbecility of man; and how readily he advances in the career of credulity and superstition. Nor is the belief of witches &c. limited to the dark ages of the world; most of the instances enumerated, are scarcely more remote than a century and a half from our own times; and now, there are hundreds who implicitly accredit those tales of the nursery, even in the most enlightened nations of the world. The blue laws of New England it is believed, are yet many of them in existence, and the history of witchcraft in Connecticut, &c. by Hutchinson, evinces that it is not among the illiterate only, that credulity abounds. Whoever would wish to read further on the subject of Vampyres, may consult a paper in the 3d vol. Manchester MeAthenæum. They are substantially simoirs, p. 86-or the 2d v. p. 19 Lond. milar to those of Calmet, and are probably derived either from him, or from the same authorities with his own. See also some passing remarks in Haller's Pathological observations; also in Sprengel's Histoire de la Medicine, vol. 6, and in Garmann's work entitled, de Miraculis Mortuorum printed in 1670, which Codex of all the absurdities arising from Sprengel tells us was, in a measure, the culous cures. BLUE DEVILS! AND OLD WOMEN! There is so much good sense in the following extract, that I shall not apologize for its length. If proper use is made of it, I doubt not many hypochondriac patients might be restored to themselves and society! If phrenology is at all true in its principles-unquestionably a derangement of those organs through which the operations of the soul are seen, must be first overcome, before a restoration to health can be fully established!—The extract is from a paper in the 22d vol. of the Sporting Magazine, page 38-entitled "Loquacity; or, an Old Woman's Lamentations for the loss of her poultry; beginning with a panegyric on Old Wo men." In stating the excellencies of old women, one amongst the number is "that they are an antidote for the Spleen, the Vapours, the Megrims, the Fidgets, and the Hypochondriac malady."--After an Exordium on this proposition, of some extent, the writer, in proof of it, says |