THE MYXINE, GLUTINOUS HAG, OR BORER. | animal, and by which, in reference either to its quality (Gastrobranchus cæcus.) THE GLUTINOUS HAG-FISH. THIS little fish, although seldom more than twelve or fourteen inches in length, is well deserving of notice, on account of its singular method of obtaining its food. The Myxine is found as far north as the shores of Scandinavia, and it is also of frequent occurrence on the British coasts, more particularly off Scarborough. It enters, says Pennant, the mouths of other fish when on the hooks attached to the lines, which remain a tide under water, and totally devours the whole except the skin and bones. The Scarborough fishermen often take it in the robbed fish on drawing up their lines. On this account it is called, on this part of the coast, the Hag or the Borer, because, as others say, it first pierces a small aperture in the skin, and afterwards buries its head in the body of its prey. It is most usually found in the body of the cod, or some other equally rapacious fish. Its worm-like figure induced several systematic writers to class it with the worms, and "it was not till after dissections and published descriptions, that its true relations with the lampreys were acknowledged." The Myxine, (says Mr. Yarrel,) is not uncommon at Berwick, but it is only to be obtained at a particular season of the year, in one or two localities, when, during fine weather, at the end of Spring, or the beginning of Summer, the fishermen lay their long lines, on a bank with a soft mud bottom, near the coast, when fishing for cod or haddock. It is considered by some, that the Myxine, which is without eyes, obtains access to the interior of the body of the fish by passing in at the anal aperture; others endeavour to account for its being found in the belly of a voracious fish, by supposing it had been swallowed; while many experienced fishermen still repeat their belief, that the Myxine enters the mouth of the cod-fish while it is hanging on the line. It is conjectured that the Myxine does not fasten upon any fish, unless it be either dead or hanging on a hook; but how a fish that is blind is able to find its way to a particular aperture, is a matter not easily explained. The eight barbules, or cirri, about the mouth of the Myxine are, there is no doubt, delicate organs of touch, by which it obtains cognizance of the nature and quality of the substances with which they are in contact, and its single-hooked tooth upon the palate enables it to retain its hold till the double rows of teeth, or the tongue, are brought into action, to aid the desire to obtain food." Along the whole length of the under surface of the body, from head to tail, there are two rows of mucous pores, from which a large quantity of a gelatinous secretion is expressed occasionally, at the will of the or quantity, or both, this fish is said to escape its enemies. So copious and so thick in its consistence is this jelly-like secretion, that some of the older naturalists believed this fish had the power of converting water into glue, and it obtained in consequence the name of the Glutinous Hag. The body is long, and cylindrical throughout nearly its whole length, tapering and compressed near the tail; in colour the Myxine is dark-brown along the back, lighter chestnut-brown along the sides, and yellowish-white underneath. The bones of the back in the lamprey are of a soft consistence, and indistinctly divided into rounded portions. In the Myxine, in place of a series of bones composing the vertebral column, there is merely a soft and flexible cartilaginous tube. The annexed engraving shows the structure of the mouth of the Myxine. It is to be observed, the parts are laid open to show the teeth: the tooth on the palate is seen about half way between the points of the nose and the four rows of teeth on the tongue COMPASSION is an emotion of which we ought never to be ashamed. Graceful, particularly in youth, is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe. We should not permit ease and indulgence to contract our affections, and wrap us up in a selfish enjoyment; but we should accustom ourselves to think of the distresses of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan. Nor ought we ever to sport with pain and distress in any of our amusements, or treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty.-DR. BLAIR. AS THE BUILDING STOOD IN THE YEAR 1772, WHEN IT WAS PULLED DOWN. IN our former notice of the Bishop of Ely's Chapel and Palace in Holborn*, we brought down the memoir from the time of John de Kirkby, the original donor of the property, (who was consecrated Bishop of Ely in 1286, and died in 1290,) to the year 1531, when King Henry the Eighth and Queen Catherine were present at a banquet in the great hall of the palace. Above is a correct sketch of the court-yard, the colonnade, and south side of the old hall, over the chief entrance of which were carved the arms of the See of Ely; such having been the view which, before the edifice was pulled down in 1772, met the eye on entering from that part of Holborn Hill where the iron gates now stand. To give a correct idea of the relative position of the buildings, it may be mentioned, that the ancient Chapel of St. Etheldreda stands somewhat further northward, and would, consequently, be hidden by the hall. This hall, as seen in the engraving, is stated to have been a noble room, 74 feet long, standing east and west, lighted with six Gothic windows, and furnished in a manner suitable to the hospitality of the times. sure, contained twenty acres, "or, as some say, forty acrest," in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The Bishops of Ely from that period lost all real possession of the property, by their own surrender; to which, however, they were compelled by the crown. And this brings us to a painful period in our history: Elizabeth is said to have been struck with the graceful person and fine dancing of Sir Christopher Hatton, and to have promoted him to the office of Lord Chancellor, on the strength of these qualifications. His attention to business, however, and the sagacity of his judgments, appeared afterwards to justify the choice. Indeed, considering the penetration displayed by that great queen in the selection of her ministers and advisers, we cannot help thinking that the story of Hatton's having danced into his preferment, is a little piece of historical slander. Gray, speaking of this state Worthy, ironically observes, in his Long Story, The Ely estate in Holborn was so much enlarged and improved by purchases of land, and by buildings erected by successive prelates, that the whole, consisting of the palace, gardens, pastures, and encloSee Saturday Magazine, Vol. XIII., p. 129. VOL. XIII. Full oft within the spacious walls, When he had fifty winters o'er him, The seal and maces danced before him. 409 This speech, and the unreasonable charges against the bishop, form, together, a very curious document. Wren was imprisoned during the whole of the Rebellion, in which time the greatest and best part of the mansion was pulled down, the garden was built into tenements to the value of several thousands per annum, and Ely House was reduced to a very dark inconvenient dwelling, without any remains of its former splendour, except the ancient hall and chapel. In January, 164, this once magnificent palace was ordered by the Parliament to be converted into a prison; and the serjeant-at-arms was appointed keeper, with a special charge that the chapel, the garden, and trees should receive no injury. In March 1576, on the queen's solicitation, Dr. | liament, on bringing in the bill, was full of invective. Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely*, granted to Hatton the gate-house and other portions of the palace, including the long gallery, fourteen acres of land, and the keeping of the garden and orchards for twentyone years; the latter paying at Midsummer-day a red rose for the gate-house, with ten loads of hay and 107. per annum for the garden. The bishop succeeded in reserving to himself and his successors free access through the gate-house, walking in the gardens, and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. Hatton having undertaken to repair, and make the gate-house a convenient dwelling, laid out large sums upon the estate (about 20007.), and, on this pretext, intreated the queen to require the bishop to alienate it to him wholly, including the garden. Cox, however, in a well-written Latin letter, remonstrated against this proposition, pointing out the inconvenience which would ensue to himself and his successors, from such a spoliation : That they would miss the orchard and meadow; besides, that his conscience would not allow him to accede to such a piece of sacrilege. That on becoming Bishop of Ely, he had received into his hands certain farms, houses, &c., which former pious sovereigns had thought fit to assign to the See. Of these things he ought to be a steward, not a He reminded the queen of that golden rule, scatterer. Not to do that to another which one would not have done to oneself; And that the profit of one person is not to be increased by the damage of another. He added, that he could scarcely justify those princes who transferred things intended for pious uses, to purposes less pious. Neither these arguments, however, nor the acknowledged merits of the prelate, were allowed to prevail: against these were set the queen's regard for Hatton, and a debt which he owed to her Majesty, for she had accommodated him with money, which he was unable to raise. The issue of the correspondence was this; that the bishop should, by way of mortgage, convey to the queen, and the queen to Hatton, the house, gardens, &c., which were at that time on lease to him, but that they should be redeemable on the payment of the sum which was stated to have been laid out upon it. The See of Ely remained vacant for nearly twenty years after Bishop Cox's death, no distinguished churchman being willing to accept a dignity burdened with such heavy charges and subjected to so many grievous annoyances as this appears to have been. Heton, who was the next bishop, demurred to the terms imposed, on which he received from the queen a strong letter beginning" Proud Prelate!" Understand ing "that he was backward in complying with his agreement, she would have him to know, that she who had made him what he was, would unmake him; and if he did not forthwith fulfil his engagement, she would immediately unfrock him.” This peremptory epistle was signed "Yours, as you demean yourself, ELIZABETH." Nothing was done towards paying off the mortgage above mentioned till the time of the learned and excellent Bishop Lancelot Andrews, who commenced proceedings in earnest to this effect, but was prevented from carrying them further by his translation from the See of Ely to that of Winchester. Bishop Matthew Wren afterwards tendered the money, and obtained a sentence in the Court of Requests; but the Long Parliament put a stop to the measure in 1641, by the imprisonment of the bishop in the Tower, he having been impeached in the House of Commons for certain alleged practices in his diocese tending to popery. The speech of Sir Thomas Widdrington, a puritan member of par *This learned and pious Prelate took a leading part in the preparation of our incomparable Liturgy, he having before assisted in drawing up King Edward the Sixth's First Common Prayer Book. During the troublous times which succeeded, Ely House was made the receptacle of wounded soldiers and sailors. Numbers of the poor creatures, who died there between 1648 and 1660, were brought to be buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew's, Holborn. The registers of burials in that parish abound with entries of this kind: there are literally hundreds. The following are extracts : 1650 December William Shawe a captaine out of Ely House died and was bur 19th 1650 William Ward a man a victler by Ely House Gate died and was bur 31st Dec 1652 December Elizabeth Vien a nurse-keeper to souldiers in Ely House was bur the 22nd buried 16 of Aprill 1653 But noe body knew his name 1653 April A souldier dyed in Ely House and was He came in over night and dyed in ye morninge 1653 June A Dutchman whose name was not known, dyed in Ely House and was buryed the 18th 1653 Aug Robert Barker a man sometimes porter of Ely House and was buried the 24 Oct Hannah Browning a maide in Ely House was buryed ye 28th Oct 1653 ander Rigbey, one of the barons of the Exchequer, We also meet with the register of burial of Alexwho died in Ely Rents, and of many other persons who occupied portions of these extensive buildings as tenants. By the last-mentioned entry, it appears and was carried away the 2nd of September following that the baron died " on the 18th of August 1650, to bee buried in Lancashire." In March, 1660, it was referred to a Committee of the House of Commons to consider, “how the widows and orphans of the maimed soldiers at Ely House could be provided for and paid for the future, with the least prejudice to the nation; and how a weekly revenue might be settled for their maintenance, and how the maimed soldiers may be disposed of, so as the nation may be eased of the charge and how they may be provided of a preaching minister." Neither Wren, nor any of his immediate successors, by whom bills were exhibited in Chancery for the recovery of the property to the see, were able to make much progress in the matter, till Bishop Simon Patrick put an end to the law-suit which had so long existed, by accepting a fee-farm rent for himself and his successors, amounting to 100l. a year, settled on the bishopric. It is no wonder that the several bishops in succession should have suffered great inconvenience from the despoiled and dismantled state of the palace. The gate-house having been taken down, they were compelled to enter the apartments reserved for them by an old back way. The rooms under these apartments were occupied by tenants, to whom the property had been underlet. Half of the Crypt, which is stated to have been once used for the interment of persons dying within the precinct, was frequented as a drinking place, where liquor was retailed; the intoxication of those assembled frequently interrupting the performance of divine service in the chapel above! Of the bishops of Ely who afterwards resided in the palace, some died there; and by the Chapel registers, it appears, that several baptisms and marriages were solemnized in it, by different clergymen, but principally by the bishops or their chaplains. The premises at length fell into ruin and neglect, until, in 1772, in the time of Bishop Edmund Keene, an Act of Parliament was procured, enabling the See of Ely to dispose of the whole. Thus, after a possession of nearly five hundred years, Ely-House and the reserved grounds were conveyed to the crown for 65007., and an annuity of 2007., payable to the bishops of Ely for ever; the town residence of those prelates being transferred to Dover-street, Piccadilly. The site and materials of the old buildings were purchased by Mr. Charles Cole, architect and deputy surveyor for the crown. He built Ely-place, of which he was the proprietor, and to which the chapel served as a place of worship. In February, 1781, a trial took place in the court of King's Bench before William, earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, and a special jury, in which the said Mr. Cole, then an inhabitant of Ely-Place, was the plaintiff, and two magistrates of Middlesex were defendants, in an action of trespass for taking the plaintiff's watch to pay a poor's rate, under a warrant of distress signed by the defendants. The jury, without going out of court, found a verdict for the plaintiff, on the ground of the place being extraparochial, which was entirely in accordance with the judge's charge. Lord Stowell remarks, that this verdict was probably obtained on the assumption of mistaken facts, or on some insufficient statement of all the circumstances. Ely-place has since been ruled to be liable to rates. A register book belonging to the chapel, which is continued from one in the custody of the bishop of Ely, shows various entries of baptism between 1780 and 1802. A "memorandum" in the more modern book records, that Mr. Cole thoroughly repaired the chapel, and that it was re-opened in December, 1786. With reference to an excellent clergyman, formerly the minister of this chapel, the following melancholy notice occurs in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1798. Died, November 4, of malignant fevers, The third son of the Rev. Mr. Faulkner: On the 8th, aged forty, after preaching three times on the Sunday before, the Rev. William Elisha Faulkner, lecturer of St. Giles in the Fields, and minister of Ely Chapel: And on the 12th, his youngest son. His wife and second son were also attacked by the same disorder, and have recovered. It now remains shortly to trace the history of the chapel to the present time. On the establishment of the Central School in Baldwin's Gardens, under the superintendence of the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the principles of the Established Church, the benevolent Treasurer of that institution considered Ely Chapel to be a suitable place of worship for the children and their parents. Acting upon this good design, he purchased it at a considerable cost, and presented it to the Society in 1820; assigning the whole management and direction to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, for the time being. It being supposed that the inhabitants of Ely Place and the adjoining neighbourhood would continue to rent the pews, the middle and side aisles were offered for their accommodation; and when the Central National School was transferred from Baldwin's Gardens to Westminster, the galleries which had been erected for the children were refitted for general use. The expectations which had been formed having, in a great degree, failed, the Chapel was closed; but on the occasion of an appeal being recently made to the public, for supplying means towards the erection of additional churches in the metropolis, it became a subject of regret, that an ancient ecclesiastical building, in every respect calculated for the purposes of religious worship, should remain unoccupied. Accordingly, in the year 1836, at the instance, and under the sanction, of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, Ely Chapel, after having been closed for five years, was re-opened for Divine service, which is now regularly performed, morning and evening. A VISIT TO THE BLIND SCHOOL, AT PHILADELPHIA. M. *** There was no public exhibition, but a private visit, with an order from a superintendent, furnished us with a much more favourable view. When I think of those sightless orbs, I can hardly realize that my name, which I now see so neatly printed, together with the watch-guard round my neck, in which I can detect no false stitch, is their work. After we entered, the teacher asked if I would like to have my name printed; on my answering in the affirmative, he called Mary Ann! A very pleasing looking girl of fifteen groped her way easily to the table, where the box of blocks was placed; the letters are pricked, not coloured. While Mary Ann was forming my name, she held a kind of converse with the blocks, now Jesting, now scolding if the right letter did not meet her touch, but all in a low, pleasant tone. The name was completed without mistake in a few minutes. A little boy spelt at my request, and Mary Ann was next called to read a chapter from one of the Gospels in raised letters. She reads rapidly, but no oratorical tone has ever fallen with such power on my ears as the words of Jesus from the lips of that blind girl. The teacher then gave out arithmetical questions of great difficulty, which he himself worked on the black-board. Nothing could be more earnest or ambitious than the air with which they went to work to calculate, or the look of triumph assumed by those who were the quickest or the most successful. There and At this period their music-master came. was great eagerness and interest in their manner, many a sly joke was whispered. They began with a German chorus, each part nobly sustained, the girls remaining in one room and boys in the other. I had been carried along by the variety and interest of the scene up to this point, not a little aided by the vivacity, even drollery, which characterized the manners of many of the girls; but now that their countenances were fixed, their sightless orbs mostly turned upward, and their voices swelling in a rich concert of praise and thanksgiving, my tears could not be restrained; fortunately the air ceased, and one of Mary Ann's slily whispered jokes restored me to selfpossession. After the German followed several English airs, which were succeeded by instrumental music, combining violins, clarionets, flutes, horns, bassoon, bass-viol, forming in all a grand concert. The music being over, the girls separated, and we visited the sewing apartment, where they began to collect, going unaided to their various occupations, making rugs, straw baskets, watch-guards, beadbags, &c. &c. As we descended to another room, we found Mary Ann at an elegant harp, which has lately been presented to the Institution by a Philadelphian. She was very shy, but consented to give us her first tune; another young lady played on the pianoforte.-Mrs. GILLMAN. RECREATIONS IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. No. VIII. CENTRE OF GRAVITY. ported, the tendency of the body to tilt up, or upset, is just as strong on one side as on the other, so that it remains neutral. An athletic man is sometimes exhibited, who places a child on the top of a ladder, THE beam of a pair of scales supported in the middle, and rests the bottom of the ladder on his own chin, remains in a horizontal position, and this it does even and thus bears the whole, In this case, there is when we add many pounds' weight to the ends, really but a small portion of the child's body exactly provided the weight at one end is exactly equal to over the man's chin, (which is the point of support,) that at the other. The point of support upon which but the man so regulates the position of the ladder, the beam turns, bears not only the balance-beam, that the centre of gravity of the whole shall be in a but the weights attached to such beam also. In vertical line with his chin, so that the weight on each every solid, or collection of solids, there is a similar side is equal, and the tendency of the child to fall on point of support, about which all the parts of such one side is exactly equal to its tendency to fall on solid balance each other exactly, so that the whole the other side, by which opposition of forces the mass is at rest: this point is called the centre of child is equally balanced. gravity; and although the attraction of gravitation acts upon every atom of the mass, provided the centre of gravity be supported, the whole mass is in equilibrium, that is, it is equally balanced. It becomes, therefore, an important question how we are to know whether a body will fall when one part is supported, and the rest is not. We ascertain this by finding out the centre of gravity. This we generally do instinctively, without any foreknowledge of the mechanical properties of solids; but there is a large variety of instances where the architect or the engineer would be sadly at fault, unless he were enabled to determine the exact situation of the centre of gravity of the solid masses with which his works are constructed, and the situation of the same centre in a complete work which is intended to endure for ages. If a solid be regular in its form, and uniform in its substance, such as a globe or cube of metal, the centre of gravity is evidently the centre of the figure; but in solids of irregular forms, a little calculation is necessary, in order to determine the exact position of such centre. If a solid be attached to a string hanging from a hook in the ceiling, such solid being under the influence of gravity, will descend to the lowest possible point, and the string will, of course, be vertical. The centre of gravity, then, in every suspended solid, tends to the lowest situation which its support allows of. This is a consequence of the attraction of gravitation. The centre of gravity is in a right line with the point of suspension, and can therefore be found easily. If we bore a hole through the solid, in the exact direction of the string, so that if the latter were continued below the point at which it is attached to the solid, it would pass through this hole; and if we suspend the solid by different points on its surface, and bore holes through it from each point, as in the first instance, we shall find, on cutting open the solid so as to discover the directions of the several holes, that they all cross each other at one point within the solid, which point is its centre of gravity. The reader may try this experiment for himself with a piece of pasteboard of an irregular form. Suspend it from its edge by means of a piece of string, and draw a line across the surface of the board in the exact direction of the string. Then let it be suspended from another part of the edge, and draw another line in a similar manner. The two lines will cross each other, and the point of intersection will be the centre of gravity of the pasteboard; for if a stout pin be thrust through this centre, the board may be made to turn upon the pin as an axis, and will remain at rest in any vertical position, whatever part of the edge may happen to be uppermost. Similar instances may be met with under every variety of circumstances. We will state a few of the means for which the young student can himself provide. Insert the points of two knives into a stick, as in fig. 1, and the stick may be balanced on the end of the finger without the slightest difficulty. In this case, if we look at either knife separately, we shall see that it is wholly unsupported by the finger, for no part of it is directly over the finger, and its tendency is to bear the stick down in that direction; but if we regard the other side, we find that the other knife is placed similarly to the first, and that the tendency of one knife to fall, is precisely counterbalanced by the similar tendency of the other knife; neither one, therefore, can fall, and this explains what we mean by saying that, when the centre of gravity is supported, a body cannot fall. There is another important remark connected with this experiment, namely, the situation of the point of support with respect to the centre of gravity. The reader may possibly be surprised, to learn that the centre of gravity is not always situated within the body which is supported, but may actually be at a considerable distance from it. This requires expla nation. We have said that the centre of gravity is that particular spot, about which all the parts of a solid balance each other: but it may so happen that at such spot there is a vacant space. A ring, for example, has for its centre of gravity the centre of the circle which such ring describes. We all know the extreme difficulty, and, to most persons, the impossibility of balancing a ring on the tip of the finger, and the reason is, because the centre of gravity is above the point of support: but we may easily balance such ring upon the point of a pin, by placing the pin within the ring, so as to balance it from the upper part of the inner circumference, in which case the centre of gravity will be below the point of sup port, as, indeed, is the case in the illustration afforded by fig. 1. Fig. 1. Fig. 2 is an amusing example of a similar kind, We see, then, that the centre of gravity in a solid, where a shilling is made to turn upon its edge on the is such a spot that the weight of matter on opposite point of a needle. Into the cork of a wine bottle sides of it is equal, so that when that spot is sup-insert a needle in a vertical position with its point |