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are of the same nature; the catkins of the male sallow are yellower, and soon fall off; those of the female sallow are greener, and hang on till they become pods of a dark-coloured very small seed, which come out with a white cotton, like down, to them. And hops are of the same nature ; the male plant scatters a great deal of dust, but produces no hops; it is the female plants which bear the hops we use, which are the seed-vessel ; and in this, I think, the wrong husbandry consists.

A bull never gives milk, nor does a ram ever bring a lamb; yet we find it necessary to keep both, that the cows and ewes may not be barren. The case is the same with plants; and it has been tried in several instances. All the false blossoms of inelons were carefully pulled off before they opened, and then not one melon set. If the end of an ear of maize be tied up in a bag before the flax-like threads appear, that ear will have no corn in it; and if all the reedlike tops are cut off before they scatter any dust, all the ears will be barren. When the pods of the single peony, which bears seed, open in September, some of the seeds are hard, round, and black, these are perfected, and will grow; but there are, in the same pods, others which are red, soft, and irregularly shaped; these will not grow, for they are not perfected. In shelling of peas, many will be found grown to a proper size, and are good; but sometimes there will be, in the same pods, some which are only rudiments of imperfect peas; these did not set, and are come to nothing

This, therefore, I take to be the mistake in the management of hops; the male plants never produce any hops ; on which account the planters carefully destroy them all as useless, not considering nor knowing that thereby the seed is never perfected, the strength of the seed is lost, and the bop probably smaller than it would have been, if the seed had been perfected and grown large. I know no plant so often subject to a total failure of a crop as hops are ; perhaps the seed being not perfected is one cause of their so entirely failing; and that, if they had male plants among them to set the seed, the crop might not so often fail, and probably the hops would be much finer. Garden-peas are an example of the fruit being smaller when ill set; for, at the end of summer, there are fewer peas in a pod which is proportionably shorter, and the peas not so plump as in the height of the season; perhaps for want of the summer briskness of the bees, who are supposed to be instrumental in making flowers set, by carrying about the farina. So, in a frame kept close shut, melons do not set so well as where the air and bees are let in to disperse the dust. And large grapes have several seeds in them; the small ones are often those in which no seeds are set.

Upon the whole, therefore, I think a prudent and experimental hop-grower should plant some of the male hops in the fence round his garden, where they would take up no room, and a few within it, suppose one plant in a hundred, which can be no great loss, and see whether his garden will not be more certain of bearing, and produce more and finer hops, with larger seeds and better quality, than those of his neighbours; which I should think would probably be the case. Or, if any one would chuse to try it first on a lesser scale, he might plant some male hops on one side of his garden, and take notice whether that side will not produce more and better hops than the other.

The North clay hops, in Nottinghamshire, are said to be stronger and bitterer than the South of England hops, so as to be disagreeable the first year, but to keep better than the others. Qu. Whether they have any different method of managing them which may occasion that difference? 1791, Jan.

T. BARKER.

LXXXII. Origin of Tontines. MR. URBAN, YOUR correspondent Scrutator having requested an explanation of the word Tontine, I will thank you to insert the following in your next Magazine, if you think it worth noticing

PAUL GEMSEGE, jun. The word Tontine is only a cant word, derived from the name of an Italian projector. This was one Laurence Tonti, a creature of Cardinal Mazarine; who, finding the people extremely out of humour with his eminency's administration, imagined he could reconcile them by a proposal of making people rich in an instant, without trouble or pains. His scheme was a lottery of annuities, with survivorship, which he proposed in 1653, with the consent of the court, but the parliament would not register the edict. Three years after he tried his project again, for building a YOL. III,

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stone bridge over the Seine, when it had both the favour of the court and the sanction of parliament, under the title of Banque Royale, but it failed again ; for somebody having give it the unlucky name of Tontine, nobody in Paris would trust his money in a lottery that had an Italian title. The last attempt poor Tonti made, was to get his plan adapted by the clergy for the payment of their debts; but though they acknowledged the ingenuity of it, they rejected it as unfit for their purpose.

Such was the invention of the Tontine. If it is not trespassing too much upon you, I will now shew when it first came into use. When Lewis XIV. was distressed by the league of Augsburg, and granted money beyond what the revenues of the kingdom would furnish; for supplying his enormous expences, he had recourse to the plans of Tonti, which, though long laid aside, were not forgotten; and by an edict in 1689, created a Tontine Royale of 1,400,000 livres annual rent, divided into fourteen classes. The actions were 300 livres apiece, and the proprietors were to receive 101. per cent. with benefit of survivorship in every class. This scheme was executed but very imperfectly; for none of the classes rose to above 25,000 livres, instead of 100,000, according to the original institution; though the annuities were very regularly paid. A few years after, the people seeming in better huniour for projects of this kind, another Tontine was erected upon nearly the same terms, but this was never above half full. They both subsisted in the yeas 1726, when the French King united the 13th class of the first Tontine with the 14th of the second; all the actions of which were possessed by Charlotte Bonnemay, widow of Lewis Barbier, a surgeon of Paris, who died at the age of pinety-six.

This gentlewoman had ventured 300 livres in each Tontine; and in the last year of her life she had for her annuity 73,000 livres, or about 3,600l. a year, for about 30).

1791, Jan.

LXXXIII. On catehing Cold. MR. URBAN, As there were few men more attentive to the tracing the causes of natural effects, or more ready and ingenious in accounting for them, than the late Dr. B. Franklin, his opinions on any such subjects are, therefore, deserving of our special attention. Thus, on the subject of catching cold, he alleged, that instead of a cold being contracted by the body's being exposed to some external cause which may stop the insensible perspiration, such as cold air blowing partially on some part of the body, its continuing for some time wet, &c. a feast, or some excess in eating or drinking, will be generally found to have preceded. In confirmation of this opinion, he observed, that those who led temperate lives seldom caught cold even though their constitutions and habit of body might seem to be little able to withstand the effects of such causes.

I was a witness of, what I thought, a singular instance of the truth of this opinion. Upon my mentioning it to a gentleman who eats no animal food, and drinks no fermented liquor, or spirits, he said that he would give it a fair trial.

a He accordingly, carly on the first dewy summer morning, walked among long grass, till his feet and legs were perfectly wet, and continued out of doors from six till eight, and, when he came in to breakfast, could not be prevailed on to have dry shoes and stockings till he returned to dress at noon. No cold ensued, though wet feet are reckoned among the most frequent causes of catching cold. He afterwards thanked me inuch for freeing him from many restraints, founded, as he now experienced, on prejudice.

Sir J. Pringle and the Doctor being confined at Calais by contrary winds, agreed to try the experiment. Sir Jolin was to give such directions to the Doctor, as in his opinion would

expose the Doctor to catch cold; and the Doctor was to prescribe such a diet to Sir John, while he cautiously avoided every cause that might expose him to catch a cold. The Doctor observing a moderation in diet escaped catching cold ; though he frequently exposed himself, in such situations, as Sir John supposed might probably occasion the Doctor's catching cold. The wind became fair before the effects of Sir John's feasting appeared; but I have heard them both confess that the probability was on the Doctor's side. The experiment could not be well repeated in London, because both were so frequently exposed to company, that such strict rules could not be conveniently followed.

The Doctor remarked, that those who eat no suppers, especially after plentiful dinners, were much less liable to catch cold, for they thereby avoided adding a quantity of indigested juices with what are, in some degree, in a digested state. They who make their supper their principal

meal do not suffer by it, because the stomach being pretty empty, an improper mixture of juices does not enter the lacteals.

Yours, &c. 1791, March

S. A.

LXXXIV. Method of using the Cold Bath to most advantage. “ Fies nobilium tu quoque Fontium."

Hor. 3. Carm. xiii. 13. MR. URBAN, The intention of the following lines will be a sufficient apology for troubling you with them. I hope and trust the hints they contain may make them worthy the attention of many of your readers, as well as contribute to the health and comfort of some individuals of that number; than which nothing can be more gratifying to the writer, whose sole view in their publication is the benefit of those who seek, what they deserve, health.

The important good consequences of cold-bathing needs nothing to be said at this time of day to recommend it to the notice of the debilitated. The experience of mankind has taught its uses and effects; which have been further sanctioned by many writers, and some of the most eminent in the medical world, who have, at different times, very ably employed their pens on the subject. To the latter for its virtues, and to the present enlightened faculty for the propriety of its use individually, the application of invalids is recommended. When that is determined, it is the mode only I am about to prescribe.

Waving, therefore, every endeavour at attempting to offer any thing new on the general subject, as to the medical powers of the cold bath, I shall only briefly relate what led me to use the mode recommended below; what were its effects on myself, and on some others who, by my advice, have been in the habit of using it; adding a few practical hints, which, I hope, will make an operation, very frightful to many, not only pleasanter, but much more effectually, and, I hope, more extensively, useful.

From a natural delicacy in my constitution, and wishing

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