ea a a two pieces of ftrong tape connecting the Friend together, tied on each fide; bb bb ftraps that faften it to the cloaths; CC a fingle ftrap for thofe that prefer it. MAN, who by his ingenuity and active mind has brought every element into fubjection, and who with in thefe few years has dived into the moft fecret recefles of nature, has hitherto been baffled by water alone. His fhips partially command it; but in cafe of wreck, he pays, neverthelefs, a fatal tribute in the yearly facrifice of many thoufands of men in the very prime of their lives, and when moft capable of being ufeful to their country. It is thus that commerce takes ample though filent revenge on its votaries, ever holding out the delufive hope of gain, while itfelf is the greatest fource of all evil. The prefervation of life, during fhipwreck, has for ages been the defideratum of individuals in every maritime nation. Various have been the rewards held out, and numerous the inventions that have from time to time been brought forward to recount them is needlefs; it is fufficient to obferve, that the evil remains as great as it ever was, and is an unfortunate proof of the infufficiency of thofe different attempts to produce the defired ef fect. Air and cork are the only things capable of being ufed for this purpofe, on account of their fpecifical lightnefs over water. Cork, independent of its lightnefs, and contrary to moft other fubftances, poffeffes a natural power of repelling or refuling to connect itfelf with water; and air is 840 times lighter than water. To confine air, tin pipes or an apparatus with apartments have been generally ufed, and, in their recent ftate, anfwer the purpofe in an open fea or river. But two material objections forbid their general and exclufive ufe; the firft is, the confiderable expence which must be incurred to compenfate the artift for his labour and materials in their conformation; and the fecond, and by far the most important, is, that in the hour of peril and danger they are no longer your fafeguard. Shipwrecks ever happen near fhore; for those which founder at fea are in a lefs proportion than one to a thoufand. The violence with which people are thrown against rocks, &c. caufes the frail tin to give way, and occa fions the water to rush in; when, instead of affifting to preferve life, it acts the contrary part, by admitting the water into the cavities; thus producing an increase of weight, which quickly carries down the almoft vanquished fufferer to a fpeedier death. This is the occafion of tin having been laid aside. Cork jackets are the next and only. invention that merits any confideration, and it was, till lately, the mariner's only friend. No man having one on can go to the bottom; and though it leaves him without much affiftance as a fwimmer, yet, unlefs he gets drowned by his head being kept under water, he is fure of being fafely landed fomewhere, and confequently his life preferved. The inconvenience attending this invention, and which has prevented its being generally used, and always foon laid afide, is known to every man. In calm water only it does well. By its bulk, and the manner in which its principle acts on the body, it proves, in a great degree, a hinderance to fwimming or action of any kind. It forces the individual who cannot fwim to lie on the water like a log, on his belly, back, or fide, just as the balance of the cork, or motion of the water, happens to incline him; and, in rough water, forcing the head under, and leaving the feet in the air, which requires great exertion of the perfon who wears it to right himfelf again, and counteract this tendency to inverfion. The continual action of the arms to keep the mouth out of the water when thrown on the belly, is very great; and this accident is often liable to occur, as the jacket cannot keep the erect position, but the wearer is thrown to and fro, from fide to fide, from back to face, and all the various modifications of pofition, which is not influenced by the will of the individual, but the chance guidance of the waves. The neceffary exertion to oppofe the action of the water from fo inverting or altering the upright posture, besides the adequate force required to move fuch a mafs through the refifting medium, foon tires and exhaufts the most refolute, athletic, and skilful; and the hopeless mariner at last refigns himfelf to his fate. Such are the impediments which have prevented thefe contrivances from becoming the useful affiftants their inventors and the world wifhed them to be. Many years have now paffed fince any experiment has been attempted with a probability of fuccefs (except the life boat), and mankind has been obliged to fubmit to the evil, as well as to every concomitant calamity which his genius has yet failed to obviate; and thefe calamities become more or lefs poignant, according as his actions in this fublunary existence infpire him, or not, with the foothing expectation to enjoy the blifs of a future world; and his death is perhaps rendered additionally painful, by the agonizing thought of his wife and family being left a prey to helplefs misfortune here! The author, in a little book, explains the nature of his contrivance, and which he names the Seaman's Friend. It confifts of two fimple pieces of cork, placed in fuch a manner on the human body as to aflift it in fwimming either on the back or belly at will, and when tired, admitting of repofe, the body remaining perpendicular in the water, and poleffing, when fo, the free ufe of the hands, arms, and feet, enabling the wearer to take every advantage of circumftances. Indeed, fhould faint nefs be induced through fatigue, or the individual fall asleep from wearinefs, his life may be preferved, by the depending gravity of the legs and thighs keeping the body in an upright pofition, while the head and neck are conftantly out of the water. The apparatus will enable him to ufe his feet when he feels the bottom; his hands, when any thing presents itfelf to affift him, or he himself wishes to affift others; and the fhield thus given his perfon will, in a great meafure, prevent the dreadful confequences of being thrown againft the rock or fhore. The application appears to be at once fimple and eafy, and confifts of two pieces of cork; one acts as a breaft-plate, and the other as a back-board, connected over the fhoulders on each fide the neck by two ftrong pieces of tape, faftened on the body by tying on each fide with two other pieces, and by another piece of tape between the legs; or the latter piece of tape may be tied to a pair of pantaloons, to which are ftrings which tie to the bottom of the two pieces of cork. This way has the advantage of not chafing the perfon after being long in the water: the view of the plate or figure will, however, explain this better than any defcription. There is no occafion to be divefted of any part of the cloathing, except boots and coat; the additional weight of the other parts of the drefs being inconfiderable when immerfed in water. Pantaloons are preferred to loofe trowfers, on account of the water not getting between the dress and the body. The author's prospectus has the following paragraph. "I know perfectly well the difficulty of introducing any thing novel, let the merit or fimplicity be ever fo great or valuable to the community. In the headftrong, weak, proud, envious mind, it will ever find an enemy; its ufefulnois is never confidered: incapable, themselves, of forming a generous idea, as far as a diffentient voice goes, they give it heartily. How different is this, contrafted with the actions of the philanthropic man! He examines, and, when he finds the principles of any thing new to have a moral or ufeful tendency, and capable of being ferviceable to the world in general, he gives it encouragement." ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN us, therefore, discountenance an error which we can fo easily correct; and not plead as an excuse for continuing in it, that many celebrated men in the pulpit fet the example. In fome cafes falle concord in the fcriptures is point. ed to, as partaking of the fublime; "The most higheft," for inftance, On the theatre, too, we fometimes hear "by every means in my power," &c. ; but a speaker here is not fo good an authority, becaufe many of the plays, being antient, contained more French THE WORD Mean AND Means words whofe import was not fo IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION. MR. EDITOR, THERE is great difference of opinion about the propriety of ufing the word means in the fingular fenfe, as by every means in his power," &c. Now, though it cannot be denied that many writers, even of great merit, make ufe of that phrafe, it is no lefs ungrammatical. The adjective every, which implies each one of all, is of the fingular number, indeed it has no plural fignification; yet it is used with means, a plural noun. Frequent ufe is no authority for violating a rule in grammar, er abufu non arguitur ad ufum: befides, the way of avoiding fuch falfe concord is eafy. We can fay by this mean, or by every mean in his power in the fingular; and by all means, by no means, or by thefe means, in the plural. The word comes from the French moyen, way or expedient; as Je connois fes moyens, I am acquainted with his means. Il n'y a pas moyen de la faire, there is no doing it, &c. Thus the French ufe the word according to the ftrict rules of grammar; and we may have fallen into the mifapplication of it, from its adoption into our language; not duly confidering whether it was a noun fingular or plural, the French having many nouns fubftantive fingular ending with an s. Let well understood as at this day. Our language has attained to a great excellence in grammar and diction: let us preferve and even improve its purity as much as we can; and let the Univerful Magazine be univerfally admired for the correctness of its own style, and for its readiness to give place to any remark made with the view of improving and exalting the English language in the eyes of the learned of every country. PHILOLOGUS. To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. I WISH to acquaint the public, through your widely circulating Magazine, of a ferious error into which many perfons unhappily fall by wrongly treating a diforder very common at this feafon of the year. It is a pain in the ftomach and bowels, frequently occafioned by eating inordinately of fruit, efpecially of plums or filberts. A diarrhoea, or lax ftate of the belly, generally prevails; and those good houfewives who pretend to know moft of the matter, and who afcribe it even to the right caufe, do neverthelefs adopt a wrong treatment for the patient. Suppofing fomething obnoxious is retained in the ftomach and bowels, they adminifter purgatives, thereby changing a fimple diarrhoea into a confirmed dyfentery or bloodyflux. Now, as the lax ftate of the bowels is occafioned by the ftimulating acid of the fruit eaten in too great an abundance, the remedy ought to be of a mucilaginous and lubricating quality; fuch as broth, chocolate, fago, arrow-root, or water-gruel, which, though mentioned laft, is not to be efteemed the leait. These are the means beft calculated for fupplying the mucus which has been abraded from the vifcera by the acrimonious juice of unripe fruit, and for reftoring the digeftive power of the ftomach, enfeebled or oppreffed by an overload of crude fubftances like Gilberts, hazel nuts, &c. &c. Every phyfician and furgeon knows the mifchiefs occafioned by the wrong courfe above pointed out. To cure a lax ftate of the bowels, by giving purging medicines (rhubarb, tincture of rhubarb, fenna, magnefia, Daffy's elixir, &c. for inftance), is like the attempt to extinguish a fire by throwing gun-powder on it. It is adding caufe to caufe; and though it cannot be denied that numbers do get well under this injudicious treatment, owing to the natural ftrength of their conftitution, yet it is equally certain that many perfons are thrown into fatal dyfenteries and the grave, who, if wifely managed, or even left to Nature herfelt, might foon have recovered their former health and ftrength. This caution cannot fail to have To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. AS it is compatible with the defign of your excellent Mifcellany to notice every thing that concerns our national character, as well in our fashions, as in our laws; I trouble you with a few words upon the caprice difplayed in our talie in trifling matters. The women were complained of for running into extremes in drefs-from a Dutch lady's full bottom (I don't mean wig), to a tingle muflin coat over her chemife, nay, even to the difcarding the modeft fwan-downdicky. Now the men have equally expofed themselves to the fame animadverfion for verfatility. They have not adopted the thin queue for themselves only, but they have depilated their horfes' tails, that they may both be in uniform, to ufe a military phrafe (and which it is the height of bon ton to do on all occafions). It might feem reafonable to fuppofe, not only that the horfe and his rider had brought their back parts into contact, but that they had actually laid their heads together to look fmart, or, as the word is, natty; in short, to appear all of a piece. This fathion, however, is not to be found too much fault with, for it has been attended with one good: it has brought that which was called a rat-tailed horfe into vogue; a creature which ought never to have been difefteemed, as rat-tailed horfes were always remarked for the goodnefs of their difpofition and movements. We have fpeculators of every kind; and, therefore, what has been faid may be true,-that a few of our dashing fellows, who regulate the ton, bought up all the rat-tailed horfes at a reduced price; and then, pretending to have had them trimmed for chargers, they have fold them to our city commandants at enormous prices. A Blackwell-hall factor, at the head of one of our battalions, gave no lefs than two hundred guineas for his Bucephalus, which is more than What the French will fay of us on this occafion, of our horfes' tails having no hair, I know not; but in the time of the common wealth, they obferved, "the English had a barbarous cufiom of cutting off the heads of their kings, and the tails of their horfes. |