The senses of taste and smell in animals bear a very near affinity to the local sense of touch; and it is difficult to determine whether the upper mandible of the duck-tribe, with which they distinguish food in the mud, may not be an organ of taste or smell as well as of touch; and there are some naturalists that in like manner regard the cirrous filaments or antennules attached to the mouths of insects, as organs of taste and touch equally. Taste in the more perfect animals resides jointly in the papillæ of the tongue and the palate; but I have already had occasion to observe that it may exist, and in full perfection, in the palate alone, since it has been found so in persons who have completely lost the tongue from external force or disease.

in the frog, and most ampibious animals, the only entrance is the internal, or that from the mouth; and in the cetaceous tribes the only effective entrance is probably of the same kind; for though these may be said to possess an external aperture, it is almost imperceptibly minute. It is a curious fact, that among serpents, the blind-worm or common harmless snake is the only species that appears to possess an aperture of either sort; the rest have a rudiment of the organ within, but we are not acquainted with its being pervious to sound.

LITERATURE.

ON NATURAL OR INARTICULATE, AND ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUAGE.

From Good's Book of Nature.

WHAT the natural language of man is we know not. There can be no doubt, however, that if, by a miracle, he were deprived of all artificial language, there would still remain to him, from the perfection of his vocal organs, a language of this kind, and of far greater extent and variety than that of any other animal.

The frontal sinuses, which are lined with this delicate membrane, are larger in the elephant than in any other quadruped, and in this animal the sense is also continued through the flexible organ of its proboscis In the pig the smelling organ is likewise very extensive; and in most of the mammals possessing proper horns it ascends as high as the processes of the frontal bone from which the horns issue.

It is not known that the cetaceous tribes possess any organ of smell; their blowing holes are generally regarded as such; but the point has been by no means fully established. We are in the same uncertainty with respect to amphibials and worms; the sense is suspected to exist in all the former, and in several of the latter, especially in the cuttle-fish, but no distinct organ has hitherto been traced out satisfactorily.

In fishes there is no doubt; the olfactory nerves are very obviously distributed on an olfactory membrane, and in several instances the snouts are double, and consequently the nostrils quadruple, a pair for each snout. This powerful inlet of pleasure to fishes often proves fatal to them from its very perfection; for several kinds are so strongly allured by the odour of majorum, assafoetida, and other aromas, that by smearing the hand over with these substances, and immersing it in the water, they will often flock towards the fingers, and in their intoxication of delight may easily be laid hold of. And hence the angler frequently overspreads his baits with the same substances, and thus arms himself with a double decoy.

There can be no doubt of the existence of the same sense in insects; for they possess a very obvious power of distinguishing the odorous properties of bodies, even at a considerable distance beyond the range of their vision; out the organ in which this sense resides has not been satisfactorily pointed out: Reimar supposes it to exist in their stigmata, and Knoch in their anterior pair of feelers. The general organ of hearing is the ear, but not always so; for in most of those who hear by the Eustachian tube only, it is the mouth, and in the whale tribes the nostrils or blow-hole. It is so, however, in all the more perfect animals, which usually for this purpose possess two distinct entrances into the organ; a larger and external, surrounded by a lobe; and a smaller and internal, opening into the mouth. It is this last which is denominated the Eustachian tube. The shape of the lobe is seldom found even in mammals similar to that in man, excepting among the monkey and the porcupine tribes. In many kinds

on his first formation: the only means he possessed of communicating and interchanging his ideas.

But whence then has artificial language arisen? That rich variety of tongues which distinguish the different nations on the earth; and that wonderful facility which is common to many of them of characterizing every distinct idea by a distinct term?

And here such philosophers are divided : some contending that speech is a science that was determined upon and inculcated in an early period of the world, by one or at least by a few superior persons acting in concert, and inducing the multitude around them to adopt their articulate and arbitrary sounds; while others affirm that it has grown progressively out of the natural language, as the increasing knowledge and increasing wants of mankind have demanded a more extensive vocabulary.*

Pythagoras first started the former of these two hypotheses, and it was afterwards adopted by Plato, and supported by all the rich treasure of his genius and learning; but it was ably opposed by the Epicureans, on the ground that it must have been equally impossible for any one person, or even for a synod of persons, to have invented the most difficult and abtruse of all human sciences, with the paucity of ideas, and the means of communicating ideas, which, under such circumstances, they must have possessed: and that, even allowing they could have invented such a science, it must still have been utterly impossible for them to have taught it to the barbarians around them. The argument is thus forcibly urged by Lucretius, whom I must again beg leave to present in an English dress:

But, to maintain that one devis'd alone
Terms for all nature, and th' incipient tongue
Taught to the gazers round him, is to rave.
For how should he this latent power possess
Of naming all things, and inventing speech,
If never mortal felt the same besides?
And if none else had e'er adopted sounds,
Whence sprang the knowledge of their use? or how
Could the first linguist to the crowds around
Teach what he meant? his sole unaided arm
Could ne'er o'erpower them, and compel to learn
The vocal science; nor could aught avail
Of eloquence or wisdom; nor with ease
Would the vain babbler have been long allow'd
To pour his noisy jargon o'er their ears.

In opposition to this theory, therefore, Epicurus and.

Beattie on the Theory of Language, p. 246, Lond. 1803, 4to.
See on this subject Harris's Hermes, book iii. p. 314. 327; and

his disciples contended, as I have just observed, that speech or articulate language is nothing more than a natural improvement upon the natural language of man, produced by its general use, and that general experience which gives improvement to every thing. And such still continues to be the popular theory of all those philosophers of the present day who confine themselves to the mere facts and phenomena of nature, and allow no other authority to control the chain of their argument. Such, more especially, is the theory of Buffon, Linnæus, and Lord Monboddo; who, overstepping the limits of the Epicurean field of reasoning, and the articles of the Epicurean belief, concur, as I have already remarked, in deriving the race of man from the race of monkeys, and in exhibiting the ourang-outang as his dignified prototype and original, whom they have hence denominated the satyr, or man of the woods.

I shall not exhaust the time or insult the understanding of this auditory, by any detailed confutation of the new and adscititious matter contained in this modernized edition of the Epicurean theory; matter of which the Grecian sage himself would have been ashamed, and which is directly contradicted by the anatomical configuration of various and important parts of this animal itself: concerning which, it is scarcely necessary to recal to our reccollection the remark we have just made-that while it approaches nearest to the form, it is farthest removed from the language of man of almost all quadrupeds whatever. I shall confine myself to the fair question which the theory in its original shape involves:-Is human speech, thus proved to be incapable of origin by any compact or settled system, more likely to have originated from å succession of accidents, or from the casual but growing improvements of mankind?

ANTIQUITIES.

RUINS OF AN ANCIENT AMERICAN CITY!!

CONTINUED.

To the natural beauty of a charming locality may be added fertility of soil and a delightful climate, which without doubt produced in great abundance almost every production necessary for a comfortable and tranquil life: this is apparent from such wild fruits as the sapotes, acquacates, capotes, yuca or cassava, and plantains, being now found in great plenty, which plainly demonstrate what would be their profusion and delicacy if improved by cultivation.The rivers abound with fish, consisting of the moharra, bobo, and turtle, as do the smaller streams with crabs, and the lesser species of shell fish. These circumstances, and the laborious workmanship of their edifices, constructed without the assistance of iron or other metals, (for with these they seem to have been unacquainted,) amply justify the belief that they enjoyed in a peaceful manner of living more real and substantial felicity than all the concentrated luxury and refinement of the most polished cities at the present period can produce.

Equal advantages were afforded them for commerce and intercourse with their neighbours, undiminished by the expensive inconvenience of undertaking long and fatiguing journies by land; for the rivers running to the east, north, and west, afforded them the benefits of traffic by means of navigation. The river Tulija opened a passage for trade into the province of Tabasco; the sea-coast of Catasaja and the river Chacamal falling into the great Usumasinta, presented a short and commodious route to the kingdom of Yucatan, with which, beyond all doubt, they carried on their principal commerce. This circumstance may be inferred from monuments and vestiges plainly demonstrating that these two nations differed in a very slight degree, either in customs, religion, or knowledge; the firmest bonds of fraternal alliance and friendship by which they could be united, whereto we may add the uniformity and resemblance in their buildings, which I think are proofs that tend still further to substantiate this position.

The Rev. Father Thomas de Soza, a franciscan friar of

the convent of Merida, many years collector of alms des tined for the holy house of Jerusalem, who, in pursuing the duties imposed upon him from his situation, had repeatedly traversed the province, fortunately happening to be at Palenque, favoured me with a circumstantial account of that country, of which I shall now avail myself in his own words.

At the distance of twenty leagues from the city of Merida southward, between the curacy called Mona y Ticul and the town of Nocacab, are the remains of some stone edifices: one very large building has withstood the ravages of time, and still exists in good preservation: the natives give it the name of Oxmutal. It stands on an eminence of twenty yards in height, and measures two hundred yards on each facade. The apartments, the exterior corridor, the pillars with figures in medio relievo, and decorated with serpents, lizards, etc. formed in stucco, beside which are statues of men with palms in their hands, in the act of beating drums and dancing, resemble in every respect those observable in the buildings of Palenque.Eight leagues distant from the same city to the northward. are the ruined walls of several other houses, which increase in number as you advance in an easterly direction. In the vicinity of the river Lagartos, at a town called Mani, which is under the actual jurisdiction of the franciscan friars, in the middle of the principal square stands a pillory of a conical shape, built of stones, and to the southward rises a very ancient palace, resembling that at Palenque, which, according to tradition, was inhabited, upon the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, by a petty Indian sovereign called Htulrio, who resigned it to the franciscans for a residence while their new convent was building, after which it was used for several years as a public hospital. The erection of this palace was long anterior to the time of Htulrio, who replied to the inquiries of the fathers relative to the period of its construction, that he was totally ignorant of its origin, and only knew that it had been inhabited by his ancestors. From hence we may draw some inference respecting the very remote antiquity of the Palencian edifices, buried for so many ages in the impenetrable thickets covering a mountain, and unknown to the historians of the new world, by whom no mention is made whatsoever of their existence. On the road from Merida to Bacalar there are also many other buildings both to the north and south, according to my informant's narrative; a description of which I conceive unnecessary, not only from being desirous of avoiding prolixity, but because the identity of the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan and Palenque is, in my opinion, evidently proved by the strong analogy of their customs, buildings, and acquaintance with the arts, whereof such vestiges are discernible in those monuments which the current of time has not yet swept away.

In endeavoring to convey some idea of this country, I have deviated a little from the instructions contained in my commission, to which, perhaps, I ought to have strictly adhered; yet, as implicit obedience to those commands has only been infringed for the purpose of introducing a few remarks not wholly divested of originality, they may, from their connexion with the present subject, influence your acquaintance with venerable antiquity, and in some respects tend to fix a date to these interesting remains.

Returning, therefore, to the original subject matter, it is requisite that a description of the situations should be followed by an examination of what it presents to our observation. The interior of the large building is in a style of architecture strongly resembling the gothic, and from its rude and massive construction, promises great durability. The entrance is on the eastern side, by a portico or corridor thirty-six varas or yards in length and three in breadth, supported by plain rectangular pillars, without either bases or pedestals, upon which there are square smooth stones of more than a foot in thickness forming an architrave, while on the exterior superficies are species of stucco shields, the designs of some of them accompanying this report, are numbered 1, 2, 3, while over these stones, there is another plain rectangular block, five feet long and six broad, extendiug over two of the pillars. Medallions or compartments in stucco containing different devices of the

How many hundreds and thousands in a metropolis like that of the British empire, obtain a subsistence in a way of which those of its inhabitants who are not compelled to such an exercise of their ingenuity can have no idea! In the midst of a crowded city, man is much more closely cut off from all assistance on the part of his fellows, and is obliged to trust entirely for the support of life to the individual exertions of his strength, his talents, or his ingenuity.

This must be more or less the case in every large city. Here, says a traveller in his account of Paris, poverty often teaches people the most extraordinary means of procuring a livelihood. How many are there who, without a penny of certain income, daily appear well-dressed at the Palais Royal, in the theatre, and the public walks, and who, to judge from their looks, live as free from care as the birds of heaven. Thus, for example, a well dressed man of a respectable appearance, who over his dish of chocolate talks fluently, tells all kinds of amusing anecdotes, and jokes with great ease and freedom, may be seen every day at one of the first coffee-houses in the city. And how does he live? By the sale of bills pasted upon the walls, which, at night, when every body else is asleep, he tears from the corners of the streets and carries to the pastry cooks, from whom he receives a few sous for his trouble. He then lies down on his bundle of straw in some out-house, and sleeps more soundly than many a monarch. Another person who is seen every day in the

most public promenades, might, by his dress, be taken for an ecclesiastic. He is, however, a farmer; but of what kind? He farms the hair-pins which are lost at the Italian theatre. When the curtain drops, and the company are leaving the house, he goes from box to box, seeking the pins that may have fallen, not one of which escapes his penetrating eye; and when the last candle is extinguished, our farmer picks up his last pin, and relieved from the apprehension of dying the next day of hunger, he hastens to the broker to dispose of his treasure.

Equally various and equally singular are the expedients practised by numbers in the British capital. Among these, the class of mud-larks is not the least extraordinary.Many of our readers may possibly be ignorant that a mudlark is a person who on the ebb of the tide repairs to the river side, in quest of any article that the water may have left behind in the mud. To this description of people beionged the subject of the annexed engraving. She was a woman apparently about forty years of age, with red hair, the particular object of whose researches was the coals which accidentally fell from the sides of the lighters. Her constant resort was the neighborbood of Blackfriars, where she was always to be seen, even before the tide was down, wading into the water, nearly up to the middle, and scraping together from the bottom the coals which she felt with her feet. Numbers of passengers who have passed by that quarter, particularly over Blackfriar's bridge, have often stopped to contemplate with astonishment a

female engaged in an occupation apparently so painful and disagreeable. She appeared dressed in very short ragged petticoats, without shoes or stockings, and with a kind of apron made of some strong substance, that folded like a bag all round her, in which she collected whatever she was so fortunate as to find. In these strange habiliments, and with her legs encrusted with mud, she traversed the streets of this metropolis. Sometimes she was industrious enough to pick up three, and at others even four loads a day; and as they consisted entirely of what are termed round coals, she was never at a loss for customers, whom she charged at the rate of eight pence a load. In the collection of her sable treasures, she was frequently assisted by the coal heavers, who, when she happened to approach the lighters, would, as if undesignedly, kick overboard a large coal; at the same time bidding her, with apparent surliness, to go about her business. We are sorry to be obliged to state that Peggy Jones was not exempt from a failing to which most individuals of the lower orders are subject, namely, inebriety. Her propensity to liquor was sometimes indulged to such a degree, that she would tumble about the streets with her load, to the no small amusement of mischievous boys and others, who on such occasions never failed to collect around her. After concluding the labours of the day, she retired to a wretched lodging in Chick Lane.

This woman carried on her extraordinary calling for many years; but about the month of February, 1805, she suddenly disappeared from her usual places of resort, and nobody can tell what is become of her. A man who has the appearance of a coal-heaver has since stepped into her place, and adopted the profession which she so long followed.

Though the facts we have been able to procure concerning Peggy Jones are scanty, yet our readers will doubtless app ove of our desire to perpetuate, by means of the annexed design, taken from life, the memory of such a ingu ar character.-British Eccentric Biography.

and pass through it; on each of these rollers are circular iron cutters, with sharp edges, the track of which lies between that of the other cutters which compose the in strument; and it is these cutters that are furnished with teeth, which are alluded to in the forty-first chapter and fifteenth verse of the prophet Isaiah.

The right hand figure is an elevation, or side view of the same instrument, which shows that the external square frame turns upwards in front, that it may more readily pass over the straw, or haulm, that lies before it. The pins which mark the insertion of the rollers are also seen; and from this frame rises a seat or kind of chair for the convenience of the driver. The yoke is represented in connexion with the left hand figure, to which it joins by rings and a hook which allow of free motion; and the other end, which is borne by the oxen, is equally constructed for securing the same advantage.

The principle subject of the above draught shows the manner of using this machine, which presents what it proposes to illustrate in a more lively manner to the eye than it is possible for the best written account to describe. Beyond the circle of corn strewed for threshing, a man is engaged in winnowing a quantity of corn, which is already threshed, by throwing it up against the wind, which blows away the chaff, but leaves the grains of corn; the weight of which ensures their falling down. Observe the form of the fan used by this figure: it resembles a small shovel, with a long handle; unlike any kind of corn-fan or winnowing machine used in this country: the representation of it therefore is well adapted to correct whatever erroneous conceptions of the instrument the reader might heretofore have entertained.

The number of passages in the Scriptures which may be explained or illustrated by means of the above delineations, is too great to be enumerated here. We shall, however, refer to the second verse of the eighty-ninth Psalm, the seventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Jeremiah, and especially to the twelfth verse of the third chapter of St. Matthew, where the process of winnowing with the fan is alluded to; and remark in conclusion that we here see the import of the phrase," thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn," as applied by the apostle to ministers—that is, "it is not fit that he who contributes to prepare food for others should be denied a portion of sustenance for himself." And it is a remarkable fact, that among all the nations of the East, the oxen which tread out the corn never were, and to this day are not muzzled, although they always were and still are muzzled when employed in any other kind of labor.

THE LATE PHENOMENON

Extract of a letter to the Editor of the Charleston
Mercury, dated Combaher, Nov. 13.

An awful phenomenon appeared last night, which no doubt thousands have witnessed, and an account of which, it is probable you have already in type for the public. I had retired to my bed at a late hour, and was in a sound sleep; but was suddenly awakened at about three o'clock in the morning by the most distressing cries that ever fell on my ears.-Shrieks of horror and cries for mercy I could hear from most of the negroes of three plantations, which in all is about six or eight hundred. While earnestly listening for the cause, I heard a faint voice near the door calling my name; I arose, and taking my sword, stood at the door. At this moment I heard the same voice beseeching me to rise, and saying, 'O my God! the world is on fire!? I then opened the door; and it is difficult to say which excited me most-the awfulness of the scene, or the distressed cries of the negroes; upwards of one hundred lay prostrate on the ground-some speechless, and some with the bitterest cries, but most with their hands raised, imploring God to save the world and them. The scene was truly awful; for never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell to the earth-East, West, North and South, it was the same-except that the meteors were