half one's body out of the window into the frosty night; all, perhaps, that comes of it being just such a conversation as we have given above. The only comment we can make is, that it is most surprising that any medical man should know of this tubing and not avail himself of the unspeakable advantages it affords.

At a certain stage of manufacture, gutta percha may be incorporated with other substances so as to give it colors and other properties not naturally appertaining to it. The first application of this principle that we witnessed was shown in some very beautifully variegated shot-pouches. The gutta percha, being a non-absorbent, "keeps the powder dry" far better than leather. We commend this hint to our reflecting military readers, and pass on. It appears that the admixture of some substances slightly extends and improves the properties of gutta percha; but, for most practical purposes, the article in its pure and natural state is preferable, especially in point of strength. The variegated gutta percha is prepared by placing layers of the different colors required one over the other, like so many strata, (as confectioners make the variegated sweet-stuff,) the whole then being rolled together and kneaded in warm water. Some beautiful tints procured by these means were shown us, one of which-a dark rosewood-particularly attracted our attention.

In the ornamental department, the exquisitely beautiful productions are too varied and multifarious to be fully detailed; they include inkstands in ten or a dozen useful and ornamental varieties, bowls, drinking-cups, picture-frames and lookingglass frames, ornamental moldings, jars, soap-dishes, vases of various styles, curtain and cornice rings, which are noiseless, and therefore a great boon to nervous invalids; card, fruit, pin, pen, tooth-brush, and shaving-brush trays; flower-stands, watchstands, shells, and lighter stands; medallions, brackets, cornices, and an endless variety of moldings in imitation of carved oak, rosewood, etc., for the decoration of rooms and cabinet-work. Time will develop this department to an indefinite extent.

cases used gutta percha for splints, and did not find it in any way affected by the temperature, which was, on an average, from ninety-two to ninety-seven degrees.' Thus much for its heat-bearing qualities. It is also used in thin sheets for bandages, while stethescopes are constructed of it, and several other surgical articles.

Its domestic uses are still more diversified. Cisterns may be lined with it. It makes capital clothes-lines; for, being impervious to the wet, they are not liable to rot by being left out in the rain till "the day after the washing" by some careless or indolent domestic; besides, when broken, they are easily mended. Damp floors may be carpeted with it, damp walls may be papered with it, and bonnets may be lined with it. Sponge-bags and foot-pans may also be made of it; while a balsam may be prepared for cuts and chilblains by dissolving it in chloroform.

In its application to chemical purposes it manifests many unique properties. Its non-affection by hydrofluoric or acetic acids, bleaching liquids, or by caustic alkalies, renders it available in a vast variety of cases, and it is now extensively used in many chemical manufactories.

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We may add, that in steam-vessels and ships gutta-percha tubing is invaluable, as by it the merest whisper is rendered perfectly audible between the "man at the helm" and the captain in the cabin, or between either or both of them and the man on the "look-out" "for'rerd," and the hands aloft. The damage to vessels and loss of life which might have been spared, and may still be spared, by the substitution of this certain mode of intercommunication for the present uncertain one, by which a mistaken order leads to damage and perhaps to fatal results, no tongue can tell. In case of a man overboard," a gutta percha rope will float, instead of sinking as the ordinary ropes do, and thus multiply the chances of safety to the sufferer. Many other articles of great utility on shipboard are also constructed of gutta percha, which, especially to emigrants and those unused to life at sea, will prove particularly valuable. One advantage is, that if you do break a gutta-percha article-not a very likely occurrence, by the way-there is little loss, since you can sole your shoes with a broken bucket, for instance, and then put the rest of your gutta percha articles into a state of thorough repair by

softening the little odd bits which are left.

A very excellent and permanent source of amusement for children on a voyage, and indeed for all children everywhere, particularly during the long winter evenings, is provided by gutta percha in various colors, which is sold for amateur modeling, with which the children may make fantastic figures, and amuse themselves with this plastic and beautiful substance in a thousand ways which will readily suggest themselves. Children may make gutta percha horses, dogs, houses, and other toys, and they not be liable to breakage. Moreover, if Johnny does break his horse, all you have to do, if it is past mending, is to soften it in boiling water, and sole his boots with it, or mend your gutta-percha baskets, bowls, or foot-pans. As a sanitary agent, in the conveyance of water, gutta-percha tubes are highly valuable. Our readers will remember the dangerous position of the late Louis Philippe and family while at Claremont, from the water being impregnated with the lead of the pipes in which it was conveyed. We were shown some sections of lead pipe from the Isle of Wight, in which the water in two years had eaten holes a quarter of an inch deep! The consequences to the health of the persons drinking such water it is truly frightful to contemplate. These pipes have been taken up, and guttapercha tubes substituted in many instances. In no case should water be kept or conveyed in metallic pipes or cisterns. Gutta percha is at least twice as durable, and far more easily applied.

The latest application of gutta percha is in the shape of little shoes for sheep, to prevent the "dry rot," which, singular to say, is caught by the feet being much in the wet! These shoes being of the exact shape of the sheep's foot, are placed on, and the thin upper edge is tied on with a piece of twine, or it can be fastened to the foot by being moistened with warm water.

The "anti-dry-rot powder," which is placed in the shoe, as we are informed, removes the disease; and the use of these

curious little novelties is an excellent preventive against it.

In drawing our remarks to a close, we are reluctantly compelled to omit much interesting matter; and must content ourselves with the most marvelous of all the marvels which even this concentration of curiosities could present-the Submarine Telegraph.

The above is a very accurate representation of a section of the Submarine Telegraph, which has now been in operation for rather more than a year between England and France.*

It will be seen that it consists, in the first instance, of the four copper wires, the ends of which are shown at A. These wires, by a curious process, are covered, or insulated," as it is technically termed, with a double coating of gutta percha; this is done to prevent imperfections, as it is scarcely pro

When we took leave of the factory, which we did with a grateful sense of the facilities that had been afforded to us, we found, to our utter astonishment, that, instead of the single hour we meant to have occupied, we had been three hours and a half engaged in our survey. Having thus introduced this wondrous article to the attention of our readers, and indicated the general principles sufficiently to enable them to make multifarious applications of it without difficulty, we leave the matter in their hands; and if they have felt a tithe of the interest in perusing our remarks that we experienced in our visit, and in subsequently jotting down these observations, they will be abundantly repaid by the amusement and instruction thus afforded them.

LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHNSON.

HIS HOUSEHOLD-VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS.

THER

HE spring of 1755 found Johnson domiciliated at Gough-square, where three years before his house had been desolated by the death of his wife. The work of "The Dictionary" was done, so that he no longer had occasion to employ his amanuenses, and having now no family to provide for, it might seem that he was at liberty to yield to the demands of poverty by discontinuing so costly an establishment. He however chose still to keep a house, and to maintain about him something of a family-circle. The private life of distinguished characters constitutes one of the most interesting portions of biographical literature, and Johnson's private history was so strongly anomalous, and it has been so fully and accurately transmitted to succeeding times, that a most interesting part of his biography is of a kind often wholly wanting in general memoirs. To this portion of his history it will now be agreeable to devote a passing notice.

Great men sometimes display strange fancies in their personal attachments. To genius is conceded the right to be eccentric, though some reverse this order of things, and affect eccentricity that they may seem to possess genius. According to this strange tendency of genius, we find Cowper cherishing his favorite hares, Gray his gold-fishes, and Sir Walter Scott his dogs. Our own Randolph of Roanoke was equally capricious, but more diffuse in the bestowment of his favors, as he in

cluded among his favorites, dogs, horses, and negroes. Johnson too had his parasites, and if the taste displayed in their choice was singular even among the eccentric, the kindness that evidently mingled with his caprices is at least creditable to his heart. His favorites were all of his own race; but they were so unlike himself, and so different from those which a man of genius and learning would select for associates, that his action in this matter can be set down to nothing better than mere unreasoning impulses.

During the last few months of Mrs. Johnson's life, an intimacy had grown up between her and a Miss Anna Williams, the daughter of Dr. Zachariah Williams, a Welsh physician, who, supposing he had discovered a valuable method of determining the longitude at sea, had come to London in the hope of turning his discovery to account. Johnson, who was ever ready to assist whatever efforts seemed to promise an increase of valuable knowledge, aided him in preparing some of his papers to be presented to the Commissioners of Admiralty, but the matter resulted in nothing of immediately practical utility; and while it was still under examination, the projector died, in extreme old age, leaving his daughter, already past middle life, alone and destitute among strangers.

This person, whose history from this date is interwoven with that of Johnson, is described as possessing "uncommon firmness of mind, a boundless curiosity, retentive memory, and strong judgment." With her father's assistance she had acquired a knowledge of the French and Italian languages, and had also made great proficiency in general literature. She had, however, been for some time threatened with cataract in both her eyes, and had come to London in the hope of receiving medical relief. Johnson had also taken a lively interest in her case, and procured for her the advantages of the treatment offered at Guy's Hospital. While undergoing this course of treatment, she was much in Mrs. Johnson's company, and a warm attachment grew up between them. The disease of her eyes resulted soon after in total and hopeless blindness, and, not long after Mrs. Johnson's death, she was taken into the house of her protector, where, whenever he had a house, she also had an apartment.

MRS. WILLIAMS.

As the name of Mrs. Williams (for so we shall call her, preferring to follow the English method of giving the matronly prefix to aged females though they have never been married, to the American conceit which classes girls in their teens with their maiden grand-aunts of fourscore) will occur frequently in the subsequent course of our story, no further account need now be given of her than to add Mr. Boswell's estimate of her

character:

"She was," says he, who knew her well, a woman of enlightened understanding; plain, as it is called, in her person, and easily provoked to anger; but possessing, nevertheless, some excellent moral qualities, among which no one was more conspicuous than her desire to promote the welfare and happiness of others. To the endowments and qualities here ascribed to her, may be added a larger share of experimental prudence than is the lot of most of her sex. Johnson, in many exigencies, found her an able counsellor, and seldom showed his wisdom more than when he hearkened to her advice. In return, she received from his conversation the advantages of religious and moral improvement, which she cultivated so as, in a great measure, to soothe the constitutional asperity of her temper. When these particulars are known, the intimacy, which began with compassion and terminated in a friendship that subsisted till death dissolved it, will be easily accounted for."

Next in order in the household of the newly created Lord of Grub-Street was his physician, surgeon, and apothecary, Doctor Robert Levitt. This curious personage was more or less intimately associated with Johnson's family from a date some years before the decease of Mrs. Johnson to his death, which occurred in 1782. When he first became an inmate of Johnson's dwelling is not certainly

ascertained, though it was not till after the time now immediately under notice. Ten years later he is spoken of familiarly by his host, in writing to distant friends, as still occupying his post in the garret; as though he had been there so long that the fact was generally known as a part of the household arrangement.

His history is curious and interesting from the beginning. He was the son of a poor countryman who resided not far from Hull. In his youth he manifested a strong inclination to learning, which, however, his father was unable to gratify by putting him to school; he was, however, placed in the employ of a woollen draper at Hull, where he succeeded by his own efforts in obtaining a smattering of the science of medicine, and two years later he came to London, if possible to prepare himself for the medical profession. Here he obtained the situation of steward in a gentleman's family, till by his savings he was enabled to travel on the Continent in pursuance of his cherished purpose to become a physician. Five years were passed abroad, chiefly in Paris, where he held the place of waiter in a coffee-house, still keeping in view the great end for which he seemed to live. He made friends with the sur

geons who frequented his place of business, and received from some of them assistance and instruction in their art. They also procured for him the privilege of attending the lectures in pharmacy and anatomy, so that he received the instructions of some of the ablest lecturers in Paris. He also gained admittance to some of the hospitals of the city, and profited by the opportunities thus afforded him. Afterward he returned to London, and taking lodgings near Charing-Cross, entered upon the practice of medicine among the poorest class of the people-the only persons that could be expected to employ him.

The middle portion of his life was passed in that deepest of all obscurities, the lower stratum of London society; and here he probably would have ended his days, as thousands of others have, but for his apparently accidental association with Johnson. How that connection commenced is not known; it began in 1746, and was cherished with equal constancy on both sides. For twenty years he resided under the roof of his benefactor, by whom he was regarded with real respect, and never treated as a mere dependent. He