had died, and she was told by some old women that if she would drink daily, for a certain time, a quantity of water mixed with clay taken from their graves, she would be for ever secure from disease and sin. Following this absurd and disgusting prescription, she took from time to time large quantities of the draught. Some time afterwards, being affected with a burning pain in the stomach, she began to eat large pieces of chalk, which she sometimes also mixed with water, and drank. Now, whether in any or in all of these draughts she swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed; but for several years she continued to throw up incredible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the church-yard beetle." "Of the larvæ of the beetle," says Dr Pickells, "I am sure I considerably underrate, when I say that not less than 700 have been thrown up from the stomach at different times since the commencement of my attendance. A great proportion were destroyed by herself, to avoid publicity; many, too, escaped immediately by running into holes in the floor. Upwards of ninety were submitted to Dr Thomson's examination, nearly all of which, including two of the specimens of the weal-worm, I saw myself thrown up at different times. The average size was about an inch and a half in length, and four lines and a half in girth. The larvæ of the bipterous insect, though voided only about seven or eight times, according to her account, came up almost literally in myriads. They were alive and moving." Altogether, Dr Pickells saw nearly 2000 grubs of the beetle, and there were many which he did not see. Mr Clear, an intelligent entomologist of Cork, kept some of them alive for more than twelve months. Mr S. Cooper cannot understand whence the continued supply of the grubs was provided, seeing that larvæ do not propagate, and that only one proper and one perfect insect were voided; but the simple fact, that most beetles live several years in the state of larvæ, sufficiently accounts for this. Their existing and thriving in the stomach, too, will appear less wonderful from the fact, that it is exceedingly

difficult to kill this insect; for Mr Henry Baker repeatedly plunged one into spirits of wine, so fatal to most insects, but it revived, even after being immersed a whole night, and afterwards lived three years. That there was no deception on the part of the woman, is proved by the fact, that she was always anxious to conceal the circumstance, and that it was only by accident that the medical gentlemen, Drs Pickells, Herrick, and Thomson, discovered it. Moreover, it does not appear that, though poor, she ever took advantage of it to extort money. It is interesting to learn that, by means of turpentine in large doses, she was at length cured.'

A QUEER OLD JUDGE.

ON the appointment of new sheriffs for the city of London, it was, and, we believe, is still customary for them to be harangued on the duties of their office by one of the judges or barons of the high courts of the land. On one of these occasions, in the year 1659, the following speech was delivered. The speaker was an inferior or puisné baron of Exchequer, by name Baron Tomlinson, and a merry, truth-telling old soul he must have been-a good deal, we suspect, like the Scotch judge, the late Lord Hermand. Two citizens, named Warner and Love, were the newly appointed sheriffs whom Baron Tomlinson addressed.

'How do you, Mr Warner? Save you, Mr Love. Gentlemen citizens, I observe in you three things: first, that ye are well clad; from whence I note, that ye are no slovens. Truly I wish I were a sheriff, so it were not chargeable, and that I might always be in the office; for certainly a sheriff can never be a-cold, his gown is so warm; and, on my word, yours seem to be excellent good scarlet. Some men may ask, why do you wear red gowns, and not blue or green? As for blue, it is a colour which signifies constancy; now constancy cannot be

attributed to sheriffs; for a sheriff is a sheriff this year, and none the next. As for green, it is Mohammed's colour, and so too heathenish for a Christian. I confess fuille morte, which signifies decay, had been the most proper colour for a sheriff, because he puts off his gown with the fall of the leaf; and, secondly, because it may decay his estate, if he be too expensive in his office. But next to that, red is the most convenient colour; for indeed most handsome and delectable things are red-as roses, pomegranates, the lips, the tongue, &c.; so that, indeed, our ancestors did wisely to clothe magistrates with this decent and becoming colour. It is true I have a gown too, but they make me wear the worst of any baron of the Exchequer; it is plain cloth, as you see, without any lining; yet my comfort is, I am still a baron, and I hope I shall be so as long as I live: when I am dead, I care not who is baron, or whether there be a baron or no. The next thing I observe is, that ye look plump and ruddy; from whence I give a shrewd guess, that ye feed well; and truly if you do so, then you do well, which is my third and last observation concerning ye. But do you know wherefore you come hither? I do not question but you do; however, you must give me leave to tell ye; for in this place I am a better man than either of you both, or indeed both of you put together. Why, then, I will tell ye ye come hither to take your oaths before me. Gentlemen, I am the puisné baron of the Exchequer : that is to say, the meanest baron; for, though I am not guilty of interpreting many hard words, yet this hath been so continually beaten into my head, that I do very well understand it however, I could brook my meanness well enough--for some men tell me that I deserve no betterwere it not the cause of my life's greatest misery; for here I am constrained, or else I must lose my employment, to make speeches in my old age, and, when I have one foot in the grave, to stand here with the other talking in public. Truly, gentlemen, it is a sad thing; you see what a forced put I am put to. May I soon be out of this sinful world; for when my bones are at rest, my tongue

will be at quiet! I remember, gentlemen, when I was a child, if my mother asked if I would have any victuals that pleased me not, why, then, I would grow sullen, and make no answer; then would she say: "Sirrah, will you have it? speak!"-still not a word from me. "Nay, then," said she, "if you won't speak, you shall have nothing." This is my condition now: either speak, or have nothing; that is, be no baron. I have prayed that my weak capacity may be mended; now I speak better to-day than I used to do; you will know he hath heard my prayers; if not, then it is as it was.' But since it is my misfortune, I shall talk to ye as well as I can: but, friends, you must not expect that I should bawl to you, like fellows who cry carrots and turnips in the street; for that would be troublesome to me, and perhaps cause the almonds of my cars to fall with overstraining my impotent lungs. And now it comes into my mind, I desire you, when you are in your office, not to let those fellows yaule so in a morning; for, besides that they will not let the people sleep, the cry of Wisdom can never be heard in your streets for the perpetual bawling those carters keep; and truly if you do not remedy it, I am afraid you will as soon hear the lamentation of wild nightingales as the voice of Wisdom in your city. Yet though I do not bawl, do not think that I will whisper neither; for then it were impossible you should hear me, and I should seem to sit upon the bench like a madman talking to myself; besides, the proverb says, "that where there is whispering, there is lying." Truly, gentlemen, I am an old man, and have lived long in the world; and I can assure you, I have observed these proverbs, and find them to be wise sayings. I remember when I was a young youth-it is a great while ago, gentlemen; I warrant ye it is above five-andforty years ago-my mother saw me fooling with a knife: "Lay down the knife, boy," said she; "it is a dangerous thing to play with edged tools." Truly, gentlemen, I believe you find the truth of this; for had your city never meddled with edged tools, they and you, I believe, had been in a more thriving condition than now.

At

first, you played with these edged tools in your military and artillery grounds, and made sport with them before your wives; but I think they have made sport with you since. Truly, for my part, I cannot tell what to do for these edged tools; and I believe you are in a quandary too for my part, I resolve never to meddle with them; and I hope you have so much grace and cowardice, as to do so too. King James would never meddle with them, you know now, if you will not take my foolish advice, take his wise counsel.

'But to return where I left. I say, gentlemen, that I will neither bawl nor speak softly, but talk in an indifferent tone between both, that you may hear me, and

may hear myself, and so we may all hear one another; and truly there is great reason for it; for by hearing we convey our reason one to another. Now, that I have reason, I will prove; for every man is a rational creature; now, I am a man, therefore I am a reasonable creature. Gentlemen, this makes as much for you as for me, for by this do I prove you likewise to be rational creatures, and so fit to be sheriffs. Thus I find ye qualified for your office. And truly, gentlemen, sheriffs are men of great antiquity and authority: some are of opinion that sheriffs were invented in Tyre and Sidon; truly, gentlemen, it stands with reason, for I am sure they were the first inventors of scarlet. But to leave this opinion, I do find in the Bible, how Joseph was, by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, made sheriff of Grand Cairo; and Daniel also was, by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, made sheriff of Babylon. In the first place, their habit proves this to be true, for they wore the same badges of their authority as you have; that is to say, scarlet gowns and gold chains. I will not dispute whether their gowns were lined with fur or no, neither was it material, nor indeed so requisite ; the hotness of their countries not permitting that formality. Secondly, we read how Joseph arrested his brothers for carrying away his plate, which he could not have done had he not had bailiffs and sergeants under him, officers peculiar to a sheriff: and to make it more evident, we