r
heard the like!--complain of being hungry!!--Prodigious!!!--why I'd give
a guinea to be hungry!!!--why, a hungry man (with a good dinner before
him) is the happiest fellow in the world!--There, (giving the boy
half-a-crown,) there, I don't want you to take my word for it: run
along, my fine fellow, and make the experiment yourself."--_Dr.
Kitchener._

* * * * *

ARCANA OF SCIENCE,

OR REMARKABLE FACTS AND DISCOVERIES IN NATURAL HISTORY, METEOROLOGY,
CHEMISTRY, MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, PRACTICAL MECHANICS,
STATISTICS, AND THE USEFUL ARTS.

* * * * *

[Under this head it is proposed, in the future numbers of the MIRROR, to
assemble all new and remarkable facts in the several branches of science
enumerated above. These selections will be made from the Philosophical
Journals of the day, the Transactions of Public Societies, and the
various Continental Journals. The advantages of such a division in
accordance with the high and enlightened character of the present age,
must be obvious to every reader of our miscellany. At the same time it
will be our object to _concentrate_ or _condense_ from all
other authentic sources such new facts in science as are connected with
the arts of social life, and which from being scattered through
elaborate and expensive works, might thereby be lost to some portion of
our readers. In short, _popular_ discoveries in science, or all
such new facts as bear on the happiness of society will be the objects
of our choice; neither perplexing our readers with abstract research,
nor verging into the puerile amusements of a certain ingenious but
almost useless class of reasoners; it not being our object to "ring the
changes" on words. Our selections will occasionally be illustrated with
engravings; for by no means are philosophical subjects better elucidated
than by the aid of the graphic art.]

_Longevity_.

The relative advantages of town and country, in point of salubrity, are
shown by the following table of deaths:--

1. In _great towns_, from 1-19 or 1-20, to 1-23 or 1-24.

2. In _moderate towns_, from 1-25 to 1-28.

3. In _small villages_ and the _open country_, from 1-35 or
1-40, to 1-50 or 1-60.

Thus, in London one person in 20 of the whole population dies annually;
while in the healthiest villages and open country, the rate of annual
mortality is not more tha