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chooses the medical profession as the easiest. She spoils her child by foolish indulgence, while her tyranny is cutting short her more judicious husband's days. Dodimus is noted, in childhood and youth, for conversance with all the arts of petty iniquity, and utter ignorance of every thing worth knowing, except the alphabet, (for he cannot even write so that others can read it.) At eighteen he is to commence the study of his profession; but with whom?

There

Fortunately there lived at Toppingtown, a distance of ten miles, the very man whom, of all the world, Mrs. Duckworth would have selected as the preceptor to her darling. This was no other than the renowned DOCTOR WHISTLEWIND. He was famous, as the good lady expressed it, for doing mortal cures. was not, as she averred, another doctor in creation who was any touch to him. He was, she said, not only a skillful physician, but a most notorious sargeant. It would do one's heart good to see him cut and slash, mend and mar, wherever he

went.

With this man, of course, Dodimus is not likely to be injured by excessive application. The first forenoon he is in the office, he does all the studying of his whole noviciate. But, in the idea that practice makes perfect, he commences practice immediately, and draws teeth and lets blood for all who will put their lives in his hands. He soon begins to visit patients with his master; and ere long is sent as his substitute to the least wealthy of his patients. Long before he leaves Dr. Whistlewind, he has acquired great fame in all the country around, by the rapidity of his riding, from which the rustics conclude that his professional skill and zeal are alike unbounded. He settles in a village adjoining Toppingtown, marries, buys all manner of medicines, steps at once into extensive practice, and impoverishes and drives away an unassuming, but really learned and acute physician. His blunders only enhance his fame. One of his early schoolmates feigns a broken leg; Duckworth sets it, splinters it, and bandages it; and the next morning the patient disappears, and is discovered on his return from a walk of five miles. The major part of the people regard this immediate restoration as a divine attestation of the skill and claims of the new physician. At last, Dr. Whistlewind dies by swallowing several of his own pills, and Duckworth succeeds him in Toppingtown. There he begins to drink excessively, (as most quacks do;) but the difficulty of obtaining his services at all times, very much enhances their value in the eyes of his patrons, so that they often send for him when he can neither mount nor keep his saddle without assistance. About this time, he introduces a favorite regimen for the dropsy, namely, beef and brandy. Dropsy thenceforth becomes prevalent through the whole circle of his practice. The inmates of the almshouse, almost to a man, commence, by means of pillows, semipumpkins, &c. to make a fair show in the flesh, and are fed upon the much-loved remedy. The doctor soon deems himself dropsical, and shrinks not from his own prescription. Delirium tremens, with all its horrors, supervenes; and the doctor is gathered to the great community of his patients, in the vigor of his days and the fullness of his glory.

Besides the masterly delineation of Duckworth's character, we have numerous pictures of rustic life, to the fidelity of which we can bear the testimony of an eye-witness. The country parlor, school, barroom, wedding, sleigh-ride, ball, could have been portrayed, as they

are in this book, only by one who had long been conversant with such

scenes.

But we will cut short our critique, for the sake of introducing one more extract, the account of a perplexing case of dropsy.

He had one patient, who, having commenced with a moderate corporation, had so plied the remedy, that, at length, he found it difficult to waddle about; and the doctor declared that tapping could be no longer delayed. The patient demurred at first, observing that nothing, which had ever been tapped in his house, had lasted above a fortnight. But the doctor was positive, and the patient finally submitted.

A day was fixed for the operation; and Duckworth, accompanied by two or three students, repaired to the house of the patient, expecting to draw off something like a barrel of water. The neighbors flocked in to see the operation, and to witness the flood on the breaking up of the "great deep." The Rev. John Conn and William Brunson were also present, having been invited by the doctor to witness the triumph of his art.

Squire Plumper was placed in a convenient position, having so much of his corporation denuded as to allow a fair field for the operation. A capacious tub was set before him to catch the water, and all eyes were intent on the scene, expecting the imprisoned liquid to rush forth, even as spruce-beer rusheth on the unstopping of a bottle. The doctor, taking out his trocar, observed to his students

"This instrument, you will take notice, is called a trocular, and is used especially in the operation of tapping. The part of the patient in which I shall make the insertion, is denominated the lineal album, and is situated hereabouts. Holding the trocular thus in my hand, I make a dip, when you will see the water spout forth with great violence, and run in a free and conterminous stream."

Thus saying, he was about to make a lunge, when Squire Plumper begged he would allow him a glass of brandy before performing the operation.

"Brandy!" exclaimed Duckworth, staying his hand; "this call is most untimeous; it is an interception-a vexatious delay-of one of the most important operations ever performed in Toppingtown. Besides, Squire Plumper, what good do you expect the brandy will do you, when it is immediately to be drawn off along with the water contained in your internal circumference? Wait till the artifice is closed again, and then the liquor will do you some good."

"All that may be true, doctor," said the patient; "but with your leave I'll take a little now, and then a little again after the operation is over."

"Well, if you must have it, you must, I suppose," said the doctor; "and, on the whole, I may as well take a drop myself-being, as well as you, not a little dropsical.'

Thus saying, Duckworth helped himself to a glass of the juice of life, as he called it, and then poured out one for his patient.

"I think they are both very clearly drops-ical," said Brunson, in a whisper, to the Reverend Mr. Conn; but I doubt very much whether the patient, any more than the doctor, is overburthened with water."

"I am inclined to the same opinion," returned the reverend gentleman. "Squire Plumper seems to me very evidently to be bloated with morbid fat, rather than with water. Such being the case, ought we not, late as it is, to give a hint to the doctor, and save the man from the useless pain and danger of an operation?"

"Why, as to the pain," replied Brunson," he deserves to suffer a little for trusting to the prescriptions of such a blockhead as Duckworth; as to the danger, I suspect there will not be much, for the instrument will never reach through the wall of fat by which the patient is defended. Besides, Duckworth is too headstrong to listen to any hints which may be offered."

Notwithstanding these arguments, the humane clergyman could not be contented, until he had beckoned the doctor aside, and asked him if he was positive the case was one of real dropsy.

"Positive!" exclaimed Duckworth, with great indignation; "do you think I'd come here to tap a man for the dropsy, if I was 'nt certain he had it?"

"The best, you know," returned Mr. Conn, calmly, "may sometimes miss it; and an enlargement of fat may possibly be mistaken for one of water."

"Fugh!" exclaimed the doctor, with an air of great contempt, "do you think I'm such a fool that I don't know the angry-post from the akerous substance? I tell 33

VOL. V.

you, Squire Plumper is a most palpable instance of the dropsy; I should n't wonder if there was a barrel of water in him. Howsomever, if you are still faithless, Mr. Conn, 1 'll convince you in the trinkling of a trocular."

Having thus said, he returned to the patient, who by this time began to be rather impatient, and demanded another glass of brandy to quiet his nerves. The doctor again helped him to the liquor, having, as before, premised by taking a glass himself. He now flourished the trocar, and made a lunge; at the same time leaping a little on one side in order to escape the spouting liquid.

But the liquid refused to spout-not a drop of water came. The doctor was utterly astonished.

"Eh!" he exclaimed, "what!-no water!-the devil!-this beats me out and out. I never saw the like before-never! Marvelous! Wonderful!-I've driven the trocular up to the hub, as it were-and not a drop of water comes! Strange !"

If the doctor was surprised, the spectators were in general no less so. The clergyman and the lawyer, however, were not disappointed.

"I suppose you are now convinced," whispered the former in the ear of the doctor, "that it was not a case of dropsy?"

"Convinced!" retorted the doctor aloud, "no, sir, I defy any mortal man, or immortal either, to convince me. I know what I know."

"There's no question of that," said the minister, still in a low tone; "but you will probably acknowledge that the best may miss it? I presume you will not still persist in calling this a dropsy?"

"I do insist upon calling it a case of dropsy-of ginuwine dropsy," returned the doctor, helping himself to a third glass of brandy.

"But there's no water discharged."

"Water! ah, there's the point," said the doctor; then assuming an air of great professional consequence, and addressing himself to his students and the people generally, "I wish you to take notice," said he, "gentlemen, that this is a very extraordinary case-a very uncommon case indeed-it is, gentlemen, a case of dry dropsy."

"And yet it seems not to have wanted moistening," said Brunson.

"It's been jest like the sile of Neversoak Plains," said farmer Butters, "the more it drinked, the drier it growed."

As for Squire Plumper, he got well of the operation; but, still pushing the remedy of brandy and beef, and increasing the proportion of the former ingredient, in less than three months he was a corpse.

An Oration delivered before the Gloucester Mechanic Association, on the Fourth of July, 1833. By Robert Rantoul, jun.

This production has had the good fortune to be noticed favorably in most of the leading newspapers. It is entitled to such consideration, both from the society at whose request it was delivered, and from the industry and talent employed in its composition. The mechanics of New-England are taking a noble stand in the arrangements of society. They are, in many places, taking the lead of all other classes, in the institution of lyceums, reading-rooms, debating-societies, and other modes of improving in literature, science and the arts. To them is due no small portion of the glory of producing the change of "thirteen stripling colonies into twenty-four imposing sovereignties;" and to them will our country hereafter be indebted, to a still greater extent, for the permanency of its freedom and the security of its laws and constitution. We hope that the mechanics of other places will follow the example of their brethren at Gloucester, in their celebration of our national thanksgiving, and be equally fortunate in finding orators for the occasion.

POLITICS AND STATISTICS.

MAINE.

Waterville College. The annual commencement of this institution took place on Wednesday, July. Nine students were admitted to the degree of A. B. all of whom, except two, who were absent, took part in the performances of the day, which were of a very reputable character.

The Peace Society celebrated their anniversary on the afternoon of Tuesday, when an address, well spoken of and adapted to the occasion, was delivered by Mr. Paine, of Winslow. On the evening of the same day was the anniversary of the Literary Fraternity, of Waterville College. An address was delivered on the occasion by Mr. Bradbury, of Augusta.

The classes now remaining in College contain about thirty each-the graduating one being the last of the small classes. More than twenty have already offered themselves as Freshmen, and this number may be increased to forty or fifty. In the main, the College appears to be in a flourishing condition. Some difficulty arose out of a celebration of the 4th of July by the students, at which the President took offence, and reproved the students. They explained, that no ardent spirits was used on the occasion, and nothing improper intended. He again reproved them, and afterwards in a lecture took occasion to animadvert very severely upon their conduct, comparing it to that of savages, brutes, &c. They firmly remonstrated against such treatment, and the consequence was, that the President and Professor Conant, who sustained him, resigned their offices. Thus the affair threatened to prevent the continuance of the college exercises, but the students, expressing confidence in the remaining officers, things went on as usual, and with general satisfaction. At the meeting of the Boards, the resignations of the President and Professor Conant were accepted, and the students sustained and admitted to their degrees. Education. A writer in the Saco Republican furnishes the following details respecting the public provision for education. After the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, a law was passed, requiring every town to raise annually, for the support of schools, a sum equal to forty cents for each person

in such town, to be distributed among the school districts, in proportion to the number of inhabitants in each. In 1825, the number of districts, as appears from the reports made to the Legislature, was 2499; the number of children, between the ages of four and twenty-one, 137,931; the number who usually attend schools, 101,325; and the total annual expenditure $137,878 57. The present number of scholars is estimated by this writer at 140,000. The schools kept by male teachers are open on the average, two months in the year, and those kept by female teachers, about two weeks longer.

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The population of the state by the last census, was 297,711; and the ordinary expense of the government was $60,852; being a proportionate expense of twenty cents and a half for each inhabitant. But the state, during this time, received $27,053 interest on her three per cent. stock and dividends on bank stock; $12,446 from the State prison, forfeitures, fines, &c. and $2,817, for taxes on bank stock owned by nonresidents; all amounting to $42,316; which being deducted from the ordinary expenses of government, left the sum of $18,536 to be paid from direct

taxes.

This balance of $18,536 would require a contribution by each inhabitant of the state of less than six cents and three mills; and a tax less than three tenths of a mill on each dollar of valuation and assessment returned by the Assessors.

The whole capital of this Fund, productive and unproductive, was reported by the Commissioner in 1832, to be $1,902,957 87. The interest arising from it, is irrevocably dedicated by the constitution, to the support of primary schools, and by law, is apportioned to them, according to the ratio of persons between four and sixteen years of age, belonging to the respective school societies. The whole number of those persons in 1832, was 86,252; and the amount of interest distributed for that year, was $81,939 40, being ninety-five cents for each of those persons, and equal to 28 cents for every inhabitant. Thus, while the state were distributing, for the benefit of schools, a sum equal to twenty-eight cents for each person in it, the ordinary expenses of the ernment required of them only a ratio

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of contribution less than six cents and three mills.

Washington College. The annual commencement at Washington College, Hartford, was held on the first of August. The degree of A. B. was conferred on twelve graduates, and that of A. M. on eleven gentlemen, chiefly clergymen. The degree of D. D. was conferred on the Rev. Messrs. Doane and Humphreys.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Libraries in Philadelphia. From a notice which appeared in a recent number of the Boston Mercantile Journal, stating that the public libraries in that city contained 45,000 volumes, besides about 20,000 in the Circulating Libraries, and that it was believed Philadelphia contained one good library, amounting to

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Many of the works in these various

depots are scarce, and not easily procured at the present time. The library of the University contains a donation from the unfortunate Louis XVI. made

during the revolutionary war, all of which were printed at the royal printing office, and treat of mathematics, natural history, &c. The library of the Academy of Fine Arts contains a donation from Bonaparte. The library of the Hospital and Almshouse contain the best works on medicine, surgery, the sciences, while those of the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Museum are devoted to natural history and travels. The library of St. Augustine's Church contains, we believe, the only complete copy of the "Fathers" in this country.

and

United States Mint. The Philadelphia Herald recently contained an account of this establishment, from which the following particulars are epitomized.

In the year 1830, the whole coinage was $3,155,620, consisting of $643,105 in gold, (half and quarter eagles ;)

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