e on his crossing from Dover to Calais, a few years
since. He caused an armed chair to be placed on the deck of the vessel,
and being seated in it, he began to raise himself up and down, as on
horseback. The passengers laughed at his eccentricity, but before they
reached Calais, many of them were sea-sick, whilst Sir Richard continued
to enjoy his usual health and vigour.

_Bites of Venomous Reptiles._

M. le D'Record, sen. discovered, during a long residence in America, what
he considers a sure mode of preventing mischief from such bites. "It is
sufficient," he says, "to pour a few drops of tincture of cantharides on
the wound, to cause a redness and vesiccation; not only is the poison
rendered harmless, but the stings of the reptiles are removed with the
epidermis that the bladder raises."--_Med. Journal._

_Naval Schools of France._

In France, the system of mutual instruction among the working classes
prospers in the bosoms of the ports, and schools are founded for the
particular instruction of the sons of the inferior officers of the
arsenals, in the elements of calculation, of geometry, and of design, as
far as necessary for the plans of ships; also the principles of statics,
so as to enable them to judge of the action and effect of machinery. Prizes
of gold medals and special promotions are the rewards of the most deserving
students. Brest was formerly the only port furnished with these schools;
since the peace, however, libraries are forming in each of the others; and
in almost all, cabinets of natural history and botanical gardens are
enriched at every voyage undertaken by French ships, either to foreign
coasts, or to those of the French colonies. An observatory has been given
to Toulon and Rochefort. In both these ports naval museums are formed, in
order to preserve types of the most eminent vessels, whose originals either
have been, or soon will be, destroyed by time. Models of ingenious
machines, representations of interesting manoeuvres, a methodical
collection of raw materials, of tools, and of the product of all the arts
exercised in a dock-yard--Such are the rich materials collected in these
interesting repositories.--_From the French of M. Dupin._

_Antiquity of Locks._

Locks were known in Egypt above four thousand years since, as was inferred
by M. Denon, from some sculptures of the great temple of Karnac,
representing locks similar to those now used in that country. A lock
resembling the