“Very well," said Fridel; "if it is so, there is nothing to fear. I have no objection to you as my bedfellow."

"I am not come to share your bed," grumbled the stranger, in his beard, "but to propose a bargain, for I am pressed for time, having a hundred miles to travel to-night. Say, what will you take for those

the rocky chasms, whose gloomy foliage added to the
horror of the spot. Often, also, the path became so
narrow, so perpendicular, that it was with the utmost
difficulty the higher stony ground could be reached.
The silence of this wild nature was only broken by
the hoarse cries of rooks, perched on diluvian-era
pines, and by the angry roar of the impetuous torrent,
rushing headlong down the craggy rocks, and foam-three farthings?"
ing in the depths of the ravines and precipices
which bounded the oft-untrodden path, so that the
bewildered traveller in these desert parts at midnight
hour needed all the stoic courage he could muster, to
ward off feelings of more than awe,-of superstitious

fear.

The little Fridel now perceived he had not to do with a column of vapour, but with a powerful mountain spirit, who desired to possess the three farthings, probably because they were of copper formerly dug out of this very mountain. Our little fellow, who was keen enough, hastened to reply:—

"I desire nothing better than to give one of my three farthings, provided you will make me a present of a gun which will kill every bird at which I aim."

The spirit immediately presented Fridel with an excellent gun, but without his being able to see from whence it came.

"Well," said Fridel, "I must see that it is a good one before I pay for it." Then, taking aim at a leaf of a tree at some distance off, he cocked it, fired, and severed the leaf from the branch. Fridel now joyously gave the farthing. The spirit continued :

"You have not made a great request for your first farthing; be careful and make a better choice for your second."

"Oh, yes," replied Fridel, laughingly, as you will see. I am not formed for dancing, as you may perhaps perceive, for, to tell you the truth, my legs are like crotchets; but I am passionately fond of dancing, and, not being able to dance myself, my greatest happiness is to see others dance; therefore, for the second farthing, I will only ask for a violin which will make everybody dance, whether they will or no, as soon as I draw the bow across the strings."

"Here is again a very thoughtless wish, Fridel. Now you have only one farthing left: be wise this time, make a better use of it, and require something useful."

But the little Fridel knew not fear beyond its name. He had seen what bore that name in the faces of his master's children, and had enjoyed the laugh against them; now he was to be put to the test: how he endured it the sequel will show. Heedless of danger, he continued his mountain way with a joyous heart and merry thoughts, giving utterance to the exuberance of his feelings in a gay, loud song. By the time he reached the summit of the loftiest peak, night had fairly set in; all around was gloomy, and, had it not been for the pale reflection of the moon on the pine-tops, and on the fantastic-shaped rocks, he must have abandoned his progress. He now glanced hopefully round in quest of some village steeple, where he could find a night's shelter, but in vain; nothing could be distinguished except dark grey rocks, black pines, and an immense quantity of stones stored one upon another. He determined, therefore, to remain where he was; and, having found a patch of moss near a cluster of pines, stretched himself upon it; but, according to his invariable custom, before giving himself up to sleep took out once more his mouse-skin purse, and satisfied himself of the safety of his treasures. As he was putting his coins one by one in the palm of his hand by the light of the moon, a strange kind of vapory shadow passed across him. Endeavouring to account for this, he perceived suddenly before him a man whose face was almost entirely enveloped in a grey beard which reached to his feet; his robe was folded in many plaits around him, a part of it was thrown back on the head, like a capuchin, so that only his face was visible; and, though he was motionless, his robe floated in the wind in continual waves. This incessant rotation, and the grey colour of his beard and attire, gave him a supernatural appearance; indeed, he might more easily be taken for a vapory column springing out of the earth than for a mortal. So thought Fridel, who, after scrutinizing the spectre, first taking it for a man, then for a column of vapour, felt his hair stand on end, and his joyous mood vanish, to be replaced by cold fear. Grasping tightly his purse with its contents, he hastily rose up, and was The little Fridel was filled with joy at the bargains about to leave the spot, when he felt himself held he had just made. "The spirits whom we are taught back by the hair, and, though affrighted, mustered to fear are, after all, the best fellows in the world," courage enough to turn and face it. This time the said he, making the rocks re-echo the strain of his figure appeared that of an old man in a grey mantle, good fortune. He could not sleep; he feared lest, who, seeing his fright, said to him, in an encouraging on awakening, he might find himself without gun or tone,"Fear not, Fridel; I wish you no harm." violin. But, as he had walked a considerable disFridel breathed more freely, and answered, "Ittance that day, he sat down again to rest the wearivery kind of you to speak to me; that proves to ness of his limbs, and impatiently awaited the return me that you are a mortal; but it is much kinder to promise not to harm me. You will not then take the three farthings I have earned in three years, will you?"

is

"Provided you do not agree to let me have them of your own good will, you will be free to take all three of them with you.'

66

Very well," said Fridel, giving him his second farthing;-"I desire that everybody shall be unable to refuse the first request I may ask of them."

"At last a reasonable wish," replied the spirit; "I grant it willingly. Be it as you wish."

Fridel now remitted his last farthing to the spirit; a brisk and soft breeze descended from the summit of the mountain, and, as the spirit withdrew, it appeared again to the little boy nothing more than a vapory shadow carried along by the wind.

For, as the wind arose, swifter and swifter the spirit glided away, till it was completely lost and confounded in the shades of night which were thickening rapidly around.

of day.

When the stars began to grow dim, the wind to freshen, and day to announce its dawn by purple and golden-tinted clouds, our little traveller left his hard bed; and the better to remove his giddiness and circulate his blood, he descended, on all-fours, the mountain side, which he had so painfully climbed the

previous evening, in the direction of a town which | little Fridel had adjusted his violin, and, drawing he perceived in the plain at some distance off, laugh- his bow across the bridge, ing all the time at the idea of making everybody dance, nolens volens.

give Fridel his violin, who, receiving it with a secret | in the mouths of the people. So well did he contrive, feeling of joy, began to draw the bow across the that he escaped many threatened dangers, and strings; immediately all the children and those around attained to a good old age. On his death, the strings the scaffold began to dance. The executioner him- of his violin suddenly distended; they endeavoured self exclaimed, "I cannot resist it any longer, I must to remount them, but they could never be properly dance also," and began dancing on the platform of the adjusted; and besides, the sound part of the instruscaffold. ment was gone, and when one attempted to play on it, no sound was produced-all was still! D.H. C.

Then the mayor, after casting a glance at the assembly and perceiving that even the constable had mingled with the dancers, having placed the gun of the condemned behind the ladder that he might trip it with more ease, and seeing that everybody around was in motion, exclaimed,—

"Since everybody dances, why should not I?" so saying, he began to skip and jump with everybody else. The monk, observing this, cried out, "I should like a dance, too," and immediately mixed among the moving mass; but he was soon tired out, being too encumbered with fat for such an exercise. Addressing the mayor, "For goodness sake," exclaimed he, "your worship, order him to stop! It is a disgrace to us thus to dance, mixed and confounded with the populace. Did the steward not warn you? he knew what would happen!"

But the judge, who had taken a liking to the amusement, and who was becoming more and more inspirited, contented himself with replying, "Dance on, my reverend sir-dance on; I have no desire to give over yet; the air is much too lively and sprightly."

THE NEW ANESTHETIC AGENT. OUR notice of this highly important discovery will be best prefaced by the definition of the very expressive, but less euphonious adjective at the head of this article, "Anæsthetic." It is a term borrowed from the Greek, that tongue more wealthy than our own, and signifies "rendering insensible." From this explanation it will be easy to conjecture what is to be the nature of the subsequent remarks. A few months since we had the satisfaction of introducing to the notice of our readers that inestimable gift of science to humanity—the painless system of operations. In these cases, ether only, of a pure description, was the pain-annulling agent, and as such it has already acquired a world-wide reputation, in the most literal acceptation of the expression, operations under its influence having been performed in some of the

"Yes, is it not?" remarked Fridel. "And now, to vary your pleasure, I will give you a jig. You know it, Sir Steward,-do you not? It is a nice dance! Is it not,-eh? Come, confess! So say-remotest corners of the earth. By one of those ing, he began the jig.

The surrounding crowd, with constable, mayor, steward, monk, women, men, children, executioner and assistants, all commenced immediately to dance one with another, so that there was nothing but a pell-mell around and on the scaffold, and a clapping of hands as in the "Macabre," but a thousand times more loud and eager than the famous "Ronde du Sabbot;" many were hurraing and hallooing, and never was so much gaiety seen at an execution.

sudden revolutions which shake the dominion of medicines as well as that of empires, ether, before the knowledge thereof can reach the distant boundaries of its kingdom, will probably have been dethroned, and its high position occupied by another anæsthetic power, chloroform. This was one of the results we confess ourselves to have anticipated from the revival of the long-neglected, much-despised department of Our little fellow, intended for the gallows, had no medicine, Pneumatic Chemistry. Ether was by no inclination to have his throat tickled with a thick, means perfect as a remedy, yet in its time we hailed ugly, rough rope, nor his body made to dance at an it as the most precious boon yet bestowed upon sufinconvenient height from the ground, therefore, lei-fering mankind. Much was, therefore, to be expected surely descending the scaffold, still playing the lively jig, he took his famous gun, which he put under his arm, opened a passage through the dancing crowd, and retreated as fast as possible.

The mayor, monk, steward, policeman, executioner, old and young, men, women, and children, followed him dancing, all infected with the dancing mania, which did not leave them till, worn out, they fell on the ground incapable of movement. The fat steward was the first to fall, puffing and blowing like a whale, for he had danced his uttermost; next, the mayor; then, heavily, the constable; then the hangman; then a couple of children here, another there, and so

on.

The little Fridel still played on, and still men, women, and children, were falling down from exhaustion, and at last the dance ceased for want of dancers. When the urchin saw them lying on the ground, he burst out laughing. "Ah! exclaimed he, "it is to my good violin that I owe my life!"

He visited other towns and villages, amassing large sums of money with his violin, and playing such amusing tricks that from one end of the country to the other, nothing else but Fridel and his violin were

from the newly-directed investigations of the acute intellect of our time; and, we believe, much may still be anticipated from the same source, much in the treatment, alleviation, or cure of human maladies.

Our subject belongs in strictness to the science of medicine. But the great question it has solved, being one in which the whole world, generally and individually, claims a deep interest, the partial annihilation of suffering, we deem an apology for noticing it in our pages both superfluous and impertinent. We owe the valuable discovery we have thus announced to Professor J. Y. Simpson of Edinburgh. It appears that ever since he saw etherization put into successful practice, Professor Simpson was deeply impressed with the conviction that other remedial agents of equal, if not of greater efficacy, were in reserve for the cultivator of this branch of the science. With this view

several experiments were instituted during the course of the summer and autumn upon the effects of ethereal tinctures. More recently, in order to avoid

if possible some of the inconveniences attending the | ficially by the decomposition of the alcohol, but it is exhibition of ether vapour, the inhalation of other identical with that which is the theoretical radical of volatile fluids was commenced, the principal object of the acid of ants, or formic acid. It is hoped this search being the discovery of a more agreeable liquid succinct statement will be readily comprehended, but, than that. Many were thus inhaled with various believing as we do that this is the kind of knowledge effects, until at length, at the suggestion of a chemical most valuable in a scientific communication, though friend, the chloroform, or perchloride of formyle, was the mastery of it may prove a little distasteful, we tried, the great desideratum was discovered, and in make no excuse for its introduction. As thus obthat day,—we speak without hyperbole, when we say tained it is, when pure, a heavy, colourless, transthat we believe the ethereal kingdom was moved to parent liquid, possessing a very agreeable ethereal, its very centre. The news rapidly spread, experiments, fruit-like odour, somewhat like that of apples, and a which were easy of performance, were instituted with pleasant saccharine taste. It readily evaporates, boilavidity, and in every case within our knowledge were ing at 141° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. It is next attended with success; and amid these triumphant to uninflammable, and this is an advantage which the victories over pain, neither ordinary nor unvaried, Professor appears to have overlooked, as there was chloroform began its career. always a great risk attending the employment of so highly combustible a liquid as ether in large quantities. A bottle upset, and an accidental light falling upon the spilled fluid, would fill an apartment with a sea of fire. No such consequences would attach to a similar misfortune with chloroform. Such are the chemical and physical properties of this extraordinary fluid.

Although new in its application, chloroform is by no means a new substance. It was discovered separately, yet about the same time, by the eminent chemists Liebig and Soubeiran, about sixteen years ago, and it underwent a careful examination in 1835 at the hands of Professor Dumas, who we may mention was present at the operations and witnessed with evident delight the application to the noblest purpose of a substance which he had hitherto regarded only with the eyes of a chemist. "It is, perhaps, not unworthy of remark," writes Professor Simpson, "that when Soubeiran, Liebig, and Dumas, engaged a few years back in those inquiries and experiments by which the formation and composition of chloroform was first discovered, their sole and only object was the investigation of a point in philosophical chemistry. They laboured for the pure love and extension of knowledge. They had no idea that the substance to which they called the attention of their chemical brethren could or would be turned to any practical purpose, or that it possessed any physiological or therepeutic effects upon the animal economy. I mention this to show that the cui bono argument against philosophical investigations, on the ground that there may be at first no apparent practical benefit to be derived from them, has been amply refuted in this, as it has been in many other instances." This substance has been also used medically, but in minute doses, for the relief of asthma. Its inhalation, its crowning application, is due entirely to Professor Simpson. At the risk of employing one or two chemical terms, we will shortly mention the manner in which this interesting fluid is formed.

In speaking of its physiological powers, the following are the advantages which this agent possesses over sulphuric ether. It is much more powerful; usually a hundred, or a hundred and twenty drops are equal to the production of complete anesthesia; in some cases, even so minute a portion as thirty drops of this potent fluid has induced insensibility. It is much more rapid and complete in its action; and its effects are more persistent. A few, perhaps twenty, deep inspirations of its magical vapour reduce most persons to a death-like condition, of course only of a temporary character, thus much time is saved, and The stinging sensation produced by ants has been the preliminary stage of excitement is often altogether attributed to the presence of a peculiar acid in the avoided. We have, therefore, no such amusing and liquid injected into the wound, called "formic acid." extraordinary cases to relate, as we adduced in Formyle is what is termed the hypothetical radical of treating of etherization. Chloroform does not impel this acid of ants. When formyle unites with chlorine elderly gentlemen to dance the polka, or young gengas it forms a chloride, of which there are several; and tlemen to exhibit feats of amateur pugilism, or young the highest of these is the perchloride of formyle, or ladies to wink at the spectators, nor does it reveal chloroform, the wonderful agent in question. In prac-seraphic views of bliss, nor unfold terrorizing scenes tice, it is easily procured by distilling in a capacious of horror, as ether did. It breathes over a man, and retort chloride of lime, water, and pure alcohol together; he becomes as stone. Besides this very obvious the chloroform distils over, and after undergoing a advantage, the odour of chloroform is infinitely more few simple processes, is fit for use. In this experi- agreeable than the suffocative smell of ether, so that ment, formyle is (hypothetically) produced arti- it is inhaled without the smallest repugnance by all