of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the water-works at London Bridge; and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity, to the blood gushing from the whale's heart. Hear Dr. Hunter's account of the dissection of a whale : "The aörta measured a foot diameter; ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with an immense velocity, through a tube of a foot dia. meter.' The whole idea fills the mind with wonder."PALEY'S Theology.

MEN REMARKABLE FOR CAPACIOUSNESS OF MEMORY, GREAT AGE, BODILY STRENGTH, &c.

MAGLIABECHI.

ANTONIO MAGLIABECHI was born at Florence, October 29th, 1633. Such was the poverty of his parents, that they thought themselves happy in getting him into the service of a man who sold herbs and fruit. There he took every opportunity, though he could not tell one letter from another, to pore on the leaves of some old books that served for waste paper, declaring that he loved it of all things. A neighbouring bookseller, who observed this, took him into his service. Young Magliabechi soon learned to read; and his inclination for reading became his ruling passion, and a prodigious memory his distinguished talent. He read every book that came into his hands, and retained not only the sense of what he read, but often all the words, and the very manner of spelling, if singular. To make trial of the force of his memory, a gentleman lent him a manuscript he was going to print. Some time after it was returned, the gentleman came to him, with a melancholy face, and pretended it was lost. Magliabechi being requested to recollect what he remembered of it, wrote the whole without missing a word, or varying the spelling. He was consulted by all the learned who proposed to write on any subject. If a priest, for instance, was going to compose a panegyric on a saint,

Magliabechi would tell him every author, to the number of an hundred sometimes, who had said any thing of that saint, naming the book and the page, and the very words. He did this so often, and so readily, that he came at last to be looked upon as an oracle; and Cosmo III., Grand Duke of Florence, made him his librarian, the most suitable office to Magliabechi's genius. In the latter part of his life, when a book came into his hands, he would read the title page all over, dip here and there in the preface, dedication, and prefatory advertisements, if there were any; and then cast his eyes on each of the divisions, sections, or chapters. After this he could tell at any time what the book contained.

Though Magliabechi must have lived a very sedentary life, yet he attained to the age of eighty-one. He died July 14th, 1714, in the midst of public applause, after enjoying, during all the latter part of his life, such an affluence as very few persons have ever produced by their knowledge and learning. By his will he left a very fine library collected by himself for the use of the public, with a fund to maintain it, and the overplus of the fund to the poor. It had been usual for every author and printer to make him a present of a copy of every thing they published.-New Art of Memory.

JEDEDIAH BUXTON.

JEDEDIAH BUXTON, a poor illiterate English peasant, who could neither read nor write, and who died some years ago, was remarkable for his knowledge of the relative proportions of numbers, their powers, and progressive denominations. To these objects he applied the whole force of his mind, and upon these his attention was so constantly rivetted, that he frequently took no notice of external objects, and when he did it was only with respect to their numbers. If any space of time was mentioned before him, he would soon after say, that it contained so many minutes; and if at any distance, he would assign the number of hair breadths in it, even when no question was asked him by the company.

Being required to muitiply 456 by 378, he gave the pro

duct by mental arithmetic, as soon as a person in company had completed it in the common way. Being requested to work it audibly, that his method might be known, he multiplied 456 first by 5, which produced 2,280; this he again multiplied by 20, and found the product 45,600, which was the multiplicand multiplied by 100; this product he again multiplied by 3, which produced 136,800, the product of the multiplicand by 300. It remained therefore to multiply this by 78, which he effected by multiplying 2,280, or the product of the multiplicand multiplied by 5, by 15, as 5 times 15 is 75. This product being 34,200, he added to 136,800, which was the multiplicand multiplied by 300, and this produced 71,000, which was 375 times 456. To complete his operation, therefore, he multiplied 456 by 3, which produced 1,368; and having added this number to 171,000, he found the product of 456 multiplied by 378, to be 172,368.

By this it appears, that Jedediah's method of arithmetic was entirely his own, and that he was so little acquainted with the common rules as to multiply 456 first by 5, and the product by 20, to find what sum it would produce, multiplied by 100; whereas, had he added two ciphers to the figures, he would have obtained the product all at

once.

A person who had heard of his astonishing performances, meeting with him once accidentally, in order to try his calculating powers, he proposed to him the question: Admit a field to be 423 yards long, and 383 yards broad, what is the area? After the figures were read to him distinctly, he gave the true product, 162,009 yards, in the space of two minutes; for the proposer observed by his watch how long each operation took him. The same person asked him how many acres the said field measured? and in eleven minutes he replied, 33 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches, 20 yards, and a quarter. He was then asked how many barley-corns would reach eight miles? in a minute and a half he answered, 1,520,640 barley-corns. He was likewise asked, supposing the distance between York and London to be 204 miles, how many times will a coachwheel turn round in that space, allowing the circumference of the wheel to be six yards? in thirteen minut he answered 59,840 times

Though these instances, which are well authenticated, are sufficient proofs of Jedediah's astonishing strength of mind, for the farther satisfaction of the curious, we shall subjoin the following: Being asked how long, after the firing of one of the cannons at Retford, the report might be heard at Haughton park, the distance being five miles, and supposing the sound to move at the rate of 1,142 feet in one second of time? he replied, after about a quarter of an hour, in 23 seconds, 7 thirds, and that 46 remained. He was then asked, admit that 3,584 broccoli plants are set in rows, four feet asunder, and the plants seven feet apart in a rectangular plot of ground, how much land will those plants occupy? In nearly half an hour he said, two acres, one rood, eight perches and a half.

This extraordinary man would stride over a piece of land, or field, and tell the contents of it with as much exactness as if he had measured it by the chain. In this manner he measured the whole lordship of Elmeton*, of some thousands of acres, belonging to Sir John Rhodes, and brought him the contents, not only in acres, roods, and perches, but even in square inches; after this he reduced them, for his own amusement, into square hair breadths, computing about 48 to each side of an inch, which produced such an incomprehensible number, as appeared altogether astonishing

The only objects of Jedediah's curiosity, next to figures, was the king and royal family, and his desire to see them was so strong, that, in the beginning of the spring 1754, he walked up to London for that purpose, but was obliged to return disappointed, as his majesty had removed to Kensington, just as he arrived in town. He was, however, introduced to the Royal Society, whom he called the Volk of the Siety Court. The gentlemen who were there present asked him several questions in arithmetic, to prove his abilities, and dismissed him with a handsome gratuity. During his residence in London, he was carried to see the tragedy of King Richard III. performed, at Drury-lane play-house, and it was expected that the novelty of every thing in this place, together with the splendour of the sur

*Elmeton, a small village near Chesterfield, was the place o his nativity.

rounding objects, would have fixed him with astonishment, or that his passions would, in some degree, have been roused by the action of the performers, even if he did not fully comprehend the dialogue. But his thoughts were otherwise employed; during the dances, his attention was engaged in reckoning the number of steps. After a fine piece of music, he declared that the innumerable 30unds produced by the instruments, perplexed him beyond measure; but he counted the words uttered by Mr. Garrick in the whole course of the entertainment, and affirmed, that in this he had perfectly succeeded.

Born to no fortune, and brought up to no particular profession, Jedediah supported himself by the labour of his hands; and though his talents, had they been properly cultivated, might have qualified him for acting a distinguished part on the theatre of life, he pursued "the noiseless tenor of his way," sufficiently contented if he could gratify the wants of nature, and procure a daily sustenance for himself and family.

If his enjoyments were few, they seem to have been fully equivalent to his wishes. Though favoured by nature in a very singular manner, and though the powers of his mind raised him far above his humble companions, who earned their bread in the like manner, by the sweat of their brow, ambitious thoughts never interrupted his repose, nor did he on his return from London regret the loss of any of those delicacies which he had left behind him. It is to such characters as Buxton, that the poet Gray alludes, in his Elegy in a Country Church-yard, where he says:

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.
And waste its sweetness in the desert air.

Jedediah was a married man, and had several children. He died in 1778, being about seventy years of age.

When any person asked him to calculate a question, he would sit down, take off his old brown hat, and resting upon his stick, which was generally a very crooked one, he would set to work. He mostly wore on his head either a linen or woollen cap, with a handkerchief thrown carelessly round his neck.-ADAM's Anecdotes.