Besides these lectures, a course is being delivered at the Museum of Practical Geology, recently opened in Jermyn Street, by eminent professors, as you may judge from the fact of De la Beche, Forbes, and Playfair being among them. Some of the most promising of the pupils at the School of Design are allowed to attend these lectures gratis. At the same institution, an attempt is to be made to do what has long been done in Paris—namely, to admit working-people to the best scientific lectures free of cost. Now, therefore, is the time for the working-men of the metropolis to shew whether they wish for knowledge and enlightenment or not. They have only to present themselves at the Museum, pay a registration-fee of sixpence, conform to the rules, and so qualify themselves for the course of six lectures. It is a capital opportunity; and I, for one, hope that hundreds of the intelligent working-men of London will avail themselves of it. They, on their part, may find government education not unacceptable; and government, on the other hand, encouraged by a successful experiment, may feel inclined to extend its benefits. If a clear-headed lecturer on political economy could also be appointed, perhaps in time our industrial fellow-countrymen might come to understand that strikes are always a mistake, and the masters, that fair play is a jewel.

Notwithstanding the stir about invasion and amateur rifle-clubs, other matters do get talked about—as, for instance, the astronomer-royal's communication to the Society of Antiquaries on the place of Caesar's landing at his invasion of Britain. The learned functionary settles it to his own satisfaction by tide-calculations: he has also been holding an interesting correspondence with a lady on the geography of Suez, as bearing on the Exodus of Scripture. And this reminds me that Dr J. Wilson has written a paper, published in the proceedings of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, to decide a long debated question—the identification of the Hazor of Kedar, referred to in Jeremiah—'Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite,' &c. The doctor, after careful research and reasoning, believes the ruins known as Hadhar or Hatra, not far distant from Nineveh, to be the remains of the denounced city. Layard and Ainsworth have both visited and described the place, as many readers will remember. Those interested in the progress of research in Biblical countries, will be gratified to know that Dr Robinson has left the United States for another tour in the Holy Land. Now that Christians are more tolerated in Turkey than in some other countries nearer home, travelling in the East will perhaps be facilitated.

Talking of travel: the Legislative Council at Sydney have granted L.2000, to fit out an expedition to search for Leichardt; Captain Beatson, with his steamer, is about to start for Behring's Strait to look for Franklin; Lieutenant Pim has returned from St Petersburg—the emperor would not permit him to go to Siberia; and last, supplies of money and goods have been sent out to Drs Barth and Overweg, in Central Africa, to enable them to pursue their discoveries; and the British resident at Zanzibar has been instructed to assist them. We may thus hope, before long, to add to our knowledge both of the torrid and frigid zones.

To touch upon a home topic: we are told that government are rather afraid of their own bill for intermural interments passed last session, which may account for none of its provisions having yet been carried out. The project now is to supersede that bill by another, which is to extend the practice of cemetery interment. This looks like a want of faith in sanitary principles. On the other hand, the sale of the lazaretto at Marseilles, with a view to construct docks on its site, is a proof that the French government can do something in the way of sanitary reform. It is, in fact, quite time that the superstitious notions about infection, and the vexations of quarantine, should give place to sounder views and more rational methods. Meantime, as meteorologists say, we are coming to the cycle of hot summers, it behoves us more than ever to bury the dead far from towns. The Registrar-General tells us that, on the whole, we are improving, and it is not less an individual than a national duty to forward the improvement. According to the return just published for the quarter ending December last, the births in 1851 amounted to 616,251, the largest number ever registered, being an excess of 5 per cent. over former returns. The deaths were 385,933, leaving a surplus which increases the population of England and Wales to more than 18,000,000. In the same quarter, 59,200 emigrants, chiefly Irish, left the kingdom. With respect to marriages, which also exceed in number those of former years, the Registrar repeats what he has often said before, that marriages increase 'when the substantial earnings of the people are above the average; and the experience of a century, during which the prosperity of the country, though increasing, has been constantly fluctuating, shews that it is prudent to husband the resources of good times against future contingencies. Workmen, if they are wise, will not now squander their savings.' Are we to infer from this, that a bad time is coming?

I have at times given you some of our post-office statistics, let me now send you a few from America. The postmaster-general reports to Congress, that in the year ending last June there were within the United States 6170 mail-routes, comprising a length in the aggregate of 196,290 miles; of post-offices, 19,796; of mail-contractors, 5544. The distance travelled in the year over these routes was 53,272,252 miles, at a cost of 3,421,754 dollars, or rather more than six cents per mile per annum. On more than 35,000,000 of these miles the service is performed by coaches, and 'modes not specified;' the remainder by railway and steam-boat. There were six foreign mail-routes on which the annual transportation was estimated at 615,206 miles. The gross receipts of the post-office department for the year amounted to 6,786,493 dollars, being an increase of nearly a million over the preceding year. If, after this, we can only get Ocean Penny Postage, we will give the republican postmaster work to do that shall add some score of pages to his report.

You will perhaps remember my telling you, some time ago, of the discussion that had been going on in the United States respecting a prime meridian. Something has now come of it. The committee appointed by Congress to consider the subject, have recommended 'that the Greenwich zero of longitude should be preserved for the convenience of navigators; and that the meridian of the National Observatory—at Washington—should be adopted by the authority of Congress as its first meridian on the American continent, for defining accurately and permanently territorial limits, and for advancing the science of astronomy in America.' This decision, though it may disappoint those who consider it derogatory to the national honour to reckon from the meridian of Greenwich, is nevertheless the true one. In connection with it, the Americans intend to bring out a nautical almanac.

Another topic from the same quarter is, that Professor Erni of Yale College has been making an interesting series of experiments on fermentation—a process of which the original cause has never yet been satisfactorily explained, and is still a moot-point with chemists. They tell us it is one by which complex substances are decomposed into simpler forms, as some suppose, by chemical action; others, by development of fungi, different in different substances. Among the experiments, it was observed that the yeast of cane-sugar solution produced no fermentation whatever when poisoned with a small quantity of arsenious acid; with oil of turpentine, and creasote, similar negative results were obtained. The introduction of cream-of-tartar along with the arsenic neutralised its effect, but not so with the other two; and, singularly enough, the appearance of the liquor always shewed when the poisoning was complete; 'the nitrogenous layer on the cell-membrane seeming to have undergone a change similar to that produced by boiling.' Judging from the results, Professor Erni believes 'that alcoholic fermentation is caused by the development of fungi. He could never trace the process without observing at the very first evolution of carbonic acid, the formation of yeast-cells, although it is very difficult to decide certainly which precedes the other.' His own opinion is in favour of the commencement by the yeast-cells.

Another noteworthy subject, is Dr W.J. Burnett's paper to the American Association, 'On the Relation of the Distribution of Lice to the Different Faunas,' in which he endeavours to demonstrate, that the creation of animals was a multiplied operation, carried on in several localities, and that they do not derive from one original parent stock. Different animals have different parasites; but, as he shews, the same species of animal has the same parasite, wherever it may be found. According to Latreille, the pediculus found in the woolly heads of African negroes 'is sufficiently distinct from that of the Circassian to entitle it to the rank of a distinct species;' from which, and similar instances, the doctor concludes: 'Whatever may be urged in behalf of the hypothesis of the unity of the animal creation, based upon the alleged metamorphosic changes of types, it is my opinion that the relations of their parasites, and especially the lice which are distributed over nearly all of them, must be considered as fair and full an argument as can be advanced against such hypothesis, for it is taking up the very premises of the hypothesis in opposition.' Dr Burnett will perhaps find Sir Charles Lyell ready to break a lance with him on the point at issue.

Something interesting to workers in metal has been brought before the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia—it is a method of giving to iron the appearance of copper, contrived by Mr Pomeroy of Cincinnati, who thus describes it—rather laboriously, by the way:—

'Immerse the iron in dilute sulphuric acid, for the purpose of cleansing the surface of the article which is to be coated; and thus cleansed, submit the iron to a brisk heat to dry it; when dry, immerse the article in a mixture of clay and water, and again dry it so as to leave a thin coating of the clay on its surface: it is then to be immersed in a bath of melted copper, and the length of time requisite for the iron and copper to form a union, will depend on the thickness of the article under operation. The object of the clay is to protect the copper from oxidation during the process of alloying or coating, and to reduce it to the required thickness it is passed between rollers. The result of this annealing process will be a smooth surface, fully equal to the brightness of pure copper.' Let me add to this, as a finish to transatlantic matters, that a Mr Allan, at St Louis, having observed that in washing-machines only the linen on the outside of the heap was perfectly cleansed, has patented a new machine, which comprises a chamber or tub with a narrowed neck, in which a plunger is inserted; and this, 'with the clothes wrapped around it, passes through the narrowed neck of the chamber, and pressing forcibly on the water confined within, drives it violently through the body of the clothes, carrying the dirt with it.'

Science is not idle in France, notwithstanding the social perturbations: some of our engineers are talking about the trials of electro-magnetic locomotives recently made on one of the railways in that country, and are rather curious as to what may be the result. To travel without the whiz and roar of steam would be a consummation devoutly desired by thousands of travellers. And among the topics from the Academie, there is one important to the naval service—M. Normandy's apparatus for converting sea-water into fresh water. Briefly described, it is a series of disks, placed one above the other, communicating by concentric galleries, and placed in a vapour-bath at a pressure a little above that of the atmosphere. 'The sea-water,' says the inventor, 'circulating in the galleries heated by the surrounding vapour, gives off a certain quantity of vapour, which, mingling with the atmospheric air, introduced by a tube from the outside, finally condenses as perfectly aerated fresh water in a refrigerator, which is also in communication with the atmosphere. No other means of agitation or percolation is so efficacious or economical.' The apparatus, which is free from the defect of depositing salt while distillation is going on, is rather more than three feet in height, and eighteen inches diameter. It will yield two pints of water per minute, at an expenditure of about 2-1/4 lbs. of coal for each 45 lbs. of water.

Next, Monsieur Rochas proposes a method for preserving limestone monuments and sculptures for an indefinite period. This material, as is well known, is very liable to disintegrate, and the remedy is to silicify it. Specimens of limestone so prepared were exhibited to the Academie, but without any explanation of the process. We know that brick and stone have been coated with glass in a few instances, to insure their preservation; and that at Professor Owen's suggestion, some decomposing ivory ornaments, sent over by Mr Layard, were restored by boiling in gelatine; but M. Rochas aims at something still greater—nothing less than the silicifying of a number of crumbling limestone statues which have been lately discovered by a Frenchman who is exploring the temple of Serapis at Memphis. They will then be strong enough to bear removal.

Naturalists may learn something from Monsieur Falcony, who states that a solution of sulphate of zinc is an effectual preservative of animals or animal substances, intended for anatomical examination—it may be used to inject veins, and the effects last a considerable time. Another consideration is, that it is harmless: dissecting-instruments left in the solution for twenty-four hours were not at all injured.



A WORD TO GENTEEL EMIGRANTS.

The tide of emigration is rushing so powerfully through the land, that not only labourers and artisans are swept away in its stream, but many of the gentry of the country are beginning to join in the movement, and wonder what they are to do with their young 'olive branches,' 'unless they emigrate to Australia, and found a new home and plant a new family there.' Many of the class have taken this step, and many more are lingering on the brink; and endless and anxious are the inquiries constantly made for the reports transmitted by those adventurous spirits who have led the way to new worlds of enterprise. For the working-classes, all has hitherto been favourable; but for the class above them—the professional man, and the small capitalist—the accounts are not, on the whole, encouraging. 'The labour-market is never overstocked; but,' says a correspondent of a later date, 'I pity the professional men, the doctors and lawyers, who come out, and the clerks, few of whom are wanted, and who find provisions and house-rent much dearer than at home, and to whom the privations they undergo must be great hardships. Men used to the everyday luxuries of a London life, delicate women bred up in habits of expense and idleness, have a severe ordeal to go through on their arrival in that land of work.' The change of climate, and the discomfort of their hastily-raised log-cabin, often entered upon when not half dried, frequently produce fevers, which, at home, would require a long succession of nursing, medical attendance, and afterwards change of air; but with only a help, absent whenever it pleases her, often with no medical advice within reach, a damp and cold house half furnished, an uncertain supply of even common necessaries, and a total absence of all luxuries, it is really surprising that recovery takes place at all. Now, it unfortunately happens, that the previous education of all these emigrants has been directly adverse to that which would have been desirable for such an after-life. Young ladies and gentlemen are taught dependence as a duty of civilised life. Children are naturally independent and active, and would gladly use their activity in helping themselves. How proud is a child to be allowed to do any of the servant's work! and how awful the rebuke that follows the attempt; till at last, poor human nature is cramped, shackled, and gagged.

Hard, then, seems the destiny that removes these pampered children of European society from their luxurious necessaries—the valet, the lady's-maid, and all the other appendages—and leaves them wholly to their own resources, with their self-inflicted ignorance, and their blundering attempts to remedy it.

I have, therefore, to propose to all who intend to emigrate, that they should—before taking a step involving so great an outlay, and the breaking-up of their life here—submit themselves to an ordeal of six or twelve months, in order to ascertain whether, in truth, their bodies and minds are fitted for the situation they are entering upon. Let any gentleman who is thinking of settling in Canada or Australia, take a labourer's cottage in a distant county—a few pounds will supply one infinitely superior in comfort and healthfulness to the log-cabin of the bush that is to be his ultimate destination—let him take a little land and a bit of garden in a good farming county; engage one farm-servant (unless he has sons able to take his place), and a rough country-girl to do the coarse work of the house. The ladies of the family must, of course, perform all the rest: wash all the fine linen, iron, make the beds, sweep the rooms, superintend and assist in the cooking, the dairy, care of the poultry and the pigs; for, of course, such appendages must be indispensable in such an establishment. The gentlemen will work on the farm, cultivate the garden, and gain all the experience they can in manual trades, carpentering and cabinet-making; and thus by degrees the whole family will have their bodies and minds strengthened, and their habits formed for their new work; or they will discover, as many have done when too late to draw back, that the effort is beyond their powers—that the tastes and habits of social life are too closely entwined with their whole being, to leave them the power to withdraw from them at will.

This may seem a forbidding picture, but I can assure them it is very far superior in comfort to the realities they will find in the bush. It is true, that this retirement will effectually withdraw them from their magic circle of friends and luxuries; but let us for a moment compare the two steps, migration and emigration, and ask ourselves if the experiment above mentioned be not worth the trial. In the one, we give up, probably for life, our country, our friends, and generally a part of our family, with all the comforts of a state of law and civilisation; we enter upon a certain and constant life of labour, after a long, tedious voyage; and, if in mature age, bear about with us a never-ceasing yearning for home, which retains its place in our hearts with all the heightened colours with which memory invests it. In the other, we must, it is true, separate ourselves from our long list of acquaintances, and be absent from the dinner-party and the ball; but all our interest in social life will be kept up: we can see at least a weekly newspaper; and although we may have descended a few steps in the social scale, we shall not be obliged to make the acquaintance of convicted felons.

Another view of this plan may be taken. Suppose ten, or twenty, or thirty persons of narrow means were to associate for the purpose of taking some large, old-fashioned house in the country—many such may be found—and agree upon a joint scheme of cheap living and independent labour, plain and economical dress, plain furniture, and a simple but wholesome table: would not this be better than all the risks and privations of expatriation? The Americans do not emigrate—they migrate; and there are spots in any of these three kingdoms, as wild, as solitary, and as healthful, as can be found in the regions of the Far West. But we do not, however, suggest migration as a substitute for genteel emigration—although we suspect it would in many cases prove so—but merely as a step towards it—a school of trial, or training, or both.



COLOURS IN LADIES' DRESS.

Incongruity may be frequently observed in the adoption of colours without reference to their accordance with the complexion or stature of the wearer. We continually see a light-blue bonnet and flowers surrounding a sallow countenance, or a pink opposed to one of a glowing red; a pale complexion associated with a canary or lemon yellow, or one of delicate red and white rendered almost colourless by the vicinity of deep red. Now, if the lady with the sallow complexion had worn a transparent white bonnet; or if the lady with the glowing red complexion had lowered it by means of a bonnet of a deeper red colour; if the pale lady had improved the cadaverous hue of her countenance by surrounding it with pale-green, which, by contrast, would have suffused it with a delicate pink hue; or had the face

'Whose red and white, Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on,'

been arrayed in a light-blue, or light-green, or in a transparent white bonnet, with blue or pink flowers on the inside—how different, and how much more agreeable, would have been the impression on the spectator! How frequently, again, do we see the dimensions of a tall and embonpoint figure magnified to almost Brobdignagian proportions by a white dress, or a small woman reduced to Lilliputian size by a black dress! Now, as the optical effect of white is to enlarge objects, and that of black to diminish them, if the large woman had been dressed in black, and the small woman in white, the apparent size of each would have approached the ordinary stature, and the former would not have appeared a giantess, or the latter a dwarf.—Mrs Merrifield in Art-Journal.



SITTING ON THE SHORE.

The tide has ebbed away; No more wild surgings 'gainst the adamant rocks, No swayings of the sea-weed false that mocks The hues of gardens gay: No laugh of little wavelets at their play; No lucid pools reflecting heaven's broad brow— Both storm and calm alike are ended now.

The bare gray rocks sit lone; The shifting sand lies spread so smooth and dry That not a wave might ever have swept by To vex it with loud moan; Only some weedy fragments blackening thrown To rot beneath the sky, tell what has been, But Desolation's self is grown serene.

Afar the mountains rise, And the broad estuary widens out, All sunshine; wheeling round and round about Seaward, a white bird flies; A bird? Nay, seems it rather in these eyes An angel; o'er Eternity's dim sea, Beckoning—'Come thou where all we glad souls be.'

O life! O silent shore Where we sit patient! O great Sea beyond, To which we look with solemn hope and fond, But sorrowful no more!— Would we were disembodied souls, to soar, And like white sea-birds wing the Infinite Deep!— Till then, Thou, Just One, wilt our spirits keep.



THE PALO DE VACA, OR COW-TREE OF BRAZIL.

This is one of the most remarkable trees in the forests of Brazil. During several months in the year when no rain falls, and its branches are dead and dried up, if the trunk be tapped, a sweet and nutritious milk exudes. The flow is most abundant at sunrise. Then, the natives receive the milk into large vessels, which soon grows yellow and thickens on the surface. Some drink plentifully of it under the tree, others take it home to their children. One might imagine he saw a shepherd distributing the milk of his flock. It is used in tea and coffee in place of common milk. The cow-tree is one of the largest in the Brazilian forests, and is used in ship-building.

* * * * *

Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,

CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH.

VOLUME III.

To be continued in Monthly Volumes.

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Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. Also sold by W.S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D.N. CHAMBERS, 55 West Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, Dublin.—Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to MAXWELL & CO., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all applications respecting their insertion must be made.

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