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ground as he would bowl in a match? But every man bats his very best at practice. Does not this prove, my young friend, that your modern ericketers think everything of batting, and, to use an American expression, let everything else rip? Take down your nets; have double-wicket practice once a week; let every man try at least to be proficient in some one department of the game beyond batting, and when the Australian team next visits us, they will find county teams far harder nuts to crack than during the year

1982.

THE MONTH.

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

MONSIEUR ESTIENNE, a well-known corn-merchant of Marseilles, annually compiles a most useful pamphlet giving information regarding the harvests of France and other countries in the northern hemisphere. This information he collects by means of inquiries addressed to leading men at home and abroad; and its authentic nature has long been recognised, for the little volume now holds its own in the corn-trade as a reliable guide. The issue for the present year is of a most satisfactory nature; for the reports are none of them of that gloomy character which familiar tales of agricultural failure would lead us to expect. The English crops generally are described as being the best for the past seven years. Scotland also sends satisfactory reports. In Ireland we learn that unfavourable weather has caused the wheat-crop to be under the average, but still the prospects were far from gloomy. Reports from Austria, Hungary, Russia, Germany, and other European states, all speak of plenty; while the wheatharvest in the United States is described as the best ever gathered. Taking the information as a whole, we find that the world's harvest of 1882 is above the average, and is far better than has been experienced during the many years that these statistics have been collected.

We may reasonably hope that the attention now paid to agricultural chemistry, to improved machinery, and, more than all, the knowledge that has been acquired regarding insect pests, will gradually bring round British farming to its former prosperity. In former times, the farmer in his ignorance would too often kill his best friends, the small birds, which came into his fields not to rob him, but to destroy his enemies. Thanks to such workers as Miss Ormerod, these mistakes will be corrected. Her recently published Manual of Injurious Insects, with Methods of Prevention and Remedy, enables any one to identify an insect by means of pictures for comparison with the captured specimen, and gives directions for stopping its ravages. It forms an interesting book for all, but still more to those for whose use it is principally intended, and to whom it is dedicated, namely, 'the landowners, farmers, foresters, and gardeners of the United Kingdom.'

We recently alluded to the interesting trials

of various machines for drying hay and corn which took place at the Agricultural Society's Show at Reading. We then pointed out that the results of these trials could not be fairly considered until some time had elapsed, and the stacked produce had been thoroughly desiccated. The judges have now made their Report. A prize of one hundred guineas was offered for the best means of drying the material either before or after stacking; and there were eight competitors. It is a disappointment to find that the systems tried have failed; and that the judges report that they do not feel justified in awarding the prize. This result is most surprising, in the face of the letters which have appeared during the last few years in the Times and other newspapers testifying to the remarkable results attained by these hay-drying machines. The matter seems to require some explanation.

Some months ago, there was a great outery Ducal Palace and St Mark's, Venice, were about among amateur archeologists to the effect that the to receive irreparable damage at the hands of the modern restorer. A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, who lately examined the repairs that have been and are being made, sets these alarms at rest. He reports that the old buildings were not only sinking in the soft muddy ground on which they stood, but that the sea-air had disintegrated the stone-work to such a depth that in many places the carvings were quite obliterated. Every particle of stone which it was possible to utilise has in these necessary repairs been retained, and the new work has been executed with such skill that the most fastidious could not object to it. On the whole, our informant considers that the work could not possibly be

better done.

A curious observation regarding hailstorms has lately been brought before the Swiss Geographical Societies at Geneva by Herr Riniker, the chief forester of Canton Aargau. He maintains that hailstorms do not occur where there are forests, and instances the case of a small chain of mountains in the south of Aargau known as the Lindenberge which are normally completely covered with trees. About twenty years ago, the forest was divided in two places by wide gaps, and immediately afterwards the valleys were visited by frequent hailstorms. Fourteen years ago the larger of these two open spaces was planted with firs, since which time the hailstorms have entirely ceased. Herr Riniker is inclined to attribute the phenomenon to electric action, suggesting that the hail and trees being charged with opposite kinds of electricity, their union of watery particles. If his deductions should gives rise to sufficient heat to prevent congelation be confirmed by further observation, we shall be able to add one more reason to the many which already exist why forests should to some extent be left as nature designed them.

That many landowners are aware of the importance of this question of tree-planting, more especially in its bearing on the rainfall of a there are many whose sole idea of the value particular district, we must acknowledge. But of timber is governed by the price which it will fetch in the market, and unfortunately such persons do not remember to plant young trees where they cut down old ones. We have

a noble example to the contrary in a former Duke of Athole, who was one of the most extensive tree-planters in the world. It is said that during his useful life he planted no fewer than twenty-seven million trees, covering fifteen thousand acres.

Mr Peter Squire, of St Neots, has lately published a method of dealing with wasps' nests, which seems not only to be novel but effectual. The usual plan of thrusting a sulphureous compound into the nest and leaving it to smoulder, is fraught with some uncertainty; and unless the operation is conducted at night, when the nests are difficult to find, it leads to unpleasant if not dangerous attacks from the enraged insects. Mr Squire's plan is available at any time of day, and consists in dropping into the nest one or two tablespoonfuls of pulverised 'commercial cyanide of potassium.' Unfortunately, this drug is of a deadly character, and it certainly should not be placed in irresponsible hands. The mere suggestion of a tablespoon in such a connection is enough to make any one shudder who is acquainted with the properties of the drug. Still, with great precautions, the plan may be adopted by fruit-growers. The act of dropping the drug into the hole does not disturb the inmates, and those who are abroad afterwards enter never to return. Mr Squire lately had the curiosity to dig up one of the nests so treated. He found in it three thousand four hundred dead wasps, besides a large number of grubs.

The Edison Electric Light Company have after much talk and great preparation at length entered upon their task of illuminating a large portion of New York by their incandescent lamps. It must be some time before we can judge of the real value of this experiment. We know that the lights, so far as they go, are successful; but we do not yet know their cost as ascertained by their lasting properties; neither do we yet know how the new method of illumination will answer when trusted to the hands of the ordinary unskilled householder. That the new system may prove cheaper than gas, is probable, for gas in New York is very dear; but experiments in this country prove on the whole that gas with all its disadvantages is cheaper than the incandescent lamps. But of course there are many people who will be glad to pay more for an illuminant which will respect their books and pictures, and which will not vitiate the air which they breathe.

The Home Office authorities have recently issued rules for the erection of lightning-conductors on all factories and magazines where explosives are dealt with. These rules comprise both the materials which should be selected for the conductors, and the best form of construction; the instructions being based upon the recently published Report of the Lightning-rod Conference. The various rules consider the jointing of the rods, the form of the points, their number and height, the way in which sharp curves should be avoided, the earth-connection, &c. One rule in particular calls attention to a precaution that is very frequently neglected, namely, that all spouts, gutters, iron doors, and other metal-work about the building should, to insure adequate protection, be in electrical connection with the lightning

rod.

M. Tissandier, the well-known author, artist, and

aeronaut, is projecting the manufacture of an elliptical balloon which is to be driven by a dynamomachine and storage-batteries. The balloon will be a hundred and thirty-one feet long, and will have a capacity of more than a hundred thousand cubic feet. It is calculated to give a lifting-power of three and a half tons, which will, when the machinery is in place, allow for a ton of passengers and ballast. We do not know the precise object of constructing such a machine. That it will in any way add to the solution of the problem of aerial navigation, can hardly be maintained. We know that storage-batteries will turn a dynamomachine, and we can also imagine that large fans actuated thereby will move such a balloon along, provided that the surrounding air be still. We have no doubt but that such a novel machine hovering over the streets of Paris will make some sensation, but it remains to be seen whether the venture will be of any more solid use.

Colonel Ziegler, who recently brought the subject of badly-made shoes before the Hygienic Congress at Geneva, made some statements of great importance. He stated that the examining surgeons in Switzerland are compelled every year to reject eight hundred recruits simply because their feet have been deformed, and rendered unfit for continued marching by the use of bad shoes He pointed out that the human foot is naturally a yielding bow, which expands and contracts in the most elastic manner with every step. The shoemakers-in entire ignorance of the anatomy of the foot they are called upon to clothe-supply an article which gives rise to corns, which forces the toes all together, and which often positively leads to articular inflammation. The test of a perfect pair of shoes is,' said the Colonel, 'that when placed together they should touch only at the toes and the heels; the soles should follow the sinuosities of the feet, and to give room for their expansion, should exceed them in length by from a half to three-quarters of an inch.'

Attempts have been made in this and other countries to introduce shoes answering these conditions, and occasionally we see advertisements to that effect. But it cannot be denied that the large majority of shoemakers go on the old lines, and sell boots and shoes which bear in their shape very little relation to the human foot. Unfortunately, the powerful god of Fashion has laid down the dictum that 'clumsy-looking boots' are to be avoided, and so the five poor toes, whose tips should naturally cover four inches of space, are cramped into two. Ladies' boots are still more wretched in construction, by reason of the high heels now in vogue, which, besides crippling the walker, give her foot the appearance of a hoof. In getting measured for a pair of shoes or boots, the foot should be placed on a sheet of white paper on the floor, and a line should be drawn by the shoemaker round the foot. Thus the contour of the foot is got, and upon this basis the shoemaker should make his last.

Verb. sap.

In these days of sanitary reforms, we are constantly on the look-out for lurking dangers to life; and the healthy state of our large cities, when compared with those of other countries, is a procef that our precautions meet with abundant reward. Rookeries of tumble-down dwellings are still not unknown among us; but these are gradually

Journal

giving way to large colonies of bricks and tains furnish specifications of mining implements. mortar, where families are lodged in flats, en- A fair proportion of the seekers after protection joying every improvement that sanitary science are foreigners, of whom by far the greater number can suggest. The different conditions under hail from this country. Unfortunately, it is a which people live in other countries can be well-ascertained fact that few people who patent instanced by reference to San Francisco, where their ideas, and who devote the best part of their many, if not most of the houses are built on lives to work which immeasurably benefits their wooden foundations. So much unaccountable fellow-beings, ever receive any money reward for disease was lately experienced there, that the their exertions. It is calculated that only one doctors began to suspect the houses of harbouring in every hundred makes it pay. The proportion some unlooked-for nucleus of malaria. As a of disappointed ones must be much larger in the result of their investigations, they found that British Patent Office, for the fees are so great, the woodwork touching the soil favoured in its that many of those who manage to pay the few gradual decay a fungoid growth, which gave pounds required as a preliminary, are unable to lodging to a mass of living organisms. These, it complete the purchase-money, and thus they seems, die down when the wood is no longer able forfeit their claim for protection. to support them, and the decaying mass with its unhealthy emanations forms a source of disease.

From the Scotsman, we learn that at various iron-works in Scotland, experiments on different Mr J. F. Smith, of Leicester, has suggested a scales have been made in connection with the novel method of building bridges either for smelting process, with a view to utilising the temporary or permanent use, which seems to waste gases before burning them, by extracting have many advantages both in simplicity and the tar and ammonia which were found to be cheapness. Iron or steel cylinders, twenty, forty, present in the gases of all blast-furnaces where or more feet in diameter, constructed of plates coal was used as fuel; and after much labour riveted to rolled iron or steel ribs, are rolled and numerous experiments, Messrs Alexander into the stream over which it is desired to carry and M'Cosh, of the firm of William Baird the bridge. These gigantic cylinders, with half & Co., Gartsherrie, have successfully solved their diameters sunk under water, form so the problem, in practical form, of extracting the many arches upon which a level road can easily tar and ammonia, as subsidiary products, from be thrown. The cylinders can be built up on their blast-furnaces without in the slightest degree the spot where they are required, or, filled in disturbing the process of smelting. Some time with a temporary floor at one end, can be readily ago, a work on a very considerable scale was floated to their destination. The system is ex-erected at Gartsherrie Iron-works, and it is now pected to be useful in laying railroads across land subject to occasional flood."

in successful operation, recovering the tar and ammonia from blast-furnace gases, which, after passing through the apparatus and parting with their valuable products, are conveyed by piping to different parts of the works, for the generation of steam and other purposes.

Mr Crookes, whose researches concerning electrical discharges in high vacua caused so much excitement in the scientific world a few years back, has had a graceful compliment paid to him by the jury of the Paris Exhibition of Electricity. At the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute While regretting that it was out of their power at Vienna, a paper was read announcing the to offer him a prize, they expressed their admira- successful rolling of steel ingots with their own tion of his beautiful experiments, and placed initial heat, by means of what is termed the upon record their belief that none of the incan-'soaking-pit process.' A difficulty to be overdescent lamps which are now competing for public favour could have been possible had not Mr Crookes first found out the secret of managing extreme vacua. (Reference to old patent specifications will show that electric lamps on the same principle as those of Edison were contrived many years back; but they failed because their authors could not, by means of the air-pumps then at their disposal, remove the air sufficiently from the glass bulbs in which their incandescent carbon or platinum was contained.)

The proverbial ingenuity of our American cousins is well indicated by a reference to recent statistics gathered from their Patent Office, and while they testify to the industry of the nation, they also show, by the places of origin of different specifications, how the groove in which a man's thoughts are apt to run becomes moulded by the circumstances by which he is surrounded. The New York inventors give their minds principally to mechanical applications and scientific discoveries. From the New England States come contrivances of a labour-saving nature, many of them having reference to ordinary operations of the most trivial character. From the centres of agriculture come inventions relating to harvest operations and the like; while the Rocky Moun

come in rolling a steel ingot into a rail, for instance, was, that the exterior of the heated ingot cooled more quickly than the interior; and expensive means had to be adopted to overcome this difficulty. According to Mr John Gjers, of Middlesborough, who read the above paper, this can now be done by simply placing the ingot, as soon as cast, into a pit and covering it over, which practically excluded the air. During this, the soaking operation, a quantity of gas exuded from the ingot, and filled the pit, thus entirely preventing atmospheric air from entering. When the lid was removed, combustion took place. The operation of steel-making on a large scale will by this process be not only very much simplified, but its cost materially reduced.

Mr Thomas Fraser, 84 King Street, Aberdeen, has patented a Corrugated Vent-lining, from the use of which it is hoped that sweeping of vents will be rendered less necessary. These vent-linings may be made of any suitable clay; and the principle of their construction is, that the sharp edges of the folds or corrugations in the interior of the tube being at right angles to the draught of the chimney, the soot will not coat up' as on a flat surface, but be carried off by the draught.

BOOK GOSSIP.

Ir might not unnaturally be thought, from the number of brilliant pens that have attacked the knotty subject of Burns, his life, and his works, that very little had been left for later writers to do. And yet it is surprising to note the variety of view which the subject admits of, and the amount of interesting matter which can be extracted by the 'seeing eye' from the apparently already exhausted material. Professor Nichol of Glasgow is the latest writer on the theme of the Ayrshire Bard (Robert Burns: A Summary of his Career and Genius. Edinburgh: William Paterson). The little treatise is intended as an introduction to the edition of Burns issued by this publisher-an edition which is rich in facts relating to the poet's life, though unfortunately weak in the department of purely literary criticism.

Professor Nichol-who was not, however, the editor of this edition-writes his Introductory Notice of the poet with the raciness of style and clearness of literary insight which are his characteristics. Coming after such a galaxy of eminent writers as have already treated the subject-Allan Cunningham, John Gibson Lockhart, Thomas Carlyle, Robert Chambers, and Professor Wilson-Dr Nichol's task was not an easy one. The career and genius of Burns present enormous difficulties to the critic, and only men who approach somewhat to himself in their degree of mental strength and perception, have any chance of successfully grappling with those difficulties. With the excep

tion of Professor Nichol, there has not been, so far as we remember, any one within the last dozen years who, either as biographer or essayist, has shown himself equal to the task. Either

we have had weak pictures of the poet, based upon the narrow sympathies of the biographer and an imperfect appreciation of the poet, or we have had microscopic examinations made of some particular phase of his character, with the almost inevitable result of general distortion and unlikeness. Professor Nichol has wisely avoided extremes in the treatment of his subject. He has neither risen into the vague flights of the panegyrist, nor sunk into the bathos of the apologist. He has simply taken the man as he is to be found -not indeed like other men, but rather as a kind of phenomenon among men; and the result is a treatise thoroughly healthy in tone, and fairly accurate in its results.

*.* *

Mr Robert K. Douglas, Professor of Chinese at King's College, London, has recently issued a very valuable work, entitled China, and published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The volume is one that yields a vast quantity of instructive as well as entertaining knowledge of 'far Cathay' and its singular people. The sketch of the history of the Chinese Empire with which the book opens is concise and clear in its details, with enough of interesting bits to carry the reader through the drier chronological passages. According to Professor Douglas, the first records we have of the Chinese represent them

as

a band of immigrants settling in the northeastern provinces of the modern empire of China,

and fighting their way amongst the aborigines. It is believed, from the philological evidence afforded by an examination of their language, that these first settlers came from the south of the Caspian Sea, and that the date of their exodus might be about the twenty-fourth or twenty-third century B.C. It would appear also, he says, that the Chinese came into China possessed of the resources of Western Asian culture, bringing with them a knowledge of writing and astronomy, as well as of the arts which primarily minister to the wants and comfort of mankind. We are not, therefore, to confound these early immigrants with barbarians.

In the production of his book, Professor Douglas has evidently availed himself of all the best and latest works on the subject of China; and hence we have therein a clear and succinet synopsis of all that is worth knowing regarding the history of that marvellous country: its gov ernment; its systems of education and agriculture; its medicine, music, and architecture; the forms and ceremonies of marriage among the people, their food and dress, their superstitions and funeral rites. There are three chapters of particular interest and value to the general student, namely, those relating to the religions, the language, and the literature of China. It is seldom that so much accurate knowledge combined with picturesque and graphic description, is served up to the public in a form at once so agreeable and convenient.

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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. Fourth Series

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS.

No. 984.-VOL. XIX.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1882.

COSMIC DUST.

THE constant presence of dust in the air may be demonstrated by the familiar experiment of admitting a beam of sunlight into a dark room. The path of the beam becomes plainly visible owing to the reflection of the light by the myriad particles floating about. Were the air quite pure, of course nothing of the kind would be seen. But to prove that dust also exists in the open air, we must have recourse to a different method. If we cover a plate with a thin coating of glycerine and expose it to a strong wind, numerous particles of matter will be found deposited on its surface. Examined with the microscope, these prove to be pollen-grains from flowers, bits of vegetable fibres and hairs, mineral and rocky fragments of all kinds, and iron. The presence of vegetable and mineral particles is easily explained; but not so the iron. Let us see what we can learn about this singular element in the dust.

Showers of dust are not uncommon occurrences in the neighbourhood of active volcanoes. Mr Edward Whymper witnessed an eruption of Cotopaxi, in which dust and ashes calculated to weigh about two million tons were thrown into the air. But dust-showers of other than volcanic origin have frequently been observed. The first instance of such a one is mentioned by Theophanes as having occurred in the year 743 A.D., accompanied by a luminous meteor, or fireball, as it is popularly termed. Dr D. P. Thomson cites many cases between 1548 and 1838, in most instances attended by a fireball. The evidence of such dust-falls occurring in past ages is not wanting, nor is the phenomenon confined to any particular part of the earth's surface. Nordenskjöld found particles of metallic iron and nickel in the snow during a snowstorm at Stockholm in December 1871; and in the following year, when exploring the Arctic regions, he discovered similar particles on the Polar ice and in the snows of Finland. Some hailstones which fell in Ireland in 1821 contained a metallic nucleus of iron pyrites. A

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like phenomenon occurred in Siberia in the year 1824. Dr T. L. Phipson, and more recently M. Tissandier, exposed glycerined plates to the winds in various localities, and found iron particles deposited on them. In 1879, dust fell in various parts of Sicily and Italy; and about the same time some was got from the snow found in the open fields near Kiel in Germany. Dr Reichenbach, of Vienna, has shown that the dust which covers the tops of mountains and other elevated places contains metallic particles. Finally, magnetic dust was found by Mr John Murray, of H.M.S. Challenger, in the dredgings of the sea-bottom.

Arago long ago gave his attention to this metallic dust in the atmosphere, and published his views on the subject in the Annuaire for 1832. He said: "The attentive observation of falls of dust renders it presumable that they are not essentially different from those of the ordinary aërolites.' In this opinion the eminent Frenchman has been followed by Reichenbach, Nordenskjöld, Silvestri, and Tissandier, who have each devoted some study to the question; but two dissentients have recently appeared in MM. Tacchini and Von Lasaulx, who state their belief that the so-called cosmic dust is of terrestrial origin. Before examining their grounds for this opinion, let us briefly notice the evidence in favour of this dust being cosmic, that is to say, non-terrestrial.

The similarity between the composition of meteoric dust and that of meteoric stones (aërolites) is very remarkable. We do not mean to say that their constituents are identical in every case. Sometimes the dust differs materially from an aërolite.

But then we must remember that aerolites differ among themselves, a substance present in one being found in another in much smaller quantity, or even being absent altogether. This similarity, then, is sufficiently marked to render it extremely improbable that the dust and stones are derived from different sources. Another reason for assuming their intimate relation to one another is to be found in the fact that the fall both of aerolites and showers of

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