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who may have been, as they thought themselves to be, the primitive people of the land. But beyond the Keλraí who occupied the sources of the Danube and the slopes of the Pyrenees, and were known to Rome in later days, there was present to the mind of the father of Grecian history a still more western race, the Cynetæ, who may perhaps be supposed the very earliest people of the extreme west of the continent of Europe. Were those the people, the first poor pilgrims from the East, whose footsteps we are slowly tracing in the valleys of Picardy and the south of England, if not on the borders of the lakes of Switzerland? Are their kindred still to be found among the Rhætic Alps and the Asturian cliffs, if not amid the wilds of Connemara, pressed into those mountainous recesses by the legions of Rome, the spear of the Visigoth, and the sword of the Saxon? Or must we regard them as races of an earlier type, who had ceased to chip flints before the arrival of Saxon, or Goth, or Kelt, or Cynetian? These questions of romantic interest in the study of the distribution and languages of the families of man are part of a large circle of inquiry which finds sympathy in several of our sections, especially those devoted to Zoology, Physiology, and Ethnology. Let us not expect or desire for them a very quick, or, at present, a very definite settlement. Deep shadows have gathered over all the earlier ages of mankind, which perhaps still longer periods of time may not avail to remove. Yet let us not undervalue the progress of ethnological inquiry, nor fail to mark how, within the period to which our recollections cling, the revelations of early Egypt have been followed by a chronology of the ancient kingdoms on the Tigris and Euphrates, through the same rigorous study of language. Thus has our Rawlinson added another page to the brilliant discoveries of Young and Champollion, Lepsius and Rosellini. Nor, though obtained in a different way, must we forget the new knowledge of a people nearer home, which the philosophic mind of Keller has opened to us among his native mountains. There, on the borders of the Alpine lakes, before the great Roman general crossed the Rhone, lived a people older than the Helvetians; whose rude lives, passed in hunting and fishing, were nevertheless marked by some of the many inventions which everywhere, even in the most unfavourable situations, accompany the least civilised of mankind. Implements of stone and pottery of the rudest sort belong to the earliest of these people; while ornamented iron weapons of war, and innumerable other fabrics in that metal, appear about the later habitations, and correspond probably to the period of the true Helvetii, who quitted their home and contended with Cæsar for richer settlements in Gaul. The people of whom these are the traces on almost every lake in Switzerland are recognised as well in the ancient lakebasins of Lombardy and among the Tyrolean Alps, and farther on the north side of the mountains; and probably fresh discoveries may connect them with the country of the Sarmatians and the Scythians.

Thus at length is fairly opened, for archæology and paleontology to read, a new chapter of the world's history, which begins in the pleistocene periods of geology, and reaches to the prehistoric ages of man. Did our ancestors really contend, as the poets fancied, ¶ with stones and clubs against the lion and the rhinocerous, and thus expel them from their native haunts, or have they been removed by change of climate or local physical conditions? Was the existence of the hyæna and the elephant only possible in Western Europe while a climate prevailed there such as now belongs to Africa or India? and was this period of high temperature reduced in a later time for the elk, reindeer, and musk ox, which undoubtedly roamed over the hills of England and France? If we think so, what

"Britannicæ pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in insula ipsa memoria proditum dicunt."-(Cæsar, v. 12.)

Lucretius, v. 964-1283.

a vista of long duration stretches before us, for no such changes of climate can be supposed to have occurred except as the effect of great physical changes, requiring a lapse of many thousands of years. And though we may think such changes of climate not proved, and probably careful weighing of evidence may justify our disbelief, still, if the valleys in Picardy have been excavated since the deposit of the gravel of St. Acheul,** and the whole face of the country has been altered about the caverns of Torquay since they received remains of animals and traces of mantt-how can we admit these facts and yet refuse the time required for their accomplishment? First, let us be sure of the facts, and especially of that main fact upon which all the argument involving immensity of time really turns, viz., the contemporaneous existence of man with the mammoth of the plains and the bear of the caverns. The remains of men are certainly buried with those of extinct quadrupeds; but did they live in the some days, or do we see relics of different periods gathered into one locality by natural processes of a later date, or confused by the operations of men?

Before replying finally to these questions, further researches of an exact kind are desirable, and the Association has given its aid towards them, both in respect to the old cavern of Kent's Hole, and the newly-opened fissure of Gibraltar, from which we expect great results, though the best of our labourers has ceased from his honourable toil. When these and many other researches are completed, some future Lyell, if not our own great geologist, may add some fresh chapters to the "Antiquity of Man." In judging of this antiquity, in counting the centuries which may have elapsed since smoothed flints fitted with handles of wood were used as chisels and axes by the carliest people of Scandinavia or Helvetia, and flakes of flint were employed to cleanse the skins of the reindeer in the caves of the Dordogne, or stronger tools broke up the ice in the valley of the Somme, we must be careful not to take what is the mark of low civilisation for the indication of very remote time. In every country, among every race of men, such rude weapons are On the banks of used now, or were used formerly. the Ohio, no less than on the English hills, mounds of earth, rude pottery, and stone weapons occur in abundance; and indicate similar wants, contrivances, customs, ideas, in different races of men living in different periods. Even when in the same country, as in Switzerland, or England, or Denmark, successive deposits of instruments of stone, bronze, or iron; successive burials of pines, beeches, and oaks; successively extinguished races of elephants, elks, and reindeer, give us a real scale of elapsed time, it is one of which the divisions are not yet valued in years or centuries of years.

Toward a right judgment of the length of this scale of human occupation, two other lines of evidence may be thought worthy of notice; one founded on the anatomical study of the remains of early men, the cther on the laws of language. If the varieties of physical structure in man, and the deviations of language from an original type, be natural effects of time and circumstance, the length of time may be in some degree estimated by the amount of the diversities which are observed to have happened, compared with the variation which is now known to be happening. mankind to have had one local centre, and one original This process becomes imaginary, unless we assume all language. Its results must be erroneous, unless we take fully into account the superior fixity of languages which are represented in writing, and the greater tendency to diversity of every kind which must have prevailed in early

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times, when geographical impediments were aggravated by dissocial habits of life. It appears, however, certain that some differences of language, organisation, and habits have separated men of apparently unlike races during periods longer than those which rest on historical facts. §§

Ever since the days of Aristotle, the analogy existing among all parts of the animal kingdom, and in a general sense we may say among all the forms of life has become more and more the subject of special study. Related as all living beings are to the element in which they move and breathe, to the mechanical energies of nature which they employ or resist, and to the molecular forces which penetrate and transform them, some general conformity of structure, some frequently recurring resemblance of function, must be present, and cannot be overlooked. In the several classes this analogy grows stronger, and in the subdivisions of these classes real family affinity is recognised. In the smallest divisions which have this family relation in the highest degree, there seems to be a line which circumscribes each group, within which variations occur, from food, exercise, climate, and transmitted peculiarities. Often one specific group approaches another, or several others, and a question arises whether, though now distinct, or rather distinguishable, they always have been so from their beginning, or will be always so until their disappearance.

Whether what we call species are so many original creations or derivations from a few types or one type, is discussed at length in the elegant treatise of Darwin||||, himself a naturalist of eminent rank. It had been often discussed before. Nor will any one think lightly of such inquiries, who remembers the essay of Linnæus, "De Telluris orbis incremento," or the investigations of Brown, Prichard, Forbes, Agassiz, and Hooker regarding the local origin of diff -rent species, genera, and families of plants and animals, both on the land and in the sea. Still less will he be disposed to undervalue its importance, when he reflects on the many successive races of living forms more or less resembling our existing quadrupeds, reptiles, fishes, and mollusca, which appear to have occupied definite and different parts of the depths of ancient time; as now the tiger and the jaguar, the cayman and the gavial, live on different parts of the terrestrial surface. Is the living elephant of Ceylon the lineal descendant of that mammoth which roamed over Siberia and Europe, and North America, or of one of those sub-Himalayan tribes which Dr. Falconer has made known, or was it a species dwelling only in circumpolar regions? Can our domestic cattle, horses, and dogs, our beasts of chase and our beasts of prey, be traced back to their source in older types, contemporaries of the urus, megaceros, and hyena on the plains of Europe? If so, what range of variation in structure does it indicate? if not so, by what characters are the living races separated from those of earlier date? Specific questions of this kind must be answered before the general proposition, that the forms of life are indefinitely variable with time and circumstance, can be even examined by the light of adequate evidence. That such evidence will be gathered and rightly interpreted, I for one neither doubt nor fear; nor will any be too hasty in adopting extreme opinions or too fearful of the final result, who remember how often that which is true has been found very different from that which was plausible, and how often out of the nettles of danger we have plucked the flowers of safety. At the present moment the three propositions which were ever

present to the mind of Edward Forbes may be successfully maintained, as agreeing with many observed phenomena; and around them as a basis of classification may be gathered most of the facts and most of the speculations which relate to the history of life.¶¶ First, it may be

§§ Max Muller on the Science of Language. On the Origin of Species, 1859.

TT See the remarkable essay of E. Forbes on the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, in "Memoirs of Geol. Survey of Britain," vol. i., p. 336.

admitted that plants and animals form many natural groups, the members of which have several common characters, and are parted from other groups by a real boundary line, or rather unoccupied space. Next, that each of these groups has a limited distribution in space, often restrained by high mountains or deep seas, or parallels of temperature, within which it has been brought into being. Thirdly, that each group has been submitted to, or is now undergoing the pressure of a general law, by which its duration is limited in geological time; the same group never reappearing after being removed from the series.

How important, in the view of this and many other questions, is that never-tiring spirit of geographical and maritime discovery, to which through 400 years Europe has sent her noblest sons and her most famous expeditions; sent them, alas! too often to an early grave. Alas! for Franklin, who carried the magnetic flag into the Icy Sea from which he had already brought trophies to science! Alas! for Speke, who came home with honour from the head waters of the Nile! Forgotten they can never be, whenever on occasions like this we mourn the absence of our bravest and our best; praise, never-ending praise be theirs, while men retain the generous impulse which prompts them to enterprises worthy of their country and beneficial to mankind!

̓Αεὶ σφῶν κλέος ἔσσεται κατ' αἷαν.

If it be asked what share in the discoveries and inven

tions of the last thirty-three years is claimed for the British Association, let us answer fearlessly-We had a part in all. In some of them we took the foremost place by the frequency of our discussions, the urgency of our the grant of our funds. recommendations, the employment of our influence, and For others we gave all our strength, to support the Royal Society and other Institutions in their efforts to accomplish purposes which we In all instances our elastic system responds approve. quickly to pressure, and returns the friendly impulse. If mark the special action of the Association in fields which we look back on the work of previous years, it is easy to hardly could be entered by any other adventurers. Many of the most valuable labours of which we are now reaping the fruits, were undertaken in consequence in the early volumes of our Transactions-reports in which of the reports on special branches of science which appear particular data were requested for confirming or correcting known generalisations, or for establishing new ones. Thus a passage in Professor Airy's report on Physical Astronomy first turned the attention of Adams to the mathematical vision of Neptune; Lubbock's Report on ductions which since 1834 have so often engaged the Tidest came before the experimental researches and reattention of Whewell and Airy and Haughton, with results so valuable and so suggestive of further undertakings. Among these results may be placed additional knowledge of the probable depth of the channels of the with America had caused the bed of the North Atlantic sea. For before the desire of telegraphic communication to be explored by soundings to a depth seldom exceeding three miles, there was reason to conclude from the investigations of Whewell on Cotidal Linest that a depth of nine miles was attained in the South Atlantic, and from the separate computations of Airy and Haughton that a somewhat greater depth occurred in a part of the course of the tide wave which washes the coast of Ireland. The greater portion of the sea-bed is within reach of soundings

Reports of the British Association for 1832, p. 154. Laplace had indeed observed that "the planet Uranus and his satellites, lately discovered, give reason to suspect the existence of some planets not yet observed;" thereby encouraging the search for new discoveries in our own system. ("Exp. du Syst. du Monde ") 1799, 4to. p. 350.) + Reports of the British Association, 1832. Trans. of Roy. Soc., 1833.

§ Trans. of Roy. Irish Acad., 1855.

directed by the superior skill and greater perseverance of modern scientific navigators; a depth of six miles is said to have been reached in one small tract of the North Atlantic; depths of nine or ten miles in the deepest channels of the sea are probable from considering the general proportion which is likely to obtain between seadepths and mountain-tops. Thus the data are gradually being collected for a complete survey of the bed of the sea, including among other things information, at least, concerning the distribution of animal and vegetable life beneath the waters.

Waves-their origin, the mechanism of their motion, their velocity, their elevation, the resistance they offer to vessels of given form, these subjects have been firmly kept in view by the Association, since first Professor Challis reported on the mathematical problems they suggest, and Sir J. Robinson and Mr. Scott Russell undertook to study them experimentally. Out of this inquiry has come a better knowledge of the forms which ought to be given to the "lines" of ships, followed by swifter passages across the sea, both by sailing vessels and steamers, of larger size and greater lengths than were ever tried before.* **

One of the earliest subjects to acquire importance in our thoughts was the unexplored region of meteorology laid open in Professor J. Forbes' Reports.†† Several of the points to which he called attention have been successfully attained. The admirable instruments of Whewell, Osler, and Robinson have replaced the older and ruder anemometers, and are everywhere in full operation, to record the momentary variations of pressure, or sum the varying velocities of the wind. No small thanks were due to Mr. Marshall and Mr. Miller‡‡ for their enterprise and perseverance in placing rain gauges and thermometers amidst the peaks of Cumberland and Westmoreland. These experiments are now renewed in both counties and in North Wales; and I hope to hear of similar efforts among the mountains of the West of Ireland and the West of Scotland. Our meteorological instruments of every kind have been improved; our system of photographic registration has spread from Kew into other observatories; and our corresponding member, Professor Dovè, has collected into systematic maps and tables the lines and figures, which represent annual and monthly climate over every land and sea.

In the same manner, by no sudden impulse or accidental circumstance, rose to its high importance that great system of magnetic observations, on which for more than a quarter of a century the British Association and the Royal Society, acting in concert, have been intent. First, we had reports on the mathematical theory and experimental researches of magnetism by Christie, 1833, Whewell, 1835, and Sabine, 1835; afterwards, a magnetic survey of the British islands; then the establishment of a complete observatory at Dublin, with newly-arranged instruments, by Dr. Lloyd, in 1838. On all this gathered experience we founded a memorial to Her Majesty's Government, made a grant of 400l. from our funds for preliminary expenses, and presented to the meeting of this Association in Birmingham in 1839 a report of progress, signed by Herschel and Lloyd. From that time how great the labour, how inestimable the fruits! Ross sails to the magnetic pole of the South; America and Russia co

Reports of the British Association, 1833, 1836.
bid. 1837 and following years.

** Ibid., 1840-1847.

tt Reports of the British Association, 1832-1840.

1: Mr Marshall's Observations were made in Patterdale, Mr. Miller's ab ut Wastdale Head. (British Association Reports for 1846, and Royal Society's Transactions, 1850.)

The survey was begun in Ireland in 1835, by Lloyd, Sabine, and Ross; and completed in England, Wales, and Scotland in 1837, by the same magneticians, assisted by Fox and Phillips. It was repeated in 1857 and following years by Sabine, Lloyd, Welsh, Haughton, Galbraith, and Stoney.

operate with our observers at Kew, Toronto, and St. Helena; and General Sabine, by combining all this united labour, has the happiness of seeing results established of which no man dreamed-laws of harmonious variation affecting the magnetic elements of the globe, in definite relation to the earth's movement, the position of the sun and moon, the distribution of temperature, and the situation in latitude and longitude.||||

Our efforts have not been fruitless, whether with Mr. Mallet we make experiments on artificial earthshocks at Dalkey, or survey the devastations round Vesuvius, or tabulate the records of earthquakes since the beginning of history¶¶; or establish the Kew Observatory as a scientific workshop where new instruments of research are made and proved and set to work*; or dredge the sea with Forbes, and Brady, and Jeffreyst; or catalogue the stars with Baily; or investigate electricity with Harris, Ronalds, Thomson, and Jenkin§; or try the action of long-continued heat with Harcourt||: in these and a hundred other directions our attempts to gain knowledge have brought back new facts and new laws of phenomena, or better instruments for attaining or better methods for interpreting them. Even when we enter the domain of practical art, and apply scientific methods to test a great process of manufacture, we do not fail of success; because we are able to join in united exertion the laborious cultivators of science and the scientific employers of labour. Am I asked to give an example? Let it be iron, the one substance by the possession of which, by the true knowledge and right use of which, more than by any other thing, our national greatness is supported. What are the ores of iron-what the peculiarities and improvements of the emelting processes-what the quality of the iron-its chemical composition-its strength in columns and girders as cast-iron; in rails and boiler plate, in tubes and chains, as wrought iron-what are the best forms in which to employ it, the best methods of preserving it from decay ;-these and many other questions are answered by many special reports in our volumes, bearing the names of Barlow, Mallet, Porter, Fairbairn, Bunsen, Playfair, Percy, Budd, Hodgkinson, Thomson; and very numerous other communications from Lucas, Fairbairn, Cooper, Nicholson, Price, Crane, Hartley, Davy, Mushet, Hawkes, Penny, Scoresby, Dawes, Calvert, Clark, Cox, Hodgkinson, May, Schafhaeutl, Johnston, Clay, and Boutigny. Beyond a question, a reader of such of these valuable documents as relate to the strength of iron, in its various forms, would be far better informed of the right course to be followed in experiments on armour-plated ships and forts to resist assault, and in the construction of ordnance to attack them, than he is likely to be from merely witnessing a thousand trials of the cannon against the target. Any one who remembers what the iron furnace was forty years ago, and knows its present power of work, or who contrasts the rolling mills and hammers of other days with the beautiful machines which now, with the gentlest motion, but irresistible force, compel the strong metal to take up the most delicately moulded form, will acknowledge that within the period since the British Association began to set itself to the task of reconciling the separated powers of theory and experience there has been a total change in the aspect of each, to the great advantage of both.

Trans. of the Royal Society for many years; Reports of the British Association, 1840 and following years; Rede Lecture, 1862. ¶¶ British Association Reports; Experiments at Dalkey, 1853; Report on Earthquakes, 1840-1858. See also the excellent communi cations of M. Perrey to the Memoirs of the Academy of Dijon.

The Kew Observatory became a part of the system of the Association in 1842.

+ See Reports of the Dredging Committees from 1842 to 1864; Nat. Hist. Trans. of Northumberland and Durham; Jeffreys' British Conchology. British Association Catalogue of Stars, 1845.

The latest result of these researches is an instrumental star dard of electrical resistance. (Reports of the British Association, 1863. 1854) Reports of the British Association, 1846-1860.

Our undertakings have not been fruitless. We attempted what we had well considered, and had the power to accomplish; and we had the more than willing help of competent persons of our own body, the friendly aid of other Institutions, and the sanction of the Government, convinced of the sincerity of our purpose and the wisdom of our recommendations.

The same work is ever before us; the same prudence is always necessary; the same aid is always ready. Great, indeed, should be our happiness in reflecting on the many occasions when the Royal Society in particular, and other Institutions older than our own, have readily placed themselves by our side, to share our responsibility and diminish our difficulties. But for this, our wishes might not always have prevailed; and the horizon of science would not have been so clear as now it is. Of late years, indeed, societies formed on our model have taken up special parts of our work; and thus to some extent have relieved us of the pressure of communications relating to the practice of particular professions and the progress of some public questions. Not that scientific agriculture, social statistics, or physiology are neglected in our meetings, but that these and other practical subjects are found to have more than one aspect, and to require more than one mode of treatment. With us, facts well ascertained, conclusions rightly drawn, will ever be welcome, from whatever quarter of the horizon of science they make their appearance. Whatever societies cultivate these objects, they are our allies, and we will help them, if we With pleasure we receive proofs of the good work done in limited districts by the many admirable field clubs formed by our countrymen; whether, like those of Tyne-side and the Cotswolds, and in this immediate vicinity those of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Dudley, they explore the minutest recesses of our hills and glens; or, like the rangers of the Alps, bring us new facts regarding glaciers, ancient climate, and altered levels of land and sea.

may.

our applause, and, if need be, our help. Welcoming and joining in the labour of all, we shall keep our place among those who clear the roads and remove the obstacles from the paths of science; and whatever be our own success in the rich fields which lie before us, however little we may now know, we shall prove that in this our day we knew at least the value of knowledge, and joined hearts and hands in the endeavour to promote it.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

September 4.

M. BECHAMP presented a memoir "On the Ageing of Wines." In his lectures on the vinous fermentation the author has said that all the acids, alcohols, ethers, and even extractive matters in wine may react on each other in the course of time, and produce the alterations of colour, flavour, and bouquet which, when achieved, constitute Recent writers, and the peculiarities of old wines. M. Pasteur in particular, contest the truth of this statement, and their writings, M. Béchamp thinks, tend to put wine producers on a wrong path. The author's object in this memoir appears to be to advise wine makers to continue in the old way, to allow wine to ripen for a time in the wood, and then to bottle. In opposition to M. Pasteur, he asserts that the cause of the improvement of wine by age is a fermentation provoked by organisms developed after the alcoholic ferment properly so called; and he states that wine is improved by an influence analogous to that which spoils it. The whole secret of improving wine, he says, is to favour the production of the "benevolent organisms. What these are he does not tell us: all the author states is that they are very small and very mobile. Wine, he tells us, is improved by a heat which does not destroy these animals, but exaggerates their functions. M. Jeannel gave an account of some "Researches on By these agreeable gatherings natural history is most Supersaturated Saline Solutions." The author states, in favourably commended; and in the activity and enlarged opposition to MM. Gerenz and Viollette, that the crystallviews of the officers who conduct them, the British Asso-isation of supersaturated solutions is not determined by ciation recognises the qualities, by which the vitality of saline particles floating in the air. He states that in vessels scientific research is maintained, and its benefits diffused with narrow mouths, crystallisation is completely preamong the provincial institutions of the Empire. vented, although access of air is allowed; and a solution of tartrate of soda will crystallise in a sealed vessel. The solid walls of the vessels have an important influence on the crystallisation. When the extent of these predominate over the solution crystallisation never takes place. A hot supersaturated solution of sulphate of soda placed in drops on a glass plate cools without crystallising; under the same circumstances, a supersaturated solution of alum dries up.

Such, Gentlemen, are some of the thoughts which fill the minds of those who, like our Brewster, and Harcourt, and Forbes, and Murchison, and Daubeny, stood, anxious but hopeful, by the cradle of this British Association; and who now meet to judge of its strength and measure its progress. When, more than thirty years ago, this Parliament of Science came into being, its first child-language was employed to ask questions of Nature; now, in riper years, it founds on the answers received further and more definite inquiries directed to the same prolific source of useful knowledge. Of researches in science completed, in progress, or in beginning, each of our annual volumes contains some three hundred or more passing notices, or full and permanent records. This digest and monument of our labours is indeed in some respects incomplete, since it does not always contain the narrative or the result of undertakings which we started, or fostered, or sustained; and I own to having experienced on this account once or twice a feeling of regret. But the regret was soon lost in the gratification of knowing that other and equally beneficial channels of publication had been found; and that by these examples it was proved how truly the Association kept to the real purpose of its foundation, "the Advancement of Science," and how heartily it rejoiced in this advancement without looking too closely to its own share in the triumph. Here, indeed, is the stronghold of the British Association. Wherever and by whatever means sound learning and useful knowledge are advanced, there to us are friends. Whoever is privileged to step beyond his fellows on the road of scientific discovery will receive

His

M. Carret has a note "On the New Epidemic in Savoy,” in which he reasserts the cause of this disease to be the carbonic oxide produced by the cast-iron stoves. nephew, M. Jules Carret, has proved the presence of the gas in a room heated by a cast-iron stove.

M. Fougué communicated, through M. St. Claire Deville, several analyses of "Gases evolved from Springs around Mount Etna." In some of these marsh gas predominated, in others carbonic acid, and in a few nearly pure nitrogen was collected.

which may prove of great value.
M. Maurand submitted to the Academy an instrument
He calls it a "Ready
Reckoner (prompt calculateur), and it is intended to reduce
with ease and accuracy the weights and measures of all
nations to the French metric equivalents, and vice versa.

The cholera still occupies many of the correspondents of the Academy. M. Espagne writes from Montpellier that mild mercurialisation is a certain preservative from the disease; and M. J. F. Saunders sends a prescription which was very useful in 1849.

NEWS

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

NOTICES TO PROCEED.

1141. W. E. Gedge, Wellington Street, Strand, "An improved pessary."-A communication from L. A. Rigaux, Paris.-Petition recorded April 24, 1865.

1153. J. N. Brown, Handsworth, and T. D. Clare, Birmingham, "Improvements in the manufacture of iron and in preparing fuel to be used in the manufacture and melting of iron."-August 25, 1865.

1193. R. Ferrie, J. Murray, and A. Wilson, Paisley, "Improvements in dyeing yarns."

1198. T. White, Camden Town, "Improvements in apparatus employed in the reburning of animal charcoal."

Annales de Chemie et de Physique. July, 1865. THIS journal, although dated July, has but just reached us. It contains an article by M. Berthelot" On a New Class of Isomers-Kenomers." We gave a short notice of this paper some time ago on its appearance in the Comptes Rendus, but its interest may justify a fuller abstract on a future occasion. The next paper is by M. Brassier, "On the Changes which Cheese Undergoes with Age." The author shows that in cheese, both salted and unsalted, a considerable amount of leucine and other bodies soluble-April 29, 1865. in alcohol are formed at the expense of the caseine, fatty matters, and lactine originally present. A translation of a memoir by Bischof "On the Stassfurth Salt Mines" follows. These mines, our readers will remember, contain a deposit of chloride of potassium, and have had an important influence on the production of potash compounds. The geological part of Bischof's paper is of great interest. The last article is the commencement of a paper of much value by Dr. Icery, of Mauritius, "Researches on the Juice of the Sugar-Cane, and the Changes it Undergoes during the Manufacture of Sugar." When this paper is concluded we shall give an abstract.

Journal de Pharmacie et de Chemie. August, 1865. THIS journal contains a long report by Guibourt "On Pepsine." It really contains nothing of importance, but as it gives the process of M. Boudault introduced into the Codex, we shall make a short abstract. In a note "On Detonating Antimony," M. Nicklés, in opposition to Mr. Gore, states his belief that the explosiveness depends upon the presence of a chloride of antimony-analogous to chloride of nitrogen. M. Schaeuffèle publishes a note, in which he states that he has found sulphate of indigo in loaf sugar. The sugar bakers have borrowed an idea from the washerwoman. M. Dénian gives some" New Formulæ for the Internal Administration of Silver." He makes a mixture of nitrate of silver, bromide of potassium, white of egg, syrup, and peppermint water, which probably no one will ever think of administering. The other papers in this number we have already noticed.

NOTICES OF PATENTS.

1286. J. H. Johnson, Lincoln's Inn Fields, "Improvements in the manufacture of paraffine candles."-A communication from A. E. Pearson, Paris.-May 9, 1865.

1386. W. Davey, Hackney Wick, "Improvements in apparatus for washing or purifying coal gas, and for producing ammoniacal water therefrom."-May 19, 1865.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Continental Science.

PARIS, September 12.

I SEE in Les Mondes a short description of an ice-making machine now in operation here. The inventor, M. Menard,

employs amylic ether, which is compressed to the extent of from five to seven atmospheres. From the reservoir the liquid is allowed to escape into a worm circulating round square vessels of water which becomes frozen by vaporisation of the ether in the worm. There is, to say the truth, some confusion in the account given, and the details cannot be trusted. The machine will produce, it is said, 50 kilos. of ice per hour.

I read, also, that all difficulties in the way of producing a constant light by induction machines have now been overcome by the Alliance Company, and the two lighthouses at Havre will now be definitely illuminated by the Company. The machines will be driven by a six-horsewhistles or trumpets to be used as fog signals. power locomotive engine, which will also compress air for

An important experiment has been made by M. Duchemin during a holiday at the sea side. He made a small cork buoy, and fixed to it a disk of charcoal containing a small plate of zinc. He then threw the buoy into the sea, and connected it with copper wires to an

GRANTS OF PROVISIONAL PROTECTION FOR electric alarum on the shore. The alarum instantly began

SIX MONTHS.

Lane, W.C.

Communicated by Mr. VAUGHAN, PATENT AGENT, 54, Chancery 1947. P. A.F. Bobœuf, Paris, "Improvements in the preparation and application of certain colouring matters." Petition recorded July 27, 1865.

1040. A. Millochan, New York, U.S.A., "An improvement in stills for the distillation of petroleum and other oily substances."-August 5, 1865.

2070. L. Schad, Warrington, Lancashire, "Improvements in the production of violet colours from magenta for dyeing, and printing."-August 9, 1865.

2071. M. H. Blanchard, Blackfriars Road, "Improvements in the manufacture of terra cotta or vitreous stone." -August 10, 1865.

2096. R. A. W. Westley, Camden Road, Camden Town, "A combination of improved method, apparatus, and receptacles for storing, preserving, transferring, and discharging certain fluids for sanitary and protective purA communication from H. Pinkers, Boulogne. 2100. J. T. Lockey, Sutton, Lancashire, "Improvements in and connected with the manufacture of copper." -August 14, 1865.

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2118. W. West, St. Blazey, Cornwall, "Improvements in preparing lubricating compounds."—August 16, 1865.

to ring, and has gone on ringing ever since, and it is added wires. Thus the ocean seems to be a powerful and inexthat sparks may be drawn between the two ends of the haustable source of electricity, and the small experiment of M. Duchemin may lead to most important results.

It is said on the authority of a Dr. Brandini, that lemonjuice, or a solution of citric acid, relieves the pain of cancer when applied to the sore as a lotion. The discovery was made accidentally, and the value of the application was confirmed by repeated experiments.

MISCELLANEOUS.

British Association. As we go to press the successful meeting at Birmingham is closing, and the members are scattered about on the various excursions. In our next we shall commence our reports of the papers read in the chemical sections, and others in which communications of interest to our readers have been made. As was to be expected, the manufacturers of Birmingham have been very liberal in opening their establishments to the inspection of the members-a privilege of which they have not been slow to avail themselves, and for which the manufacturers deserve our best thanks. The follow

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