ly wrote the thoughts and reflections which arose in his mind during the expedition to Egypt. As might easily be surmised, Bonaparte is not over-tenderly handled by his lieutenant and unlucky successor in Egypt. "Is B. loved?" says Kléber. How could he be? He loves nobody. He does not know how to organize or manage; and, nevertheless, wishing to do every thing, he organizes and manages. Hence confusion and waste, which reduce us to absolute want in the midst of plenty. He has never any fixed plan, all goes by skips and jumps; the day rules the affairs of the day. He pretends to believe in destiny."

MR. THOMAS CARLYLE has been re-elected president of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, one of the very few public, if honorary, positions he takes pleasure in filling. The occasion of his re-election was taken advantage of to present to the institution, in Mr. Carlyle's name, a portrait of John Knox, beneath which he had written, "The one portrait I ever could believe to be a likeness of John Knox, February, 1874." A scheme for erecting a memorial of Knox in Edinburgh, in which Mr. Carlyle has taken some interest, suggested the idea of obtaining the most authentic likeness of the great reformer. Mr. Carlyle's gift is an autotype copy of the engraving made from a picture in the possession of Lord Somerville for Knight's rial History."

SCIENCE AND ART.

66 Picto

LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTION IN THE BRAIN. -A very important physiological fact has been demonstrated by Professor Ferrier, of King's College, London, and in a paper read at a meeting of the Royal Society, he has described the experiments by which his demonstration was established-'that there is a localization of function in special regions of the brain.' A former experimentalist had shown that certain forms of epilepsy were occasioned by irritation or 'discharging lesions' of the substance known to anatomists as the 'gray matter' in a certain part of the brain, and Dr. Ferrier not only confirms that theory, but has carried his investigation into a wider range of phenomena. The animals experimented on included jackals, dogs, cats, monkeys, birds and frogs, toads and fishes. They were rendered partially insensible by means of an anesthetic, the surface of the brain was then laid bare, and certain parts were touched or irritated by the conductor of a current of electricity; and in some instances a portion of the brain was cut away. Generally speaking, it was found that movements of the

limbs are excited when certain parts of the side of the brain are touched; and it is remarkable in some instances, that on touching a second place, not more than an eighth of an inch from the first, an entirely different movement is produced. One touch, for example, may move the hind-leg; the other excites a muscle far away from the hind-leg; and these results are so invariable, that Dr. Ferrier can tell beforehand what will be the effect of irritating any given spot. And that which is true of one animal appears to be true of all the From this, we animals experimented on.

learn that the brain can be mapped out in certain definite areas, to each of which a different function could be assigned. Thus it is ascertained that the muscles of the face are excited by irritation of the forepart of the brain, movements of the head and eyes are also produced, and the phenomena are so marked that Dr. Ferrier is led to believe the convolution known as the angular gyrus' to be the cerebral expansion of the optic nerve, and therefore the seat of visual perception.' In like manner he regards a neighboring convolution, irritation of which excites movements of the ear, as the cerebral termination of the auditory nerve.' He also localizes the sense of smell, and can indicate generally the locality connected with sensations of taste and touch.'

Such, briefly sketched, are the leading points in Dr. Ferrier's paper. Of course the great question remains-In what way does irritation of the surface of the brain produce the effects described? To answer this question satisfactorily, will require a long course of research and observation. Meanwhile, we may content ourselves with the suggestion,

that a scientific phrenology is possible.' Not the fallacious phrenology of a former generation; but a science based on anatomical investigation.

SEA-SICKNESS. The opinion so commonly held in regard to sea-sickness, namely, that it is due either to a congestion of the brain,or to a commotion in the abdominal viscera caused by the motion of the vessel, is very plausibly combated by M. Pellerin, who, in a paper read before the French Academy, attributes the malady to a deranged circulation of the blood produced by the alternate rolling and heaving of the vessel. The result of this, he says, is not a congestion of the brain, which is, on the contrary, deprived of some of the blood required to keep up a stimulus of that nervous centre; that sensation which is felt in sea-sickness resembling peculiarly what is felt immediately after a letting of blood, when the patient sits or stands, namely, a disposi tion to vomit, or actual vomiting. In support

of this opinion, mention is made of the fact that persons who are liable to sea-sickness experience its effects in a much slighter degree when they are in a horizontal position, the relief thus afforded being like that which is produced in the same position when a person is in a state of syncope.

of 91,000,000 miles, who should stretch forth his hand and touch the sun. Naturally he would have his finger burnt; but so slow is the transmission of feeling, he would have to wait until he was 135 years old before he could be conscious of the fact. In this estimate, Mr. Proctor evidently adopts the rate of nerve motion obtained some twenty years ago by the observations of Dr. Hirsch, that is, about III feet a second. The later and more elaborate researches of Dr. Schleske show a rapidity of conduction by the sensory nerves of about 97 feet a second, which would require our sun-burnt infant to wait some

form condition of the nerves, and sometimes transitory coma, he argues against urging the patient to eat heartily, believing that such a practice tends to develop the disease; he equally opposes the training diet system, as generally starving the nerve tissues by excluding hydrocarbons from food; nor should the patient be urged to work more than is natural under the circumstances, nor to rest from headwork-in many cases cerebral exhaustion being intensified by the brain lying fallow; if there is undue sleeplessness, the head should lie low on the pillow, and if undue sleepiness, it should be kept high.

GUN-COTTON.- We learn that Professor

Abel is still carrying on his investigation of gun-cotton and other explosives. Some of his results are surprising. A loose yarn of gun-cotton, if gently set on fire by a spark, smoulders slowly away, but burns rapidly if lit by a flame. A charge of cotton in blasting a mine or quarry, or in a rifle, explodes after the manner of gunpowder; but if fired by a few grains of fulminate of mercury it goes off' with terrific violence, and can therefore be applied for blasting purposes on a tremendous scale. Another remarkable fact is, that gun-cotton can be as advantageously exploded when damp as when dry, and yet when wet it resists fire as a wet blanket would. But

place with it a cake of dry cotton, and fire by means of the fulminate, and the shock will be as terrific as that above mentioned. Moreover, the same effect can be produced under water, with the advantage that a water-tight case to hold the materials is not required. And, as regards speed, it appears that an explosion of gun-cotton travels nearly twenty thousand feet in a second.

THE SUN.-The Scientific American, in a report of a recent lecture of Mr. Proctor on the sun, gives striking illustrations to impart an idea of the immense distance between us and our great luminary. One of these supposes an infant with an arm of the inconvenient length

tion. If he trusted his sight in the matter, he might become aware of the danger to his distant member in the short space of eight minutes, so much more rapid is the speed of light than the movement of feeling along the nerves. The passage of volition along the motor nerves appears, says the Medical Press and Circular, to be still slower; so that upwards of a century and a half, perhaps, might elapse before the mental order to withdraw the finger could be carried out.

ACTION OF HEAT ON GRAVITATING MASSES. -Among the papers read before the Royal Society during the present session, are some which if popularized would attract numerous readers, so pregnant are they with important facts. One of these, by Mr. W. Crookes, F.RS., treats of the action of heat on gravitating masses, and in its details of highly refined and accurate experiments demonstrates that substances are repelled by heat and attracted by cold. The experiments were made with a balance formed of a beam of straw with a pithball at each end. A lighter balance could hardly be devised. It was tried in common air, and in a vacuum, and from its behavior certain conclusions were drawn. A similar series of experiments was made with a brass beam bearing two brass balls, and with corroborative results. It is therefore clear that

density and temperature play an important part in the production of the phenomena. And if they do, what then? may be asked. The answer connects itself with one of the

grandest problems of science. Nature offers evidence of the repulsive action of heat, and the attractive action of cold on the grandest scale. By the radiation of heat from the sun may be explained the phenomena of comets, and the shape and changes of nebulæ. And as Mr. Crookes remarks: "To compare small things with great, to argue from pieces of straw up to heavenly bodies, it is not improbable that the attraction, now shown to exist between a cold and a warm body, will equally prevail when, for the temperature of melting ice is

substituted the cold of space, for a pith-ball a celestial sphere, and for an artificial vacuum a stellar void. In the radiant molecular energy of cosmical masses may at last be found that agent acting constantly according to certain laws' which Newton held to be the cause of gravity." From this it will be seen that Mr. Crookes has started an investigation which in its results may explain the theory of the uni

verse.

METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA.-We have more than once mentioned the good work done by the Scottish Meteorological Society in their special vocation, and we gather from their last report that the good work still goes on. They have appointed a committee to discover, if possible, on what (and whether any) meteorological influences a good or bad herring-fishery may depend. Some fishermen think that a bad season means a cold season; others, that storms, and not temperature, keep away the herrings from their accustomed haunts. The question is an interesting one; and if intelligent fishermen can be got to cooperate in the needful observations, it may perhaps be solved. Another question which the Society are investigating is, How far does the sea-climate extend inland? They have two stations—a small island in the Shetlands,

and a small island in the Hebrides-where land influence goes for nothing, and where, consequently, the sea temperature prevails; and these furnish data for determining the influence of land in lowering the winter and raising the summer temperature. The Society have also had under notice a suggestion, 'that trap-dykes, by acting as good continuous conductors between the fused material in the centre of the earth and the outer air, might be expected to exercise considerably greater thermal influence than surrounding districts of stratified rocks, such as the coal formations.' This is a suggestion which may have important bearings on agriculture.

DISCOVERY OF A LIVING MAMMOTH.-A rumor from Russia to the effect that the mammoth is not an extinct animal, has set naturalists on the alert; and should it prove true that living mammoths are now to be seen in the deep gorges of the Lena, in far Eastern Siberia, we may anticipate that expeditions will be sent out to capture a few of the huge animals for the zoological gardens of Europe. According to the rumor, the discovery was made by one of the convicts who had been transported to that distant region. That the mammoth once abounded in Siberia, is well known; for thousands of mammoths, whose tusks supply much of the ivory used in the arts, are there embedded in the frozen ground.

THE DOME OF THEVIENNA EXHIBITION BUILDING.-Mr. Scott Russell, F.R.S., the designer of the great central dome of the Vienna Exhibition building, described the construction of that gigantic roof at a recent meeting of the Institute of British Architects. It is the largest dome in the world, being nine times larger than St. Paul's, eight times larger than St. Peter's at Rome, and seven times larger than that of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and yet it is so contrived, one part supporting another so cleverly, that it could be built without scaffolding; another advantage in a dome thus constructed is, that it will not fall: the apparent supports may be cut away, and yet it stands, and could be destroyed only by piecemeal shattering. In the course of his description, Mr. Scott Russell gave details which all professional men will read and study with pleasure and profit, but he also said much that will interest the general reader. He holds that architects and engineers should know something of each other's profession: if they did, engineering works would not be so distressingly ugly as they are at present, and architecture would gain in methods of construction. He contends also for excellence of workmanship, and that is a quality which in these days is too much disregarded. Similarity and symmetry of parts, says Mr. Scott Russell, are essential to success in any great engineering work. Then there must be perfection of fit, instead of things being done, as they generally are, nearly right, but not quite. To be perfectly exact' is in the long-run much easier than to be nearly exact. It costs also less money, but it requires more brain. These are truisms; but as the world always forgets them, they will bear unccasing repetition.

PROFESSOR SCHMIDT'S MAP OF THE MOON.The President of the Royal Astronomical Society said in his address, published in the “Proceedings" for February, 1874, that this remarkable representation of the lunar surface, which has occupied the attention of Professor Schmidt during thirty-four years, is now completed. Those who have seen this magnificent work speak of it in the highest terms, not only of its general appearance, but also of the wonderful manner in which the details of the lunar features are delineated. The map is two metres in diameter, and the drawing is made with the most extraordinary care and precision, the minuteness of the work being almost beyond conception. A specimen of the map has been exhibited at one of the meetings of the Society, when it was much admired for the extreme delicacy with which all the details of the lunar surface are given, and a hope was generally expressed that the map in its entirety would

eventually be published. Unfortunately, the funds of the Athens Observatory are too limited to permit the publication of this great work at the expense of that establishment, and Professor Schmidt fears that there is no chance of publishing it either in Greece, France, or Germany, owing to the expense, which must necessarily be great. It is hoped, however, that some means will be provided for engraving this beautiful production, and thus make it available to astronomers. Meanwhile, Professor Schmidt has been requested to forward an estimate of the probable expense of transferring the map upon stone for lithographic engraving. If the estimate be not excessive, probably some means may be found to preserve to science the valuable results of Professor Schmidt's thirty-four years' labor.

THE NEW-YORK AQUARIUM.-We are informed that this splendid institution is progressing as rapidly as can be expected. It is to be erected in the Central Park, New-York, where the magnificent Free Museum and Menagerie have already a place. We believe that the credit of starting this enterprise is due to the Messrs. Appleton, the proprietors of the wellknown "Appletons' Journal." These gentlemen have communicated with Mr. W. S. Kent, F.L.S., who has left the Brighton Museum, and we believe that with his assistance as scientific adviser they can not fail to establish an institution which will be in every way creditable to zoological science. We trust they may soon have secured ample funds to realize the undertaking; and we have no doubt that, with Mr. Kent's assistance, experienced as he is not only as a naturalist, but also, and especially, as an aquarian naturalist, they will eventually attain most complete success.-Popular Science Review.

VARIETIES.

ETHICAL VERSUS RELIGIOUS TEACHING.The State can only expect every man to do his duty to itself and to its citizens if it provide instruction as to what that duty is. In any plan of national education, therefore, the children must be instructed in their duties to each other as members of society, and in the common requirements of law and order. These plain and practical requirements are, as I have said, generally understood to be taught in connection with religion and under its sanction. But, in the case supposed, when religion is removed from the elementary schools, the State must still have some security that these principles shall be inculcated on the pliant and docile mind of the rising generation. And what security can be

equal to that of retaining the moral or ethical lesson as an integral and essential part of the common-school course? To make the ethical lesson in the common school compulsory, like the other secular lessons, would be the most natural arrangement; for, as I have said, the State has an indisputable right to enforce the moral instruction of all who are placed under its protection, and so to apply a remedy or preventive to that brutal ignorance of moral and social duties which is at once a menace and a nuisance to the community. Were such an arrangement to meet with general acceptance, the State might dispense with any further security of the kind I have spoken of, and the churches might be left to extend the benefits of religious instruction as they best could. But though this would be the most natural and obvious arrangement, it is one to which the churches would have a powerful dislike. If, in their desire to retain all knowledge as the handmaid of religion, they view with suspicion the severance from

religion of such secular branches as writing

and arithmetic, much more will this be their feeling with regard to a severance of morality from religion. By the sects, the connection between the latter two is deemed to be so close as to be indissoluble; and the almost universal sentiment is, that there can be no sound morality disjoined from religion. Probably the objection on their part to a severance is all but insuperable; and, therefore, at this point, it is necessary that the State should submit to a compromise with the churches, in order that it may not seem to set up the school as a rival or hostile institution. The nature of this compromise is, I think, obvious-viz., that the attendance of the children at the ethical lesson should be compulsory indeed, but compulsory under a limitation. It should be obligatory that the children should be taught morals, but optional whether that teaching be obtained in the common schools or in the Church schools. In other words, a certificate of attendance on religious instruction in the latter should be accepted as a dispensation from the ethical class in the former. By this provision, it is not implied that religious knowledge may serve in place of moral instruction; but only that the latter is generally understood to be comprehended by the other, and may either be imparted separately or in conjunction with it. It is also implied that the morality taught by all the sects is to all intents and purposes the same, and may be accepted by the nation in lieu of that which would be taught in the common schools. But to this last point we shall again return. Without denying, then, that morality is closely and peculiarly connected with religion, I maintain that it is also

an indispensable part of secular instruction. -Contemporary Review.

YOUNG WOMEN'S LABOR.-There is now an ever-increasing variety of openings for young women's labor which were unknown to our fathers. Women are now engaged in many kinds of "trades" to a vast extent, and the jealousy of the men in the same trades is less violent than before. And all those girls employed as shop-accountants, as bookbinders, as tailoresses, as telegraph clerks, as upholsterers, as paper-makers, to say nothing of the multitudes which fill the gigantic factories of the North, are just so many maids withdrawn from household service. They do not fly to other employments because they are pining for the pianos and' paint-boxes, or are denied the sweet delights of French and German grammars, or because "followers" are not allowed in indiscriminate profusion in the kitchen, but because the wages paid in trades are very good, and they like to be their own mistresses while they are very young. In these cases, the work is quite as hard as in any gentleman's household, and lasts all day, and the rooms the women live in are worse than the kitchens and the attics to which our wicked exclusiveness condemns the wretched cook and housemaid. The real attractiveness is the freedom of the evening, which means the freedom to go out anywhere and everywhere, and in what company it may please them. Bachelor critics, living in chambers and waited on by laundresses, must surely know enough of the life of the London streets and places of amusement to know that freedom such as this is the very worst license that can be imagined for women of the ordinary age and character of domestic servants. All the while the demand for the maids is increasing in every part of England. Let us face this fact, that every new house that is built to pay £60 or £70 a year means a demand for, on the average, two maids in addition to those already at work. In larger houses, the fresh demand is proportionally larger. Here and there, it is true, as the "respectability" or fashionableness of a district fades, there is a diminution in the number of servants that are kept; but this is more than counterbalanced by the increasing luxurious ness of living among the upper middle and professional classes, involving the employment of a number of women-servants which the past generation entirely dispensed with. All this is, in fact, the natural consequence of the gigantic expansion of our national wealth. There are more people than ever in comfortable circumstances, and those who were wealthy are wealthier than before. The practical effect is, that the scarcity in maid-ser

vants is becoming a serious difficulty, and this difficulty is not confined to families whose incomes are small. People raise the wages they offer, but the spell has lost its power. The servants that are at liberty demand the increase; but, to make a guess, those who are willing to engage themselves are not half in number to what they were thirty or forty years ago. It is just as it is with beef and mutton. Every year the nation wants more and more meat, and the increase in supply bears no proportion to the demand. Of course the breeders ask more for their sheep and oxen, and of course they get what they ask.-Cornhill Magazine.

MYSTERIOUS CHANGES IN CLIMATE-The climate of any particular country is not persistently the same through a long series of years. It is liable to be affected by agricul tural operations, drainage, change of oceancurrents, and other circumstances. From whatever cause, the climate of Great Britain is changing. The most noticeable fact is, that while the winters are less severe, and the summers not so intensely hot, as formerly, there has crept in what may be called a jumble of weather throughout the year. We have cold when we should expect heat, and warmth when we had every reason to look for snow. Meteorologists, who profess to speak scientifically, fail to enlighten us on the cause or causes of these phenomena. It can not be said that, as regards the culture of graincrops, or the rearing of cattle, sheep, and other marketable animals, there has been any falling-off. In these departments of affairs, and we may add in forest-tree culture, there has rather been an improvement than otherwise. Change of climate has been more specially demonstrated in the case of fruit, the crops of which are exceedingly liable to be damaged by unseasonable frost. Chance frosts in the later spring months are the terror of gardeners, and unfortunately the destruction so caused is becoming so serious in many places, that some kinds of well-known fruit are no longer worth cultivating. Better, it is thought, import fruit, than try to rear it.

A paragraph has been going the round of the newspapers, regarding this mysterious change of climate as concerns Scotland. At a recent meeting of the Botanical Society, Mr. M'Nab read a paper on "Further Evidences of Climatal Changes in Scotland," and mentioned that several old Scotch gardeners, as well as amateur cultivators, concurred with his opinion, that many varieties of fruit now cultivated in that country were by no means equal to what they were from thirty to fifty years ago. Ribston pippins and nonpareil apples are alleged to be inferior in size and