cles have apparently the power of taking up and preparing the material which they themselves supply to muscular tissue for its nutrition."

Certain considerations follow which are well worth attention by those who have the care of invalids, or have to prepare a dietary-namely, that vegetables used as food for man and animals, such as flour, potato, and rice, transform phosphoric anhydride and potash from the crystalloid or diffusible into the colloid or undiffusible state; and that, after having been thus prepared, only these substances appear to be fit to become normal constituents of blood, and contribute to the nutrition of flesh. In nature, a constant rotation from crystalloids to colloids, and the reverse, goes on. The substances destined to nourish plants must be diffusible, otherwise they could not be distributed throughout the mineral kingdom, and brought within reach of plants. Vegetables transform into colloids the mineral substances intended to form part of the food of animals. The excretory products of animals are crystalloid or diffusible; the solid portions decompose in contact with air and moisture, and become crystalloid compounds. In like manner, dead vegetable and animal tissue all return into crystalloids, to be distributed afresh either by gaseous or liquid diffusion throughout the whole of the mineral world. "Hence," says Dr. Marcet, "Graham's great discovery of the laws of liquid and gaseous diffusion lifts the veil which covers the mysteries of animal life, and throws light on very many physiological phenomena which had until now remained in darkness." A line of research is here opened, which, as we may expect, will be turned to good account by physiologists. Its importance could hardly be over-rated. an immediate effect, it will rectify prevalent errors as regards nutrition. Many persons believe that beef-tea is very nourishing, and that it is an excellent strengthener for people of weak health. This is a mistake. Some few practitioners and chemists have long been aware of the fact, and now their view is confirmed by Dr. Marcet. There is no nourishment in beef-tea.

As

Mixed with solid food,

it imparts a relish which promotes digestion; and

the best solid that can be mixed therewith is the' beef from which it was made, reduced to a powder. In two, at least, of the London hospitals the mixing of powdered beef with the beef-tea has long been practiced, and there the patients get strong on a beef-tea diet. It is worth remembering, too, that the objections to the use of beef-tea apply equally to the preparation described as Extract of Meat, with the further disadvantage that the Extract is always stale.

The Total Eclipse of the Sun on December 11, 1871.-Attention is already beginning to be directed to this eclipse. It seems unlikely that any expeditions will be sent out from America or England to observe it; but as the track of totality passes over parts of India, Ceylon, and Northern Australia, it is probable that useful observations will be made. In India especially it is likely that skilful observers may have an opportunity of studying the eclipse, since the northern boundary of the track of totality lies but a short distance south of Madras, where there is an excellent observatory, under the management of Mr. N. Pogson. The following account of the most important features of the eclipse is extracted from a paper by Mr.

Ragoonathachary, communicated by Mr. Pogson to the Royal Astronomical Society :-"The central line of the eclipse will first meet the earth's surface in the Arabian Sea, and, entering on the western coast of India, will pass right across one of the most important parts of Hindustan in a S. E. by E. direction. In this part of the peninsula the sun will be about 20° above the horizon

when totally obscured. The duration of totality will be two minutes and a quarter and the breadth of the shadow about 70 miles. On leaving the eastern coast of the Madras Presidency the central line will cross Palk's Straits, passing about 10 miles S. W. of the Island Jaffnapatam, and over the northern part of Ceylon, where the small towns of Moeletivoe and Kokelay will lie near the central line; and also the wellknown naval station of Trincomalee, which will be about 15 miles S. W. of the line. Continuing its course over the Bay of Bengal, the shadow will cross the S. E. part of Sumatra, and will touch the south-western coast of Java, where Batavia, the capital, will be nearly 60 miles N.E. of the central line; and two other smaller towns, Chidamar and Nagara, will also be very near the middle of the shadow-path. In the Admiralty Gulf on the N. W. coast of Australia, the eclipsed sun will be only ten degrees past the meridian, and not far from the zenith; in consequence of which the totality will last 4m. 18s., or only 4 seconds less than the time of greatest duration. Lastly, passing through the most barren and uninhabitated portion of Australia, crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria and the York Peninsula, the shadow will ultimately leave the earth's surface in the Pacific Ocean.”

The Solar Corona.-More facts have come to light respecting the solar corona, as seen during the last eclipse, and there has been a good deal of discussion over the significance of the new facts brought to our knowledge. On nearly all sides the atmospheric glare theory of the corona has now been abandoned. But although the solar nature of the corona is now generally admitted, we are very far indeed from having solved the problems of difficulty presented by solar phenomena. Indeed, we may be said to have barely entered upon this difficult field of research. Various ideas which had been broached respecting the corona can now be discussed under somewhat more satisfactory circumstances than before the late eclipse. Two papers have appeared during the last two months which bear on the theoretical considerations suggested to the observations made last December. In one Mr. Proctor points to the significance of the observed connection between the corona, the prominences, and the solar spot regions; and he points out that, judging from the evidence now in our hands, the theory seems suggested that all the phenomena corona, prominences, and sun-spots -are dependent "on the action of vertical forces, or, at any rate, of forces directed outwards from the sun's globe-though not necessarily exactly radial." Abandoning the meteoric theory of the corona, or rather speaking of it as insufficient to account for the observed phenomena, he considers the probable effects of eruptive or repulsive forces exerted by the Sun on matter in the first place within his visible globe, and he shows that many somewhat perplexing phenomena seem to receive an interpretation when this theory is (provisionally)

adopted. In the other paper, Professor Young, of America, after pointing out some objections to the meteoric theory of the corona, remarks that the low specific gravity of the coronal matter may depend on the action of "such solar repulsion as appears to be operative in the formation of a comet's tail." In this paper he points out very lucidly how small the influence must be which our atmosphere is capable of exerting in increasing the seeming importance of the corona, "Some influence our atmosphere must, of course, have; but remembering how much the inner portion of the coronal ring exceeds in brilliance the outer, it would seem that the illumination of the lunar disc must give us an exaggerated measure of the true atmospheric effect. This illumination makes the edge of the moon only enough brighter than the centre to give it the appearance of a globe, but of almost inky blackness." He remarks, "Mr. Lockyer, in 'Nature,' quotes from a letter of mine written nearly a year ago, to show that my opinions regard ing the nature of the corona have been considerably modified since then; and this is true to a certain extent, though I think the present approximation of our views is owing quite as much to a change in his own ideas, as would be evident on referring to his papers of the same and even somewhat later date. But I should still write, 'I am strongly disposed to believe that the whole phenomenon (i.e., the corona as I saw it in 1869) is purely solar.'"

Spontaneous Generation.- Professor Crace-Calvert has made experiments which show the errors of those who advocate the theory of spontaneous generation. He has proved that the temperature of boiling-water will not kill all the living germs contained in the water. Hence, it is a mistake to

An

say that living germs which appear after boiling have been developed from non-living matter. experimentalist, wishing to be absolutely certain that he has destroyed all life in the fluid operated on, should pass it through a temperature of four hundred degrees. As an example of the rapidity with which, in one case, life is developed, Professor Crace-Calvert states, that white of a newlaid egg mixed with pure water, and exposed to the air for fifteen minutes only, in August or September, "will show life in abundance."

A Sensible Step.-The Royal Academy have announced that the profits derived from their winter exhibitions are not added to their general fund, but have been applied to charitable purposes connected with art, and to the formation of a small architectural museum, and that the balance will be expended in establishing a professorship of chemistry. The professor will be required to give his whole time to the study of the properties of colors and varnishes, with a view to arrive at purity and brilliancy, and to deliver lectures on all subjects therewith connected. In promotion of this object, the Academy contemplate the building of a laboratory where researches may be carried on; and they hope that, by faithful work, such a knowledge of pigments, and other materials of the painter's art, will be obtained, as will insure in modern pictures the same purity, brilliancy, and permanence of color, as are presented by some of the pictures painted from three to four centuries ago. If this can be accomplished, the Academicians will do more towards perpetuating

their own fame than by any of their previous undertakings; for, as is well known, many pictures painted within the last fifty years have become blurred and dead, with a constant tendency to deterioration, owing to the impurity of their colors. The "old masters" were acquainted with facts and principles which to modern painters are a profound mystery.

Dr. Hall and Dr. Livingstone.-Another expedition has sailed from the United States to make further discoveries in the Arctic regions, and to penetrate, if possible, to the Pole. Preparations are made for wintering in the ice, and if thorough equipment, enthusiasm, and experience are of value in an enterprise, then this one should succeed. Meanwhile, a word of good news has come from Africa: Dr. Livingstone has been heard of. In October last he was at Manakoro, on the west shore of Lake Tanganyika, in good health, but greatly in want of the supplies which would enable him to conciliate the natives, and pursue his exploration with advantage. It is to be hoped that he may fall in with Sir Samuel Baker's expedition. Chambers's Journal.

From

Drainage and Sewage. -The British Association Committee "On the Treatment and Utilization of Sewage," which was reappointed at the Exeter meeting in 1869, have just published their Report, in which is embodied information obtained from two hundred towns. This Report may be consulted with confidence by all who wish to know which methods of drainage and sewage are most likely to something about the results of sewage irrigation answer in any particular locality, and to learn on farms. The Report contains tabular stateanalyses of the air in drains and sewers. ments in which all the details are given, as well as the latter, it appears that the air of those places is less foul than is commonly supposed, and that bad smells are more disagreeable than harmful. And further, with a view to ascertain whether (as had been suggested) the crops of sewage-irrigated farms occasioned peculiar diseases in the animals which were fed thereon, the committee have instituted a series of experiments which will at least throw light on the question. A beginning has been made with three families of guinea-pigs, and, after a course of feeding, one member of each family was killed, and examined, and "no sign of entozoic disease of any description was found, even with the help of a powerful pocket lens, either in the viscera or muscles of any one of the specimens." In continuing the experiments, one family will be fed on sewaged produce only, another on the unsewaged produce, and others are to have now and then a meal of vegetables which do contain entozoic larvæ or ova. Consequently, when these guinea-pigs come to be killed, examined, and compared, some definite results may be looked for. Meanwhile, a chemist, who had examined specimens of grass, carrots, turnips, onions, and lettuce from a sewage farm, says: "I find nothing to report against any of them. They all seem to me in excellent order, and free from parasitic insects, or from fungi of any kind."

Not the least important part of the Report is that in which the committee give particulars of a sewage-irrigated farm near Komford. The crops there have proved surprisingly profitable. Onions

fetched £36 an acre in the ground; spinach, £22 an acre; cabbage and cauliflowers, from £24 to £27 an acre; lettuce, £30 an acre. A new kind of American oats yielded at the rate of 14 quarters to the acre. Three crops of rye-grass were taken in one season from 5 acres of meadow, and produced in all nearly 13 loads. Three acres sown with "bunching-greens," a species of colewort, produced plants enough to plant 7 acres, and 470,000 plants and 3,240 full-grown roots for sale, the money value of which was £39, 15s. From this it would appear that the most profitable use for the sewage of a town is to cause it to flow across a farm.

Rainfall in the Tropics.-Statistics of rainfall within the tropics are useful to meteorologists everywhere, and any addition to the number of tropical observing stations deserves to be noted. One of the United States' Missionaries has made a series of observations at Hilo, Hawaii, which show that island to be remarkably circumstanced as regards rain. The total fall in one year amounted to 182 inches: the wettest month was March, when 38 inches fell: and on one day in this month the fall amounted to 10 inches. These amazing quantities can be best judged of by comparing them with the rainfall of the British Islands, where the average for the year is less than one month's rain in Hawaii.

A New Medical Phenomenon.-The medical world is just now considerably excited by the stigmata said to be exhibited by the Belgian peasant-girl, Louise Lateau; Dr. Lefebvre, and other practitioners of repute, are found to be persuaded that blood oozes through her skinfrom the left side of the chest, from the hands and feet, and from the forehead-and the love of the sensational has been thereby greatly tickled among the superstitious devout. Suspecting the possibility of deception (as well he might), Dr. Lefebvre placed a leather glove upon the hand of his patient, tying it and sealing it at the wrist, yet when the glove was removed upon the Friday, the blood was still there. The following brief narrative (communicated to the British Medical Fournal) of a case which came under the care of Mr. Henry Lee at St. George's Hospital, may suggest to Dr. Lefebvre a better test than the leather glove. An unmarried seamstress, aged sixteen, was admitted into the hospital on the 22d April, 1868. On the outside of the right leg, about three inches above the ankle, was a discolored patch about three inches in length by one and a half inch in width. From this surface she said that every month for two years there had been a discharge of about a tablespoonful of blood. The patch was covered by minute red spots resembling flea-bites. Soon after her admission into the hospital, fresh red spots and effusion of blood were seen at each succeeding visit. Mr. Lee then ordered a sheet of lead to be applied over the bleeding surface, and to be secured by a starchbandage. On the next visit, when the dressings were removed, there were few spots and little blood, but the sheet of lead was found to be pierced with holes large enough to admit a needle. When asked how this had happened, she was silent, and she was discharged as a convicted impostor on the 13th May.

Now, we venture to predict, that if Dr. Lefeb. vre, instead of covering his patient's hand with an easily perforated leather glove, will cover it with a thin sheet of lead, secured by a starched bandage, one of two things will happen-either the bleeding will not occur in the covered hand, or the lead will be found to have been perforated by some sharp instrument from without.

It is stated that on the forehead of the ecstatic girl "the blood is seen to ooze from twelve or fifteen minute points, arranged in a circular form. On examining these points with a magnifying. glass, most of them had a triangular form, as if made by the bites of microscopic leeches; but some were semilunar in shape, and others totally irregular." Here we must irreverently suggest that the microscopic leeches were probably needlepoints.

American Survey of Iron and Copper Mines, -From the "Report on the Progress of the State Geological Survey of Michigan," by A. Winchell, LL.D., we learn that the survey of the iron region near Marquette is nearly completed. Eleven large maps of the most important mines are nearly ready for the engraver. Discoveries have been made of new and large beds of iron ore in the forest unsettled country, upon lands owned by the State. The older beds belong to the Huronian system, several thousand feet thick. All the rocks appear to have been of sedimentary origin, though often presenting combinations suggestive of an igneous character. The copper region, under the superintendence of Professor Pumpelly, is being mapped upon the scale of 300 feet to the inch. The fieldwork has led to the accumulation of numerous details respecting the distribution of the several formations, which cannot be presented in a report of progress, but they have necessitated many improvements upon the Geological Map.

The Geographical Distribution of Sea-Grasses.-A paper on the geographical distribution of sea-grasses, by Dr. P. Ascherson, who has devoted four years to the study of this subject, is published in the seventh part of Petermann's Mittheilungen. The particular appearance and distribution of each species is described; and from the chart which illustrates the work, the general conclusions are drawn that the greater number of sorts occupy united areas, and belong either to the tropical or to one or other of the temperate zones exclusively. Of the 22 species known, 14 are found in the Indian Ocean, 13 in the Pacific, 7 in the Atlantic, and only one in the Arctic Sea.

ART.

The Monuments of Yucatan.-There exist in several places in Yucatan substantial indications of early civilization quite as remarkable as those of Palenque. Why then have the latter been singled out as the only ones worthy the attention of the inquiring and scientific world? It is because the monuments of Yucatan are not enveloped in mystery, while those of Palenque appeal to the imagination instead of to the remembrance. The imposing grandeur of these ruins; the majesty of the forests surrounding them; the almost sullen silence of the Indians; and the absence of all

traditions, have induced a supposition that they are of great antiquity. It is known that this region was uninhabited as long ago as when Cortes traversed it, on his march against Honduras. "There was no road whatever," says Bernal Diaz, in describing this journey; 66 we were obliged to clear the way with our hands and swords. The country was so thickly wooded, and the trees were so lofty, that we could scarcely see the sky. We climbed the tallest trees in vain efforts to catch a view of the country around." Cortez crossed the Grijalva at Istapa, and consequently was but a short distance from the town of Palenque, which even then had ceased to exist, for had there been any city of importance here it would not have escaped the observation of an army suffering from famine, and following Indian guides, who were searching for food with all the eagerness of despair. It was only after a long and painful march that the expedition escaped from this fearful wilderness. But admitting that in the year 1524 these ruins existed nearly in their present condition in the forests of Chiapa, it by no means follows that a fabulous age and origin should be ascribed to them. When first discovered, Yucatan was a flourishing and populous country, abounding with public edifices built of hewn stones laid in mortar, the extent and beauty of which greatly impressed the Spaniards. Besides the testimony of contemporaneous historians, we have that of the soldiers of Grijalva, who, in their enthusiastic admiration, called the country after their native land, which they fancied it resembled. These public edifices no longer exist; war, fanaticism, and political feuds have all combined to destroy them; but their remains are still scattered over the whole extent of the peninsula, from the island of Cozumel to the frontiers of Peten and Tabasco. They are evidently remains of the same structures which arrested the attention of the conquerors, and the number of which, according to Herrara, “was frightful to contemplate." Now, it can easily be demonstrated, by comparing the ruins of Yucatan with those of Palenque, that the monuments of which they are the remains were of the same general style of architecture, and constructed on the same principles, and in conformity with the same rules of art. The plans of them all, their pyramidal bases, the absence of arched roofs, the use of stucco and painting in their decoration, the bas-reliefs sculptured on their walls, and the resemblance between their hieroglyphical symbols, indicate, even in their minutest details, a conformity of ideas and of taste, the expression of which may have varied according to the time and place, without, however, losing their primitive and eminently national character. The analogy can no longer be denied between these ruins and the monuments of Mexico which tradition attributes to the Toltecs. These comparisons, which I have not space to prosecute in detail, show the action and preponderance of a common race over the whole territory lying between Cape Catoche and the Mexican table land.-Travels in Central America, from the French of the Chevalier Arthur Morelet.

A Seventeenth Century Artist.-Here is a curious note illustrating the position of an unsuccessful artist in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, likewise how many churches have

been villainously bedaubed. It is an extract from "A Cater-Character," a series of sketches of 'characters," attributed to Richard Brathwait, author, amongst almost countless other works, of Barnabee's Journal. This is a part of the "character" of a "painter" :-" If he bee of no frequent custome, hee trudgeth with a trusse of colours on his back downe to the countrey; where most humbly complaining, hee prostrates his art and industry at the feet of a most vigilant churchwarden, by whose wisedome if he be entertained, that the church may be beautified, and his intolerable art discovered; he belardes the walles with most monstrous false English; for which, if at any time he receive reproofe, hee returnes this answer; He could paint better, but the countrey will not be at the charge of good English. And if you seriously aske him, where hee had those sentences, hee will with no less impudence than prophanenesse tell you, they are foolish conceits of his owne Now and then he is imployed at funerals, which he performeth most pittifully. His unoyl'd colours fall off like other mourners; his horse-gold displaies the integrity of the artist. If hee be so ambitious as to fixe his lamentable elegy on the hearse, his leane lines fall so flat, and cloze with such unjoynted cadencies as they ever redownd to his shame. But in these, as they are a spheare too high for his imployment, he is rarely vers'd. My lords maior's day is his jubile, if any such inferiour artist be admitted to so serious a solemnity; if not, countrey presentments are his preferment; or else hee bestows his pencill on an aged peece of decayed canvas in a sooty ale-house, where Mother Red Cap must be set out in her colours. Here he and his barmy hostess draw both together, but not in like nature; she in ayle, hee in oyle. But her commoditie goes better downe, which hee meanes to have his full share of, when his worke is done. If she aspire to the conceit of a signe, and desire to have her birch pole pull'd downe, hee will supply her with one; which he performs so poorely, as none that sees it but would take it for a signe hee was drunke when he made it. A long consultation is had before they can agree what signe must be rear'd. A meere-maide, sayes shee, for that will sing catches to the youths of the parish. A lyon, sayes he, for that's the only signe that he can make. And this he formes so artlessly, as it requires his expression, This is a lyon. Which old Ellenor Rumming, his tap-dame, denies, saying It should have been a meere-maid. Now and then he turnes rover, and bestowes the height of his art on archers stakes. Sundry whimzies hee ha's in his head, but of all others there is none that puzzles him so much as this one: hee ha's a speciall handsome masterpeece (for so he terms her) and is so jealous of her as when any one inquires for his picture, hee simply mistakes himselfe and shewes them Acteon," &c.

Paul Konewka.-A writer in the Allgemeine Zeitung gives a pleasant account of the career and the amiable personal character of Paul Konewka, who died in his 31st year at Berlin, on the 10th of May last, of fever resulting from neglected cold, and whose loss will be not less felt in England and America than in Germany. Herr Konewka was of Polish extraction, but completely German by habit and training. His special talent showed itself early in a passion for cutting out pa