elegant, without being elaborate; they are handsomely engraved on wood; and if the book has the influence among school-committees which its merits deserve, our school-houses will soon become a credit to the taste as well as to the intelligence of the country.

To all this, Mr. Johonnot has added a full description of the most approved school-furniture and apparatus, so that a school may be supplied with everything necessary to its highest success without recourse to untried and costly experiments; and his chapters on Light, and especially on Heating and Ventilation, are of a value and importance which we believe it would be impossible to exaggerate. No treatise with which we are acquainted discusses the practical aspects of these subjects at once so comprehensively, lucidly, and concisely.

The mechanical part of the book is admirable, and will no doubt contribute largely to its suc

cess.

SCIENCE.

December Eclipse of the Sun.-Preparations are on foot for another eclipse expedition, for again will there be an eclipse of the sun in December; but this year the observers will have to go farther south than last year, even to India, Ceylon, and Australia. The Indian government will take care that the observatories under their administration shall do what is required; and at Melbourne the government astronomer may be expected to make good observations, while Ceylon, as we hear, is to be expressly visited by an astronomer from this country. Among the observations, particular pains are to be taken in obtaining good photographs of the corona, with a view, if possible, to gain further information on some of the phenomena.-Chambers's Journal.

The Lygodium palmatum in New Jersey, within 32 miles of New York.-In the June number of the "Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club," in Notes by Rev. S. Lockwood, of Freehold, N. J., it is stated, "In October, 1869, I found and collected beautiful specimens in fruit of the climbing fern, Lygodium palmatum, not very far from Keyport, N. J." At the Monmouth County Agricultural Fair, held this Fall at Freehold, the daughter of this gentleman exhibited, under the name,

"A Cryptogam Garden," a case of mosses, fungi, lichens, and ferns, all in growing condition, and gathered from the woods of Monmouth county, N. J., in which collection the graceful and delicate Lygodium was the queen of attraction. Mr. Lockwood says, that when he discovered this beautiful and rare fern, he was almost overcome with joy.

Sir Wm. Thomson at Edinburgh.-The "inaugural address" of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was delivered at Edinburgh on August 2d, by Sir W. Thomson. His address was mainly occupied with accounts of the great benefit derived by the world from purely scientific and apparently infructuous investigations, and of the achievements of the year in science, the most striking of which is the evidence collected, now almost irresistible, of the nature of comets.

It appears to be demonstrated by the spectrum analysis that the nucleus of comets is a driving train of meteoric stones, and that the tails are trains of minute planets, of which a few thousands or millions strike the earth every 14th of November when we pass through the tail of Tempel's comet. The tails are illuminated by sunlight, according to many conditions, one of which is the tactical arrangement of the rushing squadrons of meteorolites. Sir W. Thomson believes in evolution as a zoological truth, though not as a biological truth, and he startled Edinburgh by one of the wildest fancies we ever remember to have read. Life, he says, can only come from life-which is true, and is the best argument we know of for a living Creator-but life might have been born on this earth through the fall of a moss-covered aerolite from some shattered planet, which might even have on it some living animal. The idea of anything living after it had been hurled through airless space and through our buckler of atmosphere is certainly dreamy enough for science. There is not an atom of evidence for it, there is nothing gained by it-for how did life come in the shattered world?—and it is utterly inconsistent with what we take to be nearly proved, that no planet has, or can have, precisely the atmosphere of ours. How, then, could the moss bred there live here, any more than roses on Mount Everest?

Deep-Sea Explorations.-Dr. Carpenter has communicated to the zoological section of the British Association the substance of a letter received by him from the First Lord of the Admiralty, in which the government have expressed their willingness to support Dr. Carpenter's scheme of prosecuting deep-sea explorations throughout the Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Pacific Oceans. This substantial acknowledgment of the services already rendered by this successful deep-sea explorer and his talented coadjutors will be received by every scientific man with the same unqualified degree of satisfaction that characterized its announcement to the Association.

Difficulties of the Hypothesis of an Amazonian Glacier.-Professor James Orton, in a paper extracted from the Annals of the American Academy of Sciences, severely criticizes Agassiz's theory of an Amazonian glacier. He announces the discovery of extensive beds of tertiary fresh-water shells in beautiful preservation at several points on the Upper Amazon, in the very deposits considered to be the mud produced by the grinding power of the glacier. He shows that all critical tests of glacial action are absent; and he exhibits in a striking manner the overwelming difficulties in the way of conceiving the existence of such a glacier. The mer de glace has a slope of about 14°; the Amazon valley for 1,600 miles has a slope of only o° 8' 5", or about 2 in. in a mile. Now, even if we make the extreme supposition that a glacier could move along this almost perfect level as fast as the mer de glace on a slope more than a hundred times as great, it would yet take 20,000 years for the ice to pass from the foot of the Andes to the Atlantic coast. But in order for the ice not to melt during these 20,000 years, on the equator and almost at the sea level, the mean temperature of the atmosphere must have been at or below the freezing-point !, What, then, must

have been the temperature of the extra-tropical parts of the earth? and how did the tropical fauna and flora manage to exist at all during this glacial epoch? The proofs of continuity of the forms of life from the Miocene through the Pliocene and post-Pliocene to the modern epoch are so complete, that the supposition of so gigantic a revolution in the climate of the globe as an Amazon glacier implies, requires an overwhelming mass of facts to support it; and it must ever be a matter of surprise that a man of Professor Agassiz's reputation and ability should have put it forth with so little consideration of its consequences, and resting on such a scanty basis of facts that it has not gained a single scientific adherent.

Spontaneous Generation.—Dr. Crace Calvert read at the British Association a paper "On the Action of Heat on Germ Life," in which he successfully combats the views of the advocates of abiogenesis. His late experiments tend, moreover, to show that infusorial life resists a far higher degree of heat than has been hitherto supposed. The boiling-point of water has usually been considered sufficient to deprive every living particle of its vitality, but according to Dr. Calvert vibrios will resist a temperature of 300" Fahr., and it is only at the higher one of 400° that their movements entirely cease. The same organic atoms have been subjected by this experimenter to an amount of cold 17° below the freezing-point of water, yet on the ice being melted, these animalcules have gradually resumed their former characteristic activity.

Professor Agassiz at Work.-Professor Agassiz is about setting out from Boston on a deep-sea survey of the oceans bordering America. He has at his orders a new United States coast-survey steamer fitted for the purpose. She will carry a dredging apparatus capable of working at a depth of 3,000 fathoms, and the professor intends making a zig-zag course between the eastern coast of America and the deepest part of the Atlantic as far as Cape Horn, and so up the western coast to San Francisco, dredging all the way. He anticipates a new revelation of the condition of animal

life from those unknown depths. Another item of scientific interest is the photographing of the fixed stars by Mr. Rutherford, of New York, already noted for his photographs of the moon. He is engaged in photographing those notable groups of stars sufficiently compact to come on the field of the astronomical camera, and the result of his labor is such that the relative distances of the stars from each other are now measured with one-tenth of the error which obtained in previous measurements. What seems most singular in these photographs is that the stars appear with distinctly defined round disks, though to telescopic vision even they are points merely. This is owing to the deviation of the ray from the right line, or what is known as twinkling, which in the photograph, by the regularity of its deviation on all sides produces a disk, the centre of which is the exact location of the star. Professor Pierce, of Harvard University, Professor of Astronomy, anticipates important results in calculating the movement of the stellar system, this hitherto unattainable exactitude of measurement enabling the observer to verify movements previously only suspected.

New Theory of the Sun.-Professor W. A. Norton, of the United States, has examined the several theories recently put forth to explain the physical constitution of the sun, and has stated his own views in an American periodical. The theories assume that the mass of the sun is entirely gaseous, and that light and heat are occasioned by the constant movement of the gaseous matter; that which was within rising to the surface, while that from the surface descends to the interior. Besides this, it has been thought that the so-called red prominences seen during an eclipse are produced by vehement eruptions of masses of incandescent hydrogen, stretching to almost incredible distances. Professor Norton believes that the phenomena observed in the sun, and its influence in the universe, are an effect of repulsion; and that the solar repulsion consists of a series of impulses propagated in waves through the ether of space, and taking effect upon atoms of different sizes with varying intensity. He regards heat as the origin of this repulsion, and brings forward instances to show that heated particles have a re

pulsive tendency. Pure silica, for example, in a

state of powder, when heated, behaves somewhat as a fluid; the particles slide easily over each other, and the surface undulates. Also, it is well known that the flow of water through pipes is facilitated by heat; in other words, the frictional resistance is diminished. The lightest vapors on the sun rise to the surface, and there, meeting with oxygen, heat is developed; after which the particles descend, and play their part in building up the solid nucleus of the sun. By some such process, it is supposed, the solid mass of our earth was formed. Professor Norton illustrates his argument by a reference to comets, and concludes: "If we transfer to cometary bodies the physical structure we have recognized in the sun's upper photosphere—namely, the existence of a succession of light vaporous envelopes, subject to the energetic faction of the force of heat repulsion, the mystery in which some of the curious transformations they undergo have hitherto been involved seems to be in a great degree dispelled." These conclusions, we may remark, are supported by the researches of other observers, among which Mr. Sorby's results are noteworthy. Long and care

ful examination of meteorites under the microscope led this gentleman to the conclusion, that the materials of which they were composed had been at one time in a state of vapor. On cooling, this vapor condensed into a sort of cometary cloud, formed of small crystals and minute drops of melted stony matter, and being in a violent state of commotion, the particles were often broken by collision. From this it might be inferred that meteors as well as comets were originally nothing more than vaporous matter thrown off

from the sun.

In presence of these views and conclusions, it seems opportune that the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna has offered a prize for the discovery of comets. It is suggested that the many amateur astronomers who now watch the sky should devote themselves to this task, seeing that observatories, wherever situate, have for the most part no time for other than their special class of observations. Out of the many thousands of comets which are believed to exist, not more than

from two hundred to three hundred are known; and it has now become important that our knowledge of these faint bodies should be multiplied. The prize is to be a gold medal or twenty Austrian ducats, and for this eight comets are to be discovered.-Chambers's Journal.

Interesting to Firemen.-The beneficial effects of using cotton-wool as a respirator have led Professor Tyndall to make experiments on the best form of respirator for firemen, who, in the discharge of their duty, have often to work amid dense smoke. In some kinds of smoke, cotton-wool placed over the mouth is a sufficient protection; but it is ineffectual against the pungent fumes of resin, unless moistened with glycerine. Dr. Tyndall therefore contrived a respirator which may be described as a cage of metal and wire-gauze of proper shape, in which, opposite the mouth and nostrils, are placed, first a layer of cotton-wool moistened with gly. cerine, then a layer of dry wool, a layer of small pieces of charcoal, another layer of dry wool, and last, a layer of small pieces of caustic lime. With a respirator of this kind over their mouths, and their eyes protected by proper glasses, Dr. Tyndall and his assistant have staid for an hour in a stone room, where, from fires of pine-wood, the smoke was so dense and pungent that a single inhalation without the respirator would have been unendurable; and they might have prolonged their stay for hours. This was so satisfactory, that Dr. Tyndall invited Captain Shaw of the London Fire Brigade with some of his men to witness and test the experiment. The result was equally successful; and since then the respirator has been perfected, and suitable hoods to which they are fitted have been constructed, so that henceforth the firemen of London will be able to pass unharmed through the most stifling smoke.

Food in Besieged Paris.-The publication of scientific periodicals in Paris, interrupted by the war, has now resumed its natural course, and many interesting details come to us of what was done by scientific men during the two sieges. It is worthy of record that the Academie des Sciences kept up their meetings regularly. Among the papers published in their Comptes Rendus is one, unfortunately posthumous, by M. Payen, the eminent chemist, on the way in which the Parisians eked out or multiplied their food resources during the prolonged investment of their city. All the stable-manure was spread thickly over neigh boring gardens, and converted into forcing-beds for vegetables. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, celery, and beet-root were grown under glass, and found a ready sale, or were given away as rations, to the prevention of scurvy. The beet-roots were baked before distribution. It was admitted that great manure-heaps smell badly; but the smell is one that does not kill, and while there is no stagnant water near the heaps, danger is not to be apprehended. The blood collected from slaughterhouses was, before the war, made into a fertilizer for exportation; but during the siege it was eaten in the form of black puddings or sausages; and all the scraps of skins, tendons, entrails, and such like, instead of being converted into glue, were cunningly treated, and made as relishing as the sheep's trotters so largely sold in Paris. By this there was not only gain in food, but an avoiding

The

of the putrescence that would have arisen in heaps of animal refuse. The supply of salad oil failed. A substitute was found in horse-fat, which is of a soft, oily nature: when clarified, it was used in cookery, and horse-dripping was relished on toast, Mixed with beef and mutton fat, it had a softening effect, and was sold as "beurre de Paris"-Paris butter. In many instances, the fat was necessarily "high," but a way was found to purify it. The taint is imparted by odorous volatile acids. fat was heated to 225 degrees, and then sprinkled with water in the commotion that followed, the ill-smelling acids flew off with the steam. Clever cooks sometimes purify slices of meat in a fryingpan in a similar way; and by the same means, colza oil or tallow may be freed from their unpleasant elements. Another resource was albumen, the millions of dried whites of eggs prepared for the use of muslin-dyers. These soaked in water were eaten au naturel, or became useful in cook. ery. Another was the hundreds of thousands of kilogrammes of potato pulp provided in underground cisterns, to be converted into syrups for brewers, confectioners, liqueur-makers: all this was diverted from its intended use, and mixed with flour, to augment the store of bread. Such were some of the devices by which the beleaguered city kept itself alive. It is said that not a few of the arts thus practised in extremity will become permanent. Visitors to the French capital should beware of "beurre de Paris," and of the glue which is as nice as trotters.

A Mountain Railroad.-Tourists and holiday. folk who wish to get to the top of a mountain without fatigue will perhaps take pleasure in the fact, that the railway up the Righi is opened to a height of 4,000 feet. It is to be extended to the very summit; meanwhile, parties may visit the baths, or ascend to the Kulm, and enjoy the prospect, and return to Lucerne or any other town on the lake easily within the day. But the making of the line has not been easy. It commences with a turn-table at Vitznau, a few yards from the shore of the lake, and ascends the slope at an angle which soon becomes 25 in 100, which may be considered as a steep gradient; and at this rate it zigzags to the upper terminus. At the height of 1,000 feet, it passes through a tunnel, and next crosses a deep ravine by a viaduct, which, in addition to its angle of 25 feet in 100, has a curve of 280 metres radius. The trains on this curious railway comprise the engine and one carriage. The carriage has two floors or stories, with seats for eighty passengers, and in the ascent is pushed by the engine. The distance to be travelled is three and a half English miles, and the time required for the journey is more than an hourfrom which it will be understood that the speed is not great.

ART.

Some Curious "Restorations."-In the current number of the Revue des Deux Mondes, M. Ravaisson discusses the old question of the original form and position of the Venus of Milo, which he thinks may be solved more easily now, since some pieces of plaster have come off during the burial of the statue and the original joints have once more become apparent. He returns to the theory

of Quatremère de Quincy, according to which the figure formed part of a group representing Venus disarming Mars. At the same time he strongly deprecates the barbarous habit of a so-called "restoration "a habit which, he says, was still in vogue when the Venus of Milo first came to the Louvre. At that time all the antiques used to be "repaired" and "made like new.' First the wanting pieces were replaced by bits taken from other antique statues. A great number of statues carry to this day heads upon their shoulders which do not belong to them--heads sometimes of totally different periods, and, moreover, as ill fitting as can be. Without leaving the Louvre, more than one Greek statue may be seen surmounted by a head belonging to a Roman one, and many a statue of god or goddess with the head of an entirely different male or female deity. Whenever there was no antique bit handy, other pieces had to supply the want, sometimes derived from the chisel of a common artist, sometimes from that of a master-a Montorsoli, Guglielmo della Porta, or at times Michel Angelo. Hence also the Louvre boasts of an Apollo of archaic Greek style, who, by dint of the attributes supplied to him, has been turned into a Bonus Eventus, a deity of the low Roman period, and of a wounded Amazon, whose tunic, invariably lifted up over the knee of the ancients, has been replaced by a long many-folded robe.

Yet even when the res

toration is made with knowledge and taste, it cannot but produce a want of harmony, and break up the unity of style and execution, the more so, as the antique portions have generally been touched up to make them fit in with the restorations and their new aspect. Thus the "Diane Chasseresse " was restored by Barthélemy Prieur, who not only supplied the missing portions, but "touched up all the ancient parts as well. The same is the case with regard to the Pallas of Velletri, and many of the most beautiful statues to be found in the other museums of Europe, more especially the Vatican, such as the Apollo of Belvidere, the Laocoon, and the Venus of Medici. Hence it has happened that in comparing sculptures since brought to light, which have not been retouched in this manner and still bear the unmutilated impression of the Greek chisel, some have been led to underestimate the age of many long-celebrated works, and to trace their origin to the so-called Roman period when execution had become much enfeebled. And yet some portions of replicas of these same statues which have fortunately been preserved intact prove incontestably their genuine Greek workmanship. M. Ravaisson advises the removal of all the "improvements" hitherto wrought upon the Venus of Milo; and except one or two little touches, perhaps, about the extremities of the nose and lips, which are absolutely necessary, that henceforth the statue should be exhibited in the original form in which it was found.

Mr. Farves on American Taste in Art.-I sometimes think that there is more æsthetic bottom to the half-fledged American people than to any of the older races at this moment. It has often happened to me to witness the impressions received from works of art by amateurs of different nations, and their constitutional varieties of temperament as regards them. The average Englishman-I

speak of the cultivated amateur-is an intellectual lover of art in relation to its historical antecedents rather than its aesthetic aspects. He appreciates the relative power of names, styles, and characterization in a serious way, with exuberance of feeling; judges cautiously, but dogmatically, and on the whole fairly, though apt to let his strong likings take the transient impress of a fashion for this or that object or artist. A Frenchman gets animated, analyzes keenly technical points, compares quickly, criticizes decisively and incisively, generally from the material aspect of art, though prone to discover and enjoy the spirituel element. His delight is positive and detective; somewhat narrow in its spiritual apprehension, but intense in its peculiar direction. Germans manifest more genealogical and historical acumen, perceiving details, and drawing inferences overlooked by others, and are prone to speculate thereon. Theirs is a sound, hearty, and learned enjoyment; slightly "dry-as-dust," but instructive. The Russian is more of a cosmopolitan amateur, with no very decided preferences, but disposed to enjoy everything after its kind, without tormenting himself with carping criticism or superfluous investigation. If he be less informed than the other nationalities, he has a compensation in a quick eye and active sensibilities. An Italian amateur is chiefly made up of the traditions of his past; has but slight knowledge or interest in the present; rejoices in the reflected glory of the old masters; is local and isolated in taste and judgment, but æsthetic in feeling and sensitive to impressions; less disposed to critical analysis and independent judgment than the Frenchman, but more appreciative of the whole. He accepts a reputation as it has descended to him, understands the good points of his special school, and retains something of the old disturbing jealousy which magnifies one's own city at the expense of a rival's.

This sketch is superficial, but has recognizable fact for a foundation. In remarking that the American amateur may have more æsthetic bottom than the European, I do not imply that he is his equal in culture, but that his incipient taste has a freer range; that he has a nice detective instinct, is quick at apprehending and applying, has no prejudices of national training to uproot-his drawbacks to a catholic comprehension of art being more negative than positive-that he inclines to the true and beautiful, enjoying both just as fast as he has an opportunity to get acquainted with them; that he is either extremely reticent or enthusiastic in his preference; and, finally, that as to form the American type of man all civilizations are fused into one new being, so the coming American amateur bids fair to be more susceptible to æsthetic influences than any other. With this large susceptibility, there is dawning an equal ambition, crude and unformed now, but only lacking the knowledge which comes from culture and experience, to do away from America the reproach now cast on it by learned Europeans, of being a great nation destitute of any art.

The Venus of Milo.-On disinterring the Venus of Milo from its concealment in the cellar of the Prefecture of Police, it is found that the damp has loosened the plaster by which the two blocks composing the statue were joined, just above the hips. It also appears that though the

surfaces of the two blocks show that they originally fitted firmly upon each other, the artists of the Louvre, who joined them together, had inserted thin bits of wood, throwing the upper part of the statue a little forward, and imparting that bend which characterized the statue; the perpendicular line from the chin being made to fall upon the point of the supporting foot instead of the instep, as the Grecian artist designed it. The question now before the Institute is whether the "French bend" shall be preserved or the erect Grecian attitude restored.

Losses at the Tuileries.-When the Garden of

found most of the statues defaced or wholly destroyed. The colossal figure of Peace, by Chaudet, was burned by petroleum; the statue of Agrippina had lost her head and her right arm; Cybele pointed with the stump of her left arm to the missing skirt in which her missing right arm once held sundry fruits of the earth, now missing likewise; Pradier's Prometheus was but little injured, while the Serpent-Charmer, dedicated by Clesinger to the Prince Imperial, belonging to the Jardin Réservé, was found literally riddled with shot, hacked with bayonets, and otherwise mutilated in the most disgraceful manner.

Sacrilege at Nuremberg.--The barbarity of commercial utilitarianism, it seems, is fast invading the chosen city of German art-Nuremberg itself; and Dürer's walls are condemned in the name of municipal improvement. At present it is only decreed to raze the ramparts and fill the moat in certain places here and there, "for the sake of air and light; but the correspondent who with praiseworthy indignation reports the sacrilege to one of the art-journals of his country seems to have small faith in the ultimate moderation of its perpetrators.

The treatment of the eyes in ancient statuary receives a new light from a bronze figure which has just arrived at the British Museum, having been rescued by divers from deep water off the coast of the island of Rhodes. This is apparently a Roman figure of Cupid, broken in three parts, and covered with marine growths and shells; of no great artistic value except for the rarity of having the two eyes in their places, and consisting of small garnets cut to a point.

VARIETIES.

The and the confederate railway swindlers. Judges nominated by Tammany Hall are notoriously paid agents of the Erie Directors, who also control the Legislature at Albany. A part of the plunder obtained by railway frauds and by municipal corruption is employed in the payment of subordinate accomplices and in the management of elections. Another portion, awarded in violation of all American principles to the maintenance of Roman Catholic schools, purchases the connivance of the priests and the active support of their disciples. There is probably no precedent in history for so mean, so audacious, and so successful a conspiracy. The managers of the system, profiting by the demoralization which they have themselves created, scarcely take the trouble to excuse their insolent frauds. The wealthiest traders find it more convenient to pay enormous taxes than to resist, and the respectable population is powerless against the rabble and its nominees. London rate-payers who habitually grumble at the inefficiency and wastefulness of the parochial King Log will do well to remember that a King Stork constituted on the New York model might impose on a city three times as populous as New York a taxation of fifteen millions sterling. -Saturday Review.

The American Lyceum.-Among the peculiarities of American life which nobody born out of the country can be expected to understand, is the strange fondness of a lively and intelligent people for Lyceums and Pie. Against pie there has at last been a revolt. This sacred dish has been denounced both in the press and from the platform as nasty and unwholesome. The Union has survived the impious attack on a national institution, but there is reason to fear that the consumption of this horrible delicacy has not as yet been materially diminished by the abuse which has been lavished on it. It is something, however, that its supremacy should have been challenged and its merits thrown open to discussion. A morbid appetite is always the most difficult to eradicate, and it is evident that the American passion for pie must be left to die out gradually, along with its unhappy victims. The Lyceum system has also, it appears, been somewhat shaken of late. While the host of lecturers has multiplied in all directions, audiences have been gradually dwindling away. There are laments that even the most thrilling course of lectures, with plenty of "stars," and with patriotic and comic subjects well mixed together, will hardly draw now. A frivolous and dissipated generation is turning away from the solemn and Young edifying recreations of its ancestors. America, arrived at years of discretion, shuns the