On mineralogy.

On anatomy.

On domestic medicine.

On theology.

Such, then, is a view of the knowledge which may be acquired at Cambridge: and every person will readily acknowledge that it is very considerable, and that a young man in such an University may very well lay a sufficient foundation for future eminence. One advantage must be still added, which I consider as more important than all the rest put together. Every student has free access to a library containing above a hundred thousand volumes, from which he may borrow ten books at once, merely by obtaining a Master of Arts' order. This advantage must give Cambridge a prodigious superiority over Oxford.

Had I not already extended this article beyond the requisite length, I should have wished to have noticed a few particulars which have always struck me as disadvantages attending the English Universities, though it would scarcely be possible to remove them, without introducing changes which could not easily be acceded to. I shall barely hint at one or two circumstances.

The English Universities were established during the dark ages when learning was confined entirely to the clergy. The consequence was, that the sole object in view seems to have been to form clergymen. Hence the numerous régulations which assimilate these Universities to Monasteries. A dissenter, I understand, cannot be admitted into them. Now though I admit that the education of the clergy is a very important point, yet I think that the education of the rest of the community is of at least equal importance. It is preposterous to give all mankind the same education exactly, because they are intended for different professions; and what is of first rate importance to one man is of no use whatever to another. Human life is too short to enable every individual to run the complete career of the sciences; yet it is of infinite importance that a young man should be made acquainted with the first principles of the profession to which he is to devote himself. The lawyer requires one education, the physician another, the clergyman a third. Where in England can a merchant or manufacturer go to acquire those branches of knowledge which he ought to possess?

At the University of Edinburgh there are lectures delivered on the following subjects, which I divide into sets for the greater per→ spicuity :

1. Greek.
2. Latin.

3. Logic.

I. General Literature and Science.

4. Rhetoric.

5. Moral philosophy.

6. Mathematics.

7. Natural philosophy.

8. Astronomy.

9. Natural history.

10. Agriculture

Now any individual that chooses may attend any one of these classes without paying attention to the rest; so that every person has it in his power to select those subjects that are most likely to be of service to him. The consequence is, that in Scotland every country gentleman, every merchant and manufacturer, has enjoyed the advantage of a University education. In England, on the contrary, this advantage is confined to a comparatively small number. You will find more profound scholars, and perhaps men of deeper science, in England than in Scotland. But in the latter country every person has a little, and there is therefore more knowledge upon the whole. It would be a prodigious advantage to England if this eclectic mode of acquiring knowledge were to be introduced into the Universities. But I am sensible that as long as they are powerful political engines, and possessed of such prodigious patronage and power, this can never be the case. Science can never thrive where it is united to politics: the union is unnatural, degrading, and destructive.

4

We cannot dismiss this article without reprobating, in the strongest terms, the manner in which the Universities, and other Public Libraries, have availed themselves of an Act of Parliament passed in the session before last, reviving an obsolete law, whereby authors and publishers are compelled to give 11 copies of ́every book, and of every new edition to which there is any alteration or addition. We forbear to notice the injustice of a law which inflicts a severe tax on one set of individuals for the exclusive advantage of another. We shall merely speak of the extent to which these public bodies avail themselves of the power vested in them; and particularly the richly endowed University of Cambridge, to which more particularly literary men are indebted for the revival of this tax. We are informed that, with the exception of one or two of the libraries, which affect to omit Novels, every book is demanded, however expensive, or useless, or unfit to be placed on the shelves for which they are destined. New editions are demanded, however: small the alteration from the former. We know an instance in which the 11 copies of a book, price 17. 10s., were demanded and received in April of the present, year, and another 11 copies of a new edition in August. There is every reason to believe that the parties who are entrusted to make the demands do not know

what books they order, being satisfied with returning signed the very lists which they receive from the clerk of the Stationers' Company. Had the Universities been required to pay a sum however small, even a tenth of the price of each book, this tax upon literature would have been exacted with much less severity.

ARTICLE IX.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE; AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS
CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE.

I. Lectures.

The Lectures on Midwifery, and the Diseases of Women and Children, at the Middlesex Hospital, by Mr. Merriman, Physician Accoucheur to that Hospital, and Consulting Physician Accoucheur to the Westminster General Dispensary, will recommence on Monday, Oct. 9.

A Course of Lectures on Chemistry will be commenced at the Chemical Theatre, No. 42, Windmill-street, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at nine o'clock in the morning, by Wm. T. Brande, F.R.S. L. and E. Prof. Chem. R. 1. &c.

The Winter Courses of Lectures at the School of Medicine in Ireland, on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Surgery, Chemistry, Materia Medica, Institutes, and Practice of Medicine, will commence on the 6th of November, at their respective hours.-Anatomical Demonstrations will commence the 1st of December.

Dr. Gordon's Lectures on Anatomy and Surgery commence at Edinburgh on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at eleven o clock forenoon; and his Lectures on Institutions of Medicine, consisting of Physiology, Pathology, and Therapeutics, on Monday, Oct. 30, at one o'clock afternoon. Both Courses will be continued till April, five Lectures being delivered weekly in each.

II. Substance sublimed during the Burning of London Bricks. Many of my readers are probably aware that the method of burning bricks in the neighbourhood of London is different from what is practised in any other part of Great Britain, and probably of Europe. The fuel employed is the ashes or cinders which fall from the common fires in the different houses in London, and which are collected daily by the dust-carts. The greatest part of this fuel is mixed with the unburnt bricks; the remainder is strewed between the layers of brick. The kilns are built so as to exclude as much of the air as possible. The consequence is, that the combustion goes on very slowly; three months being frequently requisite to complete the burning of a single kiln. It is to this exclusion of the air that the yellow colour of the London bricks is owing: the outermost row of bricks is always red.

I mentioned in a preceding volume of the Annals of Philosophy that Mr. Trimmer had given me a salt which commonly sublimes during the burning of the London bricks. This salt I found to be sal-ammoniac. The same Gentleman lately put into my hands another substance, which sublimes likewise during the same process, though in much smaller quantity. This substance is usually crystallized in long slender needles. It has the metallic lustre, and a bluish-white colour; but is so delicate in its texture that it can scarcely be collected without falling to powder. In its common state this substance has a blue colour somewhat resembling that of watch springs, and it has but little of the metallic lustre.

It possesses the following properties. When heated in nitric acid, it effervesces, and is converted into a white powder. Before the blow-pipe it readily melts; and if in a state of purity, is speedily reduced into a white metallic globule. This globule is soft and malleable; it dissolves with effervescence in dilute nitric acid. The solution is colourless; it crystallizes, and throws down a white powder when mixed with sulphuric acid or with prussiate of potash. The globule is therefore lead. When the substance in question is not pure, but mixed with earthy matter, it readily melts before the blow-pipe into a dark-coloured glaze; but no metallic globule of lead separates from it, though the heat be kept up a considerable time upon charcoal. These facts are sufficient to demonstrate that this substance sublimed during the burning of London bricks is galena, or sulphuret of lead. Indeed, it has exactly the appearance of the galena after it has been roasted.

This galena must be derived from the cinders of the coals used for burning the bricks. It is very common to observe small strings of galena running through coal beds; and unless I am misinformed, such strings have been frequently observed in the beds of Newcastle coal. As galena is not volatile, at least at the temperature at which bricks are burnt, we must ascribe its sublimation in the present case to the sal-ammoniac, which no doubt carries it along with it. This salt is well known to have the property of carrying along with it those metallic bodies with which it happens to come in contact. III. Queries respecting Valves, with a Description of the Valves in the Human Body.

In this age of improvement and discovery, every mite that is contributed to a public journal, if it is only to open the eyes, and afford any degree of stimulus for others to improve from, must be generally considered worth acceptance; and it is principally with this latter hope that I submit the following remarks to your readers.

What I am about to communicate has considerably engaged my attention for some time past, and has been the means of my consulting every author on hydrostatics possibly within my command, but wholly without affording me the least satisfaction as to what I VOL. VI. N° IV.

U

sought after, which consists in the construction of a valve applicable to this part of science, that must be in a great measure very complete. I mean those after the manner of the valves of the human body. I believe it is an indisputable maxim that the nearer we approach to the mechanism of the vital frame, and to the operation of nature, in all of our endeavours, the nearer we conceive and find we reach to perfection.

The valves of the human body every anatomist must be fully aware are constructed on an inimitable principle; and for what an infinite space of time do we often behold those most important organs performing their office uninterrupted and unimpaired. I cannot but imagine that this plan must have been contemplated by many, and even put into practice; but being unable to discover any account of its being attempted, I should feel myself under a great obligation to you, or any of your correspondents, that would give me the necessary information.

A few weeks since I constructed a temporary model of a pump on the plan alluded to, by fixing the valve within a piece of large barometer tube, by which means its action could be plainly perceived: and as I conceive many of your ingenious readers may not perfectly comprehend the manner in which the valves I alluded to are constructed in the human body, I have subjoined a slight sketch of them, and hope it may prove sufficiently illustrative. It is greatly with the hope that some more able mechanic than myself will devise a proper plan for securing the valve, and discover those materials that will best answer the purpose, and erect one on a large and useful scale.

The materials of which the valve itself must be composed appears to be the greatest obstacle to their general employment. I firmly hope that this is within the reach of many: and if this paper should be the means of drawing any able person's attention to the subject, I doubt not but their labours would be deservedly crowned with success.

The substance I used was that of a bullock's bladder, as being the strongest and most flexible substance capable of being moulded to the proper form, that I could then procure to make my experi ments; but this substance we know is subject to a very rapid decay, especially when immersed in many fluids.