Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

Mr. Darwin, in his very interesting _Journal of a Voyage round the World_, relates that he was one day dining with a gentleman at Coquimbo, when a sharp earthquake happened. He heard the forthcoming rumble, but from the screams of the ladies, the running of servants, and the rush of several of the gentlemen to the doorway, he could not distinguish the motion. Some of the women afterwards were crying with terror, and one gentleman said he should not be able to sleep all night, or if he did, it would only be to dream of falling houses. The father of this person had lately lost all his property at Talcahuano, and he himself had only just escaped a falling roof at Valparaiso, in 1822. He mentioned a curious coincidence which then happened: he was playing at cards, when a German, one of the party, got up, and said he would never sit in a room in these countries with the door shut, as, owing to his having done so, he had nearly lost his life at Copiapo. Accordingly, he opened the door; and no sooner had he done this, than he cried out, "Here it comes again!" and the famous shock commenced. The whole party escaped. The danger in an earthquake is not from the time lost in opening a door, but from the chance of its becoming jammed by the movement of the walls.

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CUVIER IN LONDON.

When Cuvier visited England, in 1818, in conversing with the Prince Regent on the subject of our Natural History Collections, he suggested the union of all the private collections in one great national museum, which, from the extent of our colonial possessions, he conceived would surpass every other collection in Europe.

During the great naturalist's stay in London, he was gratified with the sight of a Westminster election, in which he saw the practical working of one of our most important political institutions. "At this period," says his biographer, Mrs. Lee, "the election for Westminster was going forward, and he frequently dwelt upon the amusement he had received from being on the hustings every day. These orgies of liberty were then unknown in France; and it was a curious spectacle for a man who reflected so deeply on everything which passed before him, to see and hear our orators crying out at the top of their voices to the mob, who pelted them with mud, cabbages, eggs, &c. &c.; and Sir Murray Maxwell, in his splendid uniform, and decorated with orders, flattering the crowd who resisted him, and sent at his head all the varieties of the vegetable kingdom. Nothing ever effaced this impression from Cuvier's memory, who frequently described the scene with great animation."

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THE FIRST CUP OF TEA DRUNK IN ENGLAND.

In all probability, the first cup of Tea made in England was drunk upon the site of Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park; for the Earl of Arlington took the first pound of tea to England, having bought it in Holland for sixty shillings; and at this time the Earl resided at Arlington House, which was taken down to make room for Buckingham House, since altered to the Queen's Palace.

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BENEFIT OF A WIFE TO AN AUTHOR.

The wife of Nathaniel Bowditch was a woman of singular sweetness of disposition and cheerful piety, who, by her entire sympathy with her husband in all his studies and pursuits, lightened and cheered his labours; and by relieving him from all domestic cares, enabled him to go on with undivided mind and undistracted attention, in the execution of his great work--the translation of Laplace's _Mécanique Celeste_, on which his fame as a man of science rests. He had been heard to say that he never should have accomplished the task, and published the book in its present extended form, had he not been stimulated and encouraged by her. When the serious question was under consideration as to the expediency of Bowditch's publishing it at his own expense, at the estimated cost of 10,000 dollars, (which it actually exceeded,) with the noble spirit of her sex, his wife conjured and urged him to go on and do it, saying that she would find the means, and gladly make any sacrifice, and submit to any self-denial that might be involved in it. In grateful acknowledgment of her sympathy and aid, he proposed, in the concluding volume, to dedicate the work to her memory, (she died in 1834)--a design than which nothing could be more beautiful or touching.[3]

In the course of his labour, Dr. Bowditch used to say, "I never come across one of Laplace's _Thus it plainly appears_, without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me to fill up the chasm, and find out and show _how_ it plainly appears."

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Footnote 3:

It is highly honourable to the sex, that the only exposition of
Laplace's work that has (1848) appeared in England, is from the pen of
a female--the accomplished Mary Somerville, wife of Dr. Somerville, of
Chelsea Hospital. This was published under the title of the _Mechanism
of the Heavens_, of which, it is observed, in the _Edinburgh Review_,
"this, unquestionably, is one of the most remarkable works that female
intellect ever produced in any age or country; and with respect to the
present day, we hazard little in saying that Mrs. Somerville is the
only individual of her sex in the world who could have written it."
For this signal service to science, there was conferred upon the lady
a pension of 300_l._ per annum, at the recommendation of Sir Robert
Peel.

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THE WORLD IN A DROP OF WATER.

The microscope has shown that a drop of water though it may appear to the naked eye to be perfectly clear, is swarming with living beings. According to Ehrenberg, a cubic inch of water may contain more than 800,000 millions of these beings, estimating them only to occupy one fourth of its space; and a single drop, placed under the microscope, will be seen to hold 500 millions; an amount, perhaps, not so very far from equal to the whole number of human beings on the surface of our globe!

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ORIGIN OF POST-PAID ENVELOPES.

M. Piron tells us, that the idea of a Post-paid Envelope originated, early in the reign of Louis XIV., with M. de Velayer, who, in 1653, established, with royal approbation, a private penny post, placing boxes at the corners of the streets for the reception of letters, wrapped up in envelopes, which were to be bought at offices established for that purpose.

M. de Velayer also caused to be printed certain forms of _billets_, or notes applicable to the ordinary business among the inhabitants of great towns, with blanks, which were to be filled up by the pen with such special matter as might complete the writer's object. One of these _billets_ has been preserved to our times by a pleasant misapplication of it. Pelisson, Mde. de Sevigné's friend, and the object of the _bon mot_, that "he abused the privilege which men have of being ugly," was amused at this kind of skeleton correspondence; and under the affected name of _Pisandre_, (according to the pedantic fashion of the day,) he filled up and addressed one of these forms to the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scuderi, in her _pseudonyme of Sappho_. This strange _billet-doux_ has happened, from the celebrity of the parties, to be preserved, and is still extant: one of the oldest, we presume, of penny-post letters, and a curious example of a pre-paying envelope--as well as a new proof of the adage, that "there is nothing new under the sun."

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CHARACTER IN WORKS.

Telford, the engineer, relates that he came to London in 1782, and got employed at the quadrangle of Somerset house-buildings; he soon became known to Sir William Chambers and Mr. R. Adam, the two most distinguished architects of that day; the former haughty and reserved, the latter affable and communicative; and a similar distinction of character pervades their works, Sir William's being stiff and formal, and those of Mr. Adam, playful and gay.

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BRINDLEY, THE ENGINEER.

Though one of the most successful engineers of his age, Brindley was so illiterate as to be scarcely able to read or to write. By his unrivalled powers of abstraction and memory, he often executed his plans without committing them to paper; and when he was engaged in any difficult or complex undertaking, he was in the habit of retiring to bed, where he often remained for two or three days, till he had thoroughly completed his design. So singular, indeed, was the structure of his mind, that the spectacle of a play in London, disturbed to such a degree the balance of its mechanism, that he could not, for some time, resume his usual pursuits.

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REASON FOR SILENCE.

Some one asked Fontaine, the celebrated geometrician, what he did in society where he remained almost perfectly silent. "I study," replied he, "the vanity of men, in order to mortify it occasionally."

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ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU ALP.

In 1841, Professor Forbes, along with M. Agassiz, and others, made a successful ascent of the great Swiss mountain, the Jungfrau, whose summit is 13,720 feet above the level of the sea.

Of six travellers and seven guides who formed the party, four of each reached the top--viz., of the former, MM. Forbes, Agassiz, Desor, and Duchatelies; of the latter, Jacob Leutvold (who ascended the Finster Aarhorn,) Johan Jannon, Melchior, Baucholzer, and Andreas Aplanalp. They left the Grimsel on the morning of the 27th of August, 1841, ascended the whole height of the Ober-Aar Glacier, and descended the greater part of that of Viesch. Crossing a col to the right, they slept at the chalet of Aletsch, near the lake of that name. This was twelve hours' hard walking, the descent of the glaciers being difficult and fatiguing. Next day, the party started at six a.m., having been unable sooner to procure a ladder, to cross the crevices; they then traversed the upper part of the glacier of Aletsch in its whole extent for four hours and a half, until the ascent of the Jungfrau began.

The party crossed with great caution extensive and steep fields of fresh snow, concealing crevices, till they came to one which opened vertically, and behind which rose an excessively steep wall of hardened snow. Having crossed the crevices with the ladder, they ascended the snow without much danger, owing to its consistency. After some similar walking they gained the col, which separates the Aletsch Glacier from the Rothal, on the side of Lauterbrunnen, by which the ascent has usually been attempted. Thus, the travellers, although now at a height of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet, had by far the hardest and most perilous part of the ascent to accomplish. The whole upper part of the mountain presented a steep, inclined surface of what at first seemed snow, but which soon appeared to be hard ice. This slope was not less than 800 or 900 feet in perpendicular height, and its surface (which Professor Forbes measured several times with a clinometer,) in many places rose at 45 degrees, and in few much less; and all Alpine travellers know well what an inclined surface of 45 degrees is to walk up. Of course, every step taken was cut with the hatchet, whilst the slope terminated below, on both sides in precipices some thousand feet high. After very severe exertion, they reached the top of this great mountain, at four p.m. The summit was so small that but one person could stand upon it at once, and that not until the snow had been flattened. The party returned as they came up, step by step, and backwards, and arrived at the chalets of Aletsch, and by beautiful moonlight, at half-past eleven at night.

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THE STEAM-GUN IN THE FIFTEENTH
CENTURY.

In 1841, M. Delectuze discovered, among the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, an entry carrying a knowledge of the steam-engine, applied to warfare, to at least as far back as the fifteenth century. He has published in the _Artiste_, a notice of the life of Leonardo, to which he adds a fac-simile of a page of one of his manuscripts, containing five pen-and-ink sketches of details of the apparatus of a Steam Gun, with an explanatory note on what he designates the "Architonnere." The entry is as follows:--

Invention of Archimedes. The architonnere is a machine of fine copper, which throws balls with a loud report and great force. It is used in the following manner:--One-third of the instrument contains a large quantity of charcoal fire. When the water is well heated, a screw at the top of the vessel which contains the water must be made quite tight. On closing the screw above, all the water will escape below, will descend into the heated portion of the instrument, and be immediately converted into a vapour so abundant and powerful, that it is wonderful to see its force, and hear the noise it produces. This machine will carry a ball a talent in weight."

It is worthy of remark that Leonardo da Vinci, far from claiming the merit of this invention for himself or the men of his time, attributes it to Archimedes. The Steam Gun of our time has been an exhibition-room wonder; and the prediction of the Duke of Wellington that it would fail in warfare, has never been, and is never likely to be, tested.

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ANCIENT OBSERVATORY IN PERSIA.

When Sir John Malcolm visited Maraga, he traced distinctly the foundations of the Observatory, constructed in the 13th century, for Naser-ood-Deen, the favourite philosopher of the Tartar prince, Hoolakoo, the grandson of Ghenghiz, who, in this locality relaxed from his warlike toils, and assembled round him men of the first genius of the age, who have commemorated his love of science, and given him more fame as its munificent patron, than he acquired by all his conquests.

In this observatory there was, according to one of the best Mahomedan works, a species of apparatus to represent the celestial sphere, with the signs of the zodiac, the conjunctions, transits, and revolutions of the heavenly bodies. Through a perforation in the dome, the rays of the sun were admitted, so as to strike upon certain lines on the pavement in a way to indicate, in degrees and minutes, the altitude and declination of that luminary during every season, and to mark the time and hour of the day throughout the year. The Observatory was further supplied with a map of the terrestrial globe, in all its climates or zones, exhibiting the several regions of the habitable world, as well as a general outline of the ocean, with the numerous islands contained in its bosom; and, according to the Mahomedan author, all these were so perspicuously arranged and delineated, as at once to remove, by the clearest demonstration, every doubt from the mind of the student.

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LONDON AS A PORT.

Sir John Herschel, who possesses in an eminent degree, the peculiar talent of felicitously illustrating every subject that he approaches, in his valuable _Treatise on Astronomy_, thus refers to the situation of London as a Port:--"It is a fact, not a little interesting to Englishmen, and combined with our insular station in that highway of nations, the Atlantic, not a little explanatory of our commercial eminence, that LONDON _occupies nearly the centre of the terrestrial hemisphere_."

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FOURDRINIER'S PAPER-MAKING MACHINERY.

On April 25, 1839, some very interesting details of Fourdrinier's Machinery for making Paper of endless length, were elicited during a debate in the House of Commons, upon the presentation of a petition from these ingenious manufacturers. It appears that 1000 yards, or any given quantity of yards, of paper could be continuously made by it. Many years since, the invention was patented; but, owing to a mistake in the patent--the word "machine" being written instead of "machines"--the property was pirated, and that led to litigations, in which the patentees' funds were exhausted before they could establish their rights. They then became bankrupts, and thus all the fruits of their invention, on which they had spent 40,000_l._, were entirely lost to them.

The evidence of Mr. Brunel, and of Mr. Lawson, the printer of _The Times_, proved the invention of the Fourdriniers to be one of the most splendid discoveries of the age. Mr. Lawson stated that the conductors of the metropolitan newspapers could never have presented to the world such an immense mass of news and advertisements as was now contained in them, had not this invention enabled them to make use of any size required. By the revolution of the great cylinder employed in the process, an extraordinary degree both of rapidity and convenience in the production is secured. One of its chief advantages is the prevention of all risk of combination among the workmen, the machine being so easily managed that the least skilful person can attend to it. It was added that the invention had caused a remarkable increase in the revenue: in the year 1800, when this machine was not in existence, the amount of the paper duty was 195,641_l._; in 1821, when the machinery was in full operation, the amount of duty was 579,867_l._; in 1835, it was 833,822_l._ No doubt, part of this increase must be set down to other causes; still, it was impossible but for this discovery, that such a quantity of paper could have been made and consumed. The positive saving to the country effected by it, had not been less than 8,000,000_l._; the increase in the revenue not less than 500,000_l._ a-year. At length, in May, 1840, the sum of 7,000_l._ was voted by Parliament to Messrs. Fourdrinier, as some compensation for their loss by the defective state of the patent law.

There has been made by this machinery at Colinton mills, a single sheet of paper weighing 533 lbs., and measuring upwards of a mile and a half in length, the breadth being only 50 inches. Were a ream of paper of similar sheets made, it would weigh 266,500lbs. or upwards of 123 tons.

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THE COCOA-NUT CRAB.

M. Darwin in his _Voyage round the World_, thus describes a Crab which lives upon Cocoa-nuts, and which he found on Keeling Island, in the South Seas: "It is very common on all parts of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size; it has a front pair of legs, terminated by very strong and heavy pincers, and the least pair by others which are narrow and weak. It would at first be thought quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoa-nut covered with the husk; but M. Liesk assures me he has repeatedly seen the operation effected. The crab begins by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated; when this is completed, the crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on one of these eye-holes till an opening is made. Then, turning round its body, by the aid of its posterior and narrow pair of pincers, it extracts the white albuminous substance. I think this is as curious a case of instinct as ever I heard of, and likewise of adaptation in structure between two objects apparently so remote from each other in the scheme of nature, as a crab and a cocoa-nut."

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DESCARTES' WOODEN DAUGHTER.

When Descartes resided in Holland, he made with great labour and industry a female automaton, which gave some wicked wits occasion to report that he had an illegitimate daughter, named Franchine. The object of Descartes was, to demonstrate that beasts have no souls, and are but machines nicely composed, that move whenever another body strikes them and communicates to them a portion of its motions. Having carried this singular machine on board of a Dutch vessel, the captain, who sometimes heard it move, had the curiosity to open the box. Astonished to see a little human form uncommonly animated, yet when touched appearing to be nothing but wood--and being little versed in science, but very superstitious--he took the ingenious labour of the philosopher for a little devil, and terminated the experiment of Descartes, by throwing his "wooden daughter" into the sea.

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ASTRONOMICAL SHOEMAKER.

When Halley's comet was expected in 1835, a shoemaker of Leicester, named Joseph Mills, set about tracing the path of the heavenly visitor through the heavens. This he did by drawing its orbit upon his house floor, from which he made a diagram that more accurately represented the course of the comet than any that had been previously published. On being questioned how he had calculated the disturbing forces, so as to come so near the truth; he replied that he could not tell, further than he had performed it by the common rules of arithmetic.

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DECLINE OF SCIENCE.

In January, 1842, a poor fellow was taken before the authorities of Paris for begging in the streets. He had studied the _science_ of cookery under the celebrated Carême, and was the inventor of the delicious _Saumon truffé à la broche_. He was in the last garb of want, and attributed his poverty to the decline of cookery from a science to a low art! It has been observed that cooks, in nine cases out of ten, after ministering to the luxury of the opulent, creep into holes and corners, and pass neglected out of the world.

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VARIABLE CLIMATE OF TEBREEZ.

Tebreez is celebrated as one of the most healthy cities in Persia, and it is on this ground alone that we can account for its being so often rebuilt after its repeated demolition by earthquakes. It is seldom free even for a twelvemonth from slight shocks; and it is not yet so much as a century since it was levelled to the ground by one of those terrible convulsions of nature.

Sir John Malcolm, when he visited this place, was more surprised at its salubrity, from knowing the great extremes of heat and cold to which it is subject; having obtained from a friend who had resided there during the whole of the preceding year, a most accurate diary of the various changes of its climate.

"From this, it appeared that on the 20th of October there was a heavy fall of snow, which did not, however, remain long upon the ground: the weather again became mild, and there was no excessive cold until the middle of December, from which period, until the end of January, Fahrenheit's thermometer, when exposed to the air at night, never rose above zero; and in the house at mid-day it was seldom above 18°.

"January was by far the coldest month. During it, the water is described as becoming almost instantaneously solid in the tumblers upon the dining-table, and the ink often freezing in the ink-stand, although the table was close to the fire. For at least a fortnight, not an egg was to be had, all being split by the cold. Some bottles of wine froze, although covered with straw, and many of the copper ewers were split by the expansion of the water when frozen in them.

"According to this diary, the weather became comparatively mild towards the end of February; but it appears that here, as in England,

'A lingering winter chills the lap of May;'

for, on the first of that month, there was a heavy fall of snow, with such cold that all promise of the spring was destroyed. Of the heat that ensued, and the sudden and great changes to which Tebreez is subject, we had abundant proof; in the month of June, the range of the thermometer being usually, within the twenty-four hours, from 56° to 94°,--a difference of 38°.

"The extreme heat of the summer causes most of the houses in Tebreez to be built so as to admit the air during that season; but the architects of Persia fall short of their brethren in Europe, in forming places by which the cool air can be admitted in summer, and excluded in winter. This partly accounts for the above effects of cold; but the city of Tebreez, and many more parts of Aderbejan, and still more of the neighbouring province of Kûrdistan, though nowhere beyond the 40th degree of latitude, are, from their great elevation, subject to extreme cold. In the latter country (says Sir John Malcolm) I found, on the morning of the 17th of August, ice half an inch thick on a basin of water standing in my tent."[4]

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Footnote 4:

Sketches of Persia.

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STRYCHNINE A REMEDY FOR PARALYSIS.

Strychnine (obtained in the greatest purity from the Upas Tiente) has been used successfully for this purpose. One of Dr. Bardesley's patients in Lincolnshire, who was experiencing the return of sensation in his paralyzed limbs, under the use of strychnine, asked if there was not something _quick_ in the pills; _quick_ for _alive_ being still in use in that part of England.

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RAPID MANUFACTURE.

Many years ago, the late Sir John Throckmorton sat down to dinner, dressed in a coat which, the same morning, had been wool on the back of the sheep. The animals were sheared; the wool washed, carded, spun, and woven; the cloth was scoured, fulled, sheared, dyed, and dressed; and then, by the tailor's aid, made into a coat, between sunrise and the hour of seven, when a party sat down to dinner, with Sir John, as their chairman, wearing the product of the active day!

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DISCOVERIES ANTICIPATED.

From time immemorial, the inhabitants of some distant regions have carried on their nocturnal or underground manufactures by natural gas, obtained through a hollow reed thrust into the earth. Arriving at modern times, navigation by the Archimedes screw, as a propeller, through the means of steam, attracted the notice of the Scottish Society of Arts in 1840; but, above twenty years previously, an experiment with similar screws, adapted to a boat, on the lake Lochend, by Mr. Whytock, a member of the Society, proved the efficiency of the invention, though on a small scale. In Scotland, an Agricultural Society was established in 1723; a thrashing-machine appeared in 1735; and a reaping-machine in 1765.

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THE FIRST USE OF JESUIT'S BARK.

A casual circumstance, it is said, discovered that excellent febrifuge, the Jesuit's Bark. An Indian in a delirious fever was left by his companions, as incurable, by the side of a river, to quench his burning thirst while dying. He naturally drank copious draughts of the water, which, having long imbibed the virtues of the bark, that floated abundantly on the stream, quickly dispersed the fever of the Indian. He returned to his friends, and explained the nature of his remedy; and the sick crowded about the margin of the holy stream (as they imagined it) till they had quite exhausted its virtues. The sages of the tribe found out at length, however, whence the efficacy of the stream arose. The Indians discovered it first, in 1640, to the lady of a Viceroy of Peru, who by its use recovered of a dangerous fever; and in 1643 it was known at Rome.

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NICE ROBBERY.

M. Bachalier, a French florist, kept some beautiful species of the anemone to himself, which he had procured from the East Indies; and he succeeded in withholding them, for ten years, from all who wished to possess them likewise. A counsellor of the parliament, however, one day paid him a visit, while the anemones were in seed, and in walking with him round the garden contrived to let his gown fall upon them. By this means he swept off a good number of the seeds; and his servant, who had been apprised of the scheme, dexterously wrapt up the gown and secured them. Any one must have been a sour moralist who should have considered this to be a breach of the eighth commandment.

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FEMALE MATHEMATICIAN.

In the year 1736, the French Academy of Sciences proposed, as a subject for a prize, "the Propagation of Heat," when the Marchioness of Châtelet entered the list of competitors. Her work was not only an elegant account of all the properties of heat at that time known to natural philosophers, but it was also remarkable for various proposals for experiments; one, among others, which was afterwards followed up by Herschel, and from which he derived one of the chief gems in his brilliant scientific crown.

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FOURIER'S INDEPENDENCE.

It was only occasionally that the real character of Fourier, the French philosopher, showed itself. "It is strange," said, one day, a certain very influential person belonging to the court of Charles X., whom the servant, Joseph, would not allow to get further than Fourier's ante-chamber--"it is really strange that your master should be more difficult of access than a minister." Fourier, overhearing this remark, jumped out of bed, to which he had been confined by indisposition, opened the room door, and facing the courtier, exclaimed, "Joseph, tell the gentleman, that if I were a minister, I should receive everybody, because such would be my duty: as a private individual, I receive whom I think fit, and when I think fit." The grandee, disconcerted by the liveliness of the sally, did not answer a word. We must even suppose that from that instant he determined to visit nobody but ministers, for the simple _savant_ heard no more of him.

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MECHANICAL TRIUMPHS.

The direct and almost instant benefits of Mechanical Inventions to their originators have been thus eloquently illustrated in the _Edinburgh Review_:--"Contributing, as they do, to our most immediate and pressing wants--appealing to the eye by their magnitude, and often by their grandeur, and associated, in many cases, with the warmer impulses of humanity and personal safety--the labours of the mechanist and engineer acquire a contemporary celebrity, which is not vouchsafed to the results of scientific research, or to the productions of literature and the fine arts. The gigantic steam-vessel, which expedites and facilitates the intercourse of nations--the canal, which unites two distant seas--the bridge and the aqueduct, which span an impassable valley--the harbour and the break-water, which shelter our vessels of peace and of war--the railway, which hurries us along on the wings of mechanism, and the light beacon which throws its directing beams over the deep--address themselves to the secular interests of every individual, and obtain for the engineer who invented or who planned them, a high and a well-merited popular reputation."

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THE ELGIN MARBLES.

These beautiful relics of Grecian antiquity cost the Earl of Elgin 74,000_l._, of which sum he barely received one-half from Government; so that Lord Byron's imputation to the Earl of a mercantile spirit in the transaction is notoriously unjust.

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RALEIGH A CHEMIST.

During his confinement in the Tower of London, Sir Walter Raleigh devoted a considerable portion of his time to chemical and pharmaceutical investigations; and interesting it is to see how his unsubdued spirit enabled him to make the most of his misfortunes, to surmount difficulties, and to turn ordinary things to extraordinary purposes,--greatly, no doubt, to the amazement of those about him, who marvelled much to behold the splendid courtier, and the captain of a happier day, earnestly employing himself with chemical stills and crucibles in a vacant hen-house! "He has converted," says Sir W. Wade, the lieutenant of the Tower, in a letter to Cecil, "a little hen-house in the garden into a still-house, and here he doth spend his time all day in distillations."

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MR. BABBAGE'S CALCULATING MACHINE.

A calculating machine is a fair subject for a joke. In May, 1839, when an additional grant was applied for in the House of Commons, in order to complete Mr. Babbage's machine, Mr. Wakley inquired whether it was likely to be of any use to the public? Upon this, Sir Robert Peel felicitously replied, that "the machine should be put to calculate the time at which it would be of any use." The calculating machine has certainly not yet been put to any more practical purpose.

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HERSCHEL'S LOVE OF MUSIC.

Sir William Herschel was a good musician, yet such was his ardour for astronomical discovery, that at some benefit concert which he gave, he had his telescope fixed in a window, and made his observations between the acts.

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POWER OF THE LEVER.

Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough, and a prop strong enough, and with my own weight I will move the world." "But," says Dr. Arnott, "he would have required to move with the velocity of a cannon-ball for millions of years, to alter the position of the earth a small part of an inch. This feat of Archimedes is, in mathematical truth, performed by every man who leaps from the ground; for he kicks the world away from him whenever he rises, and attracts it again when he falls."

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AN ELECTRIFYING MACHINE IN PERSIA.

When Sir James Malcolm was in Persia, on his first expedition, an electrifying machine which he took with him was one of the chief means of astonishing his Persian friends; and with its effects he surprised and alarmed all, from majesty itself to the lowest peasant.

At Isfahan, all were delighted with the electric machine, except one renowned doctor and lecturer of the college, who, envious of the popularity gained by this display of superior science, contended publicly that the effects produced were moral, not physical; that it was the mummery the Europeans practised, and the state of the nervous agitation they excited, which produced an ideal shock; but he expressed his conviction that a man of true firmness of mind would stand unmoved by all that could be produced out of the _glass bottle_, as he scoffingly termed the machine. He was invited to the next experiment, the day arrived, and he came accordingly.

This doctor was called "Red-stockings," from his usually wearing scarlet hose. He was, notwithstanding his learning and reputed science, often made an object of mirth in the circles of the great and wealthy at Isfahan, to whom he furnished constant amusement, from the pertinacity with which he maintained his dogmas.

Hence, "Red-stockings," with all his philosophy, was not overwise. Nevertheless, he maintained his ground in the first society, by means common in Persia, as in other countries: he was, in fact, a little of the fool,[5] and not too much of the honest. This impression of his character, combined with his presumption, made Sir John Malcolm and his party less scrupulous in their preparations to render him an example for all who might hereafter doubt the effects of their boasted electricity; indeed, their Persian visitors seemed anxious that the effect should be such as to satisfy the man that had dared them to the trial--that it was physical, not moral.

The philosopher, notwithstanding various warnings, came boldly up, and took hold of the chain with both hands, planted his feet firmly, shut his teeth, and evidently called forth all his resolution to resist the shock. It was given; and poor "Red-stockings" dropped on the floor, as if he had been shot. There was a momentary alarm; but, on his almost instant recovery, and it being explained that the effect had been increased by the determination to resist it, all gave way to one burst of laughter. The good-natured philosopher took no offence. He muttered something about the reaction of the feelings after being overstrained, but admitted there was more in the glass bottle than he had anticipated.

-----

Footnote 5:

"_Poco di matto_" is deemed by the Italians an essential quality in a
great man's companion.

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HOW TO MEASURE THE SHOCK OF AN
EARTHQUAKE.

Dr. Buckland relates that in certain places liable to earthquakes, their extent has been measured by _bowls of treacle_, the inclination of the treacle in the bowl showing the quantum of shock; and elsewhere (by a watchmaker) in Scotland, by placing a clock against each of the four walls of an apartment, and marking the centre of the disk of the pendulum with chalk: when the shock took place, the derangement caused the pendulum to strike against the back and front of the clock-case, when, of course, a mark would be left indicative of the phenomenon, though not of its amount.

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THE DRUMMOND LIGHT.

The importance of simplicity in inventions for popular use, has been shown in the late Lieutenant Drummond's apparatus for illuminating lighthouses with his oxyhydrogen light; that is, a stream of oxygen and another of hydrogen, directed upon a ball of lime. Experimentally, the light has succeeded beyond the expectation of the inventor; but the machinery or apparatus remains to be simplified before it can be worked by the keepers of lighthouses.

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ST. PIERRE'S "PAUL AND VIRGINIA."

Baron Humboldt, in his _Cosmos_, vol. ii., pays the following eloquent tribute to that small production of the creative imagination to which Bernardin de St. Pierre owes the fairest portion of his literary fame--Paul and Virginia--a work such as scarcely any other literature can show.

"It is," says Humboldt, "a simple, but living picture of an island in the midst of the tropic seas, in which, sometimes smiled on by serene and favouring skies, sometimes threatened by the violent conflict of the elements, two young and graceful forms stand out picturesquely from the wild luxuriance of the vegetation of the forest, as from a flowery tapestry. Here the aspect of the sea, the grouping of the clouds, the rustling of the breeze in the bushes of the bamboo, and the waving of the lofty palmo, are painted with inimitable truth.

"Bernardin de St. Pierre's master-work, Paul and Virginia, accompanied me into the zone to which it owes its origin. It was there read for many years by my dear companion and friend, Bonpland, and myself; and there (let this appeal to personal feelings be forgiven) under the silent brightness of the tropical sky, or when, in the rainy season, on the shores of the Orinoco, the thunder crashed, and the flashing lightnings illuminated the forest, we were deeply impressed and penetrated with the wonderful truth with which this little work paints the power of nature in the tropical zone in all its peculiarity of character.

"A similar firm grasp of special features, without impairing the general impression, or depriving the external materials of the free and animating breath of poetic imagination, characterises in an even higher degree the ingenious and tender author of "Atala," "René," "the Martyr," and the "Journey to Greece and Palestine." The contrasted landscapes of the most varied portions of the earth's surface are brought together, and made to pass before the mind's eye with wonderful distinctness of vision: the serious grandeur of historic remembrances could alone have given so much depth and repose to the impressions of a rapid journey."

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MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE.

M. Arago, in his brilliant _eloge_ on Fourier, observes:--"The ancients had a taste, or rather a passion, for the marvellous, which made them forget the sacred ties of gratitude. Look at them, for instance, collecting into one single group the high deeds of a great number of heroes, whose names they have not even deigned to preserve, and attributing them all to Hercules. The lapse of centuries has not made us wiser. The public in our time also delight in mingling fiction with history. In all careers, particularly in that of the sciences, there is a design to create Herculeses. According to the vulgar opinion, every astronomical discovery is attributable to Herschel. The theory of the motions of the planets is identified with the name of Laplace, and scarcely any credit is allowed to the important labours of D'Alembert, Clairaut, Euler, and Lagrange. Watt is the sole inventor of the steam-engine, whilst Chaptal has enriched the chemical arts with all those ingenious and productive processes which secure their prosperity." To countervail this error, Arago continues: "Let us hold up to legitimate admiration those chosen men whom nature has endowed with the valuable faculty of grouping together isolated facts, and deducing beautiful theories from them; but do not let us forget that the sickle of the reaper must cut down the stalks of corn, before any one can think of collecting them into sheaves."

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EL DORADO OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

The term _El Dorado_ is commonly considered to have reference to the sovereignty teeming with precious metals, which had long been sought for in vain by Spanish adventurers. Their expeditions in quest of it were directed to the interior of the vast region lying between the Orinoco and the Amazon, or Guiana. The rocks were represented as impregnated with gold, the veins of which lay so near the surface as to make it shine with a dazzling resplendency. The capital, Manoa, was said to consist of houses covered with plates of gold, and to be built upon a vast lake, named Parima, the sands of which were auriferous.

We abridge the following new version of this "romance of history," from a brilliant paper on the life and works of Raleigh, in the _Edinburgh Review_.

The term _El Dorado_ was not originally used to designate any particular place; it signified generally 'the gilded,' or 'golden,' and was variously applied. According to some, it was first used to denote a religious ceremony of the natives, in covering the anointed body with gold-dust. The whole of Guiana was, on account of the above usages, sometimes designated _El Dorado_; but the locality of the fable varied.

The question, however, to be solved is, whence arose the belief that a district so marvellously abundant with the precious metals existed in the interior of Guiana; and the solution appears to have been left to Humboldt. While exploring the countries upon the Upper Orinoco, he was informed that the portion of Eastern Guiana, lying between the rivers Essequibo and Branca is 'the classical soil of the Dorado of Parima.' In the islets and rocks of mica, slate, and talc, which rise up within and around a lake adjoining the Parima river, reflecting from their shining surfaces the rays of an ardent sun, we have materials out of which to form that gorgeous capital, the temples and houses of which were overlaid with plates of beaten gold.

With such elements to work upon, heated fancies, aided by the imperfect vision of distant and dubious objects, might easily create that fabulous superstructure. We may judge of the brilliancy of these deceptive appearances, from learning that the natives ascribed the lustre of the Magellanic clouds, or nebula of the southern hemisphere, to the bright reflections produced by them. There could not well be a more poetical exaggeration of the lustrous effects produced by the metallic hues of rocks of talc. These details, in which M. de Pons, a somewhat later traveller, who long resided in an official capacity in the neighbouring countries, fully concurs, in all probability point to the true origin of this remarkable fable. The well-known failure of Raleigh did not discourage other adventurers, who were found in quick succession; the last always flattering themselves with the hope that the discovery of _El Dorado_ would ultimately be realized.

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AMBER, A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

The amber trade, which was probably first directed to the west Cimbrian coasts, and only subsequently to the Baltic and the country of the Esthonians, owes its first origin to the boldness and perseverance of Phoenician coast navigators. In its subsequent extension, it offers a remarkable instance of the influence which may be exerted by a predilection for even a single foreign production, in opening an inland trade between nations, and in making known large tracts of country. In the same way that the Phocæan Massilians brought the British tin across France to the Rhone, the amber was conveyed from people to people through Germany, and by the Celts on either declivity of the Alps to the Padus, and through Pannonia to the Borysthenes. It was this inland traffic which first brought the coasts of the Northern ocean into connexion with the Euxine and the Adriatic.--_Humboldt's Cosmos._

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ANTIQUITY OF LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS.

A story was formerly repeated in Germany, after Father Angelo Cortenoria, that the tomb of the hero of Clusium, Lars Porsena, described by Varro, ornamented with a bronze head and bronze pendent chains, was an apparatus for atmospheric electricity, or for conducting lightning, (as were, according to Michaelis, the metal points on Solomon's temple); but the tale obtained currency at a time when men were much inclined to attribute to ancient nations the remains of a supernaturally revealed primitive knowledge, which was soon after obscured.

The most important notice of the relation between lightning and conducting metals (a fact not difficult of discovery) still appears to be that of Ctesias: he possessed two iron swords, presents from the King Artaxerxes Mnemon, and from his mother Parysatis, which, when planted in the earth, averted clouds, hail, and strokes of lightning. He had himself seen the operation, for the king had twice made the experiment before his eyes. The exact attention paid by the Etruscans to the meteorological processes of the atmosphere in all that deviated from the ordinary course of phenomena, makes it to be lamented that nothing has come down to us from their Fulgur red books. The epochs of the appearance of great comets, of the fall of meteoric stones, and of showers of falling stars, would no doubt have been found recorded in them, as in the more ancient Chinese annals, of which Edward Biot has made use. Creuzer has attempted to show, that the natural features of Etruria may have influenced the peculiar turn of mind of its inhabitants. A "calling forth" of the lightning, which is ascribed to Prometheus, reminds us of the pretended "drawing down" of lightning by the Fulguratores. This operation consisted in a mere conjuration, and may well have been of no more efficacy than the skinned ass' head, which, in the Etruscan rites, was considered a preservative from danger in their thunder-storms.--(_See Notes to Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii.)

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HOW THE DEAF MAY HEAR.

About 1738, a merchant of Cleves, named Jorissen, who had become almost totally deaf, sitting one day near a harpsichord, while some one was playing--and having a tobacco-pipe in his mouth, the bowl of which rested accidentally against the body of the instrument--was surprised to hear all the notes most distinctly. By a little reflection and practice, he again attained the use of this valuable sense; for he soon learned--by means of a piece of hard wood, one end of which he placed against his teeth, while another person placed the other end on _his_ teeth--to keep up a conversation, and to be able to understand the least whisper. The effect thus described is the same, if the person who speaks rests his stick against his throat or his breast; or when one rests the stick which he holds in his teeth against some vessel into which the other speaks.

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DRYING WOOD FOR VIOLINS.

Some amusing instances are related of the efficiency of "the Application of Heated Currents to Manufacturing and other Purposes," once patented by Davison and Symington. Thus, a violin had been in the owner's possession for upwards of sixteen years, how old it was when he first had it is not known. Upon being exposed to this process, it lost in eight hours no less than five-sixths (nearly five and two-thirds) per cent. of its weight. This there is every reason to believe was owing to the blocks glued inside, for the purpose of holding the more slender parts together. Instrument makers would do well to see that all parts, however mean their position in the instrument, are properly seasoned, or divested of moisture; for surely water cannot improve sound.

A violin-maker of high reputation, having an order to make an instrument for one of the first violinists of the day, was requested to have the wood seasoned by the new process; only three days were allowed for the experiment, in which the wood was seasoned and sent home. The two heaviest pieces were reduced in weight 2-1/2lbs., which is equal to two pints of water.

It is ascertained that, by this means of drying, the effect of age has been given to the instrument made from the above wood; and it became _first fiddle_ in the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre. The wood had been in the possession of its owners for eight years; and it was sent from Switzerland, in the first instance, as dry wood.[6]

-----

Footnote 6:

In proof of the economy of Messrs. Davison and Symington's invention
applied to the manufacture and cleansing of brewers' casks, it is
stated that through its adoption at Truman's brewery, Spitalfields, a
saving of 300 tons of coals was effected annually.

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COLUMBUS'S OWN SHIP JOURNAL.

Columbus has left us some charming descriptions of his own discoveries; though it is only recently that we have obtained the knowledge of his own ship's journal, of his letters to the treasurer Sanchez, to Donna Juana de la Torre, governess of the infant Don Juan, and to Queen Isabella. Humboldt has sought to show with how deep a feeling and perception of the forms and the beauty of nature the great discoverer was endowed, and how he described the face of the earth, and the "new heaven" which opened to his view, with a beauty and simplicity of expression which can only be fully appreciated by those who are familiar with the ancient force of the language as it existed at the period.

The aspect and the physiognomy of the vegetation, the impenetrable thickets of the forest, "in which one can hardly distinguish which are the flowers and leaves belonging to each stem;" the wild luxuriance which clothed the humid shores; the rose-coloured flamingoes fishing at the mouth of the rivers in the early morning, and giving animation to the landscape, attract the attention of the old navigator while sailing along the coast of Cuba, between the small Lucayan islands and the Jardinillos. Each newly-discovered land appears to him still more beautiful than those he had before described; he complains that he cannot find words in which to record the sweet impressions which he has received.

"The loveliness of this new land," says the discoverer, "far surpasses that of the Campina de Cordoba. The trees are all bright with ever-verdant foliage, and perpetually laden with fruits. The plants on the ground are tall and full of blossoms. The breezes are mild like those in April in Castille; the nightingales sing more sweetly than I can describe. At night, other small birds sing sweetly, and I also hear our grasshoppers and frogs. Once I came into a deeply-enclosed harbour, and saw high mountains which no human eye had seen before, from which lovely waters streamed down. The mountain was covered with firs, pines, and other trees of very various form, and adorned with beautiful flowers. Ascending the river, which poured itself into the bay, I was astonished at the cool shade, the crystal clear water, and the number of singing birds. It seemed as if I could never quit a spot so delightful--as if a thousand tongues would fail to describe it, as if the spell-bound hand would refuse to write."

We have here, from the journal of an unlettered seaman, the power which the beauty of nature, manifested in her individual forms, may exert on a susceptible mind. Feelings ennoble language; for the prose of the admiral, especially when, on his fourth voyage, at the age of 67, he relates his wonderful dream on the coast of Veragua, is, if not more eloquent, yet far more moving, than the allegorical pastoral romance of Boccacio and the two Arcadias of Sannazaro and Sydney; than Garcilasso's Salicio y Nemoroso; or than the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor.

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EARLY INCITEMENTS TO A SCIENTIFIC STUDY
OF NATURE.

Baron Humboldt, in the opening of his _Cosmos_, vol. ii., recalls the lessons of experience, which tell us how often impressions received by the senses from circumstances, seemingly accidental, have so acted on the youthful mind as to determine the whole direction of the man's course through life. Childish pleasure, in the form of countries and of seas, as delineated in maps; the desire to behold those southern constellations which have never risen in our horizon; the sight of palms and of the cedars of Lebanon, figured in a pictorial Bible, may have implanted in the spirit the first impulse to travel in distant lands.

"If I might (says Humboldt) have recourse to my own experience, and say what awakened in me the first beginnings of an inextinguishable longing to visit the tropics, I should name George Forster's descriptions of the islands of the Pacific--paintings, by Hodge, in the house of Warren Hastings, in London, representing the banks of the Ganges--and a colossal dragon-tree in an old tower of the Botanic Gardens at Berlin."

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THE RIGHTS OF WHITEBAIT.