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THE QUARTERLY

ee Nae OE SCIENCE,

JANUARY, 1873.

i, ON THE PROBABILITY OF ERROR IN
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH.

By WILLIAM CROOKES, F.R.S., &c.

CN SCIENTIFIC man engaged in any special pursuit
a has much difficulty in making clear, to even the
scientific public, the result of his experiments. The
benefit of his research may be perfectly apparent; but if his
experiments have been conducted with rigour there will be
a certain individual departure from a general standard inthe
results, which, if he merely state his conclusions, will
confuse the attentive reader. Perhaps certain of the ex-
periments were performed under better test conditions, and
their numerical results are therefore more nearly correct
than the results of another series of experiments. Should
this be the case, to take an average of the results would
yield an empirical result, deviating considerably from the
truth. Yet many of our most eminent experimentalists are
satisfied with recording their experiments, and leave the
student of their labours in an uncomfortable uncertainty as
to the exact value of the entire system of experiment.

In his ‘‘ Budget of Paradoxes,” Prof. De Morgan, in the
consideration of the relation of facts to theory, asks the
question—‘‘ What are large collections of facts for? To
make theories from, says Bacon; to try ready-made theories
by, says the history of discovery ; it’s all the same, says the
idolater; nonsense, say we!” Whether, however, we take
facts in subordination to theory, or the reverse, matters
little for our present purpose; we have to regard the ob-
servation of facts, ascertained experimentally or otherwise,
as the test of theory. But a difficulty immediately occurs
to the experimentalist, and may be framed in the question—
‘‘ Which, and how much, of these experimental facts am
I to regard as correct, absolutely or approximately ?”

Absolute correctness evidently may not be expected of
any of the human senses, since the absence of error would

VOL. Il: (N-S:) B

2 ) On the Probability of Error [January,

include perception and corre¢t estimation of the most minute
deviation from the absolute standard. Between even this
deviation and the absolute standard there are an infinite
number of results that may be obtained. Approximate
correctness is all, then, that the experimentalist has the
probability of attaining. So that, given a series of experi-
mental results, there remains the decision of two points—
(1), the determination of the standard; and (2), the probable
error of the assumed standard.

There are many engaged in experimental research, even
in research of a relatively high order, to whom the methods
of determining these two points are unknown. ‘To these I
shall endeavour to explain the laws of probability as they
have been laid down by eminent mathematicians. To those
(and I am afraid their number is not legion) acquainted
with these laws, I can offer illustrations only of the appli-
cation of these laws. Without a due consideration of
these principles astronomy could not claim its character of
exactness; and there appears no reason why the physical
and chemical sciences should not, as means of observa-
tion increase in delicacy, attain to the rank and estimation
of exact sciences. Our chronographs measure easily to the
I-100,o0o0th of a second of time; our balances turn with a
fragment of a hair weighing 1-10,oooth of a grain; the re-
sults of electrical experiments have been obtained varying
only 5 in the 1000. With this exactness, surely we may
think it carelessness that does not ascertain the closest ap-
proximation to accuracy, as well as the limit of error to be
allowed this approximation.

The subject is a most subtle one. It may be defined as
the best mode of combining observations so as to yield the
most trustworthy mean; and in this light I am unable to
mention any work affording so popular and so profound a
discussion as the little volume, by Prof. De Morgan, entitled
‘An Essay on Probabilities.” The author shows how the
observer may measure the degree of confidence to which the
average of any series of observations is entitled. Thus,
taking his own example,—that of fifteen observations
giving the following results : 722, 933, 1033, 917, 1311, 1089,
972, 1294, 967, 1344, 1250, 744, 1309, 858, 1029,—if the
average, or the arithmetic mean, of all the observations be
T1051, the theory does not assist the observer in estimating
the probability of this average being true. For true, in the
absolute sense of the word, it, in all probability, is not, and
therefore no theory is needed to assist in drawing that con-
ciusion. But let any definite departure from truth be

1873.] in Experimental Research. 5

named, then the theory enables the observer to determine
the degree of likelihood that his average is within such
limit. Thus it is found that the probability of the average
of 1051 being within 50 of the truth (whatever the truth
may really be) is 0°66; and therefore the observer should
contemplate the possibility of his average being within 50 of
the truth, or, which is the same thing, that the truth lies
- somewhere between the limits 1051 +50. ‘This he would
assume with the same degree of confidence, neither more
nor less, that he would yield to a witness who is known to
speak truth 66 times and falsehood 34 times out of every
hundred.

If the calculation had been made for the limits 1051 + 10,
the resulting probability would have been much less than
0°66; and if for 105% + 100, the resulting probability would
have been much greater. This is in accordance with com-
mon sense.

It must also be very important to the observer, when he
has made different sets of observations, to know how best to
combine their respeCtive averages. For both purposes the
average of the set, or of each, may be “‘ weighted” by
means of the formula—
gee 1?

258”

where 2 = the number of observations and 3c? = the sum
of the squares of the successive differences obtained by sub-
tracting each observation from the arithmetic mean (average)
of the whole.

The term weight is almost self-explanatory. Of a series
of observations there may be one which the observer consi-
ders to have been obtained under more favourable conditions
than the others, and to which, in the balance of judgment,
he should accord greater ‘‘ weight.” For if we suppose a
_ satisfactory experiment to give 5, and one of unequal weight
6, it would be obviously unfair to take the average as 53;
but it would be more reasonable to give the result 5 the ad-
vantage of supposing it to have occurred, say, three times
to the occurrence of the result of 6 once. This would be
giving the observations 5 and 6 the weights of 3 and 1, and
the average would be 54. Such a mode of reasoning gave
rise, before mathematicians had constructed the theory of
probabilities, to a rule for finding the average, which may be
quoted as follows :—Weigh every observation, multiply it by
its weight, take the sum of the produéts, and divide this
sum by the sum of the weights. But it was found that the

4 On the Probability of Error (January,

theory of probabilities diated a variation of this rule, em-
bodied in the formula previously stated. This formula may
be understood in words as follows:—Square the number of
_ observations, and divide this product by twice the sum of
the squares of the errors.

Having now defined the term ‘‘ weight,” we have to trace
the meaning of the terms mean risk and probable error.

If we consider positive and negative errors as equally
probable, they will balance each other, so that the average
of positive or of negative errors will be equal. We thus
arrive at the meaning of the term average error, and can
proceed easily to the determination of the mean risk ; and as
the mean risk of positive error is the average positive error,
the mean risk of negative error the average negative error,
the mean risk may be taken as half the average error. Re-
presenting the mean risk by m, and the weight byw, we have—

Mean risk = ek

709 Vw

or more nearly, = Bene
Ww

Or, mean risk = prob. error X 0°591473.

The probable error is that error for which there are equal
chances of exceeding or of not attaining. For instance,
suppose the chances are equal that the error is included be-
tween o and 2, or that it should exceed 2, assigning this as
the limit of error, then, of course, for any number greater
than (say) ro the chances are in favour of the error being in-
cluded within the number. It has been calculated that—

g ‘ erat 67
The probable error = sa0te:
or more nearly, = a ALIS

w
Or, the probable error = m 1°690604.
Calling the mean risk m, the probable error f, and the
weight w, we have from the preceding reasoning the fol-
lowing formule :—

ee is

~ 1420m?"
"aed ol eh ead
er nn ae rae

From the foregoing formule, when either the weight,
probable error, or mean risk is given, the other two can be
determined. As we are capable, in most scientific observa-
tions, of so adjusting our instrumental means that the errors

1873.] in Experimental Research. 5

may have positive and negative signs, so are we nowina
position to verify these observations, or select those most
closely approximate to the truth.

But there have been tabulated the values of the celebrated i
definite integral—

2
Ps 2 gs
Mee vee ff :
oO

and from these tabulated values (for the extension of which
we are again indebted to Prof. De Morgan) we may, with
much less trouble and more accuracy, arrive at the desired
result. The values have been arranged in two tables: the
columns of Table I. are headed thus :—

ip Ex. A. Ae.
0°50 0°52049 99 874 38 8 88
2°17 0°99785 II g 96 44
2°68 0°99984 94 84 5

¢ represents every hundredth of a unit from o to 2.

H represents the values of the area enclosed by an
asymptote, this asymptote continually approaching but
never reaching the abscissa, the whole of the enclosed
area forming one square unit.

A represents the differences of these values.

A? represents the differences of these differences.

In Table II. are three columns only, ¢, A, and K,—a mo-

dification of H,—headed thus :—
t. K. pi
4°6 0°99808 40
Let us now take an illustration. There are ten observa-
tions of which the arithmetic mean is—
& =200°01577.
The sum of the squares of the ten differences between a
and each individual observation is—
de? =0°00000007.
Hence the weight of a is—
(number of observations) _ I0o
227 ~ O°000000I4
The largeness of this figure indicates the high degree of
probability that a is very near to the true value sought.
But the query may be put—What is the true value? It will
be seen that the question does not admit of absolute answer,
and for the following reasons:—One of the observations

w= = 715000000.

6 On the Probability of Error |January,

was (say) as low as 200°0156; one was as high as (say)
200°0159. Further observations might have yielded results
still more extreme. But assuming they would not, still the
‘number of possible values between 200°0156 and 200°0159
is infinite. The arithmetic mean a is but one of these, and
although more likely than any other that could be named,
it is not more likely than one or other of all the possible
values. The odds are more than 1000 to 1 that a is not the
truth ; but they are also more than Ioo0 to I that a is very
near the truth. The question—How near ?—cannot be an-
swered. Alter the question to—What is the probability
that the truth is comprised within the limits a+ k ?—and
the answer may easily be given, however small k may be.
Thus, if k=o‘ooor. In other words, if the question be—
What is the degree of likelihood that the truth lies between
200°0157 and 200°0159?—the answer is given by the
formula—
w= H.,,
t=kVw,

where &, 0°0001,

»» W=715000000, and as log. w=8°854, log. Vw=4'427,

3 “w=26800.
Then t=k Vw=2'68, and from Table I.—

7 =H 6g =0°99985.

The result, 0°99985, is so near to unity (the measure of cer-
tainty) that for every practical purpose it may be considered
certain that the truth is really comprehended within the
limits named.

Take six other observations, the arithmetic mean of
which is—

a=203°870;

and the sums of the squares of the six differences between a
and each separate observation is—

Dy iat sy aia Oe
Then the weight of a is—
36 0
2x67 De? O7FI515
The smallness of this figure, contrasted with the 715000000
of the preceding example, indicates a comparatively low
degree of probability that the true number is comprised
within the limits +, when & is very small. For instance,
suppose the question to be—What is the likelihood that the
true number is comprised between 203°77 and 203°97? As

= Bao.

1873.] in Experimental Research. 9

before, the probability will be determined by the given
formula.
Lick" 07100;

W =25°200,
Vw= 5'020,
t= 0°502,

pe Bede = aya: .

This result, 0°52, is just intermediate between unity or
certainty and zero, the lowest degree of probability, other-
wise denominated impossibility. Hence, that the true
number is within the limits stated is just as likely as the
throwing of Head with a single halfpenny, but not more
likely.

I will now submit a practical application to the reader.

The value of the results obtained during any series of ex-
periments must of course vary with the care taken in the
performance of the individual experiments. In support of
this view I have, in the practical application of the laws I
here endeavour to simplify, taken the utmost pains to
ensure accuracy. The application is the determination of
the atomic weight of thallium; and I shall first enumerate
the means (not usually employed) by which I deem accuracy
to have been ensured, and then proceed to evolve the results.

With a metal of so high an atomic weight (203°642) as
thallium, errors and inaccuracies comparatively trivial
with elements of low atomic weight, are magnified into
alarming prpportions. Impurity of the reagents employed,
imperfect manipulation, but, more than any, the inaccuracies
arising during the weighing from the omission of the cor-
rections required by temperature, pressure, &c.,—all these
influences must be eliminated in the determination of an
atomic weight.

The atomic weight was derived by two methods :—First,
by taking a known quantity of metallic thallium, dissolving
it in nitric acid, and weighing the nitrate of thallium pro-
duced. Secondly, in dissolving known quantities of sulphate
of thallium in water, and ascertaining how much nitrate of
barium is necessary to precipitate the sulphuric acid as
sulphate of barium.

There were also two methods of weighing: one in air, at
ordinary pressure and temperature, and one in a highly
rarefied atmosphere. For the first method a balance was
employed, made expressly for the work by Messrs. Keissler
and Neu, which will indicate clearly a difference of o’o0or
of a grain when loaded with 1000 grains in each pan. For
the second method of weighing a balance was employed

8 On the Probability of Error (January,

which I term a vacuum balance. It was made by Oertling,
and is-a duplicate of the first, but it is enclosed in a cast-
iron case, connected with an air-pump, and arranged for the
weighing to take place in air of any desired density. The
best manner in which to use such a balance as this is to in-
troduce a certain approximate weight, and then to alter the
pressure of the air until the balance shows equilibrium.
Two weighings, at different degrees of atmospheric pressure,
varying by a considerable interval, give data upon which to
calculate what the weight would be in a perfect vacuum.
For the full elucidation of the formulz employed, for the
method of adjusting the standard grain-weights according
to their value 77 vacuo, and for the preparation of the glass
apparatus and the pure reagents, I must refer the reader to
my paper im extenso, contributed to the Royal Society.*
But I may, from the abstract of that paper, collect the
results of a series of the weighings. They were as follows:—

The weight of the glass + thallium.
The weight of the glass + nitrate of thallium.

The weight of the glass alone.
Grs.

True weight of thallium 7 vacuo . ~=183°790232
True weight of nitrate of thaliium
imvacuo. . meat aA = 239°646066
True weight of class ae ade 5 = FOG sana
(a) W eight of ‘thallium according
to true value of weightsin air =183°783921
(6) Weight of nitrate of thallium in
air (1005°425937—765°814578) =239°611359
(c) Weight of glass, &c., in air . =765°814578
Weights employed to balance (a) ~« =183°8099
Weights employed to balance (0)
(1005°4364—765°8081) . . =239°6283
Weights employed to balance (c) . =765°8081

From these data the atomic weight can be deduced by
simple proportion, but the results of the statements of the
proportion are absolute only if the atomic weights of nitro-
gen and oxygen are correct. The determinations of Prof.
Stas show that the atomic w eights of nitrogen and oxygen
should be represented by N=14‘009, and ©, =47°880, in-
stead of N=14 and O=106, as hitherto more generally held.
The equivalent of nitric acid thus becomes NO,=61°889,
instead of the old equivalent NO,;=62. Taking as data
Prof. Stas’s determination of the atemic weights of nitrogen

* June, 1872.

1873.] in Experimental Research. — of

and oxygen, and the weights zm vacuo, the quantity of nitric
acid required to convert the thallium into nitrate is—

(239°646066 — 183°790232 = )55°855534 srs.
We have then the proportion—
iene of Wicicht of Atomic Weight stomlc
Nitric Acid. Thallium. OP Nittie Acide <r Fac:
Berea ses4 0) fy bes"790234 98: \'6E°SSg 2 2. x;
.. = 203°642.
_ Substituting the old equivalents we obtain—

Becegs 34) |) FO3°700232 28) 62 ) 2: :) 2047007
as the atomic weight; but I cannot admit this number to be
so nearly correct as 203°642.

If we take the corrected weighings in air of ordinary
density, we have, with NO,=61°889,

203°738.
With NO,;=62,
204°103.

Accepting the uncorrected weights, observed in air, we
have, with NO, = 61°889,

203162.
With NO,=62,
204°1605.

The error of the last deduction is +0°523, a sufficiently
large number to show the inutility of the application of the
theory of probability until every care has been taken to
eliminate the errors arising from inaccuracies. As I have
stated, in the paper to which I have referred, the largeness
of these errors has an immediate bearing upon quantitative
analysis, for it is shown that, from data ordinarily given,
very varying results may be obtained. Chemists have to
deal with much smaller quantities than a quarter per cent,
particularly in organic analysis, where so wide a difference
from the truth may lead to very erroneous reasoning.

Pass we now to the application of the theory of proba-
bilities to ten results of the most trustworthy weighings.
These, with NO, =61°889, are as in Table I.—

Tabulating the results of the determinations, with the
view to ascertain severally their degree of approximation to
the arithmetic mean (Table II.)—

The arithmetic mean of the ten observations is—

_ 2036°424 _ 6
Oo wear

VOL. Its (N.S.) c

Io

- Deter-
mination.

Ao MOM OO b>

On the Probability of Error

‘TABLE

True Weights im vacuo.

Weight of
Thallium
taken.
Grs.
497°972995
293°193507
288°562777
324°903740
183°790232
190°842532
195°544324
201°856345
295°683523
2.99°203036

ieee eee oe

Weight of
Nitrate of
Thallium
+ Glass.

Grs.
I121°851852
IIII'387014

Q7I'214142
1142°569408
1005°306796

997°334615
1022°176679
1013°480135
1153°947672
1159°870052
TABLE II.
203°666
203°628
203°632
203°649
203°642
203°636
203°639
203°650
203°044
203°638

—_——,

Weight of
Glass.

Grs.
472°557319
72.9°082713
994°949719
718°849078
706°133831
748°491271
707°203451
759°332401
768°403621
769°734201

+0°024
—O°OoI4
—o°o1o
-++0°007
-++ 0000
—0'006
—0°003
+0'008
+0°002
— 0°004

' The sum of the squares of the differences is—

0°000576
0°000064
0'000049
0°000004
0°000000
0°000009
0°000016
0°000036
0°000I00
0°000196

Se? = 0'00I050

[January,

Calculated

Atomic

Weight from
these Data.

Grs.
203°666
203°628
203°632
203°649
203°642
2.03°636
203°639
203°650
203°644
203°638

Therefore 25¢? =o°0021; and the weight (w) of a is—

I0o

= = 476109.

0°O002T

* Fully illustrated in the Paper.

1873.] in Experimental Research. LS

We have then, from the formula,—

The probable error a5 Tat

62
Seara cis log. 62 — (log. 130+log. 218)
log. 0°0022,

the number 0’0022 as the probable error. Or by means of
the tables calculated from the definite integral we can arrive
at a similar result. Thus—‘‘ What is the probability that
the truth is comprised within the limits atk?” If k=oror;
and 7=H

t=kvw;
then w=47619,
Vy =218,

t=kvV¥w=2'18, and
w = H,.13=0°99795,
so near to unity, the measure of certainty, that the number
203°642 may, for all practical purposes, be regarded as the
absolute truth. From the second table we can also obtain
like results by entering with ¢% We obtain the argument
from the formula— :

probable error :
Therefore? °*
0°0022
There can remain no reasonable doubt, then, that the atomic
weight of thallium is =203°642.

As simply as I am able, I have endeavoured to show the
application of the theory of probabilities to the judgment of
error, and the evaluation of the amount of accuracy in experi-
mental research. The subject has, I think, been involved
with undue difficulty. Perhaps it has hitherto been gene-
rally held that the results of experimental research have not
been sufficiently accurate to permit the refinement; but I
must express an opinion quite opposed. Yet I would suggest
that, in all kinds of delicate weighings, the effects of tem-
perature and pressure of the atmosphere be taken into
consideration. Let me make my meaning clear by an ex-
ample. There are given to be weighed, let us say, 800 grains
of water in 200 grains of glass. First arises the question,
—Shall we employ brass or platinum weights for our deter-
mination? We shall presently see the difference that would
result, in the determination of the absolute weight of the
glass and water, from the result of our choice. A brass

= 4°6=1, to which corresponds k =0°g99808.

a

12 Probability of Error in Experimental Research. [January,

weight of 1000 grains will displace 0°1462 grain of air; an
equivalent platinum weight 0°058271 grain of air. The
1000 grains of glass and water displace 1°9736 grains of air,
so that their absolute weight is 1001°9736 grains. Now the
glass and water balanced by the brass weight would give,
less the air displaced by the weight, 1001°8274 grains as the
true value of the water and glass; while 1001°9736 grains,
less 0°058271 grain, give 1001I°915329 grains as the value to
be ascertained. So, supposing the barometrical pressure to
remain constantly at 760 m.m., we have an error of 1°8276
grains per 1000 in weighing with brass weights uncorrected
in air, and 1I°915329 grains per 1000 with platinum weights
at the same barometric pressure. But we know that the
barometer does not always record the same pressure. What,
then, will be the result of its variation ?—the variation, of
course, of the weight of air displaced. Now a litre of dry
air (at Greenwich), at 760 m.m. pressure and o C., weighs
1°293561 grms., and its weight will be proportionately lower
at lower pressures. At 740 m.m. the weight of air displaced
by water and apparatus will be 1°g216 grains, and at
715 m.m. 1°8890 grains. The weight of air displaced by
the brass and by the platinum weight also decreases propor-
tionately. So that, weighing with the brass weight, we
have, at 740 m.m., an error of 1°7792 grains on the Iooo,
and at 715 m.m. an error of 1°7505 grains. With platinum
weights we have, at 740 m.m., 1°864863 grains error, and
1°834334 grains at 715 m.m. ‘These discrepancies are too
important to be disregarded. For suppose our weighings to
have taken place on different days, at different pressures
which were not noted, we should have serious error; and
the error would be increased with a S ance lighter fluid
than water.

Chemists are aware how greatly an error of similar
character would influence the determination of the amount
of carbonic acid and of- water yielded by an organic
body under combustion. Suppose the potash bulbs em-
ployed in the analysis to weigh 600 grains, there would
be displaced 0°366 of a grain of air at 760 m.m. pressure,
0°327 grain at 740 m.m., and 0°316 grain at 715 m.m. Thus
if weighings were made at 715 m.m. and at 760 m.m., there
would be an increase of weight of 0°02 grain; and this, if
3°5 grains of the organic compound were under analysis,
would give an error of 0°6 per cent. Similarly with a
chloride of calcium tube, weighing, with its contents, 350
grains, there would be an error which—with the error in the
estimation of the carbonic acid—would give a total error of

1873.] Colorado Gold Mines. 13

nearly I percent. Of the effect and importance of such an
error it is unnecessary to speak; to all in the least acquainted
with analytical research there will appear full reason for the
more careful study of the subject.*

These facts clearly show the necessity,—first, of great
care and great delicacy in all manipulation connected with
experimental research; secondly, of carefully ‘‘ weighing”
the individual merit of each result, and its relative merit in
the series of results. How this may he effected I have en-
deavoured to explain ; and I think that there would be no
series of observations (to which this or an analogous method
has not been applied) but would benefit by the application.
The application should of course proceed from the experi-
mentalist himself, but there are many series of results, the
members of which have been obtained by different processes,
that would be rendered still more practically useful by an
evaluation according to some one of the principles of the
theory of probabilities. - Perhaps in future years the theory
may be universally understood, and it will not be required to
revert to the elements of the Science.

II. GOLD-MINES AND MILLING OF GILPIN
COUNTY, COLOKADO, UNITED STATES.

By JAMES DouGLas, Quebec.
£5
WEF in Dry Gr years ago a party of miners detected gold
| in Dry Creek and other spots near the present town
of Denver. The news spread; a rush ensued, and
exploration was rapidly carried from the plains up the
gorges of the Rocky Mountains. Before 1859 had closed,
the gulches round Central City, 40 miles distant from Den-
ver, were swarming with gold-diggers ; and mining had also
commenced on the rich surface quartz of the lodes, whose
disintegrated débris had supplied the gold that enriched the
neighbouring valleys.

In what is now Gilpin County, and within an area whose
centre is Central City, and radius about 14 miles, was dis-
covered, before 1863, a gold-bearing lode at almost every
hundred feet ; and many of these lodes were yielding gold

* In the course of my experiments with the delicate apparatus employed in
this research, I have noticed some curious effects of the action of heat upon
gravitating bodies. Led to pursue the investigation with specially constructed
apparatus, in air and in vacuo, I hope, at no distant date, to bring forward
some results.

14 a Colorado Gold Mines. (January,

and matter for exaggeration so abundantly that American
brokers were enabled to form, in the cities of the east, no
less than 186 public gold-mining companies. The com-
panies generally possessed capital enough to build a mill,
but before the mill was running it in many cases happened
that the surface rock, which yielded its gold to mercury,
was exhausted, and after a few experiments the mill was _
stopped; and mill and mine have remained closed ever
since. A few mines, however, rich enough to bear the loss
of from three-fourths to two-fifths of their produce in the
mill, have remained open, to testify to the extraordinary
richness of the district. As the mills existed they have
continued to be used, despite the defects of their work ; but
unless some better system be introduced mining must lan-
guish, for no mines can long sustain such waste.

The present article is a contribution towards the solution
of the question, which, as it involves the saving or loss of
several million dollars’ worth annually of gold, silver, and
copper, is well worthy the attention of metallurgists. So
abundant is the ore that were mining conducted systematic-
ally, and the product of the mines utilised, Gilpin County
would probably yield more value in mineral than any district
of equal size in the world.

The country rock is granitic, with some gneissic varieties.
The lodes have a general E. and W. course, and dip almost
vertically. They are very free from faults, and many of
them can be traced, running with remarkable regularity, for
long distances; but the productive portion rarely exceeds
4000 feet. The deepest shaft in any of them is only 700
feet, and there are few others deeper than 500 feet: it is
therefore impossible to predict what their character will
continue to be, and whether the gold yield will be perma-
nent; and the changes which have taken place in certain of
the lodes, at different depths, are too inconsistent with one
another to allow of any deductions being drawn from them.
The structure of the lodes is very chara¢teristic of fissure-
veins. The walls are usually distinct, and marked often
with well-polished schlicken sides. A clay sewage, then a
band of almost pure iron and copper pyrites, intermixed
with small quantities of blende and galena, or of blende and
galena alone, or of all these sulphurets mixed in almost -
equal proportions, occurs on one or both sides, while the
centre of the lode is composed—where the lode is rich—of a
gangue of decomposed quartz or felspar, carrying more or
less of the same sulphurets. The solid sulphurets of iron
and copper, known as No. I., or smelting ore, usually yield

1873.] Colorado Gold Mines. ies

to the miner from 60 to 80 dollarsaton. The copper pyrites
carries most gold, and the fine-grained iron pyrites more
than the coarse, distin€tly cubical, variety. The blende is
also associated with gold, and in some mines isthe principal
vehicle of it, and the galena is invariably argentiferous.
This rich ore is always sold to the smelter, as it refuses to
. give even as large a percentage of its gold to mercury as the
less concentrated ores of the body of the lode, where the
gold seems to be in a freer form. ‘The second class ore, in
first class mines, will usually carry—

I°4 ozs. of gold,

5°6 ozs. of silver,

2°8 per cent of copper.

It is always treated in stamp-mills where battery amal-
gamation is employed, and not over 33 per cent of the
above-named valuable constituents of the ore recovered.*

The proportion of No. I. ore to No. II. ore rarely exceeds
one-tenth, and in most mines the quantity is too small to
make it worth while effecting any separation.

The width of the lodes runs from 18 inches to Io to 12
feet. An average width of the really productive lodes may
be set down at 3 feet, but they are all subject to contractions
and expansions, sometimes pinching to a mere thread, at
other times bulging into enormous bunches. Nor are any
of the lodes consistently productive. The mineralogical
portions are said to run in chimneys, which are interrupted
by streaks of poor or altogether barren rock. The term
‘*chimney” has been borrowed from California, but is not
applicable in Colorado, as the rich ground does not form
continuous vertical streaks, alternating with vertical streaks
of barren rock, but irregular regions of rich ore, merging
vertically and horizontally into poorer ground. The term
*‘cap” is applied indiscriminately to merely lean and alto-
gether barren ground. Of the latter there is comparatively
little ; and as the former includes all ore that will not yield
20 dollars of gold to the ton, much that is now left standing
in the mines, it is to be hoped, will some day or other be
removed with advantage.

Unfortunately the mining in Gilpin County has been as
faulty as the milling, owing chiefly to two causes :—

I. The subdivision of the lodes into very small claims.

II. The failure of the companies very generally to work
their claims,—which has led to the mines being either let or

* Mr. ALBERT REICHENECKER, in the Berg-Hiittenmannische Zeitung, re-
produced in RAYMOND’s Report on Mines and Mining for 1870, p. 360.

16 Colorado Gold Mines. (January,

worked on tribute. In either case the miner, having no in-
terest in the property, aims only at extracting as much ore
as he can during the term of his lease, without regard to
the future of the mine.

I. To what a degree the subdivision of the lodes has been
carried may be judged from the following enumeration of
the claims on some of the principal lodes in the district.
The list is taken from Mr. G. W. Baker’s pamphlet on the
treatment of gold ores in Gilpin County, Colorado.

On the Gregory Lode—

Feet.

The Black-Hawk Coe. owns:.) 005." =" t.3500
», Consolidated Gregory Co.owns. . 500
»» Marragansett Co: owns)\:> "=: .. 2 ¢@e
» Rocky Mountain Co.owns . . . 200

i». Dette Ce Owns. os oa
» Russell (Extension) Co.owns . . 360
> biiges Co. owes.) 25 te PAO

» ~omith and Parmlee Co.owns . . I100
» New York (Extension) Co. owns . 250
», United States Co.owns . . . . 250 .
po.) AMES IEEE EGEA ha Sg saga shah a owe? ee

4750
On the Bobtail Lode—
Feet.

The Bobtail Coowns . 3) 3%." 7) ae
5 usu ime ‘Co. owas) i502 oo
,, “dorastow Co. owns 2 kh Sie a ie
», sensenderter Co. owns: <2 2) 5 Eas

Private owners in small claims own from

700 to 800

1483

Feet.

The Rocky Mountain Co.owns . . . 250
» Dates and, Baxters Co, owns 9.3 =, 300
» Unton Co. ownse. =... ee ee
3° Luoker Co-- Owns 2. 20 See oe ee

. 9 “Gregory Co. owns) Goose eee - ee
Private persons .)2.45 0 2 eee eee

On the Bates Lode—

1550
These three lodes have been the most productive in the
distriét, and the most diligently worked. The Bobtail has,

1873.] _ Colorado Gold Mines. 17

it is estimated, yielded about 3,000,000 dollars’ worth of
bullion,—no insignificant yield, considering how short is the
really metalliferous portion of the lode and shallow the
Shalts,.yew ‘exceeding 400 feet. “These lodes carry less
galena and blende than most others, and a larger percentage
of copper. These three lodes run almost parallel, and so
close together that the slight convergence in their course
westward has given rise to the conjecture that they unite to ~
form the Mammoth Lode, which can be traced for about
3000 feet from a point a little west of the known westernly
limits of the Bobtail. This lode is likewise divided intoa
numbet of small claims, the longest of those owned by
companies being 400 feet. The lode is wide, and the ore
highly charged with iron pyrites; strange to say, almost
free of gold. _But proceeding further west, and crossing a
ravine known as Spring Gulch, we reach a group Of parallel
lodes so similar in course and dip to the Gregory, Bobtail,
and Bates, that, though undetected in Spring Gulch, one
cannot but look upon them as a continuation of those three
lodes, or, if they are really united in the Mammoth, of this
lode again split up into several branches. The most notable
of this group is the Burroughs Lode, on Quartz Hill, on
which—

Feet.

shine Opn Oey owhisec” ve.) e182, So) ) Pa: « . 402

SCE UPL Os, OIG. wrk aaIMEL AW) hal ot, BOBS
Bape OLGA A OnpOWhS:. ora? are wl s 6 a BOD
MEO URS CO. OMTUS Klin .~ <5) wires BOG
Pane: GOSE a CU cONTIIS yp. AT ods, b riven > yi,
pT andesits: COtommSts “Ehigut oh. e. a, 200
2 Pactne. National Co.cowms: 5s. « «> 550
First) National Gos owns is. ss 00a

Cold -EallOos Owils Ai adie ie). t 3. FO
wi Orneirta Mo Ol, Gate ei als a, Pedi

This group and the lodes of the neighbouring Nevada
district are, as a rule, poorer in gold and copper, but richer
in argentiferous galena, than the preceding.*

The ill effects of such a subdivision it is not difficult to
conceive. As every proprietor sinks one or more shafts, a
vast amount of unnecessarily expensive work is done.
Moreover, the chances of individual failure are greatly in-
creased ; for unless the owner be fortunate enough to hit a
rich chimney of ore, which sinks vertically without inter-

* For a full and accurate description of the most important mines consult

vol. iii. of the United States Geological Exploration of the 4oth Parallel, On
Mining Industry, by JAMes D. HaGueE.

VOls LET. (N.S.) D

18 Colorado Gold Mines. (January,

ruption, when he runs out of good ground he is sure to be
in unproductive ground from end to end of his claim, and
therefore as sure to fail financially. The evil is now, how-
ever, curing itself. As the mines have been sunk the water
has become more and more troublesome, and combination
has been forced upon the owners by the refusal of some to
pay their share of the expense of pumping. A process of
what is termed ‘’ freezing out” has been going on for some
time on the principal lodes, which, by a method hardly jus-
tifiable, is likely to lead to the desired union of interests,
though at the expense of the shareholders of the companies.
A mine fills with water; all returns cease; the company’s
affairs are liquidated, at the suit of the superintendent or
some privileged creditor, for perhaps a trifling sum. The
property is sold by the sheriff, before perhaps any of the
shareholders in the East are aware, and the mine passes into
the hands of a few men, who, if they do not acquire the
adjacent claims by the same process, wiil work in harmony
with those who do. The temporary suspension of many of
the richest mines, and the consequent decrease in production
of the district, is, in a measure, due tothe systematic carry-
ing out of such schemes. Some small-claim owners are,
however, so fortunate that their success makes it difficult to
persuade others of the evil of the subdivision system.
There is an owner of some 30 feet on the Bobtail who stea-
dily refuses to join a combination, and who cannot be either
bought or sold out. He is down some 500 feet, and through-
out that whole depth he has been in good pay-ground. He
works for a few months, till he has taken out what gold he
requires, and then knocks off till he needs to make another
draft. As he says his gold is safer there than in any bank,
he refuses either to sell or exhaust his mine. It is said that
during the last spell of g months’ work he extra¢ted 500 lbs.
weight of retort gold, value about 100,000 dols.

II. The second evil, viz., the failure of the companies to
work their own claims, is even more detrimental to the
future prosperity of the mines than that last discussed. As
a rule the affairs of the companies have been grossly mis- ,
managed. Having spent their slender capital, their super-
intendents have found it more conducive to their ease to let
the mines on tribute or on-lease than to work them. The
mines are sure to yield enough to pay their salaries. The
lessees work, of course, for immediate returns; hence there
are few mines in Gilpin County which—through this vicious
practice of “‘ gouging,” as it is termed—have not been riddled
in a shocking manner. To save timber the old road-ways

r673.| Colorado Gold Mines. 19

have been removed; the stopes, if filled with poor ground,
are blocked for hundreds of feet, so that it is generally im-
possible, without great cost, to examine the ground left
standing, or, if the stopes be empty, they are vast caverns,
with the roof so feebly supported by a few slender props
that it is with greatest zisk one enters them. These defects
of the past—due, in chief measure, to the faults of the su-
perintendents, though in part to the ignorance of the miner,
who went to his task. from a farm in the East or cattle-
grazing on the plains without any previous knowledge, far
less education—will, it is to be hoped, not disfigure future
operations. When better methods of treating the ore are
introduced, the miner will wish to reach the once unremu-
nerative but now valuable ground left standing, and the
difficulty and expense of doing so will teach him that it
would have been cheaper to have properly opened and kept
open his mine from the first.

METHODS OF TREATMENT.

Battery Amalgamation.—At the outset of mining, 12 and
I4 years ago, when the rich surface quartz carried free gold
abundantly, stamp-batteries, supplied with riffles and such
appliances for catching the free gold, were employed. When
the sulphurets were reached these failed altogether to secure
the precious metal, and amalgamated copper plates sup-
planted the riffles. But it was some time before the mill-men
understood the necessity of thoroughly cleansing and amal-
gamating the plates. To arrest the sulphurets blankets are,
in some mills, placed below the amalgamated plates, and
the blanketings ground in pans, the mercury in the concen-
trate sufficing for the amalgamation of the small quantity
of gold thus saved. The tailings are frequently further
concentrated in tins—those called ‘‘ hand-buddles.” Round
buddles have been tried, but found too slow, and to require
more attention than the rough impatient workman will
bestow. |

The stamps are run slowly, never exceeding 30 strokes,—
a higher speed interfering with the battery amalgamation,
by discharging on the plates too great a volume of water and
slime. Amalgamated copper plates are fixed within the bat-
tery, under the charging and discharging openings, and form
an apron in front of the discharge to feet to 12 feet long,
and set at an angle of Io to 14°. Mercury is added every
two hours, through the charging-slit, in quantities to suit
the richness of the ore: three times as much is introduced
as is afterwards recovered.

20 Colorado Gold Mines. ~ (January,

The gold caught on the plates is, under the most favour-
able circumstances, only 40 per cent of the assay value of
the ore. The quantity of silver saved is inconsiderable.
The gold from the blankets, and that in the buddle concen-
trate, does not amount to more than 5 per cent more; so
that, when treating even the most tractable of these sul- -
phurets, battery amalgamation and tailing concentration do ©
not secure more than 45 per cent of the gold, and therefore
involve the loss of 55 per cent of the gold, and of all the
silver, copper; and lead. As already stated, it is the second
class ore, or that from which has been separated by hand
the solid sulphurets, and from which has been thrown away
stuff too poor for treatment, that is milled. -

The benefit of tailing concentration is so insignificant
from the simple fact that it is so carelessly and rapidly con-
ducted, that only the very largest and heaviest particles can
settle in the volumimous and swift stream of water used.
Most of the tailings carry more than 1 oz- of gold to the
ton, about 2 per cent of copper, and 15 per cent of iron
pyrites and blende galena. The concentrate will consist of
almost pure iron pyrites, very little—if any—more copper
than the crude tailings contained, and seldom*as much as
2 ozs. of gold. Mr. Baker gives the average contents in
gold of 45 samples of tailings, from assays made by reliable
assayers, Messrs. Schulz and Burlingame, at 27°86 dols. per
ton,—the highest assay being 50°40 dols., the lowest 2°21
dols.; 38 samples of dressed tailings contained on an
average, according to the same authorities, 42°90 dols. The
heavy iron pyrites is increased four to five times by the concen-
tration as effected now; the lighter copper pyrites, carrying
the gold, is washed away into the stream. The first act of
reform should doubiless be—dress the tailings from the
present mills on the same system that slimes are dressed
the world over. ;

In Gilpin County there are scattered over the hill-sides,
at the mines, or in the river valleys, where water runs, but
where—through perverse mismanagement—steam Is never-
theless often employed as the motive power, about 7o mills,
with 1300 stamps. Of these many have been idle ever since
they were built, and at the best of times not more than half
the number of stamps have been in operation. At the pre-
sent moment, owing to the special but evanescent causes of
depression already explained, there are not 300 stamps
running. But in 1868-9, when Gilpin County produced
1,267,900 dols. in gold, and in 1869-70, 1,378,100 dols. in
gold, the average number of stamps running throughout the

1873.] Colorado Gold Mines. 21

year was about 400,* crushing about I00,000 tons, whose
average yield perton must have been between 10 and 12 dols.,
for part of the annual production came from the No. I ore,
smelted by Prof. Hill. The absolute contents of these ores
was probably 35 dols. per ton of gold and silver, 3 per cent of
copper, worth say 1°50 dols. per unit, and the same per-
centage of lead, worth say 50 cents per unit. I attach some
value to the lead, inasmuch as, though the lead scattered
through the iron and copper pyrites is valueless, there are
lodes yielding massive galena, and others where the galena
might be separated from the other sulphurets, advanta-
geously both to the miner and the smelter. Therefore—

Dollars.

100,000 tons, containing 35 dols. in are

and BiliVer, crew Olt 9) Shay) - 3,500,000
300,000 units of copper, at even 1°50

Gols er Umiiy Lule. se 450,000

300,000 units of lead, at 50 cents per unit 150,000

Absolute value of metals in the ore . . 4,100,000
Allow for loss in dressing, say 20 percent 820,000

3,280,000
Present yield with battery amalgamation
and smelting of No. I. ore only (ave-
TIE Oly eA MCAMG ie ae ee laa ly ay a). <2 2,923,000
Savinewnder altered: System 4... «2,957,000

This saving would almost represent profits derived by
miner and smelter; for the cost of crushing and concentra-
tion, were battery amalgamation supplanted by simple con-
centration and smelting of the whole produce of the mines,
would be so much less than that of pulverising and amal- |
gamating that this saving, added to the profit derived from

the smelting of copper ores, concentrated as they then would

be to 10 to 12 percent, and purchased probably at 2°50 dols.
per unit, would pay for the cost of treatment. Of course
the miner would not receive from the smelter the full value
of the gold and silver, but he would receive a higher per-
centage of their value than he now does, and thus the
Smelter and! he would divide the increased profit between
them.

As I shall show, tiie cost of mining and milling is now

* RayMoND, Report for 1870, p. 294.

22 Colorado Gold Mines. (January,

approximately 12 dols. perton. The return of bullion de-
rived from the 100,000 tons crushed confirms therefore, what
is evident from other considerations, that the mines have,
as a whole, merely paid the miner and mill-man their extra-
vagant wages, without returning any profit on the capital
invested in the mine. Could, however, the heavy loss now
sustained be saved, the saving would be nearly clear profit.
But, beside that, the very method which would save the
waste would enable much of the third quality ore, now
broken and raised at considerable cost, to be utilised. But
to this subject I shall return after describing the

SMELTING WoRKS NOW IN OPERATION.~

One establishment—that of the Boston and Colorado
Smelting Company—has for five years monopolised the
smelting ores raised around Central City, and under the
admirable management of Prof. Hill the enterprise has
succeeded financially and metallurgically.

At present there are five calcining and three reverberatory
smelting furnaces running. The ores treated are the No. I.
iron and copper pyrites, and concentrated tailings, containing
gold and silver. Galena ores are not sought for; but a cer-
tain amount of galena and blende is necessarily present in
the mixture, and the latter is in sufficient quantity to be a
source of trouble by carrying silver into the slag. Acupola
furnace is employed to re-melt this zincy slag,—an ex-
pensive operation, as coke costs between 40 and 50 dols.
a ton.

The fuel used in the reverberatories is wood. Thecalciners
roast 3 tons of tailings daily, with the consumption of one
cord of wood, costing 7 dols.a cord. The smelting furnaces
consume about 12 cords of wood, and smelt 4 charges of
2 tons each in the twenty-four hours. The lumps of coarse
ore are heap-roasted.

Professor Hill aims at getting a 40 per cent copper matt,
containing 40 ozs. of gold and 400 to 600 ozs. of silver to
the ton. He has always sold his matt to Vivian and Co.,
Swansea. His works have been of immense advantage to
Gilpin County. Yet he is not in good odour with the miners
generally. His scale of prices is low—lower probably than
if there were a vigorous competition on the spot. Special
arrangements, however, are made with good customers.
But in every case the value of most of the parcels of ore is
evidently guessed at, as the rough mode of sampling

1873.] Colorado Gold Mines. 23

employed can afford only a very vague determination of their
contents. The scale of prices paid is about as follows :—

Ounces of Fine Gold Percentage Paid of the Value
per Ton of 2000 lbs. of the Gold and Copper.
10 ; : - : : 60

9 ; : , ; , 58

8 : : : ‘ ‘ 55

7 , 3 : P 524

6 : F as 50

5 : ° ° cde 45

4 : : : , ‘ 40

3 . ; k ? : 30

2 ° . . . hs 20

‘The silver in the gold ores is not generally allowed for,
nor’is anything paid for the copper, unless in special cases.*

Professor Hill’s were not the first smelting works
attempted in this distriێt; and others have failed since
the establishment of his, though not in every case through
defects in the method. Mr. Wm. West erected, two years
ago, smelting and sulphuric acid works, with a view of re-
moving the zinc as sulphate by Gremm’s method before
smelting the ores; but the concern failed through lack of
capital before getting fairly under weigh’ At present Mr.
West is superintending works at Golden City, about half
way between Denver and Central City. The works are
located there in order to be near the lignite, which occurs
in thick beds along the base of the mountains, and which
is delivered at the works for 4°50 dols. per ton; and
also because Golden City is central to the lead ores of

* It may not be uninteresting to compare the above tariff with the price paid

for gold ores, to be similarly treated, at the smelting works on the Copiopo,
in Chili.

Ounces of fine Gold per cajon Price paid
= 64 Spanish quintals. per ounce.
# @ZS. per cajon, or 1 0z.. 120 gprs. per ton of zooolbs...., .. 6*50.dals.

5 ” ” I ,, 270 ” 9 oe Bice al hat Ayan
6 » 2) caged ZO 0 ” r+ ++ 8°90 5,
8 a so 2OZSs 248 ey Pa Sg ax OMA
Io ” ” 3 60 ” ” oe -- IO°40 ,,
12 ” a Lat was GOO a = Ses ba cae LOOM oc
14 ” ”? 4 » 180 ” ” oe -- II*2O ,,
16 ” ” Ser) za ” ” oe a0 LEO ”
18 ” ” Sys S02 ” ry ee ee, 12°30 455
20 ” ” 6 ” I20 ” 9 ake . I2°90 ,,

The same works pay for silver ores, when they contain 6 marks to the cajon,
or 60°60 dols. of silver to the 64 Spanish quintals—
For 6-mark ore roo dol. per mark, or 1-1oth of the value of the silver.
»» Io-mark ore 3°00 dols. “a 3-roths: 4, ie
5 40-mark ore 6-00 /,, ie G-TOths® 545 3
»» Ioo-mark ore 7°25 ,, 3-4ths oo a

24 Colorado Gold Mines. - {January,

Georgetown, and of the new mineral region of Caribou, in
Boulder County. They are designed to treat argentiferous
galena only. Ina combined calcining and smelting furnace
the galena, mixed with a suitable proportion of siliceous
matter, is first roasted by being moved forward from the
stack to near the fireplace over a hearth 60 feet long.
Immediately behind the bridge there is a depression, into
which the calcined ore is drawn, and where it is fused into
a. pasty mass, with pyrites tailings from Central City.
This mass of silicate of lead, with some galena and sulphide
of iron, is smelted, with a small percentage of metallic iron,
in a cupola furnace. Separating works are being put up to
desilverise the lead. Although the lignite answers admirably
in the calciners, Pennsylvania coke at 40 dols. a ton is the
fuel consumed in the cupola.

Another market for Gilpin County ore is being made in
Idaho, about six miles from Central City, over a steep lateral
mountain range, where an English company is commencing
the erection of furnaces in the old Whale Mill of the Spanish
Bar Silver Mining Company. ‘The works are near enough
to Central to compete with Professor Hill for the richest Fe
the gold-bearing sulphurets of that region, which it will be
found necessary to mix with the more refractory ores of
-Idaho. At about the same distance from Idaho, but much
more easily reached, because upon the banks of the same
river, is the Empire City distnict, which will also furnish
iron and copper sulphurets; but small smelting works,
owned by a Swansea firm, are already in operation at this
point.

Some of the richer argentiferous galena of Gilpin County
finds its way to Georgetown, where. Mr. J. O. Stewart has
erected and is running to good profits beautifully arranged
silver reduction works of the Reese River type; but to

describe them would be beyond the purpose of this article.

The prices he pays are somewhat more favourable than
those of Prof. Hill; but it is worthy of note that the greater
satisfaction of his-customers arises in great measure from
the accuracy with which the sample is taken, and the
ceriainty the seller feels of knowing what his ore really
contains.

PRESENT FINANCIAL POSITION OF MINING AND MILLING,

AND PROPOSED ALTERATION IN THE MODE OF TREAT-
ING THE ORES.

So heavy is the loss entailed on the miner by the present
system of milling, that Mr. Reichenecher computes that the

1873.] ~ Colorado Gold Mines. 25

‘‘ sross receipts from rock of the first class are about 36°24
per cent, and from rock of the second class about 32°13 per
cent of their total assay value in gold, silver, and ccpper.”
He classes the veins now worked under two hee. the first
yielding an average in gold, silver, and copper of 50°80 dols. ;
the second class an average of 30 dols. per ton. ‘The first,
as he shows, returns a profit to the miner; the second is
worked at a loss.

Fifty tons of ore, whose contents in gold, silver, and copper
is worth, say 50 dols. per ton, but’in gold, which alone is
saved, only 29°40 dols., will cost and yield as follows :—

Dollars.

5 tons, worth, say roo dols., will bring

from the smelters 60 dols. per ton . . 300°00

Forty-five tons, treated in the mill, and worth in gold 29’40 ~

dols. per ton, will yield as follows :—
Dollars.

~ 40 per cent of 29°40 dols. per ton, the result
of battery amalgamation . . - 529°20

4 per cent of 29°40 dols. per ton derived

from the erro when treated in
pans . 52°92
Concentrated tailings, 2 25 tons atr6" 94 dols. 38°12

Q20°24
Cost of Mining and Milling.
Dollars.
Mining and carting 50 tons at 6 dols.
per ton . tia, OOOO
Milling 45 tons at 3 84 fees We, 172°90
Treating blanketings in os 144
Cents per. CON: <4, 7. Tears 6°30
Concentrating tailings ott.) g'81
—— 489°01

Gross PIGME\ mike Mac) > sleet Aen aie
From this must be deducted cost ak ad-
ministration, and tax of, say 18 cents
per ton, Paarup to, au 1°26 dols.
per ton. so.) * Si. Stuer seks “63°65

Nettyprolits: | lee Bee S68 Tu
Or, 7°36 dols. per ton. .

Veins of the second class containing 30 dols. in gold, silver,
and copper, but not over 21 dols. in gold alone, it is evident
VOL, Ti (N:S.) E

26 Colorado Gold Mines. [January,

can only be worked at a loss, which is calculated by Mr.
Reichenecher at 1°73 dols. per ton.

Most of the mines which have been kept open on “hie
lodes previously enumerated are of the first class. Many,
of course, have yielded much higher percentage ore than
the average: many more have intermitted between poverty
and richness; and there is many an isolated mine, like the
California on the Flack Lode, which has for many con-
secutive months by its large returns effected the prosperity
of the whole region. ‘There are, moreover, first class claims
held by wealthy men who can afford to wait, and who have
kept them closed for years, sure of the introdu¢tion sooner
or later of more economical methods of treatment. Of each
there are several on the Bates Lode. ‘The best evidence of
the unparalleled richness of these mines is that, despite the
loss of 66 per cent of their mineral, so many have been for
years worked to advantage. A comparison of their produce
with those of other gold-producing countries affords further
proof of this.*¥ The average value of 500,000 tons of
Australian gold quartz was 16°78 dols.; the average value
of ore raised in eight counties in California from 30 mines,
including the richest, is, per ton, 23°50 dols.; while 1,760,050
tons from the Morro Velho mines, Brazil, yielded only
8°20 dols. per ton, and yet the ores of Gilpin County must
yield 25 dols. in gold to cover cost of extraction and milling
calone. Ifthe character of the ore is so peculiar as’ to'dety.
all known methods of economical treatment, the mines must
be left to their inevitable fate. But there is no reason to
apprehend such a gloomy future.

The remedy evidently lies in mechanical concentration of
the second and third class ores, the abandonment altogether
of battery amalgamation, and the smelting of the whole
produce.

The ore should be carefully assorted by hand, and a
separation made not only of first class, as at present from
the poorer vein stuff, but of the iron and copper pyrites
from the galena and blende.

First class ore, aS at. present, 1s Mi fom tue) 1urmace, and
can be roasted either in heaps, or, better still, in kilns ; for it
is a serious waste of capital to have 100,000 to 200,000 dols.
worth of ore lying in roast heaps for months, when the
amount might be returned in as many weeks were kilns
employed. Second and third class ore, the former of which
alone is now serviceable, might both be crushed and

* Baxer’s Pamphlet, p. 15.

W732. Colorado Gold Mines. 27

concentrated. The gangue is generally soft and light, and
easily separable from its mineral contents ; and the mineral
is not, as a general rule, distributed in such minute particles
through the mass as to necessitate crushing finer than
1-6th to 1-8th of an inch, in order to obtain a very perfect
disengagement of the one from the other. - The coarse
grains should be concentrated in automatic hutches. It is
possible that Messrs. Huet and Geyler’s hutches* would
separate not only the mineral from the earthy matter, but
as the toppings flow from hutch to hutch effect a certain
separation of the iron and copper pyrites from the blende
and galena. ‘These hutches recommend themselves also
by their compactness, and being built entirely of iron. The
slime concentration would doubtless be best effected on
Rittinger lateral percussion tables, which would certainly
not only concentrate, but separate the concentrate into
parcels of different specific gravity; but the machine re-
quires for successful working too close attention to so
many details to be efficient in the hands of Colorado ore-
dressers. Buddles therefore—concave buddles for the coarse,
and convex buddles for the fine slimes-—-would be the most
suitable machines. If third class ore, which will not bear
expensive carriage, is to be utilised, the concentrating works
would need to be at the mines. Water could be delivered
to most mines from the Consolidated Ditch. The charges
are now high, but it is expected they will be reduced to
Io cents per miner’s inch per day = 2274 cubic feet of water.

Dry concentration is strongly advocated, but where water
is accessible it will in most cases he better to adhere to the
well-understood system of water dressing.

If the concentration were as carefully conducted as it is
in the best establishments of England and the Continent,
the result should be as favourable. In Hungary the allow-
ance for loss is 15 per cent. Allow that it would be 20 per
cent-1in Colorado, and that the concentrate would contain
four times as much mineral as the crude ore. If, therefore,
the mineral contained 1 oz. of gold and 1°5 per cent of
copper, the concentrate would contain, after making allow-
ance for loss, 4 ozs. of gold and 6 per cent of topper. I
leave the silver and lead out of the calculation. If the
galena and blende can be separated from the iron and copper
pyrites the galena will be an additional source of profit ;
if not, the cost of smelting the refractory mixture and the

* Huet and Geyler, 46, Rue de la Victoire, manufa@urers of the Cribles
_ Rapides a Deux et Quatre Compartiments.

28 Colorado Gold Mines. (January,

loss of silver in the slag will be so great as to reduce notably
the value of the silver.

The probable cost of treating will, therefore, be—
: liars.
Mining and hauling 50 tons at 6dols.per ton 300
Handpicking and concentrating 50 tons at
erdols= 50s ra oe veres Eo eee Waa ee

400
Value of gold and silver in the concentrate—
Dollars.
zo tons of concentrate containing 40 ozs.

OF Sale So ue NS as 800
ro tons of concentrate containigg 6 60 units
eb copper Sse - 300

II0O

The smelter should pay for ore containing 4 ozs. of gold,
6 per cent of copper, and probably 20 to 40 ozs. of silver,
at least 60 per cent of the value of the gold and 50 per cent
of the value of the copper.

Therefore the receipts of the miner would be—
Dollars.
60 per cent of the value of 40 ozs. of gold . 480
50 per cent of the value of the copper. . . 150

630
And as the cost of producing and concen-
tralia Wweuld. De. »..,- is) Ui 1 ye aa ea oh

The profit on 50 tons of r0z. goldore would be 230
Or 4°60 dols. per ton.

This calculation supposes that there is no No.1 ore in
the vein stuff. As the custom mills charge only 3°84 dols.
for stamping and amalgamating a ton of ore, the allowance
of 2°00 dols. for crushing and concentrating is ample.
Moreover, the smelting would doubtless be done more
cheaply were there vigorous competition. But this cannot
be looked for till smelters can count with certainty on a
steady and abundant supply of suitable ore, which will only
be forthcoming when the whole produce of the mines
passes through their hands, and not the No. 1 ore only. —

From mines now open 1000 tons a day of 2o-dollar ore
could be at once produced ; and there are second class mines
innumerable which under existing modes of treatment are

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 29

valueless and closed, which could quadruple that yield if it
were shown that a 20-dollar ore could be mined to a profit.

Several English companies are now entering on active
mining operations in Gilpin County, and it is to be hoped
they will inaugurate a new system. ‘This they are the more
likely to do, as the properties they have purchased are not
hampered with old stamp mills.

ME CONDITION, OF THE, MOON'S SURFACE:

By Ricuarp A. PRoctor, B.A. (Cambridge),
Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society.

LP the study of our earth’s crust—or the science of
Geology—is capable of throwing some degree of light
on the past condition of other members of the solar
system, the study of those other orbs seems capable of at
least suggesting useful ideas concerning the past condition
of our earth. There are members of the solar system
respecting which it may reasonably be inferred that they
are in an earlier stage of their existence than the earth.
Jupiter and Saturn, for instance, would seem—so far as ob-
servation has extended—to be still in a condition of intense
heat, and still the seat of forces such as were once probably
at work within our earth. We see these planets enwrapped,
to all appearance, within a double or triple coating of clouds,
and we are compelled to infer, from the behaviour of these
clouds, that they are generated by forces belonging to the
orb which they envelope ; we have, also, every reason which
the nature of the case can afford to suppose that our own
earth was once similarly cloud-enveloped. We can scarcely
imagine that in the long-past ages, when the igneous rocks
were in the primary stages of their existence, the air was
not loaded heavily with clouds. We may, then, regard
Jupiter and Saturn as to some degree indicating the state of
our own earth at a long-past epoch of her existence. On the
other hand, it has been held, and not without some degree
of evidence in favour of the theory, that in our moon we
have a picture of our earth as she will be at some far-distant
future date, when her period of rotation has been forced
into accordance with the period of the moon’s revolution
round the earth, when the internal heat of the earth’s globe

30 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

has been radiated almost wholly away into space, and when
her oceans and atmosphere have disappeared through the
action of the same circumstances (whatever they may be)
which have caused the moon to be air-less and ‘ocean-less.
But whether we take this view of our earth’s future, or
whether we consider that her state has been from the begin-
ning very different from that of the moon, it nevertheless
remains probable that we see in our moon a globe which has
passed through a much greater proportion of its history (so
to speak) than our earth; and accordingly the study of the
moon’s condition seems capable of giving some degree of
information as to the future (possibly also as to the past) of
our earth.

I wish, in the present paper, to consider the moon’s con-
dition from a somewhat different point of view than has
commonly been adopted. It appears to me that the study
fo the moon’s surface with the telescope, and the considera-
tion of the various phenomena which give evidence on the
question whether air or water exist anywhere upon or within
her, have not as yet led to any satisfactory inferences as to
her past history. We see the traces of tremendous sub-
lunarian disturbances (using the word ‘ sublunarian,” here
and elsewhere, to correspond to the word ‘“‘ subterranean ”’
used with reference to the earth), and we find some features
of resemblance between the effects of such disturbances
and those produced by the subterranean forces of our earth;
but we find also as marked signs of distinction between the
features of the lunar and terrestrial crusts. Again, com-
paring the evidences of a lunar atmosphere with those
which we should expect if an atmosphere like our own sur-
rounded the moon, we are able to decide, with some degree
of confidence, that the moon has either no atmosphere or
one of very limited extent. But there our knowledge comes
to an end; nor does it seem likely that, by any contrivances
man can devise, the further questions which suggest them-
selves respecting the moon’s condition can be answered by
means of observation.

But there are certain considerations respecting the moon’s
past history which seem to me likely, if duly weighed, to
throw some light on the difficult problems presented by the
moon.

In the first place, it is to be noted that the peculiar rela-
tion between the moon’s rotation and revolution possesses a
meaning which has not hitherto, so far as I know, been
attended to. We know that now there is an absolutely
perfect agreement between the moon’s rotation and revolu-

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. ar

tion, in this respeét—that her mean period of rotation on
her axis is exactly equal to her mean period of revolution.
(Here either sidereal rotation and revolution or synodical
rotation and revolution may be understood, so long as both
revolution and rotation are understood to be of the same
kind). I say ‘‘mean period of rotation,” for although as a
matter of fact it is only the revolution which is subject to
any considerable variation, the rotation also is not perfectly
uniform. We know, furthermore, that if there had been,
long ago, a near agreement between the mean rotation and
revolution, the present exact agreement would have resulted,
through the effects of the mutual attractions of the earth
and moon. But, so faras I know, astronomers have not yet
carefully considered the question whether that close agree-
ment existed from the beginning, or was the result of other
forms of action than are at present at work. If it existed
from the beginning, that is from the moon’s first existence
as a body independent of the earth, it is a matter requiring
to be explained, as it implies a peculiar relation between the
moon and earth before the present state of things existed.
If, onthe contrary, it has been brought about by the amount
of action which is now gradually reducing the earth’s rota-
tion period, we have first of all to consider that an enormous
period of time has been required to bring the moon to her
present condition in this respect, and, moreover, that either
an ocean existed on her surface or that her crust was once

in so plastic a condition as to be traversed by a tidal wave

resembling, in some respects, the tidal wave in our own
ocean. This, at any rate, is what we must believe if we
suppose, first, that the main cause of the lengthening of the
terrestrial day is the action of the tidal wave as a sort of
brake on the earth’s rotating globe, and, secondly, that a
Similar cause produced the lengthening of the moon’s day
to its present enormous duration. It may be, as we shall
presently see, that other causes have to be taken into account
in the moon’s case.

Now we are thus, either way, brought to a consideration
of that distant epoch when—according to the nebular
theory, or any admissible modification thereof—the moon
was as yet non-existent as an orb distinct from the earth.
We must suppose, on one theory, that the moon was at that
time enveloped in the nebulous rotating spheroid out of
which the earth was to be formed, she herself (the moon)
being a nebulous sub-spheroid within the other, and so far
coerced by the motion of the other that her longer axis
partook in its motion of rotation. Unquestionably in that

32 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

case, as the terrestrial spheroid contracted and left the other
as a separate body, this other, or lunar spheroid, would
exhibit the kind of rotation which the moon actually pos-
sesses. On the other theory, we should be led to suppose
that primarily the lunar spheroid rotated independently of
its revolution; but that the earth’s attraction acting on the
outer shells, after they had become first fluid and then
(probably) viscous, produced waves travelling in the same
direction as the rotation, but with a continual brake-action,
tending slowly to reduce the rotation until it had its present.
value, when dynamical equilibrium would be secured.

But, as I have said, in either case we must trace back the
moon’s history to an epoch when she was in a state of
intense heat. And it seems to me that we are thus led to
notice that the development of the present state of things
in the moon must have taken place during an era in the
history of the solar system differing essentially from that
which prevailed during the later and better-known geological
eras of our own earth. Our moon was shaped, so to speak,
when the solar system itself was young, when the sun may
have given out a much greater degree of heat than at
present, when Saturn and Jupiter were brilliant suns, when
even our earth and her fellow minor planets within the zone
of asteroids were probably in a sun-like condition. Putting
aside all hypothesis, it nevertheless remains clear that, to
understand the moon’s present condition, we must form
some estimate of the probable condition of the solar system
in distant eras of its existence; for it was in such eras, and
not in an era like the present, that she was modelled to her
present figure.

It appears to me that we are thus, to some extent, freed
from a consideration which has proved a difficulty to many
who have theorised respecting the moon. It has been said
that the evidence of volcanic action implies the existence,
at least when that action was in progress, of an atmosphere
capable of supporting combustion,—in other words, an
atmosphere containing oxygen, for other forms of combustion
than those in which oxygen plays a part may here be dis-
missed from consideration. But the fiery heat of the moon’s
substance may have been maintained (in the distant eras to
which we are now referring the formation of her crust)
without combustion. Taking the nebular hypothesis as it
is commonly presented, the moon’s globe may have remained
amid the intensely hot nebulous spheroid (which was one
day to contract, and so form the globe of the earth) until
the nebula left it to cool thenceforth rapidly to its present

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 33

state. Whatever objections suggest themselves to such a
view are precisely the objections which oppose themselves
to the simple nebular hypothesis, and may be disposed of by
those who accept that hypothesis. But better, to my view,
it may be reasoned, that the processes of contraction and of
the gathering in of matter from without, which maintained
the heat of the nebulous masses, operated to produce all the
processes of disturbance which brought the moon to her
present condition, and that thus there was not necessarily
any combustion whatever. Indeed, in any case, combustion
can only have commenced when the heat had been so far
reduced that any oxygen existing in the lunar spheroid
would enter into chemical combination with various com-
ponents of the moon’s glowing substance. If there were
no oxygen (an unlikely supposition, however), the moon’s
heat would nevertheless have been. maintained so long as
meteoric impact on the one hand, and contraction of the
moon’s substance on the other, continued to supply the
requisite mechanical sources of heat-generation. In this
case there would not necessarily have been any gaseous or
vapourous matter, other than the matter retained in the
gaseous condition by intensity of heat, and becoming first
liquid and afterwards solid, so soon as the heat was
sufficiently reduced.

It must here be considered how far we have reason to
believe that the heat of the various members of the solar
system—including the moon and other secondary bodies—
was originally produced, and thereafter maintained, by col-
lisions; because it is clear that, as regards the surface
contour of these bodies, much would depend on this circum-
stance. ‘There would be aconsiderable difference between
the condition of a body which was maintained at a high
temperature for a long period, and eventually cooled, but
slowly, under a continual downfall of matter, and that of a
body whose heat was maintained by a process of gradual
contraction. It is true that in the case of a globe like the
earth, whose surface was eventually modelled and re-modelled
by processes of a totally different kind, by deposition and
denudation, by wind and rain, river-action and the beating
of seas, the signs of the original processes of cooling would
to a great extent disappear; but if, as we are supposing in
the case of the moon, there was neither water nor air (at
least in sufficient quantity to produce any effect corresponding
to those produced by air and water on the earth), the prin-
cipal features of the surface would depend largely on the

VOL. III.°(N.S.)- F

34 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. {January,

conditions under which the process of cooling began and
proceeded.

Now here I must recall to the attention of the reader the
reasoning which I have made use of in my ‘‘ Other Worlds
than Ours,” to show that, in ail probability, our solar system
owed its origin rather to the gathering of matter together
from outer space than to the contraction of a rotating
nebulous mass. It is there shown, and I think that the
consideration is one which should have weight in such an
inquiry, that there is nothing in the nebular hypothesis of
Laplace to account in any degree for the peculiarities of
detail presented by the solar system. That theory explains
the revolution of the members of the solar system in the
same direction, their rotation in the same direction, the
approach to circularity of the orbits, and their near coin-
cidence with the mean plane of the system; but it leaves
altogether unexplained the different dimensions of the
primary members of the solar system, the apparent absence
of law and order in their axial tilt, and the inclination of
the orbits of their satellite families. In particular, the
remarkable difference which exists between the outer family
of planets,—the giant orbs, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune,—and the inner family of small planets,—Mars,
the Earth, Venus, and Mercury,—is left wholly unexplained.
Nor can one recognise in the nebular hypothesis any reason
whatever for the comparative exuberance of orb-forming
activity in the outer family, and particularly in the two
planets lying next to the zone of asteroids, and the poverty
of material which is exhibited within the minor family of
planets. All these circumstances appear to be explained
satisfactorily when we regard the solar system as formed by
the gathering in from outer space of materials once widely
scattered. We can see that in the neighbourhood of the
great primary centre there would be indeed a great abun-
dance of gathered and gathering matter, but that, owing to
the enormous velocities in that neighbourhood, subordinate
centres of attraction would there form slowly, and acquire
but moderate dimensions. Outside a certain distance there
would be less matter, but a far greater freedom of aggrega-
tion ; there we should find the giant secondary centres, and
we should expect the chief of these to lie inwards, as Jupiter
and Saturn, while beyond would be orbs vast indeed, but far
inferior to these planets. And we can readily see that the
border region between the family of minor planets and the
family of major planets would be one where the formation
of a planet would be rendered unlikely ; here, therefore, we

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 35

should look for the existence of a zone of small bodies like
the asteroids. I touch on these points to show the kind of
evidence (elsewhere given at length) on which I have based
my opinion that the solar system had its birth, and long
maintained its fires, under the impact and collisions of bodies
gathered in from outer space.

According to this view, the moon, formed at a compara-
tively distant epoch in the history of the solar system,
would have not merely had its heat originally generated for
the most part by meteoric impact, but while still plastic
would have been exposed to meteoric downfalls, compared
with which all that we know, in the present day, of meteor-
showers, aérolitic masses, and so on, must be regarded as
altogether insignificant. It would be to such downfall
mainly that the maintenance of the moon’s heat would at
that time be due, though, as we shall presently see, pro-
cesses of contraction must have not only supplemented this
source of heat-supply, but must have continued to maintain
the moon’s heat long after the meteoric source of heat had
become comparatively ineffective.

Now, I would notice in passing that here we may find an
explanation of the agreement between the moon’s rotation
period and her period of revolution. It is clear that under
the continuous downfall of meteoric matter in that distant
era, the moon must have been in a process of a¢tual growth.
She is indeed growing now from the same cause; and so
is the earth: but such growth must be regarded as in-
finitesimally small. In the earlier periods of the moon’s
history, on the contrary, the moon’s growth must have pro-
gressed at a comparatively rapid rate. Now this influx of
matter must have resulted in a gradual reduction of the
moon’s rate of rotation, if (as we must suppose) the moon
gathered matter merely by chance collisions. In the case
of a globe gathering in matter by its own attractive power
as the sun does, for instance, the arriving matter may (owing
to the manner in which the process is effected) serve to
maintain and even to increase the rate of rotation; but in the
case of a subordinate body like the moon we must suppose
that all effects acting on the rotation would be about equally
balanced, and that the sole really effective result would be
the increase of the moon’s bulk, and the consequent diminu-
tion of her rotation rate. Now, if this process continued
until the rotation rate had nearly reached its present value,
the earth’s attraction would suffice not merely to bring the
rate of rotation precisely to its present value, but to prevent
its changing (by the continuance of the process) to a smaller

x

36 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [January,

value. It may be added that the increase in the moon’s
rate of revolution, as she herself and the earth both grew
under meteoric downfall towards their present dimen-
sions, would operate in a similar way,—it would tend to
bring the moon’s rate of revolution and her rate of rotation
towards that agreement which at present exists.

If we attempt to picture the condition of the moon in
that era of her history when first the process of downfall
became so far reduced in activity as to permit of her cooling
down, we shall be tempted, I believe, to consider that
some of the more remarkable features of her globe had their
origin in that period. It may seem, indeed, at a first view,
too wild and fanciful an idea to suggest that the multi-
tudinous craters on the moon, and especially the smaller
craters revealed in countless numbers when telescopes of
high power are employed, have been caused by the plash of
meteoric rain,—and I should certainly not care to maintain
that as the true theory of their origin; yet it must be re-
membered that no plausible theory has yet been urged
respecting this remarkable feature of the moon’s surface.
It is impossible to recognise a real resemblance between
any terrestrial feature and the crateriferous surface of the
moon. As blowholes, so many openings cannot at any time
have been necessary, whatever opinion we may form as to
the condition of the moon’s interior and its rea¢tion upon
the crust. Moreover, it should be remembered that our
leading seismologists regard water as absolutely essential
to the production of volcanic disturbance (the only form of
disturbance which on our earth leads to the formation of
cup-shaped openings). If we consider the explanation ad-
vanced by Hooke, that these numerous craters were pro-
duced in the same way that small cup-shaped depressions
are formed when thick calcareous solutions are boiled and
left to cool, we see that it is inadequate to account for lunar
craters, the least of which (those to which Mr. Birt has
given the name of craterlets) are at least half a mile in
diameter. The rings obtained by Hooke were formed by the
breaking of surface bubbles or blisters,* and it is impossible
for such bubbles to be formed on the scale of the lunar
craters. Now so far as the smaller craters are concerned,
there is nothing incredible in the supposition that they were

* «« Presently ceasing to boil,” he says of alabaster, ‘the whole surface will
appear covered all over with small pits, exactly shaped like those of the moon.”
‘*The earthy part of the moon has been undermined,” he proceeds, ‘ or
heaved up by eruptions of vapour, and thrown into the same kind of figured
holes as the powder of alabaster.”’

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. a7

due to meteoric rain falling when the moon was in a plastic
condition. Indeed, it is somewhat remarkable how strikingly
certain parts of the moon resemble a surface which has been
rained upon while sufficiently plastic to receive the im-
pressions, but not too soft to retain them. Nor is it any
valid objection to this supposition, that the rings left by
meteoric downfall would only be circular when the falling
matter chanced to strike the moon’s surface squarely; for it
is far more probable that even when the surface was struck
very obliquely and the opening first formed by the meteoric
mass or cloud of bodies was therefore markedly elliptic, the
plastic surface would close in round the place of impact
until the impression actually formed had assumed a nearly
circular shape.

Before passing from this part of my subject, I would in-
vite attention to the aspect of the half moon as presented in
the photograph illustrating this paper (see Frontispiece).* It
will be seen that the multitudinous craters near the top of
the picture (the southern part of the moont) are strongly
suggestive of the kind of process I have referred to, and
that, in fact, if one judged solely by appearances, one would
be disposed to adopt somewhat confidently the theory that
the moon had had her present surface craters chiefly formed
by meteoric downfalls during the period of her existence
when she was plastic to impressions from without. I am,
however, sensible that the great craters under close telescopic
scrutiny by no means correspond in appearance to what we
should expect if they were formed by the downfall of great
masses from without. The regular, and we may almost say
battlemented, aspect of some of these craters, the level
floor, and the central peaks so commonly recognised, seem
altogether different from what we should expect if a great
mass fell from outer space upon the moon’s surface. It is
indeed just possible that under the tremendous heat

* This photograph is interesting as the work of the Great Melbourne re-
flector. It was taken directly of its present size, and in this respec differs
from all others of the same size, since, hitherto the negatives taken have been
small.

+ Owing to the fact that this photograph has been taken with a Newtonian
reflector, we have not the same kind of inversion as in the case of photographs
taken with refrattors. In the latter case all that is necessary to cause the
picture to represent the moon as we see her, is simply to hold the picture up-
side down; but the photograph illustrating this paper will only resemble the
half moon as she actually appears (at the time of first quarter, the epoch
of the photograph) by holding the picture inverted before a looking-glass.,
The picture would also show rightly if inverted and then looked at from behind,
supposing the method of mounting such that the picture can be seen from
behind when held up between the eye and the light. At present I do not know
whether this will be the case or not.

38 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [January,

generated by the downfall a vast circular region of the
moon’s surface would be rendered liquid, and that in rapidly
solidifying while still traversed by the ring-waves resulting
from the downfall, something like the present condition
would result. Or we might suppose that the region liquefied
through the effects of the shock was very much larger than
the meteoric mass; and that while a wave of disturbance
travelled outwards from the place of impact to be solidified
(owing to rapid radiation of heat) even as it travelled, a
portion of the liquid interior of the moon forced its way
through the opening formed by the falling mass. But such
ideas as these require to be supported by much stronger
evidence than we possess before they can be regarded as
acceptable. I would remark, however, that nothing hitherto
advanced has explained at all satisfactorily the structure of
the great crateriform mountain ranges on the moon. The
theory that there were once great lakes seems open to diffi-
culties at least as grave as the one I have just considered,
and to this further objection, that it affords no explanation
of the circular shape of these lunar regions. On the other
hand, Sir John Herschel’s account of the appearance of these
craters is not supported by any reasoning based on our
knowledge of the a¢tual circumstances under which vol-
canic action proceeds in the case of our own earth. ‘‘ The
generality of the lunar mountains,” he says, ‘‘ present a
striking uniformity and singularity of aspect. They are
wonderfully numerous, occupying by far the larger portion
of the surface, and almost universally of an exact circular
or cup-shaped form, foreshortened, however, into ellipses
towards the limb; but the larger have for the most part flat
bottoms within, from which rises centrally a small, steep,
conical hill. They offer, in short, in its highest perfection
the true volcanic character, as it may be seen in the crater
of Vesuvius; and, in some of the principal ones, decisive
marks of volcanic stratification, arising from successive de-
posits of ejected matter, may be clearly traced with power-
ful telescopes. What is, moreover, extremely singular in
the geology of the moon is, that although nothing having
the character of seas can be traced (for the dusty spots
which are commonly called seas, when closely examined,
present appearances incompatible with the supposition of
deep water), yet there are large regions perfectly level, and
apparently of a decided alluvial character ?”

It is obvious that in this description we have, besides
those features of volcanic action which might perhaps be
expected on the moon, a reference to features essentially

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. | 39

terrestrial. Alluvial deposits can have no existence, for
example, save where there are rivers and seas, as well as an
atmosphere within which clouds may form, whence rain
may be poured upon the surface of wide land regions. It
is not going too far to say that we have the clearest evidence
to show that in the moon none of these conditions are
fulfilled. Whether in former ages lunar oceans and seas
and a lunar atmosphere have existed, may be a doubtful
point; but it is certain that all the evidence we have is
negative, save only those extremely doubttul signs of glacier
action recognised by Prof. Frankland. I venture to quote
from Guillemin’s ‘‘ Heavens” a statement of Frankland’s
views, in order that the reader may see on how slender a
foundation hypotheses far more startling than the theory I
have suggested have been based by a careful reasoner and
able physicist. ‘‘Prof. Frankland believes,” says the
account, “‘and his belief rests.on a special study of the
lunar surface, that our satellite has, like its primary, also
passed through a glacial epoch, and that several, at least,
of the valleys, rills, and streaks of the lunar surface are not
improbably due to former glacial action. Notwithstanding
the excellent definition of modern telescopes, it could not be
expected that other than the most gigantic of the character-
istic details of an ancient glacier-bed would be rendered
wisiple.. What, then, may we, expect to see? Under
favourable circumstances the terminal moraine of a glacier
attains enormous dimensions; and consequently of all the
marks of a glacier valley this would be the one most likely to
be first perceived. Two such terminal moraines, one of them
a double one, have appeared to observers to be traceable
upon the moon’s surface. The first is situated near the
termination of the remarkable streak which commences near
the base of Tycho, and passing under the south-eastern
wall of Bullialdus, into the ring of which it appears:to cut,
is gradually lost after passing Lubiniezky. Exactly opposite
this last, and extending nearly across the streak in question,
are two ridges forming the arcs of circles whose centres are
not coincident, and whose external curvature is towards the
north. Beyond the second ridge a talus slopes gradually
down northwards to the general level of the lunar surface,
the whole presenting an appearance reminding the obseryer
of the concentric moraines of the Rhéne glacier. These
ridges are visible for the whole period during which that
portion of the moon’s surface is illuminated; but it is only
about the third day after the first quarter, and at the
corresponding phase of the waning moon, when the sun’s

40 Condition of the Moon’s S urface. __ [January,

rays, falling nearly horizontally, throw the details of this
part of the surface into strong relief ; and these appearances
suggest this explanation of them. The other ridge answering
to a terminal moraine, occurs at the northern extremity of
that magnificent valley which runs past the eastern edge of
Rheita.”

Here are two lunar features of extreme delicacy, and
certainly not incapable of being otherwise explained, re-
ferred by Frankland to glacier action. It need hardly be
said that glacial aCtion implies the existence of water and
an atmosphere on the moon,—and not only so, but there
must have been extensive oceans and an atmosphere nearly
equal in density to that of our own earth, if the appearances
commented upon by Frankland were due to glacial action.
It is admitted by Frankland, of course, that there is now no
evidence whatever of the presence of water, ‘‘ but, on the
contrary, all selenographical observations tend to prove its
absence. Nevertheless,” proceeds the account from which I
have already quoted, “‘the idea of former aqueous agency
in the moon has received almost universal acceptation”’ (the
italics are mine). ‘‘It was entertained by Gruithuisen and
others. But, if water at one time existed on the surface of
the moon, whither has it disappeared? If we assume, in
accordance with the nebular hypothesis, that the portions
of matter composing respectively the earth and the moon
once possessed an equally elevated temperature, it almost
necessarily follows that the moon, owing to the comparative
smallness of her mass, would cool more rapidly than the
earth ; for whilst the volume of the moon is only about
I-49th (and its mass, it might be added, only about 1-81st
part), its surface is nearly 1-13th that of the earth. This
cooling of the mass of the moon must, in accordance with
all analogy, have been attended with contraction, which
can scarcely be conceived as occurring without the develop-
ment of a cavernous structure in the interior. Much of
this cavernous structure would doubtless communicate, by
means of fissures, with the surface; and thus there would
be provided an internal receptacle for the ocean, from the
depths of which even the burning sun of the long lunar day
would be totally unable to dislodge more than traces of its
vapour. Assuming the solid mass of the moon to contract
on cooling at the same rate as granite, its refrigeration
though only 180° F. would create cellular space equal to
nearly 143 millions of cubic miles, which would be more
than sufficient to engulf the whole of the lunar oceans,
supposing them to bear the same proportion to the mass of
the moon as our own oceans bear to that of the earth.”

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 4I

The great objection to this view of the moon’s past
history consists in the difficulty of accounting for the lunar
atmosphere. It must be remembered that owing to the small-
ness of the moon’s mass, an atmosphere composed in the
same way as ours would have a much greater depth com-
pared with its density at the mean level of the moon’s
surface than our atmosphere possesses compared with its
pressure at the sea-level. If there were exactly the same
quantity of air above each square mile of the moon’s
surface as there is above each square mile of the earth’s
surface, the lunar air would not only extend to a much
greater height than ours, but would be much less dense at
the moon’s surface. The atmospheric pressure would in
that case be about 1-6th that at our sea-level, and instead
of the lower half of such an atmosphere (that is, the lower
half in actual quantity of air) lying within a distance of about
34 miles from the mean surface, as in the case of our earth,
it would extend to a distance of about 22 miles from the
surface. Now this reasoning applies with increased force to
the case of an atmosphere contained within the cavernous
interior of the moon; for there the pressure due to the at-
traction of the moon’s mass would be reduced. It is very
difficult to conceive that under such circumstances room
would not only exist for lunar oceans, but for a lunar
atmosphere occupying, one must suppose, a far greater
amount of space even before their withdrawal into these
lunar caverns, and partially freed from pressure so soon as
such withdrawal had taken place. That the atmosphere
should be withdrawn so completely that no trace of its
existence could be recognised does certainly appear very
difficult to believe, to say the least.

- Nevertheless, it is not to be forgotten ‘that so far as
terrestrial experience is concerned water is absolutely
essential to the occurrence of volcanic action. If we are
to extend terrestrial analogies to the case of our moon,
notwithstanding the signs that the conditions prevailing in
her case have been very different from those existing in the
case of our earth, we are bound to recognise at least the
possibility that water once existed onthe moon. Moreover,
it must be admitted that Professor Frankland’s theory seems
to accord far better with lunar facts than any of the others
which have been advanced to account for the disappearance
of all traces of water or air. The theory that oceans andan
atmosphere have been drawn to the farther side of the
moon cannot be entertained when due account is taken of
the range of the lunar librations. Sir J. Herschel, indeed,
VOL. Ile, (NS:) G

42 | Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

once gave countenance to that somewhat bizarre theory ;
but he admitted in a letter addressed to myself, that the
objection I had based on the circumstances of libration was
sufficient to dispose of the theory. The hypothesis that a
comet had whisked away the lunar oceans and atmosphere
does not need serious refutation; and it is difficult to see
how the theory that lunar seas and lunar air have been
solidified by intense cold can be maintained in presence of
the fact that experiments made with the Rosse mirror in-
dicate great intensity of heat in the substance of those
parts of the moon which have been exposed to the fuil heat
of the sun during the long lunar day.

If there ever existed a lunar atmosphere and lunar seas,
then Prof. Frankland’s theory seems the only available
means of accounting. for their disappearance. Accordingly
we must recognise the extreme interest and importance of
telescopic researches dire¢ted to the inquiry, whether any
features of the moon’s surface indicate the action of pro-
cesses of weathering, whether the beds of lunar rivers can
anywhere be traced, whether the shores of lunar seas can be
recognised by any of those features which exist round the
coast-lines of our own shores.

One circumstance may be remarked in passing. If the
multitudinous lunar craters were formed before the withdrawal
of lunar water and air into the moon’s interior, it is some-
what remarkable that the only terrestrial features which
can be in any way compared with them should be found in
regions of the earth which geologists regard as among those
which certainly have not been exposed to denudation by the
action of water. Thus Sir John Herschel, speaking of the
extinct volcanoes of the Puy de Dome, remarks that here
the observer sees ‘‘ a magnificent series of volcanic cones,
fields of ashes, streams of lava, and basaltic terraces or
platforms, proving the volcanic action to have been continued
for countless ages before the present surface of the earth
was formed; here can be seen a configuration of surface
quite resembling what telescopes show inthe most volcanic
districts of the moon; for half the moon’s face is covered
with unmistakable craters of extinct volcanoes.” But
‘Lyell, speaking of the same volcanic chains, describes them
as regions ‘‘ where the eruption of volcanic matter has taken
place in the open air, and where the surface has never since
been subjected to great aqueous denudation.” If all the
craters on the moon belonged to one epoch, or even to one
era, we might regard them as produced during the with-
drawal of the lunar oceans within the still heated substance

.
|
|
!

1873.] _ Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 43

of our satellite. But it is manifest that the processes which
brought the moon’s surface to its present condition must
have occupied many ages, during which the craters formed
earliest would be exposed to the effects of denudation, and
to other processes of which no traces can be recognised.
It is not likely, however, that the withdrawal of the lunar
oceans into the moon’s cavernous interior can have taken
place siddenly; up to a certain epoch the entry of the
waters within the moon’s mass would be impossible, owing
to the intense heat, which, by maintaining the plasticity of
the moon’s substance, would prevent the formation of cavi-
ties and fissures, while any water brought into contact with
the heated interior would at once be vaporised, and driven
away. But when once a condition was attained which ren-
dered the formation of cavities possible, the contraction of
the moon’s substance would lead to the gradual increase of
such cavities, and so, as time proceeded, room would be
found for all the lunar oceans.

‘We are next led to the inquiry whether the contraction of
the moon’s substance may not have played the most important
part of all, in producing those phenomena of disturbance
which are presented by the moon’s surface. Quite recently
the eminent seismologist Mallet has propounded a theory
of terrestrial volcanic energy, which not only appears to
account—far more satisfactorily than any hitherto adopted—
for the phenomena presented by the earth’s crust, but sug-
gests considerations which may be applied to the case of the
moon, and in fact are so applied by Mallet himself. It be-
hoves us to inquire very carefully into the bearing of this
theory upon the ‘subject of lunar seismology, and therefore
to consider attentively the points in which the theory differs
from those hitherto adopted.

Mallet dismisses first the chemical theory of volcanic
energy, because all known facts tend to show that the
chemical energies of the materials of our globe were almost
wholly exhausted prior to the consolidation of its surface.
This may be regarded as equally applicable to the case of
the moon. It is difficult to see how the surface of the moon
can have become consolidated while any considerable portion
of the chemical activity of her materials remained un-
exhausted. .

“The mechanical theory,’ proceeds Mallet, ‘‘ which finds
in a nucleus still in a state of liquid fusion a store of heat
and of lava, &c., is only tenable on the admission of a very
thin solid crust; and even through a crust but 30 miles
thick, it is difficult to see how surface-water is to gain access

44 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [January,

to the fused nucleus ; yet without water there can be no volcano.
More recent investigation on the part of mathematicians
has been supposed to prove that the earth’s crust is not
thin.” He proceeds to show that, without attaching any
great weight to these mathematical calculations, there are
other grounds for believing that the solid crust of the earth
is of great thickness, and that “‘ although there is evidence
of a nucleus much hotter than the crust, there is-no cer-
tainty that any part of it remains liquid; but if so, it is in
any case too deep to render it conceivable that surface-water
should make its way down to it. The results of geological
speculation and of physico-mathematical reasoning thus
oppose each other; so that some source of volcanic heat
closer to the surface remains to be sought. The hypothesis
to supply this, proposed by Hopkins and adopted by some,
viz., of isolated subterranean lakes of liquid matter, in
fusion at no great depth from the surface, remaining fused
for ages, surrounded by colder and solid rock, and with (by
hypothesis) access of surface-water, seems feeble and un-
sustainable.”

Now in some respects this reasoning is not applicable to
the moon, at least so far as real evidence is concerned;
though it is to be noticed that, if a case is made out for any
cause of volcanic action on the earth, we are led by
analogy to extend the reasoning (or at least its result) to
the case of the moon. But it may be remarked that the
solidification of the moon’s crust must have proceeded at a
more rapid rate than that of the earth’s, while the proportion
of its thickness to the volume of the fused nucleus would
necessarily be greater for the same thickness of the crust.”
The question of the access of water brings us to the diffi-
culty already considered,—the inquiry, namely, whether
oceans originally existed on the moon. For the moment,
however, we forbear from considering whether Mallet’s
reasoning must necessarily be regarded as inapplicable to
the moon if it should be admitted that there never were any
lunar oceans.

We come now to Mallet’s solution of the problem of
terrestrial volcanic energy.

We.have been so long in the habit of regarding volcanoes
and earthquakes as evidences of the earth’s subterranean
forces,—as due, in faét (to use Humboldt’s expression), to
the reaction of the earth’s interior upon its crust,—that the
idea presents itself at first sight as somewhat startling, that
all volcanic and seismic phenomena, as well as the formation
of mountain ranges, have been due to a set of cosmical

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. A5

forces called into play by the contraction of our globe. Ac- ©
cording to the new theory, it is not the pressure of matter
under the crust outwards, but the pressure of the earth’s
crust inwards, which produces volcanic energy. Nor is this
merely substituting an action for reaction, or vice versa.
According to former views, it was the inability of the crust
to resist pressure from within which led to volcanic explo-
sions, or which produced earthquake throes where the
safety-valve provided by volcanoes was not supplied. The
new theory teaches, in fact, that it is a deficiency of internal
resistance, and not an excess, which causes these dis-
turbances of the crust. ‘The contraction of our globe;”
says Mallet,* ‘‘ has been met, from the period of its fluidity
to its present state,—first, by deformation of the spheroid,
forming generally the ocean-basins and the land; after-
‘wards by the foldings over and elevations of the thickened
crust into mountain-ranges, &c.; and; lastly, by the me-
chanism which gives rise to volcanic actions. The theory
of mountain elevation proposed by C. Prévost was the only
true one,—that which ascribes this to tangential pressures
propagated through a solid crust of sufficient thickness to
transmit them, these pressures being produced by the
relative rate of contraction of the nucleus and of the crust;
the former being at a higher temperature, and having a
higher coefficient of contraction for equal loss of heat, tends
to shrink away from beneath the crust, leaving the latter
partially unsupported. This, which during a much more
rapid rate of cooling from higher temperature of the whole
globe, and from a thinner crust, gave rise in former epochs
to mountain-elevation, in the present state of things gives
rise to volcanic heat.” By the application of a theorem of
Lagrange, Mr. Mallet proves that the earth’s solid crust,
however great may be its thickness, ‘‘ and even if of mate-
rials far more cohesive and rigid than those of which we
must suppose it to consist, must, if even to a very small
extent.left unsupported by the shrinking away of the nucleus,
crush up in places by its own gravity, and by the attraction
of the nucleus. This is actually going on; and in this
partial crushing,” at places or depths dependent on the ma-
terial and on conditions which Mr. Mallet points out, he
discerns ‘‘the true cause of volcanic heat.t As the solid

* I quote throughout from an abstrac&t of Mallet’s paper in the ‘ Philoso-
phical Magazine” for December, 1872. ‘The words are probably, for the most
part, Mallet’s own; but I have not the original paper by me for reference.
I believe, however, that the abstract is from his own pen.

+. ‘In order to test the validity of his theory by conta& with known faés”
(says the ‘‘ Philosophical Magazine’’), ‘‘ Mr. Mallet gives in detail two im-

46 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

crust sinks together to follow down after the shrinking
nucleus, the work expended in mutual crushing and dislo-
cation of its parts is transformed into heat, by which, at the
places where the crushing sufficiently takes place, the ma-
terial of the rock so crushed and of that adjacent to it are
heated even to fusion. The access of water to such points
determines volcanic eruption. Volcanic heat, therefore, is
one result of the secular cooling of a terraqueous globe
subject to gravitation, and needs no strange or gratuitous
hypothesis as to its origin.”

It is readily seen how important a bearing these conclu-
sions have upon the question of the moon’s condition. So
far, at any rate, as the processes of contra¢tion and the
consequent crushing and dislocation of the crust are con-
cerned, we see at once that in the case of the moon these
' processes would take place far more actively than in the
earth’s case. For the cooling of the moon must have taken
place far more rapidly, and the excess of the contraction of
the nucleus over that of the crust must have been consi-
derably greater. Moreover, although the force of gravity is
much less on the moon than on our earth, and therefore the
heat developed by any process of contraction eorrespondingly
reduced, yet, on the one hand, this would probably be more
than compensated by the greater activity of the lunar con-
traction (7.¢., by the more rapid reduction of the moon’s
heat), and on the other, the resistance to be encountered in
the formation of elevations by this process would be reduced

portant series of experiments completed by him :—the one on the actual amount
of heat capable of being developed by the crushing of sixteen different species
of rocks, chosen so as to be representative of the whole series of known rock-
formations from oolites down to the hardest crystalline rocks; the other, on
.the coefficients of total contraction between fusion and solidification, at
existing mean temperature of the atmosphere, of basic and acid slags analo-
gous to melted rocks. The latter experiments were conducted on avery large
scale ; and the author points out the great errors of preceding experimenters,
Bischoff and others, as to these coefficients. By the aid of these experimental
data, he is enabled to test the theory produced wlhien compared with such facts
as we possess as to the rate of present cooling of our globe, and the total
annual amount of volcanic action taking place upon its surface and within its
crust. He shows, by estimates which allow an ample margin to the best data
Wwe possess as to the total annual vulcanicity, of all sorts, of our globe at
present, that less than one-fourth of the total heat at present annually lost by
our globe is upon his theory sufficient to account for it; so that the secular
cooling, small as it is, now going on, is a sufficient primum mobile, leaving the
greater portion still to be dissipated by radiation. The author then brings his
views into contact with known facts of vulcanology and seismology, showing
their accordance. He also shows that to the heat developed by partial tan-
gential thrusts within the solid crust are due those perturbations of hypogeal
increment of temperature which Hopkins has shown cannot be referred to a
cooling nucleus and to differences of conduétivity alone.’

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 47

precisely in the same proportion that gravity is less at the
moon’s surface. Itis important to notice that, as Mr. Mallet
himself points out, his view of the origin of volcanic heat
‘‘is independent of any particular thickness being assigned
to the earth’s solid crust, or to whether there is at present
a liquid fused nucleus,—all that is necessary being a hotter
nucleus than crust, so that the rate of contraction is greater
for the former than for the latter.”” Moreover, “‘ as the play
of tangential pressures has elevated the mountain-chains in
past epochs, the nature of the forces employed sets a limit”
to the possible height of mountains on our globe. This
brings Mr. Mallet’s views into connection with “‘ vulcanicity
produced in like manner in other planets, or in our own
satellite, and supplies an adequate solution of the singular,
and so far unexplained, fact, that the elevations upon our
moon’s surface and the evidences of former volcanic activity
are upon a scale so vast when compared with those upon
our globe.”

All that seems wanted to make the explanation of the
general condition of the moon’s surface complete, according
to this theory, is the presence of water in former ages, over
a large extent of the moon’s surface,—wunless we combine
with the theory of contraction the further supposition that
the downfall of large masses on the moon produced that
local fusion which is necessary to account for the crateriform
surface-contour. It is impossible to contemplate the great
mountain-ranges of the moon (as, for instance, the Apen-
‘nines under favourable circumstances of illumination), with-
out seeing that Mallet’s theory accords perfectly with their
peculiar corrugated aspect (the same aspect, doubtless,
which terrestrial mountain-ranges would exhibit if they
could be viewed as a whole from any suitable station).
Again, the aspect of the regions surrounding the great lunar
craters—and especially the well-studied crater Copernicus—
accords closely, when sufficient telescopic power is employed,
with the theory that there has been a general contra¢tion
of the outer crust of the moon, resulting in foldings and
cross-foldings, wrinkles, corrugations, and nodules. But
the multiplicity of smaller craters does not seem to be
explained at all satisfactorily ; while the present absence of
water, as well as the want of any positive or direct evidence
that water ever existed upon the moon, compels us to regard
even the general condition of the moon’s surface as a problem
which has still to be explained. If, however, it be admitted
that the processes of contra¢tion proceeded with sufficient
activity to produce fusion in the central part of a great

48 _ Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [January,

region of contracting crust, and that the heat under the
crust sufficed for the vaporisation of a considerable portion
of the underlying parts of the moon’s substance, we might
find an explanation of the great craters like Copernicus, as
caused by true volcanic action. The masses of vapour
which, according to that view, sought an outlet at craters
like Copernicus must have been enormous however. Almost
immediately after their escape they would be liquefied, and
flow down outside the raised mouth of the crater. According
to this view we should see, in the floor of the crater, the
surface of what had formerly been the glowing nucleus of
the moon: the masses near the centre of the floor (in so
many cases) might be regarded as, in some instances, the
débris left after the great outburst, and in others as the signs
of a fresh outburst proceeding from a yet lower level ; while
the glistening matter which: lies all round many of the
monster craters would be regarded as the matter which had
been poured out during the outburst.

We need not discuss in this conne¢tion the minor phe-
nomena of the moon’s surface. It seems evident that the
villes, and all forms of faults observable on the moon’s surface,
might be expected to result from such processes of contraction
as Mallet’s theory deals with.

It is, in fact, the striking features of the moon’s disc—
those which are seen when she is examined with compara-
tively low telescopic powers—which seem to tax most
severely every theory which has yet been presented. The
clustering craters, which were compared by Galileo to “‘eyes
upon the peacock’s tail,” remain unaccounted for hitherto;
and so do the great dark regions called seas. Mallet’s
theory explains, perhaps, the varieties of level observed in
the moon’s suriace-contour, but the varieties of tint and
colour remain seemingly inexplicable.

There is one feature of the lunar globe which presents °

itself to us under a wholly changed aspect if we adopt
Mallet’stheory. I refer to the radiations from certain great
craters, and especially those from Tycho, Copernicus,
Kepler, and Aristarchus. The reader is doubtless aware
that an attempt has been made to explain these radiations
by comparing them to the fissures produced when hollow
globes are burst by pressure from within. It is in this way
that Mr. Nasmyth accounts for these striking features of the
moon’s disc. But it has been objected that if such fissures
were formed and filled up by matter extruded from the
interior of the satellite, it could not but happen that along
Some portions of the length of each fissure the original

Se ee ee

¥O73.\ Condition of the Moon’s Surface. AQ

contour of the surface would not be restored,—either an
excess of matter being forced up through the opening or a
part of the opening left unfilled,—and that the resulting
inequalities could not fail to be rendered discernible under
oblique illumination. According to any theory which ac-
counted for these features as due to internal forces acting
outwards, it was exceedingly difficult to interpret the fact
that along the whole length of these rays there can be ob-
served a peculiar difference of brightness under direct illu-
mination, while, nevertheless, such features of the surface
as craters, mountain-ranges, plains, and so on, extend un-
broken over the rays. I do not know that the theory of
contraction serves to meet the difficulty completely; in fact,
the difference of tint in the rays and the circumstance that
the rays can only be well seen under full illumination

-appear to me to be among the most perplexing of the many

perplexing phenomena presented by the moon’s surface.
But so far as the mere formation of radiations of enormous
length is concerned, it seems to me that we have a far more
promising interpretation in the theory of contraction than
in any theory depending on the action of sublunarian forces.
For whenever an outer crust is forced to contra¢t upon an
enclosed nucleus, a tendency can be recognised to the
formation of radially arranged corrugations. Nevertheless,
it may be questioned whether—when this tendency is most
clearly recognised—there is not always present some un-
yielding matter which forms a centre round which the
radiations are formed; and it is somewhat difficult to see
how or why such centres of resistance should exist in the
case of the lunar crust. It is a little remarkable that here
again we find ourselves led to entertain the notion that
matter arriving from without has produced these sublunarian
knots, 1f one may so speak, whose presence is not directly
discernible, but is nevertheless strikingly indicated by these
series of radiating streaks.

The circumstance already referred to, that these rays can

only be well seen when the moon is full, has long and justly

been regarded as among the most mysterious facts known
respecting the moon. It is difficult to understand how the
peculiarity is to be explained as due merely to a difference
of surface-contour in the streaks; for it is as perplexing to
understand how the neighbouring regions could darken
from this cause just before full moon, and remain relatively
dark during two or three days, as to explain the peculiarity
by supposing that the rays themselves grow relatively
Pright. It is true that there are certain surfaces which
VOR. 1D 6(NsS.) H

50 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

appear less bright under a full than under an oblique illu-
mination,—using the words “full” and “oblique” with
reference to the general level of the surface. But the radia-
tions occupy arcs of such enormous length upon the moon’s
surface, that the actual illumination of different parts of the
radiations varies greatly, and of course there is a like
variation in the illumination of different parts of the regions
adjacent.

It is natural, under these circumstances, to inquire how
far it is probable (1) that real processes of change take place
month by month on the moon’s surface, and (2) that it is to
these processes that we owe the greater or lesser distinctness
with which certain features present themselves.

It is known that Dr. De la Rue was led, by his photo-
graphic researches into the moon’s condition (for we may
fairly thus describe his experience in lunar photography), to
the conclusion that processes resembling vegetation take
place on the moon, the period during which the vegetation
passes through its series of changes being a lunar month.
He was particularly struck by the circumstance that por-
tions of the moon which seem equally bright optically are
by no means equally bright chemically. ‘‘ Hence,” he says,
‘the light and shade in the photograph do not correspond
with the light and shade in the picture; and therefore the
photograph frequently renders visible details which escape
optically. ‘Those portions of the moon near the dark limb ©
are copied photographically with great difficulty, and it fre-
quently requires an exposure five or six times as long to
bring out those portions illumined by a very oblique ray, as
others apparently not more bright when more favourably
illuminated. The high ground in the neighbourhood of the
southern portion of the moon is more easily copied than the
low ground, usually called seas, and I have ventured to
suggest that the moon may have an atmosphere of great
density, but of small extent ; and this idea has, I imagine,
received some confirmation from a recent observation of
Father Secchi’s, of the lunar surface polarising light more
in the great lowlands and in the bottoms of the craters,
and not appreciably on the summits of the mountain-
tidges.”’

It is extremely important to notice that photography
shows the light near the terminator to be less bright than
it appears to the eye. It may be, of course, that the dis-
tinction resides mainly or entirely between the photographic
power and the.luminosity of these portions; there may, for
example, be an excess of yellow light and a deficiency of

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 51

green, while the greater photographic power of the parts
under full solar illumination may indicate an increase of
green light due to some process of vegetation. It is, how-
ever, important to inquire whether the greater part of the
difference may not be due to a physiological cause ; whether,
in fact, the neighbourhood of the dark portion of the disc
may not cause the illuminated parts near the terminator to
appear, through contrast, brighter than they really are.

On the answer which may be given to this question de-
pends, in a great degree (as it seems to me), the opinion we
are to form of those recent researches by Mr. Birt which
have appeared to indicate that the floor of Plato grows
darker as the sun rises higher above it. Taking these re-
searches in their general aspect, it cannot but be recognised
that it is a matter of the utmost importance to determine
whether they indicate a real change or one which is only
apparent. If it is really the case that Plato grows darker
under a rising sun, we should have to infer that in the case
of Plato certainly, and probably in the case of other regions
similarly placed, processes of change take place in each
lunation which correspond (fairly) with what might be ex-
pected if these regions became covered with some sort of
vegetation as the lunar month (or, which is the same thing,
the lunar day) proceeds. Other explanations—meteorolo-
gical, chemical, or mechanical—might indeed be available,
yet in any case conclusions of the utmost interest would
present themselves for consideration.

It must be remembered, however, that thus far Mr. Birt’s
observations (as well those made by himself as those which
he has collected together) are based on eye-estimations.
Nothing has yet been done to apply any photometric test to »
the matter; nor has the floor of Plato been brought alone
under observation, but other light, of varying degrees of
intensity, has always been in the fteld of view. Plato is
seen bright when near the ‘‘ terminator,” and growing
gradually darker as the sun rises higher and higher above
the level of the floor of the crater. The point to be decided
is, how far the brightness of Plato near the terminator is
an effect of contrast. Dela Rue’s photographic observa-
tions go far to prove (they at least strongly suggest) that
contrast has much to do with the matter. He has shown
that, photographically, the parts near the terminator are not
so bright as they look. May it not be that they look brighter
than they are in reality? We have only to suppose that
De la Rue’s photographic results represent pretty accurately
the true relative luminosity of different parts of the moon
to answer this question at once in the affirmative.

eS ee ee ee ea es en en eS el
? oS) < tivee " sinc’ ’ *).

"52 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (January,

It seems to accord with this view, that the greater darkness
of the floor of Plato agrees, according to Mr. Birt’s light
curves, with the time when the sun attains his greatest eleva-
tion above the level of the floor. Forif the action of the sun
were the cause of the darkening we should expect the
greatest effect to appear.some considerable time after the
sun had culminated (as supposed to be seen from the floor
of Plato). We know that on our own earth all diurnal solar
effects, except those which may be described as optical, .
attain their maximum after the sun has reached his highest
point on the heavens, while all annual solar effects attain
their maximum after midsummer. If an observer on Venus
could watch the forests of our north temperate zones as
they became clothed with vegetation and were afterwards
disrobed of their leafy garment during the progress of the
year, it would not be on the zist of June that he would
recognise the most abundant signs of vegetation. In July
and August vegetation most richly clothes the northern
lands of ofr earth. It is then also that the heat is greatest;
that is the time of true midsummer as distinguished from
astronomical midsummer. And in like manner the true
heat-noon is at about two o’clock in the afternoon, not at
the epoch when the sun is highest, or at astronomical noon.
The difference in either case amounts to about one-twelfth
part of the complete period in question: in one case we find
the maximum of heat a month or: twelfth part of the year
after the time of the sun’s greatest northerly declination; in
the other we find the time of greatest heat two hours or one-
twelfth part of a day after the time of the sun’s greatest
elevation. If. we take a corresponding portion of the lunar
month, we find that the greatest effect of any solar action on
the floor of Plato might he expected to take place about two-
and-a-half days after the sun had attained his greatest eleva-
tion. This differs to a sufficient degree from Mr. Birt’s
estimate to justify the suspicion that either the effect is
physiological, or that it is purely an optical peculiarity, that
is, due to the manner in which the light falls on a surface
of peculiar configuration.

It does not appear to me, I may remark further, that Mr.
Birt has demonstrated the occurrence of real variations in
the condition of the spots upon the floor of Plato. He has
ascertained that some of these are at times relatively
darker or brighter than at others, and that this is not a mere
physiological effect is proved by the fact that the result has
been obtained by comparing the spots intey se. Nevertheless
it must not be forgotten how largely the presentation of the

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 53

floor of -Plato towards the terrestrial observer is affected by
libration, now tilting the floor more fully towards the ob-
server and presently tilting it away from him; at one time
tilting the floor eastwards, at another westwards, and at
intermediate periods giving every intermediate variety of tilt,
—these changes, moreover, having their maximum in turn
at all epochs of the lunation. Combining this consideration
with the circumstance that very slight variations in the pre-
sentation of a flattish surface will cause certain portions to
appear relatively dark or relatively light, it appears to me
that a case has not yet been made out for those seleno-
graphical changes by which Mr. Birt has proposed to in-
terpret these phenomena.

Nevertheless it cannot be insisted on too strongly that it

is from the detailed examination of the moon’s surface that
we can now alone hope for exact information as to its
present condition and past history. I would even urge, in-
deed, that the detailed examination at present being carried
out is not sufficiently exact in method. I should be glad
to hear of such processes of examination as were applied by
Mr. Dawes to the solar spots. In particular it seems to me
most important that the physiological effects which render
ordinary telescopic observation and ordinary eye-estimates
of size, brightness, and colour deceptive, should be as far
as possible eliminated. This might be done by so arranging
the observations that the conditions under which each part
of the moon should be studied might be as far as possible
equalised during the whole progress of the lunation. Thus,
returning to the case of the floor of Plato: this region
should not be examined when Plato is near the terminator
as well as at the time of full moon, with the rest of the
moon’s disc or large portions thereof in the field of view;
the eye of the observer should be protected from all light
save that which comes from the floor itself; and, moreover,
- the artificial darkness produced for this purpose should be
so obtained that the general light of the full moonlight
should be excluded as well as the direct light from the disc.
Then differences of tint should be carefully estimated either
by means of graduated darkening-glasses, or by the intro-
duction of artificially illuminated sutfaces into the field of
view for direct comparison with the lunar region whose
brightness 1 is to be determined.

When observations thus carefully conducted are made, and
when the effects of libration as well as of the sun’s altitude
above the lunar regions studied are carefully taken into
account, we should be better able than we are at present, as

Lee 4 ra
olcluy é

54 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [January,

it appears to me, to determine whether the moon’s surface
is still undergoing changes of configuration. I cannot but
think that such an inquiry would be made under more
promising circumstances than those imagine who consider
that the moon’s surface has reached its ultimate condition,

and that therefore the search for signs of change is a hope-
less one. So far am I from considering it unlikely that the
moon’s surface is still undergoing change, that, on the con-
trary, it appears to me certain that the face of the moon
must be undergoing changes of a somewhat remarkable
nature, though not producing any results which are readily
discerned by our imperfect telescopic means. It is not
difficult to show reasons at least for believing that the face
of the moon must be changing more rapidly than that of
our earth. On the earth, indeed, we have active sub-
terranean forces which may, perhaps, be wanting in the moon.
On the earth, again, we have a sea acting. constantly upon
the shore—here removing great masses, there using the débris
to beat down other parts of the coast, and by the mere
effect of accumulated land-spoils acquiring power for fresh
inroads. We have, moreover, wind and rain, river action
and glacier action, and, lastly, the work of living creatures
by land and by sea; while most of these causes of change
may be regarded as probably, and some as certainly, wanting
in the case of our satellite. Nevertheless there are processes
at work out yonder which must be as active, one cannot but
believe, as any of those which affect our earth. In each
lunation the moon’s surface undergoes changes of tem-
perature which should suffice to disintegrate large portions
of her surface, and with time to crumble her loftiest
mountains into shapeless heaps. In the long lunar night
of fourteen hours a cold far exceeding the intensest ever
produced in terrestrial experiments must exist over the
whole of the unilluminated hemisphere; and under the in-
fluence of this cold all the substances composing the moon’s
crust must shrink to their least dimensions,—not all equally
(in this we find a circumstance increasing the energy of
the disintegrating forces), but each according to the quality
which our physicists denominate the coefficient of expansion.
Then comes on the long lunar day, at first dissipating the
intense cold, then gradually raising the substance of the
lunar crust to a higher and higher degree of heat until (if
the inferences of our most skilful physicists and the evidence
obtained from our most powerful means of experiment can
be trusted) the surface of the moon burns (one may almost
say) with a heat of some 500 F. Under this tremendous heat

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 55

all the substances which had shrunk to their least dimensions
must expand according to their various degrees,—not greatly,
indeed, so far as any small quantity of matter is affected,
but to an important amount when large areas of the moon’s
surface are considered. Remembering the effects which
take place on our earth, in the mere change from the frost
of winter to the moderate warmth of early spring, it is
difficult to conceive that such remarkable contraction and
expansion can take place in a surface presumably less
coherent than the relatively moist and plastic substances
comprising the terrestrial crust, without gradually effecting
the demolition of the steeper lunar elevations. When we
consider, further, that these processes are repeated not year
by year, but month by month, and that all the circumstances
attending them are calculated to render them most effective
because so slow, steadfast, and uniform in their progression,
it certainly does not seem wonderful that our telescopists
should from time to time recognise signs of change in the
moon’s face. So far from rejecting these as incredible, we
should consider the wonder rather to be that they are not
more commonly seen and more striking in their nature.
Assuredly there is nothing which should lead our telescopists
to turn from the study of the moon, as though it were hope-
less to seek for signs of change on a surface so: desolate.
Rather they should increase the care with which they pursue
their observations, holding confidently the assurance that
there are signs of change to be detected, and that in all
probability the recognition of such change may throw an in-
structive light on the moon’s present condition, past history,
and probable future.

IV. A SOLUTION OF THE SEWAGE PROBLEM.

question of Sanitary Reform. But the discussion

involves a second question equally momentous,—that
is, its utilisation, which is by no means implied in mere
deodorisation or disinfection. A forcible illustration of
this is found in Lord Palmerston’s celebrated definition—
‘** Dirt is matter in the wrong place.” The offensive ele-
ments contained in sewage are in the wrong place when
sent in to the river, but are in their right place when they
are separated from it, and reserved, like the farmer’s manure

a treatment of sewage has long been an important

56 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. [January,

heap, for restoration to the land at the proper time. We
Invite epidemics if we permit the former; and we must
cease to expect a fair supply of corn, wine, and oil, or the
other bounties of Nature, if we neglect the latter, while we
continue to draw from the land all its nutritive properties.
The value of land is daily increasing, and therefore the
highest possible cultivation becomes necessary. The only
means of increasing its productive powers is by manuring
and for this purpose all matters possessing real fertilising
value becomes a point of the first importance.

Many methods for dealing with the sewage of towns have
been proposed. They may be classed under the four fol-
lowing schemes :—

1. Irrigation.
2. Filtration.
3. Destruction.
4. Precipitation.

These schemes may be considered individually or col-
le€tively in certain combinations.

Let us deal first with irrigation, and we may say at once
that with us it has no favour, forit has been abundantly
proved that at the best it is a disposal of sewage merely,
and in no way its utilisation; for the excessively rank vege-
tation of a sewage farm forced to take more than is good is
no more an evidence of high farming than was Wackford
Squeers an evidence of the high feeding of the Yorkshire
school. But even as a disposal of sewage it falls lamentably
short of efficiency, as may be seen by any impartial inquirer.
Under the most favourable circumstances this system is
inadequate to deal with the entire sewage ; for the quantity
of land required annually to deodorise this (one acre for 100
people) is so large, in proportion to the land available for the
purpose, that for financial, geological, and local reasons,
the system could not succeed. There are other objections to
irrigation with fluid sewage. Land for the purpose must be
in propinquity to the town to which the system is applied,
and this land may have to be bought in by the pressure of
an Act of Parliament, at great expense, as it is generally
opposed by wealthy landowners. Such opposition is to be
expected; for the neighbourhood of a sewage farm would
certainly not be selected by the rich as a site for their man-
sions; and the value of land is consequently deteriorated.

The charge of miasmatic emanations arising from a system
of sewage irrigation has been abundantly proved by evidence
given before the House of Commons by eminent medical
and sanitary experts :— :

ie

—-1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 57

Mr. Thomas Hawkesley, C.E., says (in reference to the
Blackburn Corporation Improvement Bill, March 15th,
1870)—‘‘ Water irrigation carried on in warm weather is
exceedingly unhealthy.; in fact you make, so to speak, a
kind of fen of the large area of land which you put the
Mater Over. i.e. ~VViiere the water is foul I can- speak
positively to it, from repeated observation in different places,
that the odour, particularly at night, and particularly upon
still damp evenings in autumn, is very sickly indeed, and
that in all these cases a great deal of disease prevails; but
I need not do more than upon that subject refer to the
evidence taken by the General Board of Health itself.” ...
‘With regard to sewage irrigation this happens :—The
sewage forms a deposit on the surface of the ground; that
deposit forms a cake of organic matter; and that organic

_ matter, when it is in a damp state, as it usually is, gives off

in warm weather a most odious stench.” Of the Barking
farm Mr. Hawkesley says—‘‘ The stench was of a very
foetid character indeed, and of very considerable intensity.”
At Edinburgh, at Carlisle, and at Harrogate, the state of
the atmosphere varies with the state of the weather. Of
Edinburgh the witness says—‘“‘ I cannot call it a mere odour
in the ordinary sense. Everybody who walks down to Leith
from Edinburgh, or to Portobello, in warm weather, cannot
help being assaulted byit.”” At Carlisle, ‘‘they were utilising
only about one-sixth of the sewage.” At Croydon, where
the soil is the most favourable that could be had, consisting
of only a slight covering of alluvial matter upon chalk,
gravel, and gravel-flints, ‘‘ the people complain of this foetid
smell in summer, and particularly at night, and of a very
low state of health in consequence ;” and ‘‘ the water does
not run off clear,” ‘‘ nor nearly free from organic matter.”
At Birmingham, “ It has a very prejudicial influence on the
value of property.” ‘‘ Irrigation works with sewage water
for the utilisation of sewage are most pernicious.” Mr. W.
Eo Cressy, McK.C.S., states, to the same Committee, that
in the case of the sewage farm belonging to the Croydon
Board of Works there has been, since 1867, typhoid fever
in every cottage on the estate, which he refers to the exist-
ence of the farm. ‘The water from the wells in thé neigh-
bourhood becomes putrid if allowed to stand for 24 hours.
Cows feeding on the grass from this land yield milk which
has been proved, by a series of experiments, to cause fever.

Dr.“ Henry. Letheby, Medical Officer, of Health to the
City of London, gave evidence before the House of Com-
mons in reference to both the Blackburn and Reading

VOL. Th. (CES?) I

58 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. (January,

Bills, on the rsth and 25th of March, 18707 “He states
that, taking the condition of the sewage put upon the land
at Croydon, Norwood, Beddington, Rugby, Carlisle, and
Worthing, the average proportions of matter in solution in
the sewage, before it was put upon the land, was 32°77
grains. As it ran from the land it contained 34°3 grains,
there being an increase in the solid matter after flowing
through the land. The necessary conditions for irrigation,
which he admits are not always present, are porous seil and
good subsoil drainage. Frozen soil will not allow the
sewage to sink, and a heavy rainfall will prevent it; and Dr.
Letheby’s experience has shown him that the land acts upon
the sewage only at the time of active vegetation, ‘‘ but that
during the time of the dormant state of the vegetation the
sewage runs off that land pretty nearly as it goes on it.”
He shows that, besides the acre of land for every 100 people,
there must be another acre in reserve when that cannot be
doing its work. The chief objeCtions he considers to be, in
the first place, the saturation of the soil with excrementitious
matter, which is constantly giving off—sometimes to a great
extent, at other times not so much—effluvia capable of pro-
ducing disease. Secondly, ‘‘the subsoil water is always
charged with decomposing matters, the residue of the
sewage ; and we know from the investigations recently of
Dr. Pettinkoffer, who has examined into the question in
England and Germany, and almost all over the world, that

. there is no more fruitful source of disease than a subsoil

water charged with offensive matters, and altering in its
level. The soil becomes filled with offensive gases, and he
traces cholera and typhoid fever to these emanations, and
he attributes epidemics to these emanations. Again, we
have subsoil water which runs into the neighbouring wells,
and whenever there is subsoil irrigation the neighbouring
wells are offensive.” ... ‘* There is another objection, which
I look upon as the most serious of all: parasitic diseases in
the human body are always derived from parasitic diseases ©
in the flesh of the animals we eat. I hold in my hand
a report from the most experienced man in this subje¢t,—
I may say in the world,—Dr. Cobbold. It treats of the
more than probable, the certain, introduction of serious
parasitic disease among the community, if sewage be put
upon land as a means of utilising it.”

These are the objections to the utility of the process of
irrigation merely as a means of disposal of the sewage,—and
they are very great,—whilst as we before observed, as to the
equally important question of utilisation, its claims are very
small indeed.

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 59

The abundance of creps produced on a given area has
been quoted in favour of the system of irrigation. The
finest manurial substances are possessed by the constituents
of sewage; but the irrigationist is so wasteful in their appli-
cation, that, in the majority of cases, there ensues not a
healthy crop, but a mass of overgrown, rank grass material,
of no more nutritive value than weeds; for be it distin¢tly
remembered that this is not a question of manuring with
sewage when necessary,—but the compulsory application of
enormous quantities, in season and out of season, till the
surfeited land is sick, and even then it has to take more
still. If this waste were prevented, by the conversion of
the sewage inte a dry, portable, inoffensive manure, then
this manure might be stored until it could be employed at
the proper season without injurious effect; but to dose
vegetation with eyual quantities of manure, day by day
throughout the year, is an absurdity which of itself is suffi-
clent to condemn sewage irrigation.

The second process, that of filtration, appears to be involved
in some obscurity,—that is to say, there are attached to the
term several meanings, of greater or less comprehension.
Not a little of the confusion appears due to the Rivers’
Pollution Commissien having discussed ‘‘ intermittent down-
ward filtration,” without defining the term. We are told that
irrigation owes no inconsiderable amount of its success to
the contemporaneous effect of filtration of sewage through
the soil, and, confusion worse confounded, we are instructed
that ‘‘irrigation involves filtration.”” We, however, will
take filtration to mean the passing of the sewage water
through an artificially-constructed bed of sand, charcoal, &c.
Filtration by itself is simply a method of disposing of sewage,
‘not of utilising it, and therefore we hold it in no more
favour than the other; for we maintain that unless the
manurial elements are preserved for the land, as well as
from the river, the problem is but half solved. Filtration
processes do not profess to do the former, and as for the
latter we do not find that they are very successful, so far as
efficiency is combined with economy.

Let us revert, for an instant only, to the filtration—
intermittent, or downward, or irrigation-filtration, or other-
eel es Rivers: (Commissions We will: Hestedescribe
the construction of such a filtering-bed, and will then
take in consideration of the efficacy of this quasi-filtration
the evidence of Dr. Frankland. ‘The illustration is the
construction of the Merthyr Tydvil beds, described by
Mr. <1:-C. scott, a’ strenuous advocate. “The. filtering

60 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. [January,

medium consists of 20 acres of land, drained 6 feet deep,
and divided into four areas of 5 acres each. Each of
these receives daily, for six hours out of the twenty-four,
the sewage of 20,000 persons, represented by 900,000
gallons, or at the rate of 73,000 tons per acre per annum.
To utilise advantageously, according to our present know-
ledge, the quantity of sewage thus dealt with, 200 acres of
land are required, being at the rate of i acre for every 100
persons, or for 7,300 tons of this sewage.” Now for the
opinion of Dr. Frankland, who is an advocate of the irriga-
tion system, and a Rivers’ Pollution Commissioner. “I
think it (this downward filtration) is an important part of
our knowledge; but although I have had so much to do
with it, I confess I am not very sanguine of its success as
applied to large volumes of sewage, and for this reason: you
collect upon the surface of your filters a large quantity of
suspended matter from the sewage, which is foecal matter in
a state of decomposition, and we should be afraid that this
matter so collected would be offensive to the neighbourhood.
No plant can live upon the filter which is deluged in this
way with sewage. This cannot be carried out along with
plant growth, and consequently you have not the removal of

those noxious constituents which accumulate on the surface ~

by plant life, such as you have in irrigation.” Thus, the
filtration of unprepared sewage leaves us with far higher
chances of miasma than do the evils of irrigation.

The process known as Weare’s is a true filtration process,
and is on a small scale said to be satisfactory. It has been
employed in the workhouse at Stoke-upon-Trent; the fil-
tration being effected through vegetable charcoal and fine
ash, altogether a different method to the irngation-filtra-
tion system. The filtering medium is placed in tanks
through which the sewage percolates. The effluent water,
however, still contains in solution a large proportion of
-putrescible organic matter, and is below the standard
required by the Rivers’ Pollution Commissioners, or by the
Conservancy of the Thames.

But the evidence brought before the Parliamentary Com-
mittee on the Birmingham Sewerage Bill, in April and May
last, has, we think, given the death-blow to sewage filtration.
After fourteen days’ hearing of the evidence of the leading
authorities in Chemistry, Engineering, and Agriculture, the
Select Committee attached to their approval of the Bill the
condition that ‘‘ No sewage be put upon any land without having
been previously defecated in tanks.”

The third scheme of getting rid of sewage, viz., that of

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 61

destruction, requires only a brief notice. By its very nature
it forces us to condemn it: destruction has always been a
favourite method of disposal of inconvenient elements,
from time immemorial. Considerable difference of opinion
exists.as to what constitutes inconvenient elements,—but
once admit the principle, and we find men using it to
_justify the murder of children by Lycurgus, and the mon-
ster fires of religious persecution. For our own part
nothing will satisfy us but rational utilisation. Under the
head of destructive processes we include the lime process of
Tottenham and General Scott’s cement process. By General
Scott’s process an effluent of a low standard of purity is ob-
tained, whilst the result is in an agricultural point of view the
most wasteful that could be devised. The sludge instead of
being returned to the land is employed in the making of a kind
of Portlandcement. Human beings live diretly and indire@tly
upon the produce of the land. Now scientific agriculture
tells us. that Jand unless properly manured becomes soon
exhausted ; and it is clear that the waste products of human
beings, being most valuable in rendering the land fertile,
should be returned tothelandas manure, and not be destroyed.
Few persons have any idea of the enormous waste which is
committed in casting London sewage intothe Thames. Mr.
Mechi, a great authority on all agricultural subjects, tells
us that the inhabitants of London consume daily the annual
available produce of 20,000 acres, and a similar quantity is
required weekly for London horses. The manurial wealth of
this 20,000 acres of land is absolutely wasted, and the
country thereby loses as much food as if three million
quartern loaves were daily floating down the Thames
towards the sea.

We come now to the consideration of the fourth scheme
of defoecating sewage, by precipitating the solid constituents.
The object of precipitation is to remove in a solid, dry, or
semi-dry state the putrescible constituents of the sewage,
and to render the filtrate or effluent water sufficiently pure
to mingle with our streams, or be employed for purposes
of irrigation. ‘There are several processes which profess to
remove more or less of the impurities from the water.
Amongst these may be mentioned the Phosphate Sewage
Company’s process, the lime precipitation process, and the
ABC process. In the Phosphate Sewage Company’s pro-
cess ‘‘the water is left still maintaining all its nitrogenous
and valuable properties, plus any excess of phosphoric acid
which has been added, and, therefore, highly useful for the
irrigation of cereals and other crops.” ‘This process, which

62 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. _{January,

was invented by David Forbes, F.R.S., when compared
with those with which we have been dealing, appears a very
admirable one. It is, however, from a technological point
of view, somewhat deficient in economy. For the ingredient
added to the sewage is expensive, too expensive with regard
to the return in practical good obtained from its use in agri-
culture ; and unfortunately those plants which require most
phosphoric acid bear irrigation least. In a theoretical point
of view, if we overlook the infringement of the rule of
economy, the process is attended with a high degree of con-
sistency. By no means is the preceding statement true of
all precipitation processes. The lime process, as an instance,
produces a precipitate containing a large proportion of lime,
possessing but feeble or no manurial power, and readily
putrefying ; while the effluent water, instead of being pure or
even suited to the purposes of irrigation, contains introduced
foreign matter inimical to the land and the life of plants.

The process of precipitating by sulphate of alumina
the valuable constituents of sewage, and utilising at the
same time the purifying power of charcoal and clay, is that
to which we decidedly give the preference, as by this means
the water is practically purified fit to be discharged into a
running stream, and the deposit is retained in a form entirely
inoffensive and capable of being turned into a dry and
portable manure. This process has been before the world
for some years as the A BC process, worked by a company
called the Native Guano Company, and the claims it set up
three years ago to have solved the great social problem we
may now pronounce to be fully justified by facts; its prin-
ciples were correct, the mechanical arrangements for con-
ducting them being alone defective. ~The name of the
process has been derived from the initial letters of the
principal constituents of the precipitant : Alum, Blood, Clay,
and Charcoal. We will consider the action of these sub-
stances upon sewage, taking them in order. |

The alum was for a considerable time a source of
expense, it being added to the sewage in the form of
ammonia-alum. Ammonia-alum has the further disad-
vantage that the ammonia remains in the effluent water.
A much more economical, and as effeCtive a substitute has
been found in a crude sulphate of alumina manufactured at *
one-fourth the cost.

The action of the sulphate of alumina may be briefly —
described.

In contact with sewage,—a slightly alkaline liquid
charged with nitrogenous organic matter,—the alumina is

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 63

separated in flocks, and, by virtue of its remarkable affinity
for dissolved organic matter, each particle seizes hold of,
and drags down with it, a corresponding particle of nitro-
genous impurity. The blood here comes into play; this
is essentially a liquid highly charged with albumen; al-
bumen is instantly coagulated in the presence of alum;
and in the same way as this ready coagulability of albumen
is utilised,in fining wine and coffee, soit is made use of in
this process by joining with the alumina in its precipitation,
uniting it in a net-work of fibres, and giving it, as it were,
arms wherewith to seize upon and drag out of solution still
more putrescible constituents.

But the precipitated hydrate of alumina is light in
character, and although it would ultimately settle, leaving
a clear liquid above it, the slightest agitation causes it to
float up, and thus renders it difficult, on the large scale, to
drain off the mud. At Paris sulphate of alumina has lately
been employed for clarifying several hundred thousand
gallons of sewage; and among the many defects of this
process, that of imperfect settlement was by no means the
least. Here the action of the clay is apparent. This sub-
stance has a curious physical property; when finely
ground up with water it forms a creamy emulsion, which
takes many days to settle; many rivers, in time of flood,
owe their turbidity to this cause: the Seine at the present
time is a striking example, its water being in colour,
although not in a¢tual impurity, as bad as the Thames be-
low London Bridge. But when this creamy liquid meets
with sulphate of alumina, the clay coagulates like albumen,
and settles down in heavy granular flakes. Now in the
AB Cprocess these three precipitations—that of the alumina,
that of the albumen, and that of the clay—take place simul-
taneously, and in each other’s presence; they become
closely locked together in a triple alliance; the heavy
character of the clay particles gives density to the mass,
and causes it to settle rapidly, and remain in a compact
form at the bottom of the tank.

Were the object merely to produce an easily dried pre-
cipitate and a clear effluent, nothing more would be required ;
for not only has this precipitate carried down all the sus-
pended matter, but much of the dissolved nitrogenous and
albumenoid impurities have fixed themselves on to the
alumina, whilst the clay has also performed its part in ab-
sorbing and carrying down a good proportion of the ammonia.
But there still remains the probability, if not the certainty,
of foul gases being present, whilst the water, though clear,

64 A Solution of the Sewage Problem.. [January,

may nevertheless be coloured. These residual impurities
are attacked by the charcoal: the powerful affinity of animal
charcoal for organic colouring matter corrects the one evil,
whilst the well-known absorptive action exerted by vegetable
charcoal on the gaseous products of putrefa¢tion corre¢ts
the other. In the way of purification little more remains
to be done.

These reactions, by a modification in the order in which
the purifying ingredients are added, are effected at once,
with a certainty of uniform results, and, by a simple me-
chanical arrangement, variation in the dose of each con-
stituent required by a variation in the strength of the sewage
can be readily controlled.

The method of applying the ingredients is extremely
simple. The clay and charcoal are incorporated in a
grinding mill with the aid of sufficient water to form a
thin paste. This paste flows into a tank, and is constantly
agitated until it is required to be mixed with the.
sewage. By the side of the mixing-room is a smaller room,
through which passes a channel or trough. At one end of
this channel there rushes in the London sewage, and with
it an unmistakable odour. The BC mixture or thin
water-paste of clay and charcoal is admitted to the trough
by a pipe from the store-tank; the sewage in its passage
past this pipe carries with it the mixture, and the two after
well mixing proceed on their way past a second pipe con-
nected with a tank containing a supply of sulphate of
alumina dissolved in water. All that is now requisite is to
allow the sewage, B C mixture, and alum to flow in inodorous
company to the settling tanks. The channel leading to the
tanks has its course interrupted by numerous ledges, which
serve to cause the more perfect intermixture of the sewage
and the disinfectants. ‘The first tank in which the sludge
is allowed to settle contains the principal portion of the
precipitate... The clear water is allowed to flow off con-
tinuously from the first tank into a second tank; and the
remainder of the mud is deposited in this and in the other-
tanks into which it flows. From the last tank the water is
conducted to the river, appearing as a clear, inodorous, and
tasteless effluent. When sufficient sludge has been collected
in the first tank, the treated sewage is shut off from this,
and permitted to flow into another tank, which then forms
the first of the series. As much of the water as possible
is then run off from the mud, and the latter is drawn into
the acidifying tanks, where a small quantity of sulphuric
acid is added to prevent the loss of any ammonia. From

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 65

the acidifying tanks the semi-dry mud is pumped into the
drying-presses, whence it issues in a cake. This semi-solid
mud is then further dried by a most ingenious application of
heat in revolving iron cylinders. The wet mud is passed
in at one end, and dry manure, in the form of an inodorous
and inoffensive powder, falls from the other end, at the rate
of 5 tons in ten hours, at an expenditure of a few cwts. of
coal.

If space enough be available the mud may be simply
‘pumped from the bottom of the settling tanks into large
open-air stanks, where it dries under_the influence of the
sun and air. Not the slightest offensive odour is apparent
during any stage of this drying.

The dry mud in powder, and forming excellent manure,
is removed from the sheds, and packed into Bags for
transport.

We have thus traced the process from the sewage to tive
manureand the effluent water. Before entering upon anystate-
ments with regard to the value of the results, we will more
fully detail the process as it is followed at the experimental
works at Crossness.

Crossness is situated on a projecting part of the southern
shore of the Thames, between the Plumstead and Erith
marshes, and is the southern outfall of the London drainage.
The quantity of sewage now daily discharging at Crossness
is 50,000,000 gallons. Large as this quantity may appear the
enormous engines employed in pumping the sewage are
fully eqyal to the task, for they are capable of lifting 280
tons in a minute, or nearly double the average flow. ‘The
transformation of such a mighty mass of filth into heaps
of shining gold is a feat worthy of the days of the alchemist,
or rather of the days of modern chemistry. Of this
quantity of sewage the works of the Native Guano Com-
pany are capable of dealing in the twenty-four hours with
500,000 gallons, drawn from the cross-cut, or culvert through
which the sewage runs into the principal reservoir. This
quantity amounts to 1 per cent of the whole delivery.
Thither the sewage flows into the sump of a pump
worked by a 15 horse-power steam-engine, whence it flows
into contact with the A B C ee as we have de-
scribed.

From the mixing trough the sewage, as described, flows
to the settling tanks. These tanks are six in number, and
are constructed of concrete, each being 50 feet long by 20 feet
wide, and 8 feet in depth. When leaving the last settling
tank the effluent water is caused to take a considerable fall,

VOL, tiie suNvS:) K

66 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. [January,

so as to afford room for the construction of a subway in such
a manner as to place the sheet of water—as clear as plate-
glass—between the visitor and the diffused light of the sky.
In this position the transparency of the water is subjected to
a most severe test, leaving no doubt as to the previous
subsidence of all solid particles. The effluent water is run
off to the Thames in a shallow brick-built conduit, about
4 feet wide by 270 feet in length, and arranged during its
course to form several miniature cascades.

During an official trial, lately completed, extending over
eighty days, there were used 80 tons of dry ABC materials,
whilst the “‘ native guano” obtained amounted, in the dry
state, to 131 tons, showing an increase of more than 63 per
cent. The amount of sewage treated during this time was
11,672,000 gallons. Therefore 1 ton of dry native guano
was obtained from 89,100 gallons of the Crossness sewage.

The Crossness works are calculated to have cost the Com-
pany considerably more than it would be necessary to expend
upon any works dealing with much larger quantities of
sewage; but it is estimated that £5000 would amply re-
munerate the contractors for works which should deal with
the sewage of 20,000 inhabitants, and that {1000 additional
capital would provide for the working expenses. This,
however, is not a matter with which we have to deal in
detail.

The state of the effluent water may be viewed from two
points—that of an analytical chemist, and that of a prac-
tical man of the world. The former can, without difficulty,
make out a case which would lead persons ignorant of the
weakness of purely chemical reasoning to condemn any water
in the world ; and a sensation is readily created by manipu-
lating figures in such a way as to convert grains of the normal
constituents of a good drinking water into tons of impurities,
and by classifying perfectly innocuous substances under the
feariul title of ‘‘ previous sewage contamination.”

Common sense leads one to judge of a water by other
standards than those of theoretical chemistry. The effluent
water from sewage purified by the A BC process, falling
into the Thames at Crossness, into the Aire at Leeds, into
the Croal at Bolton, and into the Seine at Paris, may not at
all timies come up to the fanciful requirements ofa Scientific
chemist,—although the inhabitants of many towns and vil-
lages habitually use and thrive upon a worse water—but no
intelligent man of the world will doubt its suitability for
admixture with ordinary river water. It is perfectly limpid
and colourless; it has no smell, and so little taste that were

ee EEE

ee ee ee ee

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 67

it not that the tasters know whence it comes they would not
notice it. On standing, the water acquires no disagreeable
odour; it forms no deposit, nor does it give rise to ‘‘ sewage
fungus” or other vegetable growth along the water-courses.
Fish will live in it,—not only hardy varieties, but the more
delicate kinds, such as gudgeon, to which a very slight taint
of impurity is fatal. When the inquirer further finds that
the effluent water is not too hard to interfere with its domestic
use for washing or cooking purposes, he will endorse the
opinion which the writer has deliberately formed, that there
are not many English rivers on which large towns are situated
which are as free from real impurity as the effluent water
from sewage purified by this process.

Instead of fixing upon a fanciful standard of purity
which could never be attained in practice, common sense
decides that an effluent water from sewage is fit to be
discharged into a running stream if it contain a less per-
centage of impurity than the water of that stream: the
word ‘“‘impurity’”’ being not strained beyond its legitimate
meaning, or made to include perfectly harmless constituents.

Let us now pass to the next point of inquiry—the manurial
value of the ‘‘native guano,” and the cost at which it is
produced.

Of the value of a manure, chemistry can tell us little more
than it can of the value of water. Just as mere chemical
analysis would utterly condemn water containing Liebig’s
extract, infusion of tea, ora glass of bitter ale, as largely con-
taminated with nitrogenous organic matter or albumenoid
ammonia; so chemistry, by taking a fictitious standard for
manures, and judging only by the percentage of two of the
many necessary constituents of the food of plants, gives
an arbitrary money value to a manure, which is often
exceeded by the: price it fetches im the «market: - Agri-
culturists frequently pay more for nitrogenous and phosphatic
manures than the price assigned to them by chemical analy-
sis, and the sales of ‘“‘ native guano” form no exception to
this rule.

In the autumn of last year the writer satisfied himself as
to the alleged agricultural value of the manure, by personal
enquiry amongst the farmers who had used it. With scarcely
an exception, the farmers (of whom he saw twenty or thirty)
were unanimous in their approval of ‘‘ native guano:” many
of them were shrewd, intelligent men, well acquainted with
the various artificial manures in the market ; they had tried
*‘native guano” with intelligence on different fields against
other manures, and were assured that—putting equal values

68 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. ([January,

per acre—it was superior to most manures in the market.
Moreover, an examination of the books of the Company
shows that the good opinion of agriculturists was genuine,
inasmuch as a man who, the first year, would grudgingly
take I ton as an experiment, the next year took rotons, and
the third year would increase his order to 20, 50, and even
100 tons, grumbling that the limited supply prevented him
having all he wanted.

But it must not be imagined that the results of the la-
boratory and of practice are altogether anomalous in the case
of the native guano manure; there is simply a difference in
degree, and this difference arises from the non-existenee of a
fixed chemical standard of manurial worth. Nordoes chemical
analysis always show a low money value for ‘‘native guano.”
Samples submitted, at the Paris works, to one of the first
analytical chemists in France (M. Terreil, Aide-Naturaliste
en Chef des Travaux Chimiques au Muséum d’Histoire
Naturelle) are reported by him to be worth in their dry state
108°6 francs per ton, or, when reduced by the normal amount
of moisture present in “‘ native guano,” and converted into
English money, £3 12s. 5d. per ton, whilst the cost of pro-
duction is far below that figure.

As more particular evidence of the manurial worth of the
guano, we may refer to the results obtained on the experi-
mental farm of 7 acres established in conne¢tion with the
works at Crossness. The farm, as is indeed the entire
system, has lately been under the supervision of the Metro-
politan Board of Works. The following are the returns
from g yards square :— :

Golden Drop Wheat.

i. IBS. OZ
Native Guano, I5 cwts. per acre’. .-6 44
Do. dois, 40: desc 00.4 iso ay Oa
No Guano . ois ac eAy Hag se wate 2 TA
White Rough Chaff Wheat.
lbs. ozs

Native Guano, 15 cwts. per acre OE
Do. do, 20 de: SC -teceh a eee Bg
No Guano - oc ie iene eee cae eae A

Revet Wheat.

' Ibs. ozs

Native Guano, 15 cwts. periacre. os 4.) 11. 0
Do. Go. 5-70; ada. do. LO PA
No Guano. Sie : 6 8

1873.! A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 69

Black Tartarian Oats.

lbs. ozs.
Native Guanomiwewts.peracre. .) 2° i 8
Mie? Gain enews wollen te Fok ES Bee

These results are worthy the attention of the farmer; but
they are in no way surprising, for it is universally admitted
that town sewage has manurial value; and as the ingre-
dients of the A BC process which are added to the sewage
have no destructive effet upon the constituents of the sewage,
it would be a matter of much ‘greater surprise if the
‘‘native guano” were found to be without manurial value.
Further evidence in favour of the manure is, that there is a
demand. for it at the rate of £3 10s.’ the ton... That at
Crossness the manure has cost more than this sum to pro-
duce is extremely probable, for the machinery, steam-engine,
and tanks have been apparently arranged with the object of
getting the minimum of work at the maximum of expense.
Probably some of this is due to the necessity of erecting
works before the most advantageous method of carrying on
the process had been ascertained, whilst some of the appa-
rent waste of money may be rendered necessary by the show
character of the works, and the necessity of having every-
thing aboveground to answer the accusation of improper
dilution of the effluent. But when it is considered that
fifteen times as much coal is being burnt there* as was suffi-
cient for the same work at Paris; that the alum is costing
three or four times as much as it need ; that an experienced
chemical superintendent is included among the staff; that
the rest of the staff is about twice as numerous as need be;
and last, though not least, that for the greater part of the
three months’ official trial, the sewage which has been
treated has been excessively dilute, owing to heavy rains :—
when all these extenuating-circumstances are considered,
the wonder is, not that the “‘ native guano” produced at
Crossness has exceeded £3 Ios. per ton, but that the price
has not risen to twice that figure. Let us turn to other
works conducted on some approach to economical prin-
ciples, and a very different result will be seen.

At Paris the expenses are higher than need be, owing to
their being show works, and necessarily conducted with
some disregard to economy. The works being simply for
experimental illustration, were carried on intermittently,
and were seldom in full operation, except when visitors

* This does not include coal used for artificially drying the ‘‘ native guano”’ at
Crossness.

70 A Solution of the Sewage Problem. [January,

were expected. The usual take of sewage was at the rate
of 4800 gallons per hour, but on some occasions the working
was pushed until the sewage was flowing at the rate of
10,000 gallons per hour. At this rate the precipitation
and the settlement proceeded without difficulty, whilst the
effluent continued to flow away without deterioration. Let
us take the data of these works as the basis upon which to
draw up a profit and loss account of a day’s work.

Ten thousand gallons of sewage per hour amount to
100,000 gallons per day of 10 hours.

For this are required the following chemicals :—

Kilos. Kilos. Frs.
Animal Charcoal. . 250 at 170 frs. per 1000 = 42°5
Vegetable Charcogl ‘i 5e05,, “50 -., 9° == _25°0
Cig. 217.8 GOO cna ieee 9, See
he and Blood Selle ete 7 erie Gat so
Sulphate of Alumina 162 ,, 130 ,, a= oie

ae

Totalused . . 1582... . . costing g2'9

The labour consisted of—
Eour men, wages per day .°«:.. 13°75 irs:
One supernntendent sts, 2.45 Pi moe
Add one extra Man tse s<) 55> 57 es

27°75»

The steam-engine burnt less than half a ton of coals a
week. This with a few sundries, such as oil, &c., amounted
to about 36 frs. per week.

The mud was simply pumped from the bottom of the tank
into an open-air stank, where it rapidly dried under the
influence of the sun and wind, assisted by the porosity of
the soil. The drying therefore cost nothing.

Owing to the excessive dilution of the Paris sewage from

rainfall, from the copious street washings, and from the fact.

that most of the night-soil is carted away to La Villette, the
yield of dry ‘“‘ native guano” was very poor, not more than
I1I4 parts being obtained for every Ioo parts of ABC ma-
terials added, as against 163 yielded under similar circum-
stances from London sewage. As 1582 kilos. of AB C ma-
terials were added, the ‘‘native guano” would be 1808 kilos.
The total expenses were—

Chemicals... 2s) 2.0%. ieee 92 -OO ist

Labour es ao ot Br, oy,

Coal and Sundries Pe ASR imate, <7 6) 6 ames

126°65 ,,

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 71

As 1808 kilos. cost 126°65 frs., therefore 1000 kilos. would
cost 70 frs., equal to £2 16s. per ton.

The value assigned to this manure was, as already stated,

2128. 5d. per ten:

' Had the price been taken at which the clay alum can be
made in England, viz., £2 per ton, instead of the French
price, the expenses would have been still less per ton.

The writer has been allowed an opportunity of going
through the accounts of the Hastings Works for the last
six months. The cost of the ‘‘native guano” produced
here averages £2 4s. 1d. perton. The operations are not
carried on as economically as they might be, and there are
several serious items of current expense which would be
avoided in subsequent works.

At Bolton, according to the certificate of the Mayor of the
Corporation, who are themselves working the A BC process
under a royalty, the manure is produced at a cost of £2 6s.
per ton. The royalty derived by the Native Guano Com-
pany from the profits of the Corporation of Bolton amounts
to I per cent of the entire capital invested by the Company;
so that it requires but a few more applications to realise
the permanent payment of a satisfactory dividend.

We are now in a position to make deductions from the
evidence given before the House of Commons with regard
to the value of the process.

Mr. Hawksley says :—‘‘ Now, the great virtue of this new
method (A BC) is this, that while it is just as available as
the old process of precipitation by lime, it produces a manure
which can be sold to a profit, and the whole thing can be
done in a moderate compass; and having been done in a
moderate compass, of course it does not render it necessary
to acquire a gentleman’s estate by compulsion, or to produce
these marshes which are injurious to the health of the
neighbourhood. . . . The manure is now become of great
value. . . . By this new process a valuable manure is pro-
duced, which sells at £3 ros. per ton, whereas the other
manure (lime process) will only sell at from Is. to as. 6d.
per con.”

Dr. Henry Letheby says :—‘‘ The process is carried out at
Leamington so satisfactorily that the effluent water is prac-
tically disinfected.”

Dr. Frankland admits that he believes ‘“‘the previous
application of some chemical process, such as Sillar’s
(A BC) process, would entirely obviate that difficulty (the
clogging of the filter) attending downward filtration.”

There is one important property of the prepared “ native

72. A Solution of.the Sewage Problem. (January,

guano” which we have still to notice. During the progress
of the experiments at Leeds it was discovered that the

“native guano,” when made into a powder and mixed with
night soil, absorbed all the moisture, thoroughly deodorised
it, and eee it a dry, inoffensive, and inodorous manure,
capable of being easily transported without inconvenience.
So valuable was this manure found to be that it was easily
disposed of at £4 per ton, in quantities of 40 tons at a time.

From this discovery it followed that the ABC mixture
should be employed to precipitate the colouring matters
from refuse dye-waters of large dye-works. Some experi-
ments were instituted in the laboratory, and the results were
so satisfactory that the adoption of the process would fully
answer the requirements of Mr. Stansfeld’s bill for preventing
the pollution of rivers.

The writer has thus endeavoured to give an outline of
the ABC process of utilising sewage, to state, and to
answer, objections to the process. The chief objections
may be summarised as follows :—That the “ native guano”
is of no manurial value; this statement is untrue in
fact. The writer has considered this objection very fully
in a letter published some months since, a portion of which
may be quoted here. ‘‘ When manurial value is mentioned,
a distinction must be made between the value assigned by
chemical analysis and by actual experiment on a farm. The
former method of valuation is most erroneous, as it only
takes into account two constituents, and omits others of
equal necessity to the plant life. Chemical analysis would
assign scarcely any or no value to such substances as sul-
phate of lime, soot, the warp of the Humber, and the mud of
the Nile ; whilst, when a chemist does assign a value in
money to a guano or a superphosphate, the price he fixes
has little or no relation to the actual selling price. Farmers
judge of its value by actual trial on their fields. It isin
this way they fix the price it is worth their while to pay for
the superphosphate, and in the same manner they judge of
the value of ‘native guano.’ My observations at Leamington
and the neighbourhood proved satisfactorily to my mind that
the ‘native guano’ made there had a very high manurial value,
and the farmers to whom I spoke about it had tested it in
too. many ways, and were too shrewd judges of such matters
to be deceived in ascribing to native guano what was really
due to previous manuring.” ‘The second objection is that
the cost of the manure is more than £3 Ios. perton. In
some experimental cases, perhaps, the cost has exceeded
this amount per ton; but in cases where actual work

- s
a

1873.] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 73

has been commenced this amount has never been
reached.

But let us for a moment suppose that no profit at all
resulted from the sale of the manure; and that the
sewage of London, we will say, had to be dealt with at
the price of £2 per 100,000 gallons (and on the large
scale it could certainly be treated at less than half this
cost). We have then the sewage of London, amounting
to 100,000,000 gallons per diem, treated (supposing the
population to be 3,265,000) at 4s. per head per annum.
The annual rateable property in the metropolis amounts,
according to the Valuation Act of 1869, to £19,971,000.
The cost “of dealing with the whole of the London sewage
could therefore be defrayed by a rate of 7-8ths of a penny
in the pound. These facts are in themselves a sufficient
recommendation of the process.

That the process should encounter opposition is not only
possible but very probable. Its adoption will affect many
vested interests, as well as theinterests of rival schemes. But
ratepayers, whether they be scientific men or not, would do
well to investigate for themselves the claims of the ABC
process. And not only the ratepaver, but every man who
has a voice in the welfare of the nation and its production
of food, or who desires that our towns should be healthy,
should judge for himself of the value of the process. It
may then be repeated that the claims of the A BC process
to public confidence are threefold :—

I. It deodorises and disinfe¢ts sewage, and precipitates
the suspended and much of the injurious dissolved
matter without giving rise to any nuisance; it con-
verts the deposit into a dry, portable, and inoffensive
powder, possessing considerable manurial value.

II. It leaves the effluent water in a state of. practical
purity, fit to be discharged into any river.

III. It effects these important sanitary requirements at a
cost, which not only relieves the ratepayers of expense,
but even yields a profit, owing to the ready sale of
the ‘‘ native guano” at £3 10s. per ton, and its pro-
duction at a cost of not more, and probably much
less, than £2 a ton. ‘

VOL, Il. (N.S:) L

74 Colours and their Relations. (January,

V. COLOURS AND THEIR RELATIONS.
By Munco Ponron, F.R.S.E.

Part I.
QMO
F all the objects of perception presented to our sight in
wig, this beautiful world, none are more generally pleasing

thancolours. The brilliancy of some, the delicacy of
others, their varieties of hue, of tint, and of shade, their
melodies, so to speak, and their harmonies, all combine to
render them sources of delight.

What would the landscape be without colour? Were it
composed of only lights and shades, it would lose far more
than half its beauty. It would be like a print compared
with the glowing tints of a Claude or a Turner. What
would be the plumage of the peacock without its gorgeous
colours—its brilliant lustre, its playful hues? Let that
ghost-like variety which is colourless say. And the most.
lovely of God’s creatures—without colour, how would she
appear? Where were the rosy cheeks, tokens of health
—the coral lips—the many-hued iris, that index of the soul,
with its deep yet lustrous browns, its ethereal blues, its
tender hazels, its sagacious greys, with its margin of lucid
white, the peculiar adornment of the human eye? And the
wavy tresses too, with their tints in such strange sympathy
with those of the iris—either in pleasing harmony or not less
pleasing contrast. A woman of living alabaster, however
elegantly formed, would hardly send a thrill of warmth
through the frame of admiring man.

While colours thus afford pleasure to the eyes of the
multitude, they awaken in the mind of the philosopher, who
contemplates them with intelligent scrutiny, a still more
exquisite delight. For he perceives in them evidences of
most marvellous wisdom and skill, united to overflowing
goodness and benign sympathy. When he considers the
simplicity of the means, and the wondrous beauty and
variety of the effects, he becomes lost in amazement. He
feels himself, as it were, in the presence of a mind tran-
scendently powerful, wise, and benevolent, so that his soul
becomes filled with reverential, yet loving awe. For all these
phenomena, which produce in him the varied and plea-
surable perceptions of colour, are in themselves nothing
more than variations in the rate of infinitesimally minute
tremors, regulated by determinate mathematical laws.

The nature and minuteness of these vibrations, and some

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 75

of their regulating laws, have been indicated in a previous
essay, entitled ‘‘ Molecules, Ultimates, Atoms, and Waves,”
which appeared in the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of Science,”
vol. i. N.S., p. 170, in April, 1871, and the two following
numbers. In that essay reasons were adduced for concluding
that the bright coloured lines observed in the spectra of glow-
ing gases are due not to the vibrations of the ultimates of the
gases themselves, but to those of more minute atoms con-
stituting those ultimates. More especially in the case of
hydrogen, it was shown to be probable that the ultimate of
that gas consists of four species of extremely minute atoms,
whose separate vibrations produce the four bright lines
which characterise the spectrum of that gas when made to
glow by passing through it an electrical discharge.

These views, respecting the constitution of hydrogen and
the other chemical elements, have received a remarkable
confirmation in certain phenomena observed by the spectro-
scope in the solar chromosphere. When viewed with that
instrument, the chromosphere usually presents the four
lines characteristic of hydrogen, and two other lines—one
in the yellow, not coincident with the sodium lines, nor with
any other produced by any known terrestrial substance, and
denoted as D,—the other in the red, a little less refrangible
than C, and in like manner not referable to any known sub-
stance. Now, in two observations—one by Mr. Lockyer,
the other by Professor Young (the latter made on 19th April,
1870), the line F, supposed to be due to hydrogen, was
agitated in a remarkable manner, indicating that the sub-
stance in which this line has its origin was in a state of
violent commotion; but on both occasions the red line C,
also supposed to be due to hydrogen, remained totally un-
affected.

Of this remarkable phenomenon the most simple explana-
tion would be to suppose that, in the chromosphere, the
four atoms constituting the ultimate of hydrogen exist dis-
united, forming four distinct gases more subtle than hydro-
gen ; that of these gases, the one producing the line F was,
during the observations in question, ascending in a gyratory
column, while the one producing the line C was at rest.

A similar conclusion may be drawn from other spectro-
scopic observations of the solar limb, in which certain of the
dark lines of the spectrum become converted into bright
lines. It is remarkable that only a certain number of the
lines due to particular metals have been thus affected—more
especially three of the lines referred to magnesium, and only
one or two of the numerous lines referred toiron. ‘The lines

"tee Colours and their Relations. (January,

thus altered were the three magnesium lines J,, b,, b,, the line
b, referred to iron and nickel, and the line 1474 of Kirchhoff’s
map also due to iron. But the strong magnesium line 5527
of Angstrom’s scale and the numerous other iron lines under-
went no similarchange. It might be hence fairly inferred that,
in the photosphere, the atoms constituting the ultimates of
the various chemical elements, whose characteristic lines
have been detected in the solar spectrum, all exist in a
disunited state, forming an intimate mixture of highly
attenuated gases ; but that some of those gases occasionally
pass the limits of the photosphere, and are projected a short
way into the chromosphere, where they glow under the
influence of electrical currents. For the bright lines, thus
forming reversals of some of the dark lines of the photo-
sphere, are always much shorter than the other bright lines
of the chromosphere—a fact indicating that the substances
which produce them ascend only a short way beyond the
usual limits of the photosphere, in which these same lines
are dark.

Subtle as, according to this view of their constitution,
these gases must be, they must be excelled in their tenuity-
by others, which, extending beyond the chromosphere, form
the corona seen in total eclipses of the sun. It is remark-
able that the spectrum of the corona, as observed by Pro-
fessor Young during the total eclipse of 1869, consists of
three bright lines, so nearly coincident with those observed
by Professor Winlock in the spectrum of the aurora borealis
as to leave little doubt of their identity—thus indicating that
the gases constituting the solar corona exist also in the
region at the outskirts of the earth’s atmosphere, where the
auroral flashes play. These spectral lines of the solar
corona and the aurora borealis have not yet been identified
with any known spectra produced by artificial means. But
the extreme lightness of the gases producing them renders
it probable that, like the gases of the chromosphere, they
consist of separate atoms not united into the ultimate of any
chemical element. Should the individual lines be hereafter
identified with any of those embraced in the spectrum of
any known element or elements, this view of their constitu-
tion would be confirmed. (See Schellen’s “‘ Spectrum
Analysis,” pp. 361, 399, 404, 414).

The remarkable circumstance that, in the spectra of
several of the nebule, there is seen only one of the bright
lines of hydrogen—that, namely, corresponding to the line
F—might in like manner be explained by supposing that, in
these nebulz, the atoms composing the ultimate of hydrogen

O73.) Colours and their Relations. Th

are separate from each other, and that only those atoms
yielding this particular bright line are in sufficient quantity
to originate a light of such intensity as to penetrate through
. so great a distance as that at which these nebule are placed.

This particular phenomenon it has been sought to explain
by the taét, observed by Messrs. Frankland and Lockyer,
that when attenuated hydrogen is illuminated by the elec-
trical discharge, and the spectrum produced is viewed at a
considerable distance, all the bright lines disappear, save
that corresponding to F. But this explanation is incon-
sistent with the fact that all the four hydrogen lines are
distinguishable in the spectrum of the solar chromosphere.
Moreover, the disappearance of all the lines but F from the
spectrum of attenuated hydrogen, when viewed at a distance,
is a fact which itself requires explanation; and the simplest
is afforded by the supposition that, in each ultimate of
hydrogen, the atoms which vibrate in unison with the line F
considerably exceed in number those which give rise to the
other three bright lines. It appears very unlikely that,
were all the ultimates of hydrogen themselves individual
atoms of the same bulk and weight, a greater number of
them should elect to vibrate in unison with the F line than
with the three other bright lines; while we should be left
without any assignable reason why such atoms, if all exactly
alike, should not, every one of them, vibrate in exactly the
same time, and so give rise to only one bright line.

It has been recently pointed out by Mr. G. Johnston Stoney
that the wave-lengths of the Ist, 2nd, and 4th hydrogen
lines stand to each other approximately in the following
felation—-20H, —27H, =32F,> whence he infers that these
three may be harmonics derived from one and the same
fundamental vibration (Phil. Mag., Aug., 1868). To this
conclusion, however, is opposed the fact of the preponder-
anee, of H, or F over all the others; and still more. the
phenomenon already noted that, in two distinét observations
on the solar prominences, the line H, or F was violently
agitated, while H, or C remained unaffected. These two
facts it appears'impossible to explain, except on the supposi-
tion that C and F have their origin in two distin& sets of
atoms, capable of existing either separately, constituting
different gases, or united into one ultimate—that of hydrogen
gas. In the sequel it will be shown on other grounds to be
extremely improbable that these two have their wave-
lengths im theyexact ratio of 20C —271.. [here remains,
moreover, the fact that the vibrations corresponding to the
line H, have no such numerical relations to the other three

78 Colours and their Relations. — (January,

as these last have approximately among themselves, and
exhibit no indication of their being derived from one and
the same fundamental vibration with them. It appears,
therefore, satest to conclude that the approximate numerical
relation 20H, =27H,=32H, is simply an indication that the
inertiz of these three sets of atoms stand to each other
nearly in this relation.

It seemed advisable to make these explanations in refer-
ence to the former essay on ‘‘ Molecules, Ultimates, Atoms,
and Waves” with a view further to illustrate the subject of
which it treats. It is now proposed to consider more at
large the phenomena of colour simply as they present them-
selves to the eye, with their various relations.

Colours may be divided into two great classed Sanat
and adventitious. Intrinsic colours depend on the arrange-
ment of the molecules, ultimates, or atoms constituting the
coloured substance ; while adventitious colours depend on
the disposition of aggregations of these into grains, fibres,
layers, prisms; or they are due to the interference of wave
with wave, the superposition of wave upon wave, the separa-
tion of wave from wave of the luminiferous ether; also in
some cases to an alteration in the rate of vibration of the
ethereal waves.

Intrinsic colours first demand attention, the phenomena
which they present being comparatively few and simple.
In the case of an elementary substance, which, while in the
state of gas or vapour, exhibits colour, such as chlorine gas
and the vapours of iodine and bromine, the colour most
probably depends on the arrangement of the atoms con-
stituting the ultimates of those elements. And this phe-
nomenon furnishes a strong argument in favour of the view,
that the chemical elements are really compounded of still
more simple atoms. Did the colours of those elemental
vapours depend on vibrations performed simply by their
ultimates, seeing the vibrations would, in that case, be all
of one rate, the tint produced would be one or other of the
pure unmixed colours of the spectrum. But this they are
not, consequently the vibrations causing them must be of
various rates ; nor does it appear possible to find any other
cause of such a variation of rate than that of their being
due to the compound nature of the ultimates—their con-
sisting of atoms which, when set in motion by the ethereal
waves, vibrate at different rates, producing a compound tint.

When the chemical elements are not in the gaseous or
vaporous condition, their colour probably depends on the
arrangement of the ultimates and their rates of vibration,

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 79

rather than on those of the atoms constituting the ultimates.
How much depends on the arrangement of the ultimates
and their state of aggregation has been rendered evident by
Faraday’s experiments on gold leaf. This metal, when in
very thin layers, is transparent, and the light passing through
it is green; but by heating such films, and so altering the
state of aggregation of the ultimates, the colour of the
transmitted light becomes ruby-red. It can, however, be
restored to green by simply compressing the layer. The
light from the surface of the film in both cases retains its
rich yellow hue and beautiful metallic lustre. In toning
photographs with gold, however, the film, when extremely
thin, is black, and not till the thickness of the deposit is
augmented to an appreciable extent do the yellow tint and-
the metallic lustre return—the lustre preceding the tint in
its reappearance, so that, at a certain stage, the surface
presents a certain amount of metallic lustre while it is still
black. Other metals besides gold exhibit variations of tint
depending on the state of aggregation of their ultimates.
These phenomena bring us face to face with the question re-
lative to the nature of intrinsic colours—the manner in which
they are produced by the action of the ethereal vibrations.
At one time it was generally supposed that the light falling
on any coloured surface becomes separated into two portions,
of which one is regularly reflected without change, the other
scattered in all directions by the reflective action of the
molecules or ultimates of the coloured surface, but deprived
of some of its waves by absorption. Another opinion, how-
ever, has begun to prevail over this first notion. When it
is remembered that what arrives at the coloured surface is
simply motive energy, wafted onwards through the ether in
waves of definite length, embracing vibrations of various
rates, it will be perceived that if any of the motive energy
of the ether disappear or become absorbed, it must be im-
parted to the molecules or ultimates of the surface on which
the waves alight. These, again, cannot take up the energy
without being themselves set a vibrating at the peculiar
rates which they tend to assume. Moreover, the molecules
‘or ultimates, on beginning thus to vibrate, must excite in the
ether, in immediate association with them, fresh vibrations
synchronous with those peculiar rates, and these will be
propagated by undulations in all directions. It is this
secondary set of ethereal vibrations which, according to the
second view, produce in us those perceptions which we
-call the intrinsic colours of bodies. It is not a part of the
incident light deprived of certain of its component waves,

80 Colours and their Relations. [January,

and scattered by reflection in all direCtions; but it is an
entirely new set of waves owing their origin to the vibrations
of the molecules or ultimates established by the motive
energy of the incident light—these vibrations being of the
same rate as those producing certain colours when they sub-
sist in the ether.

Among other phenomena which favour this latter view is
that presented by the scarlet geranium. It has long been
observed that the colour of that flower continues to glow
with apparently deeper intensity in the twilight. Now were
the colour produced by the scattering in every direction of
a portion of the incident light deprived of all its con-
stituent waves, save those which combine to produce scarlet,
the colour ought to become sensibly weaker as the incident
light diminishes. But its appearing more intense, after the
incident light has been greatly weakened, tends to prove
that the scarlet colour is really produced by the vibrations
of the colouring-matter of the petal—these vibrations sub-
sisting for a considerable time after the stimulus of the in-
cident light is lessened, and generating by their reaction
vibrations in the ether synchronous with themselves. The
apparent increase of intensity in the twilight is due to the
circumstance that the scarlet colour is then less diluted with
that portion of the incident light which is actually scattered
in all direCtions from the surface of the petal during sunshine.

In the majority of cases the nature of the action is masked
by the circumstance that the molecules or ultimates cease
to vibrate almost immediately after the stimulus of the in-
cident light ceases, though some wall-papers show their
colours for a few seconds after the extinction of a candle,
which has been placed near them. Nor is this owing to the
mere persistence of the image on the retina; for it continues.
after the brighter image of the candle itself has disappeared.
The same view is also strengthened by the phenomenon of
lustre. For lustre is simply a portion of the incident light
scattered from the coloured surface in every direction ; but
it is quite distinguishable from the coloured light of the
surface itself, generated by the vibrations of the particles
of which the coloured body is composed.

In all inorganic bodies the intrinsic colour is for the most
part equably distributed over the surface or throughout the
mass. In some chemical compounds the different ultimates
constituting the compound molecule vibrate at different
rates; but these become so blended as to produce compound
tints ; and they cannot be separated by submitting the sub-
stance to microscopical examination.

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 81

With organic bodies it is otherwise. Among these, the
cellular struC@ture more or less modified is so prevalent, that
it is not surprising to find that their colouring-matter tends
to accumulate in cells, which are easily distinguishable under
the microscope. These are termed pigment cells. Even in
cases where to the naked eye the tint appears uninterruptedly
continuous and uniform, the microscope shows this apparent
uniformity to be due almost entirely to the minuteness of
the pigment cells and their close aggregation. Nothing can
appear to the naked eye more uniform than the beautiful
crimson tint of certain portions of the petal of the pelar-
gonium, yet under the microscope the colour is seen to be
accumulated in curiously-formed pigment cells. So, also,
the skin of the negro, which to the naked eye appears of
a uniform very dark brown, is seen when examined by the
microscope to have its brown pigment accumulated in cells
—some large and of a crescent shape, others much smaller
and round. Another beautiful example is furnished by the
minute sea-weed Polysiphonia vestigiata, which appears of a
uniform red tint. Under the microscope the red pigment is
seen to be accumulated in cells of an elongated form arranged
in successive stages, a peculiarity from which the plant de-
rives its name.

It has been mentioned that in the case of gold-leaf, the
light transmitted through the film hasa different colour from
that which comes from its surface. This phenomenon, termed
‘dichroism,’ is exhibited by several other substances—silver-
leaf, for instance, transmitting a blue light, while that pro-
ceeding from its surface is nearly white. The mineral termed
dichroite or iolite, a prismatic quartz, is another example,
its colour being deep blue when viewed in the direction of
the axis of the crystal, and yellowish grey in the transverse
direction. Crystals of augite, again, are blood-red in one
direction and bright green in another. The alcoholic
solution of chlorophyl, or leaf green, tinges the hght passing
through it of a deep red, while the superficial colour is
green. In tincture of litmus the transmitted colour is also
red, but the superficial is blue. The change from green to
red in the instance of gold-leaf shows that, in some cases,
these ‘transmitted tints depend simply om the state on
aggregation of the constituent ultimates. Butin the tinctures
of chlorophyl and litmus, the transmitted red is due to one
of the constituents of those chemical compounds.

An interesting case is presented by the tincture of the
bark of horse-chesnut, for it is one of transition. While
dichroism may be regarded as intermediate between ordinary

VOie. Mhis (N2Se) M

82 Colours and their Relations. |January,

intrinsic colour and fluorescence, this tincture exhibits the
transition between fluorescence and dichroism, another
example of that tendency to gradation so conspicuous in
many natural phenomena. In some varieties of fluor-spar
there is dichroism combined with fluorescence, the green and
blue fluor imparting to the light transmitted through it a
green colour, while the superficial tint is deep blue. In the
solution of the disulphide of quinine, again, there is
fluorescence without dichroism, the transmitted light being
colourless, and only the superficial light exhibiting the blue
tint due to its fluorescent property. In uranium glass we
have again dichroism combined with fluorescence, the
transmitted light being yellow, the superficial fluorescent
tint blue. But in the tincture of the bark of the horse-
chesnut, when dropped in small quantity into water, there
is a curious combination and succession of effects. The
transmitted light is at first colourless, as in the case of the
quinine solution, while the superficial tint is blue, but
deeper than that proceeding from quinine. In a short time,
however, the transmitted light in the case of the horse-
chesnut bark acquires a straw-colour, which gradually
deepens, the blue fluorescence still continuing without much
diminution, so that we have again dichroism and fluorescence
combined. Ultimately, however, the solution, though ex-
ceedingly weak, acquires the tint of brown sherry as respects
both the transmitted and the superficial light, the fluorescent
blue having gradually died away.

Fluorescence itself forms the transition between in-
trinsic and adventitious colour. There can be no doubt
that this phenomenon is caused by the vibration of the
molecules of the fluorescent body. The peculiarity is
that this motion may be established. by ethereal waves
lying beyond the limits of the visible spectrum. The most
remarkable case is that presented by the. extremely minute
ethereal waves proceeding from aluminium electrodes, which,
as has been shown in a previous essay already referred to,
are very far removed from the visible spe¢trum beyond its

violet extremity—beyond even the limits of actinic action..

Yet these minute waves can excite in the phosphate of
uranium vibrations which, in their turn, originate fresh
ethereal vibrations lying within the limits of visibility. It
is thus rendered evident that the vibrations excited in the
uranium salt are very much slower in their rate than are

the ethereal vibrations by which they are established, and

that these uranium vibrations in their turn give rise to fresh
ethereal vibrations synchronous with their own slower rate,

=

— a, ee

=
Ne eee ee

me 73s]. Colours and their Relations. 83

and capable of exciting the optic nerve. The case resembles
that of a bass string set a vibrating by the vibrations of a
treble string several oCtaves higher in the scale.

This phenomenon affords evidence that the molecules
of bodies are actually made to vibrate by the ethereal
waves, and do in their turn propagate a secondary set of
ethereal vibrations—so far favouring the second view of the
nature of intrinsic colours. Indeed, according to this view,
the only difference between fluorescent colours and ordi-
nary intrinsic colours consists in this circumstance, that,
whereas the latter are due to vibrations established in the
molecules by ethereal waves lying within the limits of the
visible spectrum, the vibrations causing fluorescence are
established by ethereal vibrations more rapid—sometimes
ereatly more rapid than themselves. If the incident light
be winnowed from all waves of shorter period than the
green, there is no fluorescence; and in this sense the fluor-
escent tint may be regarded as adventitious; because it
depends for its exhibition on the character of the incident
light. But it is in another aspect intrinsic; because it
depends on the molecular vibrations of the fluorescent body.

The flame of a spirit-lamp, though deficient in light capable
of stimulating bodies to exhibit their intrinsic colours,
abounds in that sort of light which stimulates fluorescent
bodies. If in a dark room a spirit-lamp be lighted and
placed behind the observer, and if he put on a smooth black
surface a drop of water, and alongside of it a drop of a weak
solution of the disulphide of quinine, or of the bark of the
horse-chesnut, and examine these by placing them near the
level of the eye, while the drop of water will be hardly
visible, that of the fluorescent liquid will appear quite solid
and of the colour of a turquois.

Another phenomenon, illustrating the great influence of
the molecular condition of bodies upon the light falling on
them, is that of temporary colours. The most familiar
example of these is furnished by the sympathetic inks
formed by the chlorides of cobalt and nickel. Very dilute
solutions of those salts are so nearly colourless that when
laid on paper they are invisible. But when subjected to
heat the former becomes blue, the latter yellow, while by
combining the two a green is obtained. These colours
gradually disappear when the paper stained with them is
exposed to the air; but they may be restored again and
again by mere warmth. ‘The explanation is that the heat
drives off all moisture from the salts, and their molecules
when dry tend to vibrate—the one in unison with the blue,

84 Colours and their Relations. (January,

the other with the yellow ray, when exposed to light. On
the withdrawal of the heat the salts again imbibe moisture
from the air, and their molecular vibrations, under the
stimulus of the incident light, have no longer these definite
rates.

‘The temporary effects of heat on nitrous acid gas may be
classed under this same head. This gas, even at ordinary
temperatures, exerts on the incident light a strong absorp-
tive action, in virtue of which numerous dark lines are de-
veloped in the spectrum; but raising the temperature of the
gas so Increases this absorptive power as ultimately to con-
vert the whole of the incident light into dark radiant heat—
the gas becoming quite opaque. A fall of temperature
allows it to resume its transparency. In this case, the heat

tends to cause the molecules of the gas to take up the vibra-

tory energy of the incident light, and in virtue of this energy,
united to that of the applied heat, to perform vibrations of
so great an amplitude and so slow a rate that they do not in
their turn communicate to the ether back-waves of a
rapidity sufficient to affect the optic nerve. These back-
waves accordingly assume the form of dark radiant heat.
When the temperature is lowered again, the molecules per-
form vibrations of smaller amplitude and greater rapidity,
which in their turn propagate through the ether back-
waves of such rates as to develop colours belonging to the
red end of the spectrum.

PART all:

Intrinsic colours having been considered in the previous
part, the present shall be devoted to those called adventi-
tious. Of such, the most simple sort are those prodtced
by dispersion, or the separation of wave from wave of the
incident light. In this case, the medium by which the
separation is effected may itself be destitute of colour.
All that is requisite is that it should be shaped into the form
of a wedge or prism, so that the incident light shall pass
through varying thicknesses. The diverse waves, of which
the incident lght consists, are thus subjected to the re-
tarding action of the medium for different periods of time ;.
and they are accordingly turned aside out of their direct

course, or refracted in unequal degrees. Those most easily ~

retarded become thus separated from those least easily
retarded, and the waves of different lengths reach the eye
in this separate condition, producing each its distinct im-
_ pression of colour. All refra¢ted spectra are of this cha-
racter. The colours do not belong intrinsically to any

~_— TF Se). ee

1873.| Colours and their Relations. 3 85

substance or object. The eye which is usually impressed
simultaneously by luminous waves of every degree of length,
causing the perception of mere brightness, is in this case
separately impressed by waves of different definite lengths,
the vibrations of which are so adjusted to those of which the
optic nerve is capable, as to excite in us the perception of
definite colour.

The laws which regulate the dispersion of light in passing
through diverse media are exceedingly curious; and some
of the more important of them have been noticed in a
previous essay on the spectroscope in the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal
of Science” for January, 1872.

A familiar example of the production of adventitious
colours by the separation of wave from wave of the ether,
where the object which affects the separation is itself colour-
less, is exhibited in the rainbow. ‘This phenomenon is pro-
duced by the action of falling rain-drops, or of the spray
from waterfalls on the sunbeams. ‘The ethereal waves, on
entering a rain-drop, become separated one from another,
owing to their unequal. refrangibility, and their passing
through different thicknesses of the watery medium. Being
reflected from the posterior surface of the drop in this sepa-
rate condition, they undergo further separation in passing a
second time through the water; so that, on emergence, the
differently coloured waves reach the eye separately. The
mode of formation of the primary and secondary bows will
be found explained on mathematical principles in the
‘* Edinburgh Encyclopedia,” vol. xv., p. 616.

Haloes round the sun and moon are also examples of the
same sort of adventitious colours, and their explanation
depends on similar principles; only the objects by which
the separation of the ethereal waves is effected are thought
to be not rain drops, but minute frozen particles of water.
It is supposed that a stream of air, charged with moisture
at a low temperature, comes into conta¢t with a denser,
drier, and colder stratum, by which the particles of moisture
become suddenly frozen into very minute crystals, which are
sustained floating in the atmosphere at a considerable height,
in a thin semi-transparent layer, forming a sort of veil be-
tween the observer and’ the sun or moon. The explanation
of these:phenomena on mathematical principles will be
found in the ‘‘ Edinburgh Encyclopedia,” vol. x., pp. 616, 617.

To similar causes are to be attributed the rarer and more
striking phenomena of the parhelion or mock-sun, and the
paraselene or mock-moon. The author, many years ago,
once enjoyed an opportunity of seeing a parhelion of great

86 Colours and their Relations. (January,

beauty in the north of Scotland, and he still retains a lively
recollection of its aspect. The phenomenon varies consi-
derably, but in general it may be said to consist in the for- —
mation of several large luminous rings or arches, sometimes
coloured, sometimes only bright, at some distance from the
sun or moon, and intersecting each other at two or more
points—the points of intersection being usually occupied by
the mock-sun or mock-moon. Sometimes there are only two
of these spectral images of the luminary—one on either side
of the true disc, and at a considerable distance from it. In
other instances there are three or four—more rarely six such
spectralimages. To this latter category belonged the remark-
able parhelion seen by Scheiner in 1630, of which a parti-
cular description was handed down by Gassendi, the astrono-
mer. See the-“ Edinburgh Encyclopzdia,” vol. x., p. 613,
where several other forms of the phenomenon are described.
In that of 1630 there was one complete luminous ring
around the sun, another much larger passing through the
disc of the luminary, a third of nearly the same size sur-
rounding the sun, but of which the lower third was invisible;
while there was a portion of a fourth touching the upper
limit of the third, and stretching thence upwards a short
way towards the zenith. Of the spectral images of the
sun, four were situated in the large ring passing through
his true disc. They were formed at the points where this
ring was intersected by the other two, which had the true
sun for their centre. The fifth image was situated right
over the true sun, on the margin of the innermost of those
two surrounding rings; while the sixth was situated also right
above the true sun at double the distance from his disc, on
the margin of the second surrounding ring, at the point
where it was cut by the fragmentary ring at its summit.
The spectral images seen by Scheiner continued visible for
upwards of four hours.

The second case of adventitious colour is that due to the
interference of one luminous wave with another—the two-
proceeding from very closely approximated surfaces. The
system of rings, named after their discoverer, Sir Isaac
Newton, presents this phenomenon in its simplest form.
To obtain these in perfection, it is necessary to place a long
focused convex lens against a little longer focused concave —
lens, and to exhaust the air from between them, so as to
press them very closely and equably together by atmospheric
pressure. The colours of the reflected and transmitted
light are in every case complementary to each other, being
such as would, by their union, produce white light. When

13873.) Colours and their Relations. 87

light of one pure colour is thrown on the lenses, the rings
are all of that one colour, and merely light and dark—the
waves alternately doubling and extinguishing the effects of
each other. Their breadth is greatest with red and least
with violet light; while it is by the overlapping of these
rings and the consequent intermingling of their tints that
the succession of colours is produced when white light i is
employed.

Another method of exhibiting these beautiful rings is by
blowing soap bubbles of a large size. This may be done
by using a mixture of soap and glycerine, and the bubbles
thus obtained may be preserved for several hours intact
under a bell-glass.. The colours are here produced by the
interference of the light coming from the inner surface of
the film with that coming from its outer surface. The two
surfaces are most nearly approximated at the summit of the
bubble, and they gradually separate thence downwards, so
that the same conditions are present as in the case of the
two lenses. Another simple way of producing this system
of rings is by spreading a thin film of soap over a glass plate,
and breathing on it through a finely pointed metal tube. In
this case the effect is due to the condensation of the breath
into minute hollow vesicles, which increase in size from the
centre outwards. They are, in fact, diminutive soap bubbles.

This class of colours goes under the general denomination
of the colours of thin plates, and the colours of many
natural objects fall under this category. Among the most
beautiful of these, and the most nearly allied to Newton’s
rings, are the colours exhibited by the discoid frustules of
certain of the Diatomacez. These consist of very thin
superimposed plates of pure silica, ornamented with various
patterns, produced by extremely minute papillary projections.

To this same class belong the colours seen in the scum
floating on the surface of some liquids, especially of solutions
containing salts of iron; also the colours of fibres and of
feathers very generally. The colour of some feathers, how-
ever, are intrinsic, consisting of colouring-matter lodged in
pigment cells, whence it can be removed and separately ex-
amined. ‘The most interesting case of the kind is that of
the red feathers in the wings of the plaintain-eater (Musophaga
violacea) and the turacu (Turacus albocristatus), which owe
their red colour to a pigment that has been named turacine.
This pigment possesses dichroism, being of a deep violet
purple by reflected light and crimson by transmitted light.
It presents the great peculiarity of containing nearly 6 per
cent of metallic copper, which must have entered with the

88 Colours and their Relations. (January,

food or drink of the bird, have passed through its circulation,
and found its ultimate lodgment in those wing-feathers. It
is most abundant at the pairing season (see an interesting
paper on the subject in ‘‘ The Student,” vol. i., p. 161, where
will be found a chromolithograph of the two birds above
named).

All iridescent colours in fibres or spines are adventitious,
and belong to the class of colours of thin plates; as, for ex-
ample, the beautiful iridescent spines of the sea-mouse
(Aphrodite aculeata), and the iridescent branchiz of the Eolis,
which serve the double purpose of a breathing apparatus and
_a bank of oars. The colours of the wings of insects and
the elytra of beetles, &c., all fall under the same extensive

category.

' The iridescence of mother-of-pearl and the fire of the
opal, again, though also phenomena of interference, may
perhaps be regarded as rather transitional in their character,
approaching towards the colours developed by systems of
fine lines, producing the phenomena of diffrattion. The
simplest case of diffraction is that of the external and in-
ternal fringes, developed when a single thin obstacle, such
as a fine wire or a very thin opaque plate placed edgewise,
is set in the path of a divergent beam of sunlight. In this
instance the internal fringes are produced by the overlapping
_of the waves bent inwards from the opposite sides of
the obstacle ; while the outer fringes are due to secondary
waves propagated from the outer edges of the obstacle,
which interfere with the dire€t waves coming from the
luminous source. It is by a system of extremely fine and
very closely approximated equidistant lines that the diffracted
spectrum—the purest of all spectra—is produced.

By far the most beautiful exhibition of adventitious colours
is that to be obtained by means of polarised light, or light
consisting of waves, the vibrations of which are all per-
formed in one plane. ‘To produce the phenomena of colour
in this manner, it is needful to have the means of polarising
the light in two opposite planes—the plane in which the
vibrations are performed in the one set of waves being per-
pendicular to that in which they are performed in the other
set. The light may be thus polarised either by reflection
from a smooth surface at a certain angle, or by means of
crystals of Iceland spar, cut so as to form what are called,
from their inventor, ‘‘ Nicol’s prisms,” or else by means of a
plate of tourmaline or of iodide of quinine. Of these
appliances one is used for polarising the light, the other as

an eye-piece for analysing it, that is to say, for showing .

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 89

that it is polarised, and for indicating the character of its
polarisation. The colours are developed when certain
crystals and also certain organic substances are interposed
between the polariser and the analyser. In passing through
these. interposed media, the light is more or less depolarised,
while the depolarising energy acts unequally on the different
waves, and is manifested unequally in different parts and
directions when the interposed medium is a crystal. The
result is the greater or less separation. of the differently
coloured waves one from another, and that in such a manner
as, IN many instances, to display the intimate internal
structure of the crystal, or other depolarising substance.
_ The combined action of different colours when they fall
simultaneously on the retina is curious. An interesting
series of experiments, with a view to illustrate this action,
has been made by Prof. J. Clerk Maxwell, who has com-
municated the results to the Royal Society in a paper pub-
lished in the ‘* Philosophical Transactions ” for 1860. By an
ingenious apparatus he contrived to bring three diverse pure
colours of the spectrum to bear on one point of the retina.
He ascertained that there is in the spectrum a central point,
which he describes as being about a fourth from E towards
F. This would make its wave-length on Angstrom’s scale
5156°72. As Prof. Maxwell determined this point by means
of two flint glass prisms, allowance must be made for their
irrationality ; so that in all probability the exact position of
the central point is, in the normal spectrum, the mean green
ray, of which, as will be afterwards shown, the wave-length
is 5124°086 (reciprocal 1951°568). Prof. Maxwell has de-
tected a curious peculiarity of the rays at and near this
point, namely, that at the punctum cecum, or yellow spot in
the retina, there is a greater insensibility to these rays than
to any others of the spectrum.

By causing the rays from this central green point to fall
on the retina in conjunction with the rays from some point
in the red, Prof. Maxwell found that colours undistinguishable
from the intermediate pure orange and yellow of the spectrum
could be produced, the only difference being that these com-
pound tints are resolvable by the prism into their con-
stituent elements, while the pure tints of the spectrum are
not. In like manner it is always possible to select two
colours from somewhat distant points-of the spectrum,
which will, when combined in certain proportions, produce
intermediate tints undistinguishable from one or other of
the remaining pure tints of the spectrum.

The most remarkable effects, however, are those produced

VOM. TPL. (NES.) N

go Colours and their Relations. — (January,

by causing the rays from three points in the spectrum to
fall dn one point of the retina,—the result being the im-
pression of pure white, undistinguishable from the white
resulting from the combination of -all the spe¢tral colours.
The proportions required to constitute this white vary with
the points on either side of the central green from which
. the rays are taken. It is impossible by mixing pigments to
produce a similar result. Hi carmine, chrome-yellow, and
indigo be mixed in certain proportions, the resulting im-
pression on the eye is that of blackness, not of whiteness.
It is possible, indeed, by whirling a disc, painted with dif-
ferent proportions of red, green, and blue, to produce a
greyish-white, but not that pure white which may be ob-
tained by combining the rays of the spectrum.

Prof. Maxwell extended his observations to the case of
colour-blind persons. The eyes of those whom he examined
were dichromic,—that is, sensible of only two impressions of
colour. The central green of the spectrum appeared to
them white, as did a considerable extent on either side of it.
Beyond that, on the less refrangible side, all appeared of one
colour, which they termed yellow of different degrees of in-
tensity, shading off into darkness towards the red extremity ;
while on the more refrangible side all appeared likewise of
one colour, which they called blue of different degrees of
intensity, shading off into darkness at the violet end. The
space from the fixed line A to E appears yellow, reaching
its maximum between D and E, while the blue reaches its
maximum at about two-thirds from F towards G. The
mean green ray produces a fainter impression on the
punctum cecum in such eyes than in those of more perfect
visual power. In the dichromic eye, rays taken from dif-
ferent points of the regions on opposite sides of the central
green, when combined in certain proportions, produce the
impression of whiteness without the aid of a third ray.
But no admixture of blue and yellow will to such eyes
appear green. Any combination of these two will appear
white,—either a yellowish-white if the yellow be in excess,
or a biuish-white if the blue predominate.

These experiments throw great light on the nature of
complementary colours. They show that to perfect eyes,
when two colours are complementary, one or both of them
_must be compound colours, and that only in dichromic eyes
can two pure colours be regarded as complementary. To
such eyes, yellow and blue being the only colours distin-
guishable, are always complementary to each other. When
a perfect eye, however, after dwelling for a long time ona

1873.] Colours and their Relations. : QI

pure red, is turned on a pure white, the complementary
green which it sees is not pure, but is that mixture of blue
and green which is needful to complement the pure red, in
order to constitute a perfect white. So, when the eye first
dwells on a pure green, the red which it subsequently sees
is not pure, but that mixture of red with blue which, in
order to constitute a perfect white, is needful to complement
the pure green. From these observations it follows, that in
Newton’s rings, the reflected and refracted tints, being com-
plementary to each other, cannot be pure colours, such as
are those of the diffracted speCtrum ; but there must be at
least three pure colours in every opposing pair of the New-
tonian rings.

From the foregoing sketch it will be perceived what an
_ additional charm has been thrown around the subject of
colour by the discoveries of Natural Philosophy. By the
appliances of which that science avails itself we are, as it
were, furnished with additional organs of vision, and enabled
to contemplate natural beauties, of which the human mind
had, before those discoveries, hardly formed a conception.
And then there returns upon us the startling fact, that all
these wonderful and beautiful phenomena are nothing more
than mere variations in the rates of certain minute vibra-
tions,—just as are the notes of various musical instruments
in the case of sound, whose melodies and harmonies have
thus, to a-certain extent, their analogies in those of colour.
The nature and scope of these analogies will be considered
in the remaining part of this paper.

Part Lik

The analogy between colours and musical tones has pre-.
sented itself to many minds, and there has been among
scientific men much discussion as to its nature and extent.
The grounds on which those who have contended for a
perfect correspondence between the colours of the spectrum
and the notes of the musical scale have based their argu-
ment, were at one time supposed to be stronger than they
actually are.

The case is greatly complicated by the uncertainty which
prevails in regard to what really constitutes the true musical-
scale.. The mathematical idea of a perfectly musical scale
is one that-should divide the octave into twelve eyuivalent
semitones, forming a regular geometrical progression. For
the purpose of comparison with the actual musical scales,
this ideal scale is here given, with the relative number of

{January,

vibrations referred to those of do as unity, and with the
logarithms of these numbers, the common ratio of the pro-
gression being the twelfth root of 2.

92 Colours and their Relations.

Ideal Scale.

pr el Vane en a = =

Do: I 0°0000000 070250858
Dog reb 1°059463 ~=—-_-0"0250858

Rei. 1°122462 0°0501716

Re= mib 1°189207. 0°0752574

Mi . 1°259921 0°1003432

ae 1°334839 0°1254290

Fat solb I°414213 0°1505148

Sol . 1°498306 0°1750006

Solf lab 1°587400. 072006864.

La . 1°681792 0°2257722

Lat sib 1°781796 0°2508580 |

Si. 1887747 0°2759438

Do, 2 0°3010300

Thus constituting a regular geometiical progression.

Had the earliest musicians been also mathematicians it
is not improbable that this is the scale they would have
adopted; while so great are the powers of habit and inhe-
ritance on man’s mind and organisation that it would, in the
course of time, have come to be regarded as the true scale,
the succession of its notes as perfect melody, their combi-
nations as perfeét harmony. The state of the fact, how-
ever, is quite otherwise. Melody and harmony have become,
to a certain extent, dissociated, and the scale which is re-
garded as yielding the most perfect melody differs from that
which is regarded as yielding the most perfect harmony,—
neither of them, however, forming regular geometrical pro-
gressions, consequently both differing considerably from the
ideal scale.

In the Pythagorean scale, which yields the most perfect
melody, the sol is regarded as occupying the exact middle
point between do and its o¢tave do,; consequently the ratio
of its vibrations referred to do as unity is 1°5. From these
three, do, sol, do,, all the other members of the scale are
derived by multiplication or division. The principal notes
are found thus :—Sol? + do,=re, rve*=m1, sol + re=fa,
mi xfa=la,mixsol=si. The-sharps thus :—Fa+mi=do%,

sol + mi=reh, ret? =fat, ret x fa=solf, fa*=la. The flats

1873.]

Colours and they Relations.

93

thus :—Mi + ref = ved, la + fat=mib, | ve3= solo, ve+=lab,

vyes=sib.

This scale, with its logarithms and their differences,
stands as follows :—

Names of

Pythagorean Scale.

Ratios of

NOtnS: Mabeatiane, Logarithms. Differences. Differences.
| DOME I ) 0°0226335

Dot . 1'0535° 0°022033%, 0°0058856
Reb .. 1°067872 o°028519I 0°0226335

IKE: ve I°I25 0°0511526 0°0226335

Ret . 1°185185 0:0737861 0°0058856
Mib . I°201356 0°0796717 0°0226335

Mi 1°265635 0°1023052 0°0226335

Fa . nee 0°1249387 0°0226335

Fat . 1°404663 0°1475722 0°0058856
Solb . 1°423829 0°1534578 0°0226335

Sol. I°5 0°1760913 0°0226335

Solf. 1°580207 0°1987248 00058856
Lab . T'601808 0°2046104 0°0226335

La 1°6875 0°2272439 0°0226335

Lat 1°77" 0°2498774 0°0058856
Sib 1°802034 0°2557630 0°0226335

lex os 1°898438 0°2783965 0°0226335

Do, « ZZ 0°3010300

This is the scale according to which the violin is tuned and
played, except when it accompanies a keyed instrument. It
will be observed that the sharps and flats are here separated,
and this distinction is recognised by all good violinists. .
The geometrical progression in this scale is far from perfect,
but the irregularities are recurrent and nearly symmetrical.
It has been shown, moreover, by MM. Cornu and Mercadier,
that this scale agrees very closely with observation, whena
violin is made to register automatically the vibrations of its
strings. (| (See ‘yNature,” vol. 1,75).

It is found however, in practice, that the mz of this scale,
when struck along with the do, does not produce perfect
harmony, and that, to obtain a harmony free from beats, the
mt must be lowered by a small interval called a comma, its
value being 81+80. This alteration in the value of mz
involves an alteration in several other notes of the scale, in
order to obtain good harmony; while it is also found most
convenient to throw the adjacent sharps and flats together

94 Colours and their Relations. (January,

into one note, as they exist in the ideal scale, for better
adaptation to keyed instruments.

In the construction of this harmonic scale the.same three
notes, do, sol, do,, are, as in the former case, assumed as a
basis, ve and fa being derived from them in the same manner
as before. But the other notes are deduced from these on a
different principle from that which is followed in the pre-
ceding case. There are formed three arithmetical progres-
sions—do mz sol, do fa la, re sol si—the first having a common
difference of 1-4th, the second of 1-3rd, and the third of 3-8ths,
while from these mz, la, and sz are respectively derived
thus :—

Mi=do+t+ ae la = do sha st = 2501 — re.

The chromatic members of the scale are found thus :—
Fa = mi = dog or reb, sol + mi = vet or mib, re x mi = fat
or solb, fa x mib = sol or lab, fa? = lat or sib. The fol-
lowing is the scale thus constructed, with its logarithms and
their differences :—

Harmonic Scale. .

Names of Ratios of

Logarithms. Differences. Di 2 Da .
Mga aah Wiha Gae. g ences Ween Differences

Genes de hE iG: 0°0280287 |
Dott reb 1°066’ 0°0280287 0°0231238
hes, *.pl° 125. pOO5T 1525 OrO2b0287

Re mib 1:2 0'07g1812 0°0177288
Nis.) 825 0°0969100 0°0280287 7

Pa vine el eo, 4011219387 = OFO2 gman

Fat solb 1°40625 0°1480626 070280287

= (¢) devine nae be. 0°1760913 0°0280287

Sol# lab 1°6 0°2041200 0°0177287
Ly, 225200055 0°2216 487 010200287

Lat sib 1°77’ =. 0°2498775 0°0231238

Dl t.i .IB75)° Or2730GEs Pp aakuse yam)

Daz. oe 0°3010300

While the departure from a geometrical progression is in
this case somewhat greater than in the Pythagorean scale,
there is here more simplicity in the relation which the
vibrations of each note bear to those of the tonic, whence
probably its greater harmonic power. There is another
result following from the departure from a regular geome-
trical progression, both in the-case of the Pythagorean and
the harmonic scale. According to the ideal scale, in which

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 95

. the geometrical progression is regular, all major keys would
have been exactly similar, and so would all minor keys.
But the departures from regularity make every one major
key to differ from every other major key, and so also with
the minor, thus affording a much greater variety.

Now, as regards the correspondence of the scale of
colour with one or other of the musical scales, it was at one
tyme thought to be closer than it really is. For the rates
of vibration corresponding to the junction of the colours
were believed to constitute the following series,—1, I°125,
ee Mae Wes OO e774 2. thus, tallying with: tine) lar
monic scale in its minor mode. Prof. Listing, however, by
a careful comparison of the most recent and accurate ob-
servations,—those made by Angstrom and others,—has
determined, with a greater approximation to the truth, the
wave-lengths corresponding to the borders of the several
colours, and has shown that the reciprocals of those wave-
lengths, which correspond to the ratios of the vibrations at
those points, form a series approaching much more closely
to an arithmetical than to a geometrical progression. (See
Oe ais VOl. CXXXI., Pp. 504).

When the reciprocals of Prof. Listing’s wave-lengths
have their relations reduced to the simplest form, by making
the smallest number = unity, they form the following
Series :—I, 1°117738, 1°235314, 1°352908, 1°470618, 1°588145,
#705730, 116235008.

There is here an evident approach to a common difference;
of which the mean value is 0°117653.

This approach to an arithmetical progression becomes
more apparent when the arithmetical means of the recipro-
cals of Listing’s's numbers are taken. These form the
following series :—

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
I, I°'L11064, 1°222108, 1°333213,1°444288, 1°555303, 1°666453.

It is evident what is the true law of this series, namely,
that all of the above numbers should be perfect repeating
decimals, yhaving a common. ditterence of -o1re.) ¥Dinis
series, thus corrected, being assumed, it is easy to calculate
backwards, so as to show the agreement of this assumption
with observation. Taking the green as the central colour,
by applying the above corrected series, we obtain from each
of the other colours a value of the green; and the average
of these six values will be found to differ by a mere trifle
from the value deduced from the observations. From this
corrected value of the green all the others may be found by

96 Colours and theiy Relations. [January,

_ the above series, and the resulting values of the reciprocals”

of the wave-lengths for the mean colours will stand thus :-—
Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
1463°676, 1626°307, 1788°937, 1951°568, 2114°198, 2276°829, 2439°460,
forming an arithmetical progression, of which the common
difference is 162°631.
From the above, result the following numbers for the
borders of the colours :—

1382°360, 1544°991, 1707°622, 1870°252, 2032°883, 2195°513, 2358°144, 2520°775,
—an arithmetical progression, of which the common dif-
ference is also 162°631.

From this last series we obtain the wave-lengths of the
borders of the colours, in order to compare them with the

wave-lengths given by Listing from observation. The fol-
lowing table gives the result :—

Observed. Calculated. Differences + Differences —
7234 7234 09 0°09
6472 6472°529 0°529
5856 5856°1 ol
5347 5346°873 O°127
4919 AQTO-TZE O°I2I
4555 4554744 0°256
4241 4240°624 0°376
3967 3967°034 0°034
0°874 0°759

These small differences are considerably within the limits
of probable errors of observation, the more especially as
Listing’s numbers. do not extend .beyond four figures. It
may accordingly be fairly concluded that, when reduced to
their simplest form, by making the lowest number unity, the
series will be for the borders of the colours—1, 1°117647,
1°235295, 1°352942, 1°470589, 17588236, 1°705883, 1°832530 ;
and for the mean rays of the colours— -

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. _ Violet.

I, 31; ree! a ae ee) ee

On comparing these two series with the three musical
scales, it will be perceived that with these the first series
has no points of correspondence whatever. Neither has the
second series with the ideal musical scale. But in the two
others the green corresponds exactly with the fa, while the
violet tallies also with the Ja of the harmonic scale only.
Moreover, if the violet be divided by the orange, the quotient,

1873.] Colours and their Relations. 97

I’5, will correspond to the sol of both scales. So, also, if
the green be divided by the orange, the quotient 1°2, is equal
to mib, or the minor third of the harmonic scale; while the
violet divided by the green gives 1°25, corresponding to its
major third.

Beyond these points of correspondence, in themselves not
a little remarkable, there is no analogy between the scale of
colour and the musical scales. The analogy is closest in
the case of the harmonic scale; but there is this funda-
mental difference, that, whereas there are in that scale three
interlaced arithmetical progressions, with diverse common
differences, the colour scale consists of a single perfect
arithmetical progression ; so that, in their integrity, the two
scales are irreconcilable. It is thus evident that the
analogy between the two scales, so far from being perfect,
consists only in this, that both are founded on a mathema-
tical basis; but the colour scale forms a series much more
simple and symmetrical than does either the Pythagorean
or the harmonic musical scale.

These mathematical relations, subsisting among the mean
rays of each pure colour of the spectrum, become all the
more interesting when viewed in connection with those sub-
sisting among the principal fixed lines of the normal spec-
trum, as respects their relative wave-lengths.. For the
purpose of a comparison of the one set of relations with
the other, the latter may here be given as deduced from the
very accurate observations of M. Angstrom. Assuming the
more refrangible E as the centre of the system, and calling
the value of its wave-length ro, the relative wave-lengths
corresponding to the other fixed lines A, B, C, the less re-
frangible D, F, G, and the more refrangible H, may be
found by the following formule :—

(Qi "ZAP OAS) Mae es. = 3K?+3E
(6) (6A?—A)—(6B?+ 2B) = 7 ok
(c) (4B?+2B)—(4C?—2C).. =) Bee
(d) (6C?—C)—(6D?+6D = ie

7) @C+e@r*—oFr) : = 2h?+7E
(2) Gre AG) (Cra 20)a. = E7*+2E
(h) (2F?+6F)—(H?+4H) . = B2+4E

The relative values of the eight wave-lengths, as given by
observation, and as calculated from the foregoing equations,
are as follows :—

VOL. III. (N.S.) O

98

Colours and their Relations.

[January,

Observed. Calculated. Differences +. Differences—.

As) 1A;Aa BAGO I4°432517 0°000027 |

B. 13°033840 I3°033839 0°OO0000L

C. 12°454950 12°454930 0°000020

D. - 11°189030 I1°18g003 0°000027

Danes 10) .

SO 225444 9°225760 0*000016

Cie ei Ly 52a a S175 163 0°00003I1

H. 7464880 7°464871 0°000009
0°000043 0°000088

These trifling differences are much within the limits of pro-
bable errors of observation.

The foregoing seven equations give rise to the following
more general one, embracing all the wave-lengths :—

a+b+c=d+f+g+h=6E?+3E=630.
They also produce the following series :—

ad = 100 c+f+g = 500
a+h—f = 200 a+f = 600
b+c =O) at+ce+g+h = 700
a+b—g = 400 2at+h =. 800.

These relations, taken in connection with the agreement
between the wave-lengths calculated from the equations
and those obtained from observation, render it in the
highest degree probable that they have a true mathematical
basis. They show that these wave-lengths are interdepen-
dent; so that no alteration can be made on any one of them
without involving a corresponding change in all the rest.
Here the question arises—Do the intervals between any
of those fixed lines among themselves, or between them and
any other well known lines in the spectrum, correspond to
any of the musical intervals, so as to render it probable that
they are harmonically related? The first case that pre-
sents itself for consideration is that of hydrogen, in the spec-
trum of which occur two of the principal fixed lines, C and F,
besides two other lines, designated as Hy, and Hy,. As
already mentioned, the wave-lengths of the three lines C,
F,.and Hy, stand to each other approximately in the ratio
20, 27,32. Nowas respects F and C, the foregoing formule
may be applied to ascertain the accuracy of this relation
between those two lines. Do they stand in the precise ratio
20:27 or 1:1°35? Taking the observed wave-lengths as
given by Angstrom, the ratio is 1:1°350206. ‘Taking the
wave-lengths calculated from the formule, the ratio is

—_—

i

1873.) Colours and their Relations. 99

Em3-or7.- But while i the first: case the discrepancy
might be attributed to errors of observation, it cannot be so
attributed in the case of the calculated wave-lengths: for
these could not be altered, even to so trifling an extent as to
-make the ratio exactly 1:1°35, without destroying the
whole symmetry of the formule. It is accordingly far
more probable that the ratio between F and C isas1:1°35017
than exactly 1:1°35—a relation which would involve the
conclusion that all the foregoing nicely balanced formule
have no true mathematical basis, but arise out of mere
arithmetical coincidences. Moreover, the ratio I : 1°35 does
not correspond to that of any musical interval. The case is
different with the relation between F and Hy,, which is so
’ nearly that of a Pythagorean minor third that the difference
might be ascribed to errors of observation. If the calculated
value of F be divided. by the ratio of this minor third 32+27,
it will give for the wave-length of Hy, 4101°258; whereas
Angstrom makes the observed value 4101°2—the difference
0°058 lying much within the limits of probable error, so
that the true relation between F and Hy, may very probably
be that of this minor third. But it is the minor third
proper to melody—not that proper to harmony, the ratio
of which is 6+5.

With respect to the other principal fixed lines, generally,
—those namely embraced in the foregoing formule,—it may
be affirmed that none of them stand to each other in a ratio
corresponding to any of those found in the three several
musical scales. Nevertheless, each of the lines stands in a
relation of that kind to one or more other lines of the
spectrum, within the probable limits of error of observation.
These relations are shown in the annexed table, of which
the first column contains the letter designating the fixed
line; the second, the sign of multiplication or division.
The next three columns the name of the musical interval in
one or other of the three scales—the Ideal, the Pythagorean,
the Harmonic, by which the wave-length of the fixed line
is multiplied or divided. The sixth column contains the
wave-length resulting from this multiplication or division.
The seventh contains the corresponding wave-length in
Angstrém’s scale, to which it is nearest. The eighth ‘shows
the differences, plus or minus, between the two—these all
lying within the limits of probable errors of observation.
The ninth contains the names of the elements to-which the
wave-lengths are respectively due, and the tenth the colour

of the region of the spectrum in which each wave-length
occurs.

100 Colours and their Relations. (January, —

_Looking to the general character of the relations exhi-
bited in the table, they do not appear to encourage the
supposition of their indicating that the lines thus connected
correspond to rates of vibration, having their origin har-
monically in one common vibration. The most obvious
and simple interpretation of them is, that the ratios are
those of the respective amounts of vis inerti@ possessed by
the vibrating atoms which originate the lines; while their
arithmetical coincidence with certain musical intervals is
merely accidental, and such as might be expected, accord-
ing to the law of probabilities, where so large a number of
lines are concerned.

If diverse rates of vibration, ae their origin harmo-
nically in a common rate of vibration, might be looked for
anywhere, it is in the lines produced by the same element.
Yet such lines are not, as a general rule, thus harmonically
related. The principal fixed lines E and G are both iron
lines; but there is no harmonic connection between them,
although E appears to. be harmonically related to another
iron line in the indigo, and Gto another in the green. But
the number of iron lines is so great that these may well be
mere arithmetical coincidences. If we take another ex-
ample, such as magnesium, in which the lines are few and
conspicuous, we shall find that their ratios do not corres-
pond to any musical interval. These magnesium lines are
four in number, and their wave-lengths, according to
Angstrom’s scale, are 5527°54 in the yellow, 5183°10, 5172°16,
and 5166°88—all three in the green. The ratios subsisting
between any two of these are too small to be harmonic.
The ratio between the first and last, though greater than a
semitone, is less than a tone. Between the first and third
the ratio approaches near to that of do to reb in the Pytha-
gorean scale ; but this interval is highly discordant.

On the whole, therefore, whether we take the mean
colours of the spectrum, the principal fixed lines, or the
lines produced by any single substance, it cannot be affirmed
that there is between colours and musical tones any ana-
logy, beyond that of their being both produced by vibra-
tions; while the relations of those vibrations are in each
case governed by mathematical laws. But these laws are
in the case of colours much more simple and regular than
in the case of musical sounds, in which they are discon-
tinuous, irregular, and complex.

The points of diversity between the two sorts of vibrations
are also very marked. The normal eye can judge much
more promptly and correctly of a simple colour than can

1873.] Colours and their Relations. IO

the normal ear of a simple musical note. In colour there
is always involved the idea of superficies; and although
time is also really involved, yet the rapidity of vibration is
such that the mind can form no conception of it whatever.
In music, on the other hand, there is not involved any idea
of superficies; whereas time is an indispensable element in
the conception of a musical note. Again, there is in music
nothing corresponding to complementary colours or to the
perception of mere whiteness, which can be produced by a
combination of such.

Harmony in music is produced by the simultaneous im-
pulse on the ear of two or more combined sounds, whose
rates of vibration stand to each other in certain definite
arithmetical relations; and whenever there is any departure
from those relations the result is either dissonance or dis-
cord. When two or more colours fall simultaneously on the
same point of the retina, the result is a compound colour,
which may or may not be pleasing to the eye; but the mixture
of adjacent colours in the spectrum is not displeasing to the
eye, as would be the simultaneous sounding of two adjacent
musical notes to the ear. What is called harmony in colour
depends, not on the simultaneous impulse of two or more
waves of colour on one and the same point of the retina,
but on the juxtaposition of two or more colours without
admixture. The effect seems to depend on the definite
arithmetical relations which the rates of vibration corres-
ponding to the colours bear to each other, as in the case of
sound.

These effects of the juxtaposition of colours, however, are
much more analogous to melody in music than to harmony.
The pleasing impression, for example, produced by the
gradual blending of the adjacent colours in the refracted
spectrum is analogous to the slide in the violin. The juxta-
position of pure orange and pure violet doubtless owes its
agreeable impression to the circumstance that these two
colours stand to each other in the same ratio as do the do
and sol of the musical scale. In like manner the effect pro-
duced by the juxtaposition of pure red and pure green is
due to their standing to each other in the same ratio as do
and fa. So also with pure red and pure violet, which bear
the same mutual relation as do and Ja, or pure green and
pure violet, which are related as do and mz; likewise pure
orange and pure green, which are related as do and mib.
But in all these cases the effect is more analogous to that
produced by the striking of these notes in rapid succession
as parts of a melody, than to the harmony resulting from

102 Colours and their Relations. [January,
Table of Spectral Lines and Musical Intervals.
5 s bo 3
: bp Ee | < 5 @ =
ea MES ee = 4 a ee z
Bite 5 me @ : - = o -
ey US ee te ae = Oo. Bee
me Selb eg4otea Bases | ae ee oe
+ Fat — — 4790°23 4791°78 1°58 Co.Ti. BI.
=a) Lab 4g5r 5k 475s ag oe eee
+ La — — 4521738 4522°09 oi Ti. In
+ Si — — 40281 4029°5 4. eS ea
+ — Si — 400574 400499 0°5 Fe: ie
Biv =) = Reb 6437-91 6448°35 0-44)! (Cal ie
+ +> Reb . =) 6430°64 643082 * 02) Bee ‘3
+ — Sob — 4822-98 4822-9 0708 Mn. Bi.
+ Sof — — _ 43260 4325734. 066 Fe. In.
C. + — Mib —~ 5462-24: 5462-44 02 He.) <i:
= Mig 5208534 . 5207778, 0:50) | Ce Ge
+ — Mi... — -5184°86 5183°1 c76. Mg, be
=> — -— Ssolp, 4666-37, 4060-45 o08 Fe. Ti.) BE
+ — Solf — 4152-57 415379 1:22 Fe. Vi
= Solf — — 413386 413394 0708 Fe.
De SRE oe ideo | Gzde-62 | o-04 Hee eee
+ — — Reb 5526-60 5527754 0-94 Mg. Ye.
+ Mib — -— 4957-28 4956°87 o-41_ Fe. Gr.
=> — ‘Fat — 4196°82° “4197-98 1°16" “Fe. Vc
+ — — Solb 4192-0 4191717 0°83 Fe. “
Book — Mrs =<" "265754: 264-35 - 2-23" Fe: Or
x — Ref — 6244°35 6245762 1:27 Fe. e
x Mib — — 5913-88 5913°3 o758 Fe. =
+ — Reb — 4933°8 4933°55 0°25 Fe. Ba. Gr
+ — — Mib 4492°83 449381 0-98 Fe. In.
FL xX; ==. Rei. .—-- -576o-89 .: syGa-04 4 1-5, . oie: Xe
X Re =: 545 o |. Ragas ae oe: -
xX -— |= Reb 51848 >> 518375 Ea Me. Gr
= OS, RE J Art eb | a Ier-2 >) ee ay ee
G. x — _ Sol Sol 6460°85 6461°98 1713 Ca. Or.
x —. — Mib 5168-68 516848 o2 Ni. Fe. Gr.
= — Reb — 4033747 403279 0°57. Mn. Vi.
H. X Mi — — 4955°27 4956°87 1-6 Fe. Gr.
Ki Re - Re )4424763 ae a7 4) ode Ca: In
x Re .— >) == ) 4414-64) ¢ 3454777 0713 ‘Fes Mal"s,
Koo | Reb 8) igieg- 9s) aeer sb t athe Feo
x — Dog — 41434 4343714 026 Fe. Vi,

ES72)., Colours and theiy Relations. 103

their being struck simultaneously, the analogy to which can
arise only from the perfect admixture of colours.

The effect produced on the eye by the juxtaposition of
complementary colours, again, seems to depend on a different
principle from that of the rates of vibration standing to
each other in a musical ratio. It results solely from the
circumstance that the admixture of the two adjacent colours
would give white ; and as three colours are required to pro-
duce this effect, one or both of the adjacent complementary
colours must contain the necessary third colour in the proper
proportion required to constitute white. The retina ex-
periences a pleasurable relief on turning from the one com-
plementary colour to the other, because the vibrations are
then most opposed. Here, also, the effect is more analogous
to melody than harmony. The ear experiences the same
weariness from the prolongation of one note as the eye does
from gazing on one colour; and as the latter feels the
greatest amount of relief when turned to the complementary
colour, so the ear feels the greatest amount of relief, when,
after being fatigued with one note, it hears another which
would make with it a harmonious combination, as the third,
fifth, or o¢tave.

It is, however, in their metaphysical qualities that the
two sorts of vibrations most widely differ; and here the
advantage rests with the musical tones. Apart from variety
of form, colours can be regarded only as more or less
pleasing or the reverse. Beyond this thev have little or no
emotional power. Music, on the other hand, addressing
the imagination, can express, awaken, or exalt every emotion
of the mind. It is only when united to variety of form
that colours acquire the ascendency over their sonorous
rivals. Then, indeed, they become by much the more
powerful vehicle for conveying ideas, whether intellectual or
emotional, to all but the blind.

104 Present State of the Devonian Question. [January,

VI. REMARKS UPON: THE PRESENT STATE OF
THE DEVONIAN QUESTION.

By Horace B. WoopwarbD, F.G.S.,
Geological Survey of England and Wales.

Gre of the most interesting questions that has of late

years perplexed the minds of geologists, and one
which we might almost say has been a vexed point
ever since the district was studied, is the age and relations
of the slaty rocks and limestones of West Somerset, Devon,
and Cornwall. Originally called ‘‘ Greywacke ” and transi-
tion slates, the beds below the culm-measures or true coal-
measures were subsequently called ‘“‘ Devonian,” and re-
garded as the marine equivalent of the old red sandstone.
Latterly this classification has been called into question,
and it has been urged that the greater part of the Devonian
rocks are of lower carboniferous age. This last opinion
being a matter of great dispute, it may be interesting to
review the present state of the question.

Upon glancing at a geological map of the country, such
as Greenough’s, we find that part of Devon north of Barn-
staple and South Molton, and that part of West Somerset
which includes Exmoor Forest, the Brendon and Quantock
Hills, to be coloured a uniform tint as Devonian, corres-
ponding. to that of the old red sandstone of the Mendips,
South Wales, and Herefordshire. ‘This area of the Devonian
rocks is bounded on the south by the culm-measures or car-
bonaceous series, and the boundary line between the two
formations is marked on either side by narrow and appa-
rently impersistent bands of limestone, which, to judge from
the map alone, would appear to bind them together in con-
formability.

Until the late Mr. Jukes brought forward his views upon
the subject, the age of these formations was generally looked
upon in this way—that the Devonian rocks represented in
time the old red sandstone, and that the culm-measures
were of carboniferous age, newer than the mountain lime-
stone. In Greenough’s map these latter were coloured as
the representation of the millstone grit, and the same is the
case in Ramsay’s geological map of England and Wales.

This apparent indecision as to the true age of the culm-
measures has necessarily caused much obscurity when the
relations of the two series, and their generally acknowledged
conformability, have been taken into consideration.

AS

1873.] Present State of the Devonian Question. 105

Looking to the origin of the term ‘‘ Devonian,” we learn
that Mr. Lonsdale was the first to point out that the cha-
racters of the fossils of the Devon limestones seemed to
give them an intermediate place between the upper silurian
rocks and the mountain limestone, and it was this sug-
gestion which in 1839 led Sedgwick and Murchison* to
adopt the term ‘‘ Devonian system”’ for the series of rocks
in North and South Devon which underlie the culm-
measures. Henceforth they were regarded as contempora-
neous with the old red sandstone. ‘ It was even then hinted
that possibly the mountain limestone was represented by
a part of the culm-measures, and when one refers to the
subsequent papers one sees how much room there was to
doubt the clearness of this correlation, and in the writings
of De la Beche particularly, we find the difficulties attending
it fully pointed out.t This is apparent when he compares
the Upper Devonian rocks with the upper portion of the old
red sandstone, as exhibited at no very great distance apart.
For the upper beds of the old red sandstone in South Wales
-and the Mendip Hills show no similarity whatever to the
Upper Devonian rocks. He, moreover, refers to the view
taken by Mr. (now Sir Richard) Griffith in 1842, who then
pointed out the strong resemblance between the North
~Devon rocks and those beds in Ireland, which he called
carboniferous slate and yellow sandstone, deposits equiva-
lent to the transition beds, or lower limestone shale, between
the old red sandstone and the mountain limestone.{ These
views, in fact, were almost the same as those at which
Mr. Jukes arrived.§ It was in 1866 that his famous paper
was read before the Geological Society of London,|| and
therein Mr. Jukes brought forward (though not for the first
time) the views, which for fifteen years previously he had
been thinking over, and which led him to consider the rocks
of North Devon to belong partly to the group called carboni-
ferous slate in Ireland, and partly to the oid red sandstone.
He based his interpretation upon an intimate knowledge of
the geology of the South of Ireland, where he found that the
mountain limestone which was separated from the old red
sandstone by the carboniferous slate became in places en-
tirely replaced by the slate, so that this slate then filled

* Trans. Geol. Soc., 2nd Ser., vol. v., p. 633.

+ Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i., p. 65.

7 idem, ips 76.

§ Additional Notes on the Grouping of the Rocks of North Devon and
West Somerset. 8vo. Dublin, 1867. P. 19.

|| Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxii., p. 320.

VOL Til. (N.S) ! P

eT OE Rd ea SOE Ree Cee OR ie oe ae a rn ee

106 Present State of the Devonian Question. [January,
up the whole of the interval between the top of the old red
sandstone and the base of the coal-measures. Here he con--
tended was the clue to determine the structure of North
Devon ; the order of sequence appeared to him the same in
both localities, so that the so-called Devonian rocks were
really the lower portion of the carboniferous system, resting,
as in Ireland, upon a base of the old red sandstone.*

In 1867 Mr. Jukes published a small map, which more
clearly expressed his ideas. The true old red sandstone he
considered to occur at the North Foreland, Minehead, and
Croydon Hill, also at the north-western end of the Quantock
Hills; then’ succeeded the carboniferous slate at Lynton,
Combe- Martin, Ilfracombe, Mortehoe, and the Brendon
Hills ; while stretching from Pickwell Down to Haddon
Down, Mr. Jukes identified another band of old red sand-
stone, to account for which he considered that a great fault,
with a downthrow to the north, occurred along this line
and repeated the beds to the south,—the carboniferous slate
coming contormably over this band of old red sandstone,
and then again passing gradually into the culm-measures
above.

Mr. Jukes’s views met with great opposition at ae time,
but as few, if any, of his opponents had a personal know-
ledge of the geology of the South of Ireland, they could not
perhaps fully realise all the facts which guided him in his
inleTences.

Mr. Etheridge,t however, took up the question in great
detail, and though perhaps he laid greatest stress upon the
paleontological evidence, he yet disputed the conclusions
of Mr. Jukes on physical and stratigraphical grounds, and
maintained that there was no evidence of any fault, as the
succession of the strata and the groups of associated fossils
from the North Foreland to Barnstaple was continuous and
natural. ‘The area he considered to be occupied by three
well-defined groups—the Upper, Middle, and Lower De-
vonian, chronologically equivalent to thé whole of the old
red sandstone, but deposited under different mineral and life
conditions, and in a different geographical area. ‘The fossil
evidence, in his opinion, was against any repetition of the
beds, and nowhere justified the proposition that the Devonian
beds were synchronous with the carboniferous. In discus-
sing this question, however, Mr. Jukes argued that the
difference between the fossils from different parts of the so-
called Devonian rocks did not differ more markedly from

* Vide Jukes and Geik1E, Manual of Geology, 1872, Be 702.
u Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii., p. 568.

1873.] Present State of the Devonian Question. 107

each other than fossils from different parts of the carboni-
‘ferous slate differed from each other; that the fossils of
both groups warranted the conclusion that they might have
been geologically contemporaneous.*

The paleontological evidence cannot, therefore, be looked
upon as decisive. The Devonian beds contain some species
which are also found in silurian rocks, and many species
that occur in the mountain limestone. The old red sand-
stone does not contain any of these fossils; ‘‘ there are no
marine forms in the old red sandstone.”+t Certain fish
remains have, however, been found by Mr. Pengellyf{ in the
Devonian rocks of Cornwall, which. are also found in the
old red sandstone. These include Pteraspis and Phyllolepis
concentricus. This, Mr. Jukes remarks, is the strongest pre-
sumptive evidence yet derived from fossils in favour of the
contemporaneity of the two formations. Nevertheless, ke
adds, it is not conclusive proof, for it is obvious that the
occurrence in the Devonian rocks of species of fossil fish
belonging to the same genera as those of the old red sand-
stone no more proves the Devonian beds to have been con-
temporaneous with the old red sandstone, than the occur-
rence of species of trilobites, of the same genera as those in
the Silurian rocks, prove the Devonian rocks to be contem-
poraneous with the Silurian.§ Therefore, we must agree
with Jukes that the geological age of the fossils must be
proved by the stratigraphical position of the beds.

In setting forth the present state of the question, two
points connected with the subject, which have recently been
brought forward, may be referred to.

An interesting feature has been noticed by Mr. T. M. Hall
in connection with the granites of Lundy Island, South
Devon, and Hestercombe, near Taunton (first described by
Mr. Leonard Horner||). He remarks that, although the
most remote of the three patches, ‘‘the so-called granite
(syenite) of this last locality has been regarded as possessing
amore intimate conne¢tion with Lundy Island, since the
general run of the Paleozoic rocks in North Devon and the
adjoining portion of West Somerset is from east to west;
and it might, therefore, be suggested that least resistance
would be afforded to the intrusion of an igneous rock

* Juxes and Geixi£, Manual of Geology, 1872, p. 763.

+ ETHERIDGE. op. cit., p. 679.

+ Mr. PENGELLy stated that he had found 300 specimens of Pterasridian
fishes in the Devonian rocks. Brit. Assoc. Meeting, Exeter, 1869.

§ JuxKes, Notes on Parts of South Devon and Cornwall, p. 42.

|| Trans. Geol. Soc., vol. iii., p. 348.

108 Present State of the Devonian Question. [January,

at the various places situated along the same line of
strike.”’*,

The chief point of interest connected with these observa-
tions is the bearing they may have on the supposed fault
of Mr. Jukes, a consideration which in reference to the
little syenitic dyke at Hestercombe was suggested by Mr.
Bristow, when on a visit to this spot on geological survey
work.

The age of the Cannington Park limestone has been a
constant source of discussion, and still the opinions vary.
Mr. Etheridget spoke in decided terms of its Devonian *
characters, and of its dissimilarity to the mountain limestone;
while more recently its identity with this latter formation
has been again insisted upon.{ The scarcity of fossils has
somewhat hindered its true position being established: but
Mr. S. G. Perceval§ has lately examined a series of corals
collected there, and which he finds to be of true carboni-
ferous genera and species. The structure of the limestone
he also identifies with that of the mountain limestone of the
neighbourhood of Bristol. The very diversity of opinion on
this patch of limestone would seem to mark it as a connecting
link between the mountain and Devonian limestones, and
so to lend support to Jukes’s view that both belong to the
Same period.

Thirty years ago De la Beche remarked, that ‘‘ from the
increased knowledge we have lately had of the beds which
may be considered as the passage of the old red sandstone
into the carboniferous limestone, as well in Ireland as in
South Wales, and in adjacent parts of England, we have |
endeavoured to point out, as not improbable, that in North
Devon some part, at least, of the accumulations there
exposed might be referable to that date.” He also observes
that ‘‘there is much leading us to infer that in South
Devon the accumulations under notice were not far removed
from a similar geological date.” || Mr. Etheridge admits
that there may be grounds for endeavouring to establish
contemporaneity between the Upper Devonian series of
North Devon and the carboniferous slates of the South of
Ireland. 7

* T. M. Hatt, Notes on the Geology and Mineralogy of the Island of
Lundy. Trans. Devon Assoc., 1871.

+ Quart. Journ. Geol. Sec., vol. xxiii., p. 581.

t H. W. Bristow and H. B. W., Geol. Mag., vol. vill., p. 504.

§ Geol. Mag., vol. ix., 1872, p. 94-

|| Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. 1., p. 97.

G Op. cit. p. 690.

1873.! Present State of the Devonian Question. 10g

The precise age of the culm-measures and their relations
to the Devonian rocks are points which at first strike one
as of great importance.

The perfect conformability of the northern boundary of
the culm-measures with the Devonian rocks has generally
been admitted, by Sedgwick and Murchison, and most onic
geologists.

In South Devon, however, an unconformability he been
pointed between these formations. This was described by
Mr. Godwin-Austen, and latterly by Dr. Holl, who remarks
that the base of the lower culm-measures does not every-
where rest on the same part of the underlying: Devonian
tocks. He adds; that ‘this unconformability on the
southern side of the culm-trough is so considerable that it
throws doubt upon the reality of the apparent regular suc-
cession to the north, and leads to the suspicion that the
conformability which is there supposed to exist may be more
apparent than real.” *

Mr. Jukes,t however, points out that there is really no
proof of this unconformability in South Devon, owing to
the difficulty in deciding between stratification and cleavage,
and the many disturbances to which the beds have been
subjected.

Mr. T. M. Hall, remarking on the Devonian and culm-
measures, says—‘* The two great systems pass quite insen-
sibly one into the other, without any distin¢t line of separation
between them.”’t And this is evident from the sections
exposed in quarries and in the cuttings of the new railway
between Barnstaple and Taunton, for one passes from one
series to the other before one is aware of it; there is no
sudden break or change.

The age of the culm-measures is now admitted to be that
of our true coal-measures. For in the evidence given
before the Royal Coal Commission there was some question
as to whether the coal-measures likely to be found to the
south of the Mendips might not be of the type of the
Devonian culm-measures ; and Mr. Etheridge also said that
he was inclined to think that the Devonshire coal-field was
part and parcel of the South Wales coal-field, the lowest
portion of it, but deposited under very different conditions,—
an opinion which was indeed arrived at by Sedgwick and
Murchison. He thought that the impure coals of the

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiv., p. 442.
+ Notes on Parts of South Devon and Cornwall.
t Geology of Lundy Island.

IIo Present State of the Devonian Question. [January,

Millstone Grit series were the equivalents of those beds
which lie south of Barnstaple.*

Mr. Jukes identified the culm-measures as exactly like
the Irish coal-measures, especially in the Kilkenny coal-
field.t

From this it naturally follows that the beds beneath the
culm-neasures must represent the lower carboniferous
rocks, and in part, at any rate, Mr. Jukes’s notions must be
correct. He would limit the term Devonian, and retain its
use, for those beds containing the marine fossils commonly
known under the name of Devonian fossils. The old red
sandstone does not contain any of these fossils, and is a
group of rocks distinét and altogether below them. He
further ventured to advance the notion that the Devonian
beds may rather be looked upon as the most general type of
those which intervene between the coal-measures and the
old red sandstone, and that the mountain limestone is rather
a local and exceptional peculiarity.

On the other hand, Mr. Etheridge considers that we must
either admit that the Devonian is a marine equivalent in
time of the old red sandstone, or that it must be a distincét
life-system, occupying an immense area, spreading over an
enormous interval of time between the completion of the
old red sandstone as a whole and the commencement of the
succeeding and well-marked carboniferous series.§ The
latter opinion seems to be that generally adopted; for in
remarking upon the opinions since expressed, if we do not
find a tendency towards the acceptance of Mr. Jukes’s
views, we see that geologists are beginning to regard the
Devonian rocks as newer than the old red sandstone.

Mr. Godwin-Austen has stated that he had always re-
garded the Devonian system as merely an older member of
the Carboniferous, holding much the same relation to it as
the Neocomian to the Cretaceous; and that he would be
glad to see it recognised, not as an independent system,
but merely as the introduétion of that far more important
system the Carboniferous, during the deposit of both of
which the globe presented the same physiographical con-
ditions. ||

Professor Phillips, too, observes that “‘the old red sand-
stone is followed in Devonshire, and still more remarkably

Report of Coal Commission, vol. ii., p. 421.
Notes, &c., p. 31.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxii., p. 369.
Ibid., vol. xxiii., p. 613.

Ibid., vol. xxViii-, 1872, p. 30.

att —r *

|
}
|
.

ieee aati. hy

7O73)) Present State of the Devonian Question. IOI

methe Sout) of Ireland) by aysenies of shalés; grits, and
limestones, with a large swte of fossils, having on the whole
a considerable analogy with the still richer associations of
marine life in the carboniferous limestone. . .*: Near
Linton, in North Devon, and south of Plymouth, we may
satisfy ourselves of the fact that old red sandstone underlies
the Devonian beds). 5 rom) tis serres: 01 rocks’ to; thie
carboniferous strata which succeed the transition is easy,—
so easy indeed that, in the opinion of Sir R. Griffith and
Mi jjukes, the whole of the Devonian series may be united
with the lowest members of the Irish carboniferous group
(yellow sandstone and carboniferous slate). What seems
ascertained truth is the close approximation in time, in cha-
racter of deposition, and in forms of life, of the South
Hibernian and South Welsh rocks; while the North
Devonian strata contain with these a somewhat lower group,
not distinctly represented in Wales or Ireland.’’*

Whether we regard the Devonian slates as the equivalents
of the old red sandstone or of the lower carboniferous rocks,
a great change in sedimentary condition must have taken
place; and the question is still perhaps to be decided,
whether part of the Devonian rocks are a modified extension
of the old red sandstone—a point which appears to take its
stand merely on palzontological evidence—or whether the
whole of the fossiliferous Devonian slates and limestones be
not of lower carboniferous age, the representatives of the
mountain limestone and the lower limestone shale, and of
the catboniferous slate and limestone of Ireland. This
latter opinion finds the more support when we look, as Mr.
Jukes and others have pointed out, to the variations which
take place in the carboniferous limestone series when traced
through the north of England into Scotland, as well as
through the South of Ireland.

Looking at the culm-measures as representing the true
coal-measures, and perhaps also the millstone grit, and that
they pass gradually downwards into the Devonian rocks, we
may possibly find, in the numerous thin bands of limestone
which occur along the junction, some feeble representation
of the upper part of the mountain limestone; then come a
series of slates, which must in part represent the mountain
limestone, the whole of the lower limestone shale, car-
boniferous slate, and perhaps a part of the old red sandstone.
Beneath these come beds of the acknowledged type of the
old red sandstone. |

‘
* Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames, p. 79.

112 Present State of the Devonian Question. [January,

At any rate, in this conformable series we have to look
for the equivalents of the lower carboniferous series. It
may not be possible to fix any of the divisions, as we find
them marked at no very great distance away, in South
Wales and in the Mendip Hills; but in these places it is
often difficult enough to fix a precise line, so gradually-do
they merge one into the other, though they are clear
enough when looked at in a large way. A greater similarity
of conditions prevailed over the Devonian area, and natu-
rally the fossils differ from those found elsewhere in varying
sedimentary deposits of the same period.

Whether the supposed fault of Prof. Jukes can be proved
or not is a matter that it is difficult to foresee. Possibly the
new line of railway in course of construction between
Barnstaple and Ilfracombe may afford some decisive evi-
dence: Let us hope, at any rate, that it may yield many
good sections. At present, as Mr. Jukes remarks, whilst
there is no direét evidence of the fault, yet no certain
physical or stratigraphical evidence has been adduced
against it.

That there is much to be done in this field is a point
about which no doubt can exist. The workers have been
many; and the names of Sedgwick, Murchison, Lonsdale,
Dela Beche, Godwin-Austen, Phillips, Jukes, and Etheridge,
must always command the highest respect of the followers
in the same field.* They have all done great work in
elucidating the structure of a difficult country; and as their
followers have the advantage of their labours, so the path
becomes easier, and whenever a final solution of the question
is arrived at, it will probably be by a transition in opinion as
easy as that which binds the series of rocks together.

* A list of works on the Geology of Devonshire has been compiled by Mr.
Whitaker. See Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. iv., p. 330, and vol. v., p. 404.

m3). (113)

NiO Tt CBs; 10 (Bp OOKS.

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. By
Cuar_es Darwin, M.A., F.R.S.,&c. London: Murray. 1872.

AN insatiable longing to discover the causes of the varied and
complex phenomena presented by living things seems to be the
prominent characteristic of Mr. Darwin’s mind. Nothing is so
insignificant as to escape his notice or so common as not to
demand of him an explanation. The restless curiosity of the
child to know the ‘“‘ what for,” the ‘“‘why,” and the “how” of
everything (a wholesome curiosity which our educational system
represses, and which rarely survives to manhood) seems with
him never to have abated its force; but he is by no means
satisfied, as the child is, with mere verbal explanations which
really explain nothing, or, as many writers on this particular
subject have been, with purely speculative explanations which
are wholly unsupported by evidence.

The present work exhibits these characteristics of the author’s
mind in an eminent degree, since we here find systematised and
explained by means of acknowledged physiological and psycho-
logical facts all the immense variety of complex movements and
minute muscular contractions, by the observation of which we
unconsciously interpret, with more or less certainty, the almost
infinitely varied passions and emotions of men and animals.
How fewof us have ever thought of asking for a reason why
infants shut their eyes tightly while screaming; why we shrug
our shoulders or stand erect, blush or grow pale under different
emotions; why a dog crouches and a cat arches its back when
affectionate ; or have even imagined that satisfactory reasons for
these things could be given? Yet we can hardly help being in-
terested in so novel an enquiry, and one which throws so much
light on actions and movements which constitute a kind of
universal language, but which have hitherto appeared arbitrary
and inexplicable to us.

The result of Mr. Darwin’s study of this subject is the establish-
ment of three general principles, which explain and give a
meaning to almost all those involuntary gestures and movements
by which men and animals express their emotions. The first of
these principles is that of Serviceable Associated Habits. When
any action has been useful or necessary under a certain state jof
_ mind, it will from association continue to be performed whenever
the same state of mind recurs, even if of no use. As an instance
we may take the case of dogs turning round several times before
they lay down to sleep even on a carpet or floor, and sometimes
giving a few scratches, a practice which was no doubt useful when
the wild animal slept among herbage out of doors, and which

WOE. Me. (N.S.)) . )

We Pe eR ays

II4 Notices of Books. (January,

is continued now as a habit when of nosuch use. The second is
the principle of Antithesis, which is, that certain actions or atti-
tudes being the natural acompaniment of a given emotion or state
of mind, the opposite state of mind will be expressed by actions
or attitudes which are, as far as possible, the exact opposites of
the former. A good example of this is given by the case of the
dog and cat. The former crouches down and holds down its tail
when licking its master’s hands or jumping on his knees; but
the cat while rubbing against its master’s leg, stands erect with
somewhat arched back and tail up on end. These attitudes are
explained by their being in each case ‘the opposite of those
assumed when the animals prepare to fight. The dog stands
erect, holds up his tail and bristles up the hairs on his back and
shoulders; the cat crouches down with paws out and the tail
laid flat on the ground, and gently waved from side to side.
When the opposite emotions of gentleness, submission, and
affection occur, the attitudes assumed are as remote as possible
from those associated with anger and pugnacity.

The third principle is, that certain actions expressive of certain
states of mind are the direct results of the constitution of the
nervous system, being almost wholly independent of the will and
of habit. Trembling under the influence of fear, or rage, or joy,
is an example of this. It is of no use and it is quite involuntary;
it cannot, therefore, have been acquired by the means already
pointed out. It may be said that this is merely a confession of
ignorance, and so it is in some cases; but in others Mr. Darwin
traces the causes in the known action of certain nerves or
muscles, and so gives a valid explanation. Such is the case
with the firm closure of the eyes by screaming infants. This
is quite involuntary, and does not occur later in life, but the
whole mechanism by which it is produced has been traced out,
and it is found that it is a provision to prevent injury to the
delicate vessels of the eyes by the increased flow of blood to the
head during violent screaming.

By means of a series of questions sent to correspondents in
various parts of the world, Mr. Darwin has ascertained that many
well-known modes of expression are almost universal. Even such
an apparently conventional action as the shrug of helplessness
or apologetic refusal has been observed among various savage
races. Being thus proved to be a natural, not an acquired, ex-
pression, it becomes necessary to account for it, and this is done
on the principle of antithesis ; every part of the expression being
the opposite of that which implies determination and action.
Comparatively few human expressions, on the other hand, can
be distinctly recognised in animals, that of sneering by raising
the upper lip on one side, and thus showing the canine teeth,

- being one of the most curious. ‘There is a very elaborate dis-

cussion on blushing. This is a peculiarly human attribute, being
observed in almost every race of man, but not in the lower

1873.) Notices of Books. II5

animals. It has been thought by some to be a special endow-
ment for the purpose of expressing modesty or shame, but Mr.
Darwin objects to this view, because it occurs in dark races,
when it is hardly visible, and also because shyness is the most
frequent cause of blushing, and this is of no use, and makes both
the actor and spectator equally uncomfortable. The theory
adopted is, that biushing is caused by self-consciousness directed
chiefly to our personal appearance, and is therefore generally
exhibited in the face, to which attention is most directed, and the
skin of which is very sensitive. Much evidence is adduced to
show thateattention directed to any part or organ can affect its
condition or action, and this is the physiological fact on which
the explanation rests. Great confusion of mind often accompanies
blushing, and is supposed to be caused by it. Butit seems more
probable that it is caused by the whole attention being so power-
fully directed to ourselves as to interfere with the action of the
mind in any other direction. A remarkable instance of this
confusion is given by Mr. Darwin on the authority of an eye-
witness :—

‘‘ A small dinner party was given in honour of an extremely
shy man, who, when he rose to return thanks, rehearsed the
speech, which he had evidently learnt by heart, in absolute
silence, and did not utter a single word; but he acted as if he
were speaking with much emphasis. His friends perceiving how
the case stood, loudly applauded the imaginary bursts of
eloquence whenever his gestures indicated a pause; and the
man never discovered that he had remained the whole time com-
pletely silent. On the contrary, he afterwards remarked to my
friend with much satisfaction that he thought he had succeeded
uncommonly well.”

It has been an objection to Mr. Darwin’s theory of the “ Origin
of Species,” that the rattlesnake warns its prey of its vicinity,
and that such a habit could not possibly have been acquired by
natural selection. In a very interesting discussion on the means
of exciting fear in an enemy, Mr. Darwin gives a fuller statement
of his views on this subject than he has done in any of his former
works. He finds that various kinds of reptiles inflate themselves,
hiss, open their mouths, and assume a ferocious aspect as a
means of protection against attack. The cobra dilates its hood
when alarmed or excited, and the puff adder swells and hisses
with a sound hardly distinguishable from the rattle of the rattle-
snake. He believes, therefore, that all these various sounds and
appearances are warnings to would-be devourers that the creatures
who produce them are dangerous. The rattle of the rattlesnake
is said to imitate closely the sound of a cicada inhabiting the
Same region, and it has been supposed that it serves the purpose
of attracting insect-eating birds as the snake’s prey; but this
view is rendered improbable by the fact that the snake rattles
when alarmed or threatened. If it is proved to be a warning to

116 Notices of Books. (January,

enemies, it becomes useful to the creature itself, and could, there-
fore, have been acquired by natural seleCtion.

In some cases the explanations given seem far-fetched, or
simpler ones appear to be overlooked. I-can hardly believe that
when a cat, lying on a shawl or other soft material, pats or
pounds it with its feet, or sometimes sucks a piece of it, it is the
persistence of the habit of pressing the mammary glands and
sucking during kittenhood ; nor that the frequent practice of cats
rubbing against their master’s legs is derived from the habit of
fondling their young. The habits and ideas of infancy seem to
be completely lost in adult life, and to be replaced by others
widely different; and it seems hardly likely that they should
persist so strongly in one or two isolated instances without
leaving more frequent and less equivocal traces behind them.

When a horse breaks into a gallop, at full speed, he always
lowers his tail, and this is said to be done in order that as little
resistance as possible may be offeredto the air. This reason seems
very fanciful, when the obvious explanation occurs, that, as the
whole available nervous energy is being expended in locomotion,
all special muscular contractions not aiding inthe motion cease.
It also seems very unsatisfactory to refer the vague and unde-
fined yet deep emotions often excited by music to a recalling or ©
survival of ‘‘ strong emotions felt during long past ages, when,
as 18 probable, our early progenitors courted each other by the
aid of vocal tones,” although it is very difficult to suggest any
other explanation.

The open mouth, and raised arms with open hands _ turned
outwards, is an expression of astonishment very general all over
the world. Mr. Darwin explains the open mouth by a compli-
cation of causes, but he omits to notice, what seems to me a
very probable one, that it represents an incipient cry of alarm or
fear, or call for help. The raising of the arms and the open
hands are explained by antithesis, they being the opposite of a
state of indifference or listlessness. But this seems very unsatis-
factory. The attitude is too definite, too uniform, and too wide-
spread, to be derived from such a vague and variable cause as
the opposite of a position of unconcernedness. There seems,
however, to be a very obvious and natural explanation of the
gesture. Astonishment, among our savage ancestors, would
most frequently be excited by the sudden appearance of enemies
or wild beasts, or by seeing a friend or a child in imminent
danger. The appropriate movement, either to defend the ob-
‘server's face or body, or to prepare to give assistance to the
person in danger, is to raise the arms and open the hands, at the .
same time opening the mouth to utter a cry of alarm or en-
couragement. It is the protective attitude of an unarmed man
to be ready to ward off attack of some uncertain or undefined
kind ; and very nearly the same attitude is that which we adopt
- aS we rush to the assistance of some one in danger, our hands

1873.] Notices of Books. El]

ready to grasp and save him. When used by us as a mere sign
of astonishment, at some strange but harmless phenomenon, it
has become to a great extent conventional, but the origin here
advocated is rendered probable by a remark of Mr. Darwin him-
self, that, as one of the expressions of fear, ‘‘the arms may be
protruded as if to avert some dreadful danger;” and among
savages almost every source of astonishment would excite more
or less fear. -

It is rather curious that an author who is not usually satisfied
with anything less than a real and intelligible explanation, should
yet be so ready, in some cases, to admit innate ideas or feelings.
Among the numerous, and often most interesting, observations
on his own children, Mr. Darwin tells us that a child six months
old was distressed at seeing its nurse pretend to cry. He thinks,
in this case, that ‘‘ an innate feeling must have told him that the
pretended crying of his nurse expressed grief; and this, through
the instinct of sympathy, excited grief in him.” Now, although
I imagined myself much more disposed to believe in innate ideas
than Mr. Darwin, I cannot see the necessity for them here. A
child at that age often cries or is distressed at any strange face,
or even at the sight of a friend in a strange dress. The nurse’s
attitude and expression were strange ; they made her look unlike
herself, and the child got afraid, and was about to cry. That
seems to me a better explanation than that the child had an
innate knowledge that the nurse was grieved.

Somewhat akin to this is a readiness to accept the most mar-
vellous conclusions or interpretations of physiologists on what
seem very insufficient grounds. In discussing the subject
of reflex action Mr. Darwin quotes the well-known experiment
of the decapitated frog, which is said to wipe off a drop of acid
from its thigh by a motion of the foot of the same leg. But if
this foot is cut off it makes several fruitless efforts, then stops a
while, as if restless and seeking some other way, and then, by .
using the other foot, succeeds in wiping off the drop of acid.
Now this is imputed to pure reflex action, and not a word of
doubt is thrown either on the experiment or on the inference
from it. Yet it seems to me absolutely certain, either that the
experiment is not correctly recorded, or that, if correct, it demon-
strates volition and not reflex action. For surely reflex action
cannot produce, in a decapitated frog, movements which were
probably never once performed by the living frog. The action
of drawing up the leg in swimming or leaping is one which the
frog performs incessantly during its whole life; it would there-
fore probably be performed under any suitable stimulus by reflex
action, and might, as a consequence of the usual motions, wipe
off the drop of acid from a place which the foot, during con-
traction, would naturally reach. But the action of crossing one
foot over to the thigh of the other leg is one which was very
rarely, if ever, performed, because during life the frog possessed

.
118 Notices of Books. [January,

both its feet. Again, reflex action cannot be set up without a
suitable stimulus. The stimulus applied to one leg set up reflex
action in that leg, or perhaps, by co-ordination, of the muscular
movements in the two legs ; but, when one foot was cut off, what
caused the nature of the motion to change, and a new set of
muscles to be called into action, with such precision as to apply
the foot to an unaccustomed part of the body? This is the work
of consciousness; first to know that the one motion failed to
produce an effect aimed at, next to change the motion so as to
produce the desired effect. The experiment is described as if all
this were really done by reflex action; but, if so, then what need
have we of consciousness in animals at all, and why may not all
their motions and actions during life be so produced? If the
experiment, as recorded, is strictly accurate, it appears to me to
demonstrate consciousness and volition, on the part of the frog,
without a brain,—a fact by no means incredible in itself, but one
which, if established, might have important consequences.

The book is admirably illustrated, both by woodcuts and by a
number of photographs representing the most characteristic
expressions. It is written with all the author’s usual clearness
and precision ; and although some parts are a little tedious, from
the amount of minute detail required, there is throughout so
much of acute observation and amusing anecdote as to render
it perhaps more attractive to general readers than any of Mr.
Darwin’s previous works.

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

The Hygiene of Air and Water: being a Popular Account of the
Effects of the Impurities of Air and Water, their Detection,
and the Modes of Remedyingthem. By WILLIAM PROCTER,
M.D., F.C.S., Surgeon to the York Dispensary, and formerly
Lecturer on Chemistry and Forensic Medicine in the York
School of Medicine. London: R. Hardwicke. York:
Sampson, Pickering, Johnson, and Tesseyman. 1872.

79 PP-

THE Science of Health in these days is making great advance,
and asserts increasing claims for recognition. Its position is a
difficult one, for whilst it of necessity lays under contribution
the latest discoveries and most abstruse doctrines of modern
thought, it must be translated for the comprehension of the bulk
of people of the world who have themselves to carry out the
precepts which it inculcates. Unfortunately the efforts of the
interpreters between Science and the Public are not always suc-
cessful, and frothy phrases often constitute a large part of so-
called popular manuals,—there is a minute morsel of bread to a
prodigious quantity of sack, It is arelief to turn to Dr. Procter’s
little book, which seems to give us exactly what we want; it is

ger
EE a a

1873.] Notices of Books. 11g

correct in data, terse, practical, and smooth in diction. The
author takes a very modest position. He says :—“ As treated in
the following pages the subject admits of no originality, and the
author claims none; his object has been to deal with it in as
simple and popular a manner as possible, and to point out the
injurious effects produced on health byimpure air and water, the
sources and origin of their impurities, with the means for their
detection, and the several methods by which they may be
removed or remedied.” ‘Taking the first two pages as atest of
the amount of information conveyed, we find, in the course of a
brief discussion of the causes of atmospheric impurity, a state-
ment of the normal constituents of atmospheric air, their
properties and quantitative relation, the preparation and uses of
ozone and the method of testing for its presence, and a word or
two concerning the suspended impurities of air. The work goes
on to consider the causes which render air impure, the effects of
respiration, putrefactive emanations, sewer gas (with useful hints
for remedying it), the methods of detecting organic impurity in
air, the natural laws for the purification of the atmosphere,
ventilation, disinfection, and the hygiene of the sick room.

The second part of the book deals with the impurities of water
and their removal. The causes and effects of water contamina-
tion, and the relation of typhoid fever and cholera to impure
water (a subject on which people will find it greatly to their
interest to be enlightened), are well, but briefly, discussed. The
description of methods of detecting the impurities of water is
succinct, but yet up to the time. Dr. Burdon Sanderson’s
‘‘ zymotic test’ is noted, and the methods of detection of nitro-
genous matter are simply put. The little volume concludes with
hints on the removal of impurities from water.

We recommend it to all; to those whose scientific labours,
directly or indirectly, tend to advance or to apply the knowledge
of hygiene,—they will find it a useful compendium ; to all others
whose occupation is in other grooves, but who nevertheless have
a personal interest in the preservation of health,—they will find
it an easily intelligible and most valuable guide.

A Manual of Microscopic Mounting ; with Notes on the Collection
and Examination of Objects. By JoHN H. Martin, Author
of ‘‘Microscopic Objects,” &c. Illustrations drawn by the
@UEMOr | 200 pp.,- Svo. 11, plates, ,Londons J. and A.
Churchill.

THE subject-matter of this volume is divided into seven chapters
and an appendix.

The first treats on various apparatus employed ; in many in-.
stances directions are given for construction, and some of the
author’s own contrivances are described. Chapters 2, 3, 4,

120 Notices of Books. |January,

describe practically the methods of mounting objects dry, in
balsam and solution of damar, and in fluids. The system of
selecting a list of typical and easily procured objects is a good
one: each object so selected is treated separately, and by fol-
lowing out the processes described in these chapters the student
who is deprived of the help of more experienced workers will be
able to make considerable progress. The author is evidently too
fond of the old method of potass maceration in making prepara-
tions of insects. The flea as prepared by him is the mere empty
skin so common in cabinets: this has only to be compared with
specimens mounted in glycerine, without compression, with the
contents of the body im situ, to cause it to be abandoned, ex-
cepting in those cases where the chitinous tissues alone are
required. The proboscis of the blow-fly, again, is so treated as
to produce the common preparation of the shops,—a mode of
mounting which has for years only served to prevent a true
knowledge of the structure of this wonderfully complex organ
from being obtained. ‘The author has surely neyer seen some
of the insect preparations au naturel, which are now far from
uncommon in the cabinets of some of our best microscopists.

A great deal of useful information is contained in chapter 5,
giving a general summary of various modes of mounting. A
large number of interesting objects are here described, and
directions given for their examination.

The chapter on Collection gives a great many hints for cap-
turing the small game so much sought after by the microscopist.

Some notice is taken of the important subject of adulterations,
but the treatment is so brief—giving little more than a catalogue
of adulterating substances—that the information will prove of
but little use to the reader. At page 167 the author gives a
figure of ‘‘a precipitating cell” of his own contrivance, but has
unfortunately left out all description, so that the reader is left to
make out what he can from the woodcut.

The appendix is one of the most useful portions of the book,
containing no less than seventy-seven formule for various ce-
ments, mounting media, reagents, &c. This microscopic phar-
macopceia, compiled from various sources, supplies a real want,
and will be duly appreciated.

With regard to the illustrations, ‘the author has certainly not
improved in his lithography since the issue of his work on
‘‘ Microscopic Objects.” This is much to be regretted, as Plate
11—a reproduction of some of the author’s drawings by the
photo-lithographic process—shows that the defect is a want of
skill in the manipulation of the lithographic materials. The
other plates are characterised by a general coarseness of execu-
tion. The figure of flax, Pl. 10; Pig..92,7%1s unlike’ amy fibre
known to the histologist, and the whole plate is a specimen of
very coarse wood-engraving. It is a pity that the book should
have been spoiled by the bad execution of so important a portion.

ee a ae ee Tee lL SY

1873.] | Notices of Books. 121

With so many admirable existing manuals the present work was

scarcely needed: it would have been better if the small amount

of new matter had found its way into the pages of one of the
periodicals devoted to microscopical subjects.

Records of the Rocks; or Notes on the Geology, Natural History,
and Antiquities of North and South Wales, Devon, and
Cornwall. By Rev. W. S. Symonps, F.G.S., Rector of
Pendock. With numerous Illustrations. London: John
Murray. 1872.

No one need be afraid that he will be led into any discussion of
the attitude of either science in general or geology in particular
in reference to the Bible or ordinary religious teaching. The
title, so similar to Hugh Miller’s ‘‘ Testimony of the Rocks,”
and the clerical position of the author, might lead to this suppo-
sition. But not a word of the kind is to be found in the book;
in fact the latter part of the title is really a fair exposition of its
contents. Mr. Symonds evidently knows his country well, has
walked it over and over again, has studied Sir Roderick
Murchison’s ‘‘ Silurian System and Siluria” thoroughly, and has
given the world the results of his observations. The geology
naturally is the principal part of the work, and the order of the
work follows that of the Rocks, beginning with the Laurentian,
and ending with the Permian. A devout adherent of Sir
Roderick Murchison, the author not only follows him over the
same ground, but he adopts his theories entirely, and owes very
many of his woodcuts to him. The remaining illustrations,
mostly by Sir Wm. Guise, are well and carefully drawn. The
natural history portion of the work consists, mainly of a record
of the habitats of rather rare plants, and the resort of various
fish; whilst the antiquarian part of the work is the weakest
of all, being merely the accounts such as might be found in
ordinary guide books of old castles, with an occasional quotation |
from an ancient chronicler of a passage, the critical authority
of which is not very minutely examined. Altogether the book
will be found useful by those who are going over the country
described, for whilst it is more portable, it also contains more
minute detail than “ Siluria,” and touches upon subjects not
alluded to in the other, in all respects, greater work.

A Budget of Paradoxes. By Aucustus Dr Moreau, F.R.A.S.,

and C.P.S. of Trinity College, Cambridge (Reprinted with
the Author’s Additions from the ““Atheneum”’), London:
Longmans. 1872.

- Many of our readers as they peruse the title of this book will

recall with regret a quaint little figure, usually attired in a broad-
MO! 111. (N.S.) R

122 Notices of Books. _ [{January,

tailed dress coat, with an old-fashioned white tie of prodigious
dimensions, round spectacles well stopped out with thick black
rims, and a small mouth looking very grave, but with a pucker
about the corners that betrayed a volcano of fun beneath ever
ready to erupt. Such was the Budgeteer of Paradoxes. A
shrewd thinker, as deep both as a logician and as a mathematician
as any of his contemporaries (and he reckoned among his friends
Airy, Babbage, Sir John Herschel, and Whewell), he had a fund
of humour, and good humour, that one could scarcely have thought
could have expended itself on exact science; hence, we may say,
arose this collection of inexact science, falsely so called, brought
together for the warning and encouragement of future enquirers,
and for the amusement of lookers on.

The word ‘“‘ paradox” as used in this book is explained to mean
‘‘ something which is apart from general opinion either in subject
matter or conclusion;” consequently mixed up with the most
good humoured banter at circle squarers, trisectors of angles,
duplicators of the square, maintainers of the non-rotation of the
moon, deniers of gravitation, the rotation and spherical shape of
the earth, the discoverers of perpetual motion, the philosopher’s
stone, exact laws of meteorology, the exponents of the number
of the beast, and other discoveries which the world does not as
yet believe in; we find also discussions of the theories and
accounts of some of the works of Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon,
William Gilbert, Thomas Hobbes, Bishop Wilkins, Sir Isaac
Newton, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir George Corne-
wall Lewis, the early researches of the Royal Society, and many
other matters by which the aggregate of our knowledge has been
increased. The object of the book is stated to be ‘‘to enable
those who have been puzzled by one or two discoverers to see
how they look in the lump; and incidentally to this we have
drawn most clearly a distin¢étion between those who have really
made great discoveries and those who have wasted great in-
genuity or labour upon what has proved useless; and this is done
by showing that it is vain for a man to attempt to improve
the knowledge of the world upon any particular subject until he
knows all that has been done in that subject. Many of the circle
squarers, for instance, are utterly unaware that it has been proved
incontrovertibly that it is impossible to arrive at the exact
arithmetical proportion between the diameter and circumference,
but that nevertheless in this very direction the calculation has
been carried out to 607 decimal places, a degree of accuracy far
. greater than is ever required for any practical purposes; so
great, indeed, that few persons can realise the extent of its
accuracy. It has never, indeed, been proved that it is impossible
to produce a geometrical equivalent for the circle, but this does
not attract so many theorisers. In the collection before us,
which is confessedly imperfect, and only consists of the works
actually in Professor De Morgan’s possession up to 1867, we

1873.| | Notices of Books. 123

find man after man assigning a certain exact sum as this ratio,
‘every man a different amount, and every man confident not only
that he alone is right, but that were it not for pride and obstinacy
or some such feelings the great mathematicians and astronomers
must acknowledge him to be so. These men think they have
made lucky hits; but the real discoverers, those whose opinions
were at first deemed absurd, but have afterwards convinced the
world, such as Galileo, Copernicus, Harvey, and Jenner, have
patiently won their way through all previously attained knowledge,
making sure of each step as they went along, and then building
upon the foundation already laid; thus they have raised them-
selves above the level of their day. All this is drawn out with
much humour and great kindliness of feeling, and so the book
is one which is calculated to do great good to those who fancy
that they have made great discoveries, whilst they have omitted
to acquire the necessary qualifications for discovery, by showing
how others have failed in similar pursuits, and also to those who
have the power of enlarging our knowledge by encouraging them
to proceed in spite of the opposition of the ignorant, after they
have assured themselves of all the preliminary steps.

In a work of such varied contents, and so brimful of humour,
it is impossible almost to make fair selections. The editor her-
self evidently has felt this, for whilst she acknowledges that
there are repetitions and redundancies, she has found it impossible
to cut out these flaws without materially damaging the work.
Many of the peculiarities of the writer naturally exhibit them-
selves in a work of this kind. Many a good story about mathe-
maticians, and especially Cambridge men; many anagrams,
evidently a favourite amusement with the author; a few striking
remarks about language ; and not a few additions to the English
language, will afford pleasure to many who would not care much
for the mathematical part of the work. A liberal and highly in-
dependent view of politics and theology, which one cannot but
admireinthe man, rather disfigure a work professedly on other sub-
jects. At the same time we miss some discussions which we were
entitled to expect, notably the writings of Professor Piazzi Smyth
on the Pyramids, who is dismissed with a single casual sentence
in the middle of an article on another subject, though his pre-
decessor in the same discussion, Mr. John Taylor, receives longer
notice but no criticism of his results. On page 236, immediately
before the discussion of the share that Adams and Le Verrier
took in the discovery of Neptune, there is a rather glaring mis-
print : 1826 should be read 1846. On page 385 also there is a
discussion of the word aneroid founded on a mistaken derivation;
it was formed by the discoverer of the instrument from a, privative,
and yvypdc, moist, because no liquid was employed in this measure
of the atmospheric pressure. Our old friend bogy is misspelt
boguey. A few words new to the English language occur occa-
sionally as an ‘“almamaternal brother,” ‘‘ antipharmacopeal

124 Notices of Books. (January,
drenches,” a ‘“‘sphragidonychangocometical fellow,” ‘‘ geoplaty-
logical lectures.”

The Orbs Around Us: A Series of Familiar Essays on the Moon
and Planets, Meteors and Comets, Suns and Coloured Pairs
of Suns. By Ricnarp A. Proctor, B.A. (Camb.), Hon.
Sec. R.A.S., Author of ‘‘The Sun,” ‘* Other Worlds than
Ours,” &c. London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

Tue well-known author of the interesting essay on “ The Sun”
has become even still more popular by the publication of subse-
quent works upon the planetary system. But he has looked
back upon his work, and found that the series of descriptions of
‘Other Worlds than Ours” might, in his estimation, be made
to embrace a larger class of readers, if there were appended an
introduction or explanation. -Careful not to explain too much,
Mr. Proctor has supplemented the work just now mentioned
with the one before us, on ‘* The Orbs Around us.” We will
state its salient points. The first essay is intended to elucidate
the mysteries of the spectroscope for those who have but a very
slight appreciation of the details of this mode of research. The
succeeding essays, on the subject of the plurality of worlds, are
especially interesting; but even these are exceeded by that
entitled ‘“‘ The Rosse Telescope Set to New Work.” The value
of the work, however, centres in the first essay, because its com-
prehension includes the capability of progress into more intricate
branches of the science of spectral analysis. Mr. Proctor’s
mission is pre-eminently that of a great teacher of scientific
first principles ; and his books should be read by all who desire
to grasp, if not the detail, at least the liberal ideas of astrono-
mical science. There is no science whose views are so extended,
and we may be pardoned if we say that there are few so qualified
to impart a knowledge of these views as Mr. Proctor.

The Strength of Materials and Structures. By JoHN ANDERSON,
C.E., LL.D., F.R.S.E. London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

Tuis treatise is one of the series of the Text-Books of Science
now in course of publication by Messrs. Longmans. It is divided
into two distinct parts. The first part treats of the natural
properties of various materials employed in construction, as far

‘as these qualities and characteristics are of importance to the

engineer. In this way the leading peculiarities of cast-iron and
wrought-iron, steel, copper, alloys, timber, &c., are described.
The student, in the second division of the work, is instructed
how to combine materials so as to obtain maximum strength at
a minimum of cost and weight.

The work is fully equal to its predecessors, and is characterised

1873.] Notices of Books. 125

by the usual care for accuracy where tables are concerned. The
engineering student should at once add it to his library.

Notes on River Basins. By Ropert A. Witiiams. London:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

Turs is a collection of short notes on river basins, drawn up
from the works of Petermann and Milner, Mackay, Long and
Porter, McLeod, and others. ‘The source, course, drainage,
mouth, and tributaries of each river are given; and the area and
other details of the lakes of England, Scotland, and Ireland are
clearly laid down. The work appears well adapted to the use of
pupil-teachers and schoolmasters.

Reports on Observations of Encke’s Comet during its Return in
1871. By AsapH Hari and Wm. Harkness, Professors of
Mathematics, U.S. Navy. Washington. 1872.

Tue astronomer and those interested in the science of Astronomy
will welcome this able pamphlet. Many difficulties have oc-
curred in the observation, especially in the use of the spectro-
scope. The spectrum of the comet was very faint; hence it
was necessary to remove the photographed micrometer scale of
the spectroscope. In its place was inserted a brass plate, pierced
with a hole 0:00796 of an inch in diameter, moved by means of
a micrometer-screw. The light passing through the hole is
reflected from the surface of the. prism, and appears, in the field
of view of the spectroscope telescope, as a bright disc, with an
apparent diameter of 36' 55”, which can be made to traverse the
whole length of spectrum by turning the micrometer-screw.
‘‘ The illumination of the disc can be adjusted to the brightness .
of the spectrum under observation with the greatest nicety. If
it 1s required to be very brilliant, the direct light of a lantern
may be thrown into the hole: a less degree of brightness may
be secured by passing the light through a piece of ground-glass ;
and finally, the luminosity may be varied down to absolute invi-
sibility by reflecting the light into the hole from the back of the
observer’s hand held ata suitable angle. ‘This last plan was
employed in the case of the comet. The micrometer head is
half an inch in diameter, and divided to one-tenth of a revolu-
tion, while each complete revolution of the screw moves the
brass plate o-o181 of an inch, which corresponds to an angular
distance of 14' 40°5".”

In using this micrometer, the readings on the line whose place
was to be determined were habitually made alternately with
readings on a sodium-line, produced by the flame of an alcohol-
lamp with a salted wick held before the object-glass of the large

126 Notices of Books. (January,

telescope. The measures are thus entirely differential, and there
is no risk of errors having been introduced by undetected
changes of zero. .

We may summarise the results of the observations in a few
sentences :—Encke’s comet gives a carbon spectrum. There is
no polarisation to be detected in the light of the comet. The
mass is certainly not less than that of an asteroid. The density
of the supposed resisting medium in space, as computed from
the retardation of the comet, is such that it would support a

20 285

2 ; Aas
column of mercury between —— and — of an inch in height.
fe) 10”

There is some probability that the electric currents which give
rise to auroras are propagated in a medium which pervades all
space, and that the spectrum of the aurora is, in reality, the
spectrum of that medium. It is not improbable that the tails of
all large comets will be found to give spectra similar to that of
the aurora, although additional lines may be present.

In conclusion it may be said that, from the clearness of the
detail, this pamphlet will be useful to the astronomical student.

The Forces of Nature. A Popular Introduction to the Study of
Physical Phenomena. By AMEDEE GUILLEMIN. Trans-
lated from the French by Mrs. Norman Lockyer; and
Edited, with Additions and Notes, by J. Norman Lockyer,
F.R.S. London: Macmillan. 1872.

THE progress of Physical Science is nowhere more clearly
apparent than in a comparison of the mode of producing its
records. The soberly bound volumes of half a century ago are
not more likely to be banished to the higher shelves of our book-
cases because the theories they expound are obsolete, than they
are to be superseded by the luxuriously printed and illustrated
books in which the philosopher of to-day declares the laws of
Nature according to his present lights.- It is fit it should be so.
Delicate instruments and logical reasoning should have their
details drawn with a loving hand. Much of the science of yes-
terday lived grimly and darkly in its own study; the science of
to-day throws its light upon all, and as a natural truth should be
shown as it appears, in its own attractive form. For instance,
why should not the diary of a journey through the realms of
light—“‘ a fairy-like, enchanted world, a world of wonders, where
rubies, sapphires, topazes, and all kinds of precious stones send
forth their fires, where every object is of incomparable beauty
and splendour ”—receive the most efficient ornament the aid of
art can impart. Such a luxury, if it is luxury, is a practical one,

for it raises in the mind of the student the enthusiasm which is.

necessary to render him a lover of not only Nature, but, as well,
of Nature’s laws.

=

'
+s
C—O ee ee

1873.] Notices of Books. wy)

The book which we have to notice is of French origin, from
the pen of the celebrated Guillemin; its appearance in England
is due to the united labours of Mrs. and Mr. Norman Lockyer.
We need but say that it contains all the information of other
works on Physical Science, under the heads of Gravity, Sound,
Heat, Electricity, and Light, and that this information is further
aided by the most eloquent and vivid illustrations we should
think the power of the artist could attain.’

A Treatise on the Building and Ornamental Stones of Great
Britain and Foreign Countries. By Epwarp Hutt, M.A.,
F.R.S., Director of the Geological’ Survey of Ireland, Pro-
fessor of Geology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin.
London: Macmillan and Co. 1872.

THOSE interested in the geological distribution and mineral cha-
racter of the building and ornamental stones employed in the
erection of ancient and modern structures will be pleased to find
that the materials, which have hitherto been scattered so widely,
have been brought within the limits of a single volume.
Building and ornamental stones have not, we believe, been
described inacomplete manner, nor with any particular scientific
arrangement. ‘The engineer or student in Ireland is better pro-
vided for by Mr. G. Wilkinson’s ‘‘ Ancient Architecture and
Practical Geology of Ireland; in France, M. T. Chateau has
published his ‘‘ Technologie du Batiment.”’

Under the general divisions of granitic, porphyritic, greenstone,
and serpentinous rocks, marbles, alabasters, the rarer ornamental
stones, calcareous and siliceous stones, tufaceous stone and
slates, Mr. Hull deals with the varieties found in different parts
of the world, in a manner clear, concise, but sufficiently detailed.
One of the concluding chapters, on the selection of building
stones with special regard to climate and the nature of the at- ©
mosphere, is well worthy the attention of the practical engineer.
In each and all its departments the work is a valuable addition
to our engineering literature.

Life of Richard Trevithick, with an Account of his Inventions.
By Francis Trevituicx, C.E. Vol. II. London: E. and
RON. Spon, “1872.

Tue fertility of Trevithick’s inventive powers appears to even
greater advantage in this second volume than in the first, which
we recently had occasion to notice. Although so many of Trevi-
thick’s ideas have been superseded by later inventions, there are
several schemes which in the present day would afford valuable
application. The engineering student should read the work as a

128 Notices of Books. : (January,

record of many difficulties surmounted, and as many more
avoided ; it embodies both precept and example.

A Manual of Paleontology. By Henry ALLEYNE NICHOLSON,
M.D., D.Sc., &c., Professor of Natural History and Botany
in University College, Toronto. Edinburgh and London:
Blackwood and Sons. 1872.

Dr. NicHoison’s object has been to furnish the student of
geology and the general reader with a compendious account of
the leading principles and facts of the vast and ever-increasing
science of Paleontology. The work is divided under four heads:
—the first includes a general account of the principles upon
which the paleontological observer proceeds ; the second treats
of the past history of the animal kingdom, devoting much more
space than is generally accorded to the consideration of inverte-
brate groups; under the third head is given a comprehensive
view of paleobotany, or the past history of the vegetable king-
dom; while, finally, the author applies the principles of pale-
ontological science to the elucidation of the succession of the
stratified deposits of the earth’s crust. To say that this is the
best handbook yet produced by the prolific pen of Dr. Nicholson
is to accord the highest praise. The work is profusely and well
illustrated. : ;

Elements of Zoology. By ANDREW WILSON, Lecturer on Zoology,
Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Adam and Black. 1873.

Tuts is a manual intended to convey the principle of the division
of zoological science to the student of an elementary course.
The explanation is terse, but sufficient; the illustrations are
numerous and well selected. 7

A Manual of Elementary Chemistry, Theoretical and Practical.
By Grorce Fownes, F.R.S., late Professor of Practical
Chemistry in University College, London. Eleventh Edition.
Revised and Corrected by Henry Warts, B.A., F.R.S.
London: J. and A: Churenill,) (1872,

Tue eleventh edition of this well-known manual of chemistry

presents some marked alterations. The work, under the careful
editorship of Mr. Watts, fully keeps pace with the progress of
chemical science. But the volume appears overgrown: if the
matter were divided under the heads of organic and inorganic
chemistry, and each portion included in a separate volume, the
manual would take a much handier form. The present volume

PP
;
«

‘

BY 7
we ee ee ee Lee

—— Bea

1873.] , Notices of Books: 192

is too bulky to be held with ease. The use of a bolder type is a
very considerable improvement. It is unnecessary to recommend
the work more particularly.

Elementary Geology. A Course of Nine Lectures. ByJ. Ciirton
Warp, F.G.S., Associate of the Royal School of Mines ; of
Her Majesty’s Geological Survey. London: Triibner and
Con) 1872.

Mr. Warp is already well known to the scholastic world by his

work on Elementary Natural Philosophy. The present work is

founded upon a similar plan, and is specially adapted for its
proposed use by junior students and in schools.

Notes for My Students. Magnetism. By Witi1am J. WItson,
iC.se Londons}. bale and Sons. 1672.
Tuis little work is admirably adapted for the use of either the

advanced or elementary student. It is very clearly and concisely
written, and comprises much useful information.

The Causation of Sleep. By JAMEs Cappiz, M.D. Edinburgh:
Pine S72).

Dr. Capris, in this essay, gives many novel and ingenious sug-
gestions upon an interesting subject. It would be tedious to
detail the many original views differing in some degree from the
accepted opinions on a physiological subject. We recommend
our readers to examine for themselves these arguments, which
are Clearly and logically stated in a sufficiently agreeable form.

s

adovumgnone (N.S.) S

( 130 ) | [January,

. PROGRESS IN SCIENCE:

MINING. ©

To-pay—January, 1st, 1873—the two Mines Regulations Aéts of last session
come for the first time into operation. In conformity with certain sections of
these Acts, every owner, agent, or manager of a mine must, before a specified
date, forward to the inspector of his distriét a return of the annual produce of
his mine. A complete change is, therefore, about to be introduced in the
system of collecting our mineral statistics. Hitherto these valuable returns
have been purely voluntary contributions, obtained through the personal
influence of Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., Keeperof Mining Records. As far back
as 1847, statistics of this kind were for the first time colle@ed and published by
Mr. Hunt, and since 1853 the volumes have been regularly issued year by year
—egradually growing in fullness and accuracy until they have assumed their
present comprehensive form. In view of the compulsory system introduced
by the new Acts, we may regard the volume for 1871*—-which has appeared
during the past quarter—as representing the last of the returns contributed by
the courtesy of our British mine owners. From this volume we extraé the fol-
lowing summary, showing the number of mines working in 1871, and the
amount and value of the ores which they produced :—

Number of Mines. Mineral. Tons. Cwts. £

2760 Coal 117,352,028 — 35,205,608

210 Iron oret 16,334,888 14 7,670,572

122 Copper ore 97,129 — 387,118

145 Tin ore 16,272 — 1,030,834
241 Lead ore 93,965 17 T,155:779 »

47 op.) hie Ore 1737730. 50 56,330

33 Iron pyrites 61,973 — 64,987

I Silver oret 5 — 421

165" Arsenic AAG. (tas 15,519

9 Gossans, ochres, &c. 697 5 1,396

: Risa and tungstate | Stig ot jas

of soda§ . )

I Nickel] 2 — 98

I Bismuth] — 2 14

2 Fluor-spar Sic AG 26

4 Manganese 5,548 I 22,958

I Cobalt-ore§ 3 — 120

Barytes 5,512 8 3,539

Clays, fine and fire 1,255,000 — 475,000

Earthy minerals —- — 600,000

Salt 1,505,725 — 752,862

Coprolites 36,500 — 51

Total value of the minerals produced
in the United Kingdom in 1871 .. £47,494,400

* Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the year
1871. With an Appendix. By RosBert Hunt, F.R.S. London: Longmans and Stanford.
1872. y ;

+ “It has not been possible in every case to determine whether the return has been for .
calcined or uncalcined ore. The actual produétion of vaw ore will probably be in excess of
this quantity. Estimating the quantity of pig-iron at 2% tons of ore for each ton of iron, and
deducting foreign ore, ‘burnt ore,’ and ‘cinder’ used, the quantity will be about or slightly
above 17,000,000 tons.”

+ From the Queen Mine, Calstock, Cornwall,

§ From East Pool Mine, near Redruth, Cornwall.

| From Silver Mine, Bathgate, Linlithgowshire.

G From Dolcoath Mine, near Redruth, Cornwall.

rE

773. | Mining. 131

From the official reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines for 1871, we learn
that 826 fatal accidents occurred in connection with our collieries during the
year. It is true that this number is slightly less than the corresponding
figures for the previous year; but whilst the 830 accidents of 1870 resulted in
the loss of ggt lives, the 826 accidents of 1871 represent unhappily not fewer
than 1075 lives. It appears that of every 345 colliers employed in 1871, one
man perished by these accidents; or, to put the figures in another light, it may
be said that one miner’s life was sacrificed for every 109,246 tons of coal raised
in that year. On analysing the list of fatal accidents, we find that 52 of them
occurred through explosions of fire-damp, and resulted in 269 deaths; whilst
426 may be referred to falls of the coal, ironstone, or roof—a class of accidents
which caused the loss of 435 lives. The remaining deaths were due to casual-
ties in the shafts, and to miscellaneous accidents, both underground and at the
surface. Let us hope that the working of the new Act may diminish each
year this grim catalogue of colliery accidents.

Many of the Government inspectors introduce into their reports highly valu-
able suggestions, which merit the studious attention of all who are practically
interested in our mining industries, and especially those who have the lives of
our coal-miners in theircharge. It is pleasing to mark the spirit in which some
of the inspectors refer to the benefits which must accrue to mining officers
from a scientific education, and to the influence which such training must
needs exert on the intelligent discharge of their responsible duties. The means
of acquiring such training are, however, not yet sufficiently extensive. Thus,
Mr. Lionel Brough, after alluding with satisfaction to the establishment of the
College of Physical Science at Newcastle-on-Tyne, maintains that ‘‘ every
centre should by right possess one of those most valuable educational estab-
lishments. The underground operations of Great Britain exceed those of any
other nation in the world; therefore educational means should be provided
proportionate to its immense mining industry.”

As colliery explosions are often the indirect result of diminished atmo-
spheric pressure, Mr. J. A. R. Newlands has suggested, with the view of pre-
venting such calamities, that the air in coal mines should be maintained at a
constant pressure by artificial means. To this end he proposes to cover the
mouths of both the upcast and downcast shafts by air-tight chambers, suffi-
ciently large to allow all the surface-work at the pit’s mouth to be carried on
within their walls. These chambers should be put in connection with power-
ful air-pumps, worked by steam-power, and a current of fresh air thus forced
through the workings. This current could be so regulated that any desired
degree of ventilation might be attained, while the air, if necessary, might be
cooled, before passing into the pits, by compression in cylinders surrounded
with cold water. When fire-damp makes it appearance, air should be drawn
out of the mine, and the pressure in the workings thus diminished, so as to
release, in the absence of the miners, any imprisoned gas. It is believed that
in many collieries, dangerous accumulations of fire-damp might be prevented
by the simpler plan of partially exhausting the air periodically, and then
forcing a current of fresh air into the pit, so as to sweep through the entire
system of workings. Instead, therefore, of erecting air-tight chambers, it
would in such cases be merely necessary to cover the mouth of each shaft
with an iron plate, having an aperture by which it could be put into communi-

cation with the pump for either exhausting or forcing-in the air.

We had occasion last quarter to mention that the Committee appointed by
the War Office to report upon lithofracteur had come to the conclusion that
this explosive is not perfely safe under certain conditions. It is only fair,
therefore, that we should now call attention to the fa&t that a different view
has been taken by the Belgian Government, and that a concession has recently
been granted for the transport and storage of lithofracteur in Belgium. A
series of important experiments has been satisfactorily performed, on a large
scale, with this substance before some of the chief mining and engineering
authorities in that State. These experiments were made in some quarries of
greenstone at Quenast, about 18 miles from Brussels, where a hard compact

132 _ Progress im Science. (January,

rock is largely quarried for paving and road-making. Without entering into
the details of these experiments, which were condué¢ted by Prof. Engels, the
inventor of lithofrateur, we may say that they satisfactorily showed the
extraordinary power and value of this explosive, whether for mining or for
military blasting, and also demonstrated its incapacity to explode by fire or
by ordinary percussion.

It seems highly probable that Eastern Australia will soon enter into com-
petition with Cornwall and “‘ The Straits” as a great tin-producing country.
A report on the recent discoveries of tin-ore in the colony of Queensland was
presented by Mr. F. T. Gregory at the opening meeting of the Geological
Society this session. According to this document, the ore has already been
found distributed over an area of about 550 square miles of granite country in the
neighbourhood of the head-waters of the Severn River and its tributaries.
Many small tin-lodes have been traced, invariably in association with a red
granite; but the richest sources of tin are the deposits in the beds of streams
and in the alluvial flats on their banks.

In the adjacent colony of New South Wales, and immediately adjoining the
stanniferous region of Queensland, important discoveries of tin-ore have also
been recently made, and are in course of rapid development. Some interesting
observations on these discoveries have been transmitted to this country by
Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich. The tin-yielding region of New South Wales forms an
elevated plateau in the distrid of New England, and consists mainly of
granitic and basaltic rocks, associated with metamorphic slates and sand-
stones. At the workings of the Elsmore Company, north-west of the Macin-
tyre River, the granite is traversed by veins of quartz containing tin-stone, and
by dykes of a softer granite, so rich in ore as to yield masses of oxide of tin up to
at least 50 lbs. in weight. Capping the granite range is a layer of recent tin-
bearing detritus, from 6 to 24 inches in thickness, and yielding from 3 ozs. to
more than 2 lbs. of tin-ore per dish of about 20 lbs. Beneath this there occurs
an older drift, which in some parts has yielded as much as 6 lbs. of ore per
dish, whilst other parts are comparatively poor. Though the full development
of the new mining industry thus established in this part of Australia may be
to some extent restricted by lack of.a sufficient supply of water, yet Mr.
Ulrich considers it not unlikely that the production of tin-ore from this region
will eventually reach, or even surpass, that of all the old tin-mining countries
of the world. Mr. Daintree, who is well acquainted with the colony of
Queensland, calculates that the value of the deposits of stream-tin in that
colony must be about £13,000,000 sterling! And, assuming that the neigh-
bouring colony of New South Wales possesses deposits of equal value, he
estimates that the stream-tin of this eastern part of Australia amounts to
about twenty-five times the annual production of Cornwall. The discovery of
tin in New South Wales is said to be due to the Rev. W. B. Clarke, who in
1849 predicted the occurrence of this metal from the character of some of the
local granites, and in 1853 reported the actual discovery of tin-ore in the
neighbourhood of the Severn River. It is only lately, however, that these
discoveries have excited any attention.

The first half-yearly part of a new official periodical—the ‘‘ Annals of
Mining in the Dutch East Indies”’*—has lately been published. It contains
some valuable geological, mining, and metallurgical articles, including an
excellent paper on an important tin district in the island of Banca.

METALLURGY.

Perhaps the best idea of the importance of metallurgy among the industries
of this country may be obtained by consulting the annual volumes of statistics
issued from the Mining Record Office by Mr. R. Hunt, F.R.S. The returns
for 1871 have been published during the past quarter, and from thence we learn
that the value of metals produced from ores raised in this country during that

* Jaarboek van het Mijnwezen in Nederlausch, Oost-Indié. Uitgegeven op last van zijne
Excellentie die Minister van Kolonién. Eerste Jaargang; eerste Deel. 1872.

1873.] Metallurgy. 133

year amounted to upwards of £20,000,000 sterling. The following summary
exhibits the quantities and values of the several metals smelted from British
ores in 1871 :-—

Pisdrotl |) susie) a ay | Lous O.ae7,179 . £16,607,047

Capper "3 op Tate Wyse sve che 4 6,280 4755143
ANG) COU CNR a Lee aaies Paiihidltor: a 10,900 1,498,750
Teale en Gieesi claret Dare ae i 69,056 1,251,815
SHIVete ait ly oi dela ee ee AROSE! ol OTAGO 190,372
ZAING 5.4 a) SOUS 4,966 92,743
Other metals (estimated) 3,000

£ 20,179,770

Certain improvements in the metallurgy of manganese have recently been
effected by Mr. Hugo Tamm, and fully described in the ‘‘ Chemical News.”
The ore employed in these investigations was an impure binoxide of man-
ganese, containing 79°5 per cent of “peroxide of manganese, 6°5 of peroxide of
iron, 3°5 of water, and 10°5 of gangue, with traces of phosphate of lime. To
obtain metallic manganese, rto0o parts of this ore are mixed with gt of lamp-
black or soot, and with 635 parts of a mixture described as “green flux.”
This is prepared in the following way :—A mixture is made of 63 parts of
ground glass, 184 of quick-lime, and 18} of fluor-spar. Of this mixture 34
parts are taken and incorporated with 54 of lamp-black and 603 of native per-
oxide of manganese. On smelting this mixture, metallic. manganese is ob-
tained, accompanied by an olive-green slag: this slag, when ground, forms the
green flux previously described. The charge of ore, flux, and carbonaceous
matter, in the proportions indicated above, and moistened with oil, is intro-
duced into a refractory crucible lined by a mixture made of 3 parts of plum-
bago and one of loam or fire-clay worked into a thick paste with water. The
crucible is heated in a wind or blast-furnace, and a button of manganese ob-
tained, together with the slag previously described. The metal reduced by
this method is not pure manganese, but a produd&t which the author designates
as ‘‘cast manganese.’’ A specimen of this contained—Metallic manganese,
96'9 ; iron, 1°05; aluminium, o'r ; calcium, 0-05 ; phosphorus, 0°05 ; sulphur, 0°05;
silicon, 0°85 ; carbon, o'95. The cast manganese may be refined by Berthier’s
process, which consists in re-melting the coarsely-powdered crude metal with
carbonate of manganese. A sample of the refined metal obtained by this
treatment had the following composition :—Manganese, g9‘91I; iron, 0°05;
silicon, o°015; carbon, 0025. Mr. Tamm suggests that the cast manganese
might be economically employed in certain operations as a good substitute for
the alkaline metals.

A patent has been granted to Messrs. T. W. Gerhard and J. Light, jun., for
the production of iron and steel from a certain preparation which ‘they call
*iron-coke.” This is a mixture of powdered ore, or iron-scales, with a bitu-
minous substance, such as pitch, and with carbonate of lime. Cast-iron may
be obtained by smelting the iron-coke with ground coal or other carbonaceous
matter. Wrought-iron may be procured by the reducing action of carbonic
oxide generated in a combustion chamber connected with the furnace.

An improved method of lining rotatory puddling furnaces has been patented
by Mr. Danks. Lime and oxide of iron, or silicate of iron, mixed in certain
cases with soda, potash, or even common salt, are worked- -up into the con-
sistence of a stiff mortar, with which the revolving cylinder is lined. When
this coating has become dry, iron ore is introduced into the furnace and
melted, thus forming a vitreous lining. More ore, or oxide of iron, is then
melted, and lumps of ore thrown into the molten mass, so that, hen the
liquid sets, the ends of these lumps project from the surface. In this condi-
tion the furnace is ready for puddling.

Certain salts—such as the alkaline nitrates and chlorates—are applied by
Mr. R. Elsdon to the conversion of cast-iron into wrought-iron or steel by

134 Progress in Science. (January,

causing them to act on the upper surfacé of the molten pig-iron, which is
placed in a peculiar syphon-shaped converter. ~

Mr. W. Dingley has lately patented the useof sulphate of soda, in the crude
state of salt-cake, for the purification of iron. A small quantity of the salt is
thrown on to the surface of the molten iron during the operation of puddling
—a dose of about 12 ozs. being recommended for each heat of 4 or 43 cwts. of
metal.

Some improvements in the separation of silver and gold from lead have
been announced by Messrs. Risway and Pauville, of Paris. The argentiferous
or auriferous lead is treated with magnesium or aluminium, either alone or
alloyed with zinc, and the rich scum thus obtained is amalgamated with mer-
cury. The inventors state that they are able to regenerate the metals which
have been used in the process of extraction, and have thus greatly reduced the
expense of separating the precious metals from the lead.

Mr. F. Claudet has presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris a memoir
on his process of extracting gold and silver from burnt coppery pyrites—a pro-
cess extensively conducted at Widnes by Mr. J. A. Phillips. The treatment
consists essentially in roasting the burnt ore at a low temperature with common
salt, lixiviating the produé& with water acidulated with hydrochloric acid, pre-
cipitating the silver by iodide of potassium, and decomposing the iodide of
silver by metallic zinc. It is unnecessary, however, to-enter into details of
the process, as it was described by Mr. Phillips at the Liverpool meéting of
the British Association. We learn from Mr. Claudet that in 1871 not less .
than 16,300 tons of burnt pyrites were thus treated at Widnes, and yielded
333°242 kilogrammes of silver and 3°172 kilogrammes of gold. .

A capital account of tin-smelting, as practised in Banca, appeared in the
first part of the new Dutch periodical on East Indian Mining. The descrip-
tion is written by Van Diest, and is illustrated by an effective chromo-
lithograph representing the Chinese method of tin-smelting as practised at
night.

MINERALOGY.

Last quarter we had occasion to refer briefly to the discovery of a new lead-
bearing mineral called Mazite. A full description of this interesting species
has since been published by Dr. Laspeyres.* Herr Max Braun, of the Vieille
Montagne Zinc Mines, near Aix-la-Chapelle, having visited the lead mine
known as the Mala Calzetta, near the town of Iglesias, in Sardinia, brought
home with him certain specimens of the new mineral, which were at first
taken for mendipite or chloro-carbonate of lead. It was soon found, however,
that no chlorine was present, and a full analysis has since revealed the fol-
lowing composition:—Water, 1°866; carbonic acid, 8:082; sulphuric acid,
8-140; protoxide of lead, 81-912. From these figures the following formula
may be deduced (using the old atomic weights) :—

5(PbO.SO;) +9(PbO.CO,) + PbO.5HO.

This formula corresponds to 31 per cent of sulphate of-lead, 49 of carbonate
of lead, and 20 of hydrated oxide of lead. Up to the present time we believe
that the mineral has not been found in situ, but the few specimens yet known
have all been obtained from the dressing-floor at the mine. During the pro-
cess of dressing, the crystals have of course been subjected to attrition, and
hence the surfaces are much rubbed and rounded, so that no crystalline faces
have yet been found sufficiently distinc to admit of measurement. It is
inferred, however, from its cleavage and from its optical properties, that
maxite belongs to the rhombic system. It presents the form of acolourless or
greyish-yellow crystalline substance, with a pearly adamantine lustre on the
cleavage planes. Its hardness is almost equal to that of calc-spar, and its
specific gravity is 6°874. Optical examination shows that it is a negative

* LEoNHARDT und Gernitz's Neues Jahrbuch fir Mineralogie, U.S.W., 1872, Heft 5, p. 508;
Journal fir praktische Chemie, 1872, Heft ro, p. 470.

i

1873.] Mineralogy. 135

doubly-refracting mineral. In many of its properties it is closely allied to the
rare British mineral, leadhillite, from which it differs, however, in density, in
the presence of water, and in certain other charateristics.

_ A new ore of mercury from Guadalcazar, in Mexico, has been described by

Dr. T. Petersen, under the name of Guadalcazarite. It isa compact or crypto-
crystalline iron-black mineral, with a metallic lustre and a black streak. The
specific gravity is 7°15. An analysis yielded—Sulphur, 14°58; selenium, 1:08 ;
mercury, 79°73; zinc, 4°23 ; with traces of cadmium and iron. Guadalcazarite
is, therefore, a double sulphide. of mercury and zinc, corresponding to the
formula 6HgS+ZnS, but with part of the sulphur replaced by selenium, and
perhaps a small proportion of the zinc by cadmium.

In a recent number of the ‘‘ Annales des Mines,’’ M. Bertrand describes a
curious yellow or reddish substance from the province of Los Bordos, in Chile,
and found to contain the chlorides of silver and mercury, with oxide of mer-
cury. Itis believed that this substance is a mixture of two mineral species.
One of these is a double chloride of silver and mercury, containing AgCl 40°69,
and Hg,Cl 59°31 per cent: this new species is called Bordosite. The other
constituent is ordinary protoxide of mercury, which in this native form is to
be termed Hydrargyrite.

Under the name of Syngenite, Zepharovich has lately described a new
mineral from Kalusz in Galicia. It occurs in the form of colourless tabular
crystals, much resembling those of gypsum, and associated with crystals of
sylvine, or chloride of potassium, in the salt mines of Kalusz. Syngenite is a
hydrous double sulphate of calcium and potassium, somewhat resembling
polyhalite, from which it differs in that it contains scarcely any sulphate of
magnesium. The native crystals are almost identical with those of the
similar product formed in the laboratory ; but though belonging to the rhombic
system, they affect a curiously deceptive monoclinic habit.

Herr H. Griineberg has communicated to the German Chemical Society a
memoir on the properties and economic applications of the mineral Kieserite.
This is a hydrous sulphate of magnesium, containing only a single molecule
of water, and hence differing from ordinary crystallised Epsom salts.
Kieserite occurs abundantly among the “‘ abraum salts,” or deposits of mag-
nesium and potassium salts in the upper beds of the salt mines at Stassfurt,
near Magdeburg. It is extensively used in Manchester for dressing cotton
and other fabrics, and it is also valued asa manure. Kieserite and common
salt, reacting at a low temperature, furnish sulphate of sodium—hence another
application of the mineral. Grineberg has succeeded in preparing a double
sulphate of magnesium and calcium by igniting a mixture of kieserite and

gypsum, and has introduced this double salt as a hard and durable artificial
stone.

At Nohl, near Kongelf in Sweden, Professor Nordenskjéld has discovered a
new mineral which he terms Nodlite. This is a hydrated niobate of yttrium,
uranium, zirconium, calcium, iron, &c. The mineral resembles the Uralian
Samarskite, but contains more than 4'5 per cent of water.

Some few years ago, Mr. Ulrich, in his excellent notes on the mineralogy
of Victoria, described some beautiful crystals of Herschelite from Chambers’s
basalt quarries at Richmond, near Melbourne. Samples of these crystals
have lately been analysed by Herr Kerl in the laboratory of the University of
Gottingen with the following results :—Silica, 43°7; alumina, 21°8 ; lime, 8°5;
soda, 3°5; potash, traces ; water, 22°2. Compared with the typical herschelite
of Sicily, the Australian mineral contains much less silica, a larger proportion
of water, and a notable difference in the proportion of lime and alkalies.
Indeed a specimen of Sicilian herschelite contained only 0°31 per cent of
lime, but as much as 8°84 of soda and 4:28 of potash. These differences in
chemical composition have been considered sufficient to justify the separation
of the Australian mineral from the species herschelite, in spite of the close
agreement in the crystallographic characters of the two substances. Herr

136 Progress in Science. [January,

M. Bauer, of Gottingen, has, therefore, proposed to distinguish the Australian
mineral as Seebachite—a name complimentary to Professor Karl von Seebach.
At the same time, it must be confessed that the composition of the two minerals
may perhaps be eventually reduced to a general formula, in which event a
relation might be traced between herschelite and seebachite similar to that
which obtains between natrolite and mesolite. ;

A curious instance of the occurrence of hemimorphism in a crystal of calc-
spar—perhaps an unique example—has also been described by Bauer in the
Zeitschrift of the German Geological Society. The specimen in question
occurs in a group of crystals of calcite from Andreasberg in the Hartz—a
locality well known to the mineralogists for the beauty of its crystallised
calcite. Most of the crystals in this group are attached by one end to the
matrix, and hence it is impossible to compare the characters of the two ex-
tremities ; but it happens that one crystal has curiously grown across another
in‘such wise that the two ends of the former crystal are free, and hence admit
of observation. The hemimorphism consists in one end being terminated
simply by the flat basal plane, whilst the other extremity exhibits a compli-
cated set of rhombohedra and scalenohedra. As the occurrence of hemi-
morphism is usually correlated with pyro-electric properties, the crystal of
calcite was heated to 150° C., but without any development of electricity.
Exposure to a higher temperature was forbidden by fear of damaging so inte-
Testing a specimen.

Mr. C. Horner has communicated to the ‘‘ Chemical News” a short note,
announcing the discovery of the rare metal didymium in a specimen of pyro-
morphite, or phosphate of lead, from Cumberland.

Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., has succeeded in preparing microscopic specimens of
filiform silver, strongly resembling the chara¢teristic threads of the native
metal well known to mineralogists as occurring in calcite at Kongsberg in
Norway and in Chili. The artificial specimens were reduced from a solution
of nitrate of silver by suboxide of copper, and it is suggested that the native
silver may have been reduced by a similar reaction in nature.

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Guns and Armour.—The results of the Glatton-Hotspur experiments re-
corded in our chronicles of last quarter have recently come under discussion
at Portsmouth "by the Naval Professional Association, on the 1st November
last, when a paper on the subject was read by Commander W. Dawson, R.N.
From this paper it appears that the defeat of the gun by the turret was in
stri@ conformity with well-known mechanical principles, with previous
Shoeburyness experiments, and with Woolwich calculations. The shots fired
at the Glatton were from a 12-inch 25-ton gun, rifled on the French or
Woolwich system, and the results of the firing fully confirmed Captain Hood’s
remark as to the well-known “inaccuracy of flight now observed in a 12-inch

gun of 25 tons at very short ranges.” Now, from a diagram published by.

Mr. N. Barnaby, the Chief Naval Architect, it appears that the force required
to perforate the front of the Glatton’s turret, at right angles, with a 12-inch
projectile, is 7378 foot-tons. This would be exerted at 200 yards (the distance
in question) by a 600 lb. shot, which left the gun at the rate of 1357 feet per
second; or by a 700 lb. shot projected. with an initial velocity of 1252 feet.
But the 600 1b. shot actually employed, having those short stud rifle-bearings
which, it is officially stated, have ‘‘ decidedly the lowest velocities,” left the
gun with only 1300 feet velocity; and, travelling 23 feet per second slower at
200 yards distance, it struck the turret a blow of only 6788 foot-tons. In
order that this projectile should perforate the front of the Glatton’s turret, it
must leave the gun with 1357 feet velocity, or with 57 feet greater initial
velocity. The same object might be attained by propelling a 700 lb. projectile
from the same gun with 105 feet less velocity than that requisite with a 600 Ib.
shot. Without following Commander Dawson through his proofs and argu-
/ ments, in which he clearly traces the defeat of the gun to the defective

se

1873.] Engineering. 137

system of rifling empleyed, and the short stud bearings of the shot necessitated
by that system, it is sufficient to state that his conclusions are fully borne out
by other authorities. Mr. Charles Merriman, F.R.S., the principal of the
Royal School of Naval Architecture at South Kensington, says that ‘the
consent of all mechanicians and engineers with ‘“‘ whom he has ever conversed
was absolutely unanimous in the condemnation of the Woolwich system of
rifling, and that he had never heard of any serious defence of it.”” The results
of the Glatton experiment also confirm the unanimous testimony of unbiassed
artillerists, of mechanicians, and of mathematicians, that the rifle system
which ‘‘has decidedly the lowest velocities’ has necessarily the least
penetrating power; and Admiral A. C. Key, ©.B., F.R.S., the former Director-
General of Naval Ordnance, lays it down as a rule that without ‘‘ penetrating
power, at ranges up to 1200 yards, all other qualities are useless.”

Railways.--Among the new lines of railway now approaching completion,
we may notice the Mexican Railway, conne&ting the port of Vera Cruz with
the capital of the country. It is 263 miles in length, with a branch 29 miles
long to the city of Puebla. Leaving the port of Vera Cruz, the line runs up
towards the mountains of the Chiquihuite, rising about 1600 feet in a distance
of 53 miles; it then reaches the Tierra Templada, at a height of 4000 feet in
84 miles, and finally overcomes an elevation of 8043 feet on the borders of
the great Mexican plateau, or Tierra Fria. In reaching this last elevation
some very heavy work presents itself; steep gradients of r in 25 combined
with curves of 350 feet radius, are frequent over a distance of 22 miles, and
there are several viaducts and bridges of considerable size. The gauge of the
line is 4 feet 8} inches, and the engines, carriages, &c., will be all adapted to
the sharp curves they will have to traverse.

The official list of new projects to be submitted to Parliament during the
ensuing session comprises 280 plans of all classes, of which number 159 are
railway schemes, 13 are tramway bills, and 65 are bills of the miscellaneous
class. The railway sckemes are chiefly provincial, although there are some
which affe& the metropolis. With regard to the latter there are, first, the
City and West End Railway, which is a proposed line from the Metropolitan
Railway at the Kensington Joint Station to Farringdon Street, the route being
by way of Great Windmill Street to the Metropolitan Railway at the
Farringdon Road Station. There is a new street between Tichborne
Street and Rupert Street, and another between Holborn and Great Queen
Street in connection with this scheme, besides which it is proposed to widen
several streets along the route. The East and West Metropolitan Jundtion
and Cannon Street Railway is a scheme for a line from the Metropolitan
District Railway at Cannon Street to the Metropolitan Railway at Aldgate, to
the East London Railway, and to the North London Railway at Bow. The
Metropolitan and St. John’s Wood Railway Company are seeking to conne&
their line with the Hampstead Junction Railway and the Midland Railway,
and to construct a branch line to Kingsbury. The Hammersmith Extension
Railway is a proposed line from the Metropolitan District Railway at
Kensington to the Broadway, Hammersmith. The London Central Railway
Company are seeking powers to form junction lines with the Great Northern
Railway near the passenger station at King’s Cross, and to effe@ a junction
with the Metropolitan Railway near Osnaburg Street, Euston Road, and
another junction with the same railway near Upper Fitzroy Street.

The Brighton, Eastbourne, and London Railway, which has already been
before Parliament, is again brought forward. The Great Eastern and Felixstow
is a line from the Westerfield station of the Great Eastern Railway to Felixstow.
The Great Northern Railway propose to construct branches from their own line
at Fletton to the London and North Western at Orton, and between their
Nottingham and Grantham Branch at Barrowby to their main line at Barkston;
they also seek powers for a railway from the termination of their authorised
line at Melton Mowbray to Leicester, with three branch lines.

The Great Western Railway Company are seeking powers to make a line
from Stourbridge to Kidderminster and Bewdley, some lines at Wrexham,

VOL. Ill. (N.S.) ¥

~~. ~ = eee eee a a ke Se a ee ee ee 2

*

138 Progress in Science. (January,

sidings at Paddington and Bristol, and the extension of the Llwynennion
branch. By another bill they propose to construé branches from the Cornwall
Railway to Devonport, and from the West Cornwall Railway to St. Ives.
The London and North Western Company are applying for powers to add
considerably to their system by the construction of lines in Middlesex,
Northampton, Rutland, Huntingdon, Stafford, Chester, York, Monmouth,
Carmarthen, Glamorgan, and Carnarvon,-which are too numerous to mention
in detail. The South Western Railway propose a considerable extension of
their system by the construction of lines in Bucks, Surrey, Berks, and
Southampton. The Midland Railway propose several short branches at
Stockingford, Kingsbury, Ripley, Teversall, Duckmanton, Skegley, Bestwood-
Park, Holbeck, and one in connexion with the Metropolitan Railway at
Whitecross Street. The South Eastern Railway Company are applying for
powers to constru@ new lines at Rochester and Chatham, a jun¢tion line
between the South Eastern, New Tunbridge, and Paddock Wood and Maid-
stone lines. The proposed Staines and West Drayton Railway is a line
leaving the great Western line at Hillingdon, and terminating by a junétion
with the Windsor branch of the South Western Railway at Staines. The
Swindon, Marlborough, and Andover Railway is a line from the Great
Western, at Swindon, to the London and South Western at Andover.

Bridges.—An important engineering work is now under construétion across
the Thames, at Chelsea, known as the Albert Bridge. The principle of its
construction is that known as Mr. Ordish’s rigid suspension principle; this
system consists in suspending the main girders, which carry the roadway, by
straight inclined chains, which are maintained in their proper position by
being suspended by vertical rods, at intervals of 20 feet, from a steel wire
cable. The bridge, when completed, will have a total length of 710 feet, and
a width of 41 feet betweenthe parapets. These will be formed of the main
girders, which are of wrought-iron, 8 feet deep and continuous, the upper
portions being ornamentally perforated in order to lighten and improve the
appearance of the structure. The main girders will be connected transversely
by cross girders placed 8 feet apart, and on these will be laid the planking for
the carriage roadway. There will be four towers carrying the main chains of
the bridge, and they will be placed in pairs, each pair being connected at a
height of 60 feet from the platform level by an ornamental iron arch. The
towers are of cast-iron, and consist each of an inner column 4 feet in external
diameter, surrounded by eight 12-inch octagonal columns placed 12 inches
from the central shaft, the whole group being connected together at intervals
by disc pieces or collars of cast-iron. The bridge is divided into a centre
and two side openings, the former a span of 400 feet, and the latter 155 feet
each. The foundations of the piers consist of cast-iron cylinders, the bottom
or cutting ring being 21 feet in diameter, and they are the largest cylindrical
castings ever made in one piece. From these the cylinders gradually taper
to 15 feet in diameter at the level. at which the towers commence. The
cylinders are sunk down into the London clay, and then filled in with concrete.

A paper has recently been read before the American Society of Civil
Engineers relative to the problem of how to sustain and maintain in position
the arch ribs of the Illinois and St. Louis bridge during the progress of its
construction. The most prominent novelty in the plan adopted consists in
the absence of all scaffolding or trestling standing in the river, excepting only
for a very short distance immediately adjoining the piers and abutments, sub-
stituting therefor a suspending system from above; also in using the inherent
stiffness of the arch ribs themselves as caulilevers, aided, if found necessary,
by temporary ‘“‘ guys” from the piers and abutments, to support the derricks
and stages from which to proje@ forward the successive sections of the ribs.
Space will not admit of our entering further upon this subje@ at present, but
we shall return to it again upon a future occasion, as it is one of extreme
novelty and well deserving of further notice.

Channel Steamer.—Whilst the various schemes for rendering communication
between this country and the Continent are under consideration,—whether

1873.] Light. 139

by means of a tunnel or otherwise,—Mr. Bessemer has recently introduced a
new type of steam-vessel, the leading principle of which is to neutralise the
wave-action of the seato such an extent as that a portion of the ship—namely,
the state cabin—shall remain always at rest, thus overcoming all the present
incentives to sea-sickness. The pitching action of the vessel is proposed to
be overcome by giving it a very low freeboard at either end, and driving it
through the waves instead of allowing it to mount them. ‘The rolling motion
is overcome by suspending the saloon at each end, and at two intermediate
points, upon steel axes, supported upon standards. To prevent the saloon
from being affected by the oscillation of the vessel, or its equilibrium from
being disturbed by the movements of the passengers, it is fitted with hydraulic
gear, by means of which its position with respect to the vessel is placed under
perfect control, an attendant, having a spirit-level before him, being enabled,
by the manipulation of a single lever, at all times to keep the floor of the
saloon horizontal. A detailed description of the apparatus to be employed
would, however, occupy more space than we can afford to give to it here.

LIGHT,

Mr. D. S. Holman has contrived a slide for viewing bacteria, vibriones, and
other low organisms, under the highest powers of the microscope. The slide
consists of a central polished cavity, about which is a similar polished bevel ;
and from the bevel outwards extends a small cut, the object of which is to
afford an abundance of fresh air to the living things within, as well as to
relieve the pressure, which shortly would become so great—from the expansion

Fie. 1.

of the liquid within—as to cause the destruction of the cover-glass. No spe-
cial dimensions are stated for the central cavity. The bevel is usually 3th inch
in diameter (the engraving is two-thirds of natural size) ; the small canal is cut
through the inner edge of the bevel or annular space outward, for the purpose
named above. It is found upon enclosing the animalcule, &c., that they will
invariably seek the edge of the pool in which they are confined, and the
bevelled edge permits the observer to take advantage of this disposition, for
when beneath it the obje@s are within range of the higher power objed-
glasses. Another very important feature in the device is the fact that a pre-
paration may be kept within it for days or weeks together without losing
vitality, owing to the simple arrangement for supplying fresh air.

Dr. J. J. Woodward, in some remarks on the resolution of the nineteenth
band of Nobert’s plate, states that he has obtained the best results with
objectives rather under-corrected as to colour. This entirely coincides with
the practice of some of the best London opticians who have directed their
attention chiefly to the perfe& correction of the spherical aberration, and,
knowing the impossibility of entirely correcting the chromatic aberration, have
always left a small amount of colour, not only without injury to the performance
of the combination, but with positive advantage.

140 Progress in Science. : (January,

Mr. F. H. Wenham has succeeded in constructing objectives with a single
posterior as well as anterior lens, the only compound lens being the middle
combination. With respeé to the fitness of the high angle of aperture of the
glasses at present in use for ordinary work, Mr. Wenham considers “ that
a gsth of about 95°, accurately corrected, and having a long working distance,
say jth of an inch, would be a valuable glass in the hands of a naturalist,
enabling him to see into things instead of a mere surface observation of a few
diatoms, for the sake of performing the feat of defining the difficult marking
of some half-dozen of them,—and this is only what such a glass is at present ©
used for.”’

Messrs. Powell and Lealand have constructed an objective of 2,th of an inch
nominal focus; its angular aperture is 160°; the magnifying power is 4000
diameters with the A eye-piece, and it bears the B and C eye-pieces with no
other detriment than a slight loss of light; it works well through a cover of
0°003 inch. It was exhibited at a recent meeting of the Quekett Microscopical
Club, and, notwithstanding the unfavourable conditions under which it was
tried, it showed the Podura scale sharply, without colour and with abundance
of light.

At the December meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society Mr. Gayer
exhibited a micro-spectroscope of novel construction. The slit is placed in the
lower part of the body at about an inch
Fic. 2. distance above the objeé-glass; the
slit is adjusted by the usual con-
trivances, and a small right-angled
prism, B, and mirror, c, supply the
means of obtaining a second spectrum
for comparison. The image of the slit
is formed by the collimating lens, D,
above which are mounted two prisms
of 60°, Eand F. Attached to the curved
tube containing the prisms is the tele-
scope, G, having all necessary arrange-
ments for focussing, and also a micro-
meter, H. When the objeé& to be
examined is so small that there is any
doubt as to its image filling the slit,
the spectroscope is removed, and the
ordinary draw-tube with erector substi- .
tuted ; the slit can then be viewed, and
so adjusted as to include the whole of
the object. The prisms are of such
dispersive power as to distinétly split
the D line. The points of novelty are
the position of the slit and the employ-
ment of a telescope to view the spec-
trum, which of course allows of varia-
tions of magnifying power by changing
the eye-piece. Mr. Gayer claims for
this micro-spectroscope the advantages
of increased light and greater dispersion
than in the ordinary dire& vision in-
strument placed over the eye-piece.
The latter property is not altogether
an unmixed gain, for although dispersive power is invaluable for separating the
bright lines of incandescent gases, the conditions required for the work of the
micro-spectroscope are very different; the majority of absorption-bands are by
no means sharp or well-defined at their edges, and are, as a rule, best seen
with prisms of comparatively low dispersion, as more powerful instruments
only thin out the bands and render their boundaries less evident.

1873.] Heat. IAI

FLEA E:

Prof. Volpicelli, in ‘‘ Poggendorff’s Annalen,” says—It has been asserted
that a lowering of temperature is produced when air, which has been com-
pressed in a vessel, is allowed to stream out against the surface of a thermo-
pile. To test this assertion I compressed air in a cylindrical vessel to four
atmospheres, and, after the heat of the compression had disappeared, I allowed
the air to stream against a thermopile, which was connected with a reflecting
galvanometer. Three different results appeared. If the commencement of
the air-stream was pretty near the surface of the pile there was elevation of
temperature, if it was somewhat distant from the surface the temperature fell,
and at a point intermediate there was no change of temperature—the image
reflected from the needle was unmoved. These results may also be obtained
if air is blown, with an ordinary bellows, against the surface of the pile; only
in this case the rise or fall of temperature is less marked, owing to the smaller
compression of air. I also obtained the results, though in still less measure,
with a centrifugal ventilator. These three results are quite in accordance with
the new thermodynamic theory. Inthe experiments the causes of variation
of temperature are of three kinds:—One consists of the destruction of the
vis viva of the air, or external work; a second consists of internal work, done
by the air molecules which become condensed in the pores of the metal of the
pile; and the third of external work, done by the molecules as they expand in
their course. The two first cause an elevation, the third a lowering of tem-
perature. It is thus seen how one or other of the three above-described results
is produced, according as the effects of the two first causes are greater or smaller
than the opposing effect of the third cause, or equal to it. Remove the source
of the air-stream and you have, first, a zero point of increase of temperature,
then a decrease of temperature. Remove still further, and you come to a
zero point of increase of temperature. From this is to be inferred that
between these two distances (corresponding to the two zeros) there is a max-
imum of decrease of temperature which the galvanometer indicates. If it
were possible to drive the air against the pile without compressing it, and,
therefore, without expansion taking place, the two first causes only would
operate and there would be heat produced. But these conditions are unattain-
able. In order to show to a large audience the transformation of destroyed
vis viva into heat, I suspended a ball of phosphorus near a wall, and standing
about ro metres off, blew the ball with a pair of bellows against the wall. The
ball was set on fire when it struck, not in its passage through the air. In
another experiment I let a solid body fall on the surface of the thermopile, the
latter being connected with a reflecting galvanometer. The reflected image
was then seen to move several degrees over the scale, indicating elevation of
temperature. This experiment is quicker and more simple than that sometimes
performed in which a body is allowed to fall several times from a certain height
on a hard substance, and then applied to the pile.

ELECTRICITY.

Dr. G. Robinson has recently patented a new method of sawing timber. It
consists in applying a platinum wire, heated to redness or whiteness by an
electric current, to the trees or wood which are to be severed much in the same
manner as it has hitherto been employed in removing tumours fron the human
subject. By fitting the wire with handles so as to be able to guide it in any
direction the most intricate fretwork can be cut.

M. J. Jamin has contributed to the French Academy of Sciences a paper, in
which he shows that magnetism may be condensed in a manner similar to
electricity. Having for some special purposes had a large horseshoe magnet
made, consisting of ten lamine of perfetly homogeneous steel, each weighing
ten kilogrammes, he suspended it to a hook attached to a strong beam, and
having wound copper wire round each of the legs, which were turned down-
wards, he put the latter into communication with a battery of fifty Bunsen’s

142 Progress in Science. (January,

elements, by which means the horseshoe might be magnetised either posi-
tively or negatively at pleasure. The variations were indicated by a small
horizontal needle situated in the plane of the poles. There was, further, a
series of iron plates, which could be separately applied to each of the laminz,
Before attaching any of the latter, the electric current was driven through the
apparatus for a few minutes and then interrupted, whereby the magnet
acquired its first degree of saturation, marked by a certain deviation of the
needle. One of the iron plates (usually called ‘‘ conta&s”’) was then put on,
and it supported a weight of 140 kilogrammes. A second trial was now made;
and the current having been passed through again for a few seconds, it was
found that the horseshoe would support 300 kilogrammes, instead of 140.
The number of contacts being now increased to five, which together in the
natural state supported 120 kilogrammes, it was found after the passage of
the current that they could support the enormous weight of 680 kilogrammes,
which they did for the space of a week. No sooner, however, were the con-
tacts taken off than the horseshoe returned to its usual permanent strength of
140 kilogrammes. This tends to show that magnetism may be condensed like
electricity for a short period.

Zollner has ascribed the electric currents of the earth to the motion of in-
candescent molten masses beneath the crust, which generate currents in the
direction of their motion. He has also stated that all current movements of
fluids, especially when in contact with solid bodies, are to some extent
‘accompanied with currents of electricity, which have the same direction as
the fluids themselves. To prove this he inserted the ends of the copper wires
of avery delicate galvanometer just within the wall of a caoutchouc tube,
through which a stream of water was passing; this caused a deflection of
several degrees on the galvanometer scale, thereby indicating the existence
of an electric current, whose direction was that of the water. The greater the
distance between the ends of the wires, which may be replaced by metallic
plates, the stronger the defle@tion of the needle. Beetz, while recently re-
peating Zollner’s experiment, obtained similar results, but found that the
‘currents have a much simpler origin. The needle is deflected so long as the
reservoir in which the water falls is not isolated. The metal, the stream of
water, and the reservoir, form a voltaic element, whose current it is that
deflects the needle. By filling the reservoir, and dipping the free end of the
tube, also filled into it,the current is observed though the water be shut off,
nor does any change take place when the tap is opened. By simply inverting
the position of the tube, the direction of the current is reversed; this is ob-
served to be the case with or without a flow of water. If the reservoir is
isolated, no current is formed, whether the water be allowed to flow or not.
When the tap and reservoir are of zinc, no current is produced with or without
a flow of water, and with or without isolation of the reservoir. Therefore,
according to these observations, no electricity is generated by a stream of
water.

TECHNOLOGY.

Professor Chevreul has made a series of experiments on the stability of
dyes imparted to silks, damasks, and fabrics used in furnishing, The blue
colours produced by indigo are stable; Prussian blue resists moderately the
action of air and light, but not of soap; scarlets and carmines produced by
cochineal and lac-dye are fast; the most stable yellows on silk are produced
by weld.

M. Dubrunfaut, during the siege of Paris, devised an artificial milk, made
by dissolving one ounce and a half of sugar in a quart of water, adding an
ounce of dry albumen (from white of eggs), and 15 to 30 grains of soda crystals,
and then making an emulsion with it by means of from one ounce and a
half to two ounces of olive oil. As the war progressed gelatine was substituted
for albumen, and slaughterhouse fats, purified by melting at 150°, for the
olive oil. One firm made by the latter process 132,000 gallons of milk daily
for Paris consumption.

M. E. Daniel states that painting in oil may be executed upon tin-foil spread

1873.] Technology. 143

out upon a smooth surface, such as glass, the latter having first been moistened
to aid the laying out of the tin, and to maintain it in its position. The
painting, when dried and varnished, can be rolled up like ordinary paper-
hangings, from which it essentially differs in possessing all the variety of tones
and colouring that oil paintings admit of. The tin groundwork constitutes a
water-proof protection, and, on account of its great flexibility, will follow the
various mouldings and contour of the object to be ornamented. To the latter
should be applied a hydrofuge mixture; it will then be ready for the decorator.
Ordinary gilding may be replaced by this method, as the gold can be applied
in the workmanship and the gilt tin fixed afterwards. The advantage of gilt
tin over gilding on other, metals is, that it is inimical to oxidation ; whereas it
is known that gilding upon other metals, and notably upon zinc, deteriorates
rapidly.

A quantity of tin in ingots was, during a severe frost, sent from Rotterdam
to Moscow. On arriving it was found to be in a coarse crystalline powder,
which could not be fused into the ordinary condition of tin; for, on the appli-
cation of heat, it was almost entirely converted into oxide of tin, the appear-
ance of which closely resembled sulphide of molybdenum. On being analysed
it was found to contain 99°7 per cent of pure tin, the remainder being lead
and iron. The cause of the change was attributed to the long-continued
vibration it underwent at so low a temperature. Similar conditions have
been known to render wrought-iron extremely brittle, and its texture crystalline
and granular.

M. Marion, of Paris, has devised a method of photographic printing; it
consists in impregnating paper with ferroprussiate, which renders it sensitive
to light. The drawing, which is made on tracing paper, is laid upon the sen-
sitive paper as a negative and exposed to light, after which the sensitive paper
is washed in water; the copy is then found to be produced on it in white
line on a blue ground, which may be changed to black, the drawing still
remaining white by using a tannin solution.

The French Mint has recently coined, for the Bank of France, 6000 or
7000 lbs. of Australian Gold, known as ‘brittle.’ All the pieces have been
found to be easily broken, and have, therefore, to be re-melted. The defe&
is attributed to the presence of a small percentage of antimony and arsenic,
extremely difficult of removal. These elements are known to produce a
similar effect in all metals or alloys that are subject to the molecular changes
induced by the pressure and heat developed under the action of the dies in
the coining press.

Owing to the fact that water-glass is gradually dissolved out of wood while
chloride of zinc is volatile at the temperature at which wood ignites, Dr.
Sieburger proposes as a fire-proof paint for woodwork the following :—Two
coats of a hot saturated solution of 3 parts alum and 1 part ferrous sulphate
are first applied and allowed to dry. The third coat is a dilute solution of
ferrous sulphate, into which white potter’s clay is stirred until it has the con-
sistency of good water-colours. Another method is to apply hot glue-water
as long as it is absorbed into the pores of the wood. A thick coat of boiled
glue is then applied, and while fresh is dusted over with a powder composed
of 1 part sulphur, 1 part ochre or clay, and 6 parts of ferrous sulphate.

M. Tatro, the inventor of a process for purifying petroleum, states that by
adding from 2 to 4 per cent of sulphuric acid, and 4 to 6 per cent of dry lime,
agitating the oil with this mixture, and proceeding with the distillation, a
larger proportion of burning oil is produced.

Palmetto leaves have recently been shipped from Savannah to England for
the purpose of testing their value in the manufacture of paper.

; CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

Having ascertained that furfurol is formed when wood is heated with water
to an elevated temperature and pressure, Mr. Greville Williams, F.R.S, ex-
plains the method by which he found it to be produced by the ation of high-

144 Progress in Science. (January,

pressure steam on the same substance. The apparatus employed is shown in
the engraving.. A Ais a bronze autoclave, made in one piece, and of great
strength. Before being employed it was tested by means of a hydraulic
pump, and was found to withstand a pressure of 500 lbs. to the inch without
leakage. Before using the instrument a ring of vulcanised india-rubber was
placed between the autoclave and its cover, B B. The screw, C, which serves
to keep down the cover,is forced home by means of a wrench applied at L.
The arms, D D, serving to support the screw, are affixed to projections on the
autoclave, by movable steel pins inserted atE E. A screw-tap, F, enables the
produé to be distilled over at the conclusion of the operation. The pressures
ice ee are indicated by the gauge, Gc. A

cylinder of perforated metal, H, is used

to contain the substance to be experi-
mented upon; which, in this case, was
pine sawdust. The shelf, 1, also per-
forated, prevents contact of the saw-
dust with the water, the level of the
latter being shown at Kk. The water
and the charge of sawdust having been
introduced, the apparatus was immersed

to about half its depth in an oil-bath,

the temperature being carefully regu-
lated by means of athermometer. The
oil-bath was then heated until the gauge

D indicated a pressure of too lbs. to the
inch; this pressure was maintained in
some experiments for three, and in

ZO 1 ae

ye a ae re \ others for four hours, the average tem-
N E perature of the oil-bath being about
N 198°C. The apparatus having been

allowed to cool until the pressure had
completely gone down, was then con-
nected with a condensing arrangement.
The screw, F, was then loosened, and
heat was applied to the oil-bath until
about three-fourths of the water pre-
K sent had distilled over. The distillate
\& = was strongly acid to test-paper, and
(WW < smelt decidedly of furfurol, mixed with
an empyreumatic odour. On the addi-
tion of ammonia it acquired a yellow tint, and in a few hours deposited
the charaderistic crystals of furfuramide. The crude distillate, mixed
with aniline and acetic or hydrochloric acid, instantly gave the magnifi-
cént crimson colouration indicative of furfurol. To prove that the crystal-
line precipitate with ammonia was really furfuramide, this was distilled
with a very small quantity of hydrochloric acid; the distillate immediately
gave the crimson reaction with aniline. The crystals, treated with acetic
acid and aniline, also reacted in the same manner. The author next
proceeded to ascertain whether wood would yield furfurol when distilled
with water at normal pressures. He therefore distilled roo lbs. of sawdust
with roo gallons of water, in a still heated by a copper steam coil: 20 gallons
were distilled over. These 20 gallons were put intoa small copper still, and
the first 10 gallons received. These in their turn were rectified again, and
two received. In spite of the concentration which these liquors had under-
gone, furfuramide was obtained on digestion with ammonia, and, in fact, they
only contained minute traces of furfurol. ?

W
>

VVHHHHHH@C@E€{"WUuquwéttttltt

THE QUARTERLY

POUR AG OG SCPE N C Ie.

APRIL, 1873.

I. THE COAL-FAMINE.
By Professor EDWARD HULL, M.A. F.R.S.

d d pression in general use with reference to coal in this

year of grace, 1873. In London (as I write) the
price is 50 shillings a ton; in Dublin, 40 shillings; in Bel-
fast, something between the two. In various parts of
England and Scotland the price ranges from 30 to 50 shil-
lings, according to circumstances. The price may be con-
sidered as generally doubled all over the country; and in
some distri¢ts—situated even on the borders of coal-fields
themselves—it is often difficult to procure a ton unless by
notice delivered tothe coal-merchant several days beforehand.
All classes feel the pinch, with the exceptions of colliery pro-
prietors and coal-miners. The wealthy, of course, still keep
-up their fires, and pay heavily for the luxury; the middle
classes, clerks with small salaries, civil-servants, curates,
and professional men commencing life, are obliged to stint
themselves of warmth, and find that there is much more
difficulty in keeping a balance between income and expendi-
ture than heretofore. And the poor —one may well pause.
to enquire how they manage to keep out the winter’s frost
and cook their little meals while every hundredweight of coal.
costs two shillings or half-a-crown. Christian philanthropy
steps in, and by establishing coal-funds and various means
of relief, helps to alleviate the distress; but many a poor
widow or worn-out labourer has the ordinary privations of life
aggravated fourfold by the want of a good fire —one of the
few bright and cheerful things to be seen in a poor man’s
cottage. We commend this consideration to the attention
of that mysterious authority which assumes the right of
limiting the supply of coal in order to keep up the price. It
may be a supreme source of gratification to have the power
of crippling industry, disorganising trade, and causing a
Severe pressure amongst a “‘ bloated aristocracy,” but do
the men who pull the wires of this secret organisation ever
VOL wil.) (N-S.) U

EARTH in the midst of plenty. Such is_the ex-

146 The Coal Famine. . April,

reflect that they are bringing misery and want to thousands
of poor men’s homes? ‘To what extent the increased price
of coal is bearing on the resources of the community at
large is a question to which Sir W. Armstrong has attempted
to give areply. In a recent address tothe North of England
Institute of Mining Engineers, he states that the rise in
price may be estimated as equivalent to a tax on coal to the
extent of 44 millions sterling.* To manufacturers who
consume on their works from 100 to 300 tons per week, the

difference in price may represent the difference between

profit and no profit, or even loss; and already we hear of
factories about to be closed and iron furnaces ‘‘ blown out,”
while strikes and dear coal have driven many branches of
trade away from their original sites.t

Anyone arriving on our shores, and unacquainted with the
course of events of the last few years, would naturally con-
clude that the long-threatened exhaustion of our coal-mines
was actually impending; or, at any rate, that the quantity of
fuel in the under-ground cellars had become so far diminished -
that the quantity available for supply had materially fallen
off. As a matter of fact, our position is now very much
what we should expe¢t it to be if one-half of our available
supply was exhausted. If, however, our visitor were in-
formed that the coal is as plentiful as ever, that the diffi-
culties of mining are not materially increased as compared
with the last few years, that miners are numerous, and the
mines on the whole only a little deeper than when coal was
20 shillings a ton in London, he might well be excused if he
received such a statement with incredulity.

And yet such is in reality the case. The researches of
the Royal Commissioners on Coal-Supply have fully demon-
strated that there is sufficient coal within workable depth to
supply the wants of the population of these countries for
several centuries, even with an annual increase calculated
on the rate of increase of past years. On the basis of a
diminishing ratio of increase, Mr. Price Williams, whose
views are quoted with approval by the Commissioners,?
calculates that the annual consumption at the end ofa
century would amount to 274 millions of tons, and that the
total quantity of available coal, as estimated by the Com-
missioners themselves, would last for 360 years. Another

* Nature; No. 171,/p-271-

+ It was recently stated, at a meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Com-
merce, that the rise in ihe price of coal may be considered to represent an
increase of one halfpenny per pound in the price of cotton. In Lancashire

the rise is less severely felt than in some other places.
+ Report, vol. i., p.-xv.

1873.] The Coal Famune. 147

estimate, made on the basis of an arithmetical increase of
three millions of tons per annum (the increase of the last
fourteen years), would make the consumption at the end of
a century amount to 415 millions of tons, and the estimated
available quantity would then be only sufficient to last for
276 years. Upon both of these calculations, however, the
writer has recently had occasion to remark ‘“‘that they
labour under the defect of not taking into account the
diminishing rate at which coal must be consumed when it
becomes scarcer and more expensive. The abrupt exhaustion
of our coal-fields is an impossibility, and if it is to take
place at all it can only be by a slow and gradual process,
concomitant with a complete—let us hope a higher and
nobler—reorganisation of society.” *

Whatever, therefore, may be the ultimate period of ex-
haustion, it 1s clear at least that it is far removed from
ourselves, and we must therefore look to other causes than
that of failure of supply to account for the present high
price and scarcity of mineral fuel.

These causes, in our view, are twofold. First and chief,
want of thrift and intelligence amongst the mining popula-
tion ; and secondly, interference with the free action of the
law of supply and demand. Owing to the former, the miner
has generally little desire to emulate the rest of the world
in making money, being satisfied if by working short time
he can earn sufficient to pay his way; and owing to the
latter, the supply of coal is restricted in obedience to the
authority of a secret tribunal which few working men have
the courage to resist. It might, however, be justly said,
that the power of such a tribunal over the individual actions
of coal-miners, as of other workmen, is a consequence of
want of intelligence on the part of.the mining population,
—so that the ultimate cause of the present state of things
is the low state of education, of thrift, and of self-dependence
amongst the working classes. Were the ordinary motives
for accumulating money, for ‘‘ bettering one’s self,” and
rising in the world, prevalent amongst pitmen, and were the
laws of supply and demand left to have free play in regu-
lating quantities and prices, it might be assumed that those
artificial combinations amongst workmen on the one hand,
and employers on the other, which are bearing so disastrously
upon the comfort and prosperity of the community, would
be unknown.

In order more fully to understand the question, let us

* Coal-Fields of Great Britain, 3rd edit. (1873), p. 454.

148 The Coal Famine. [April,

briefly review the origin of the present scarcity and high
prices of coal.

Upon the cessation of the Franco-German war, when the
great duel had been fought out, and the combatants
retired within the new boundaries of their territories, a
revival of trade brought with it an extraordinary demand
for iron. The stocks of pig-iron accumulating in Glasgow
and other markets were almost cleared off, and, as a neces-
sary result, the smelting-furnaces all over the country were
‘*blown in,” and then sprung up a great demand for coal
with which to feed them. The price accordingly went up,
and doubtless the proprietors of the mines were the first to
feel the benefit of the enhanced prices; but there soon fol-
lowed, as was perfectly natural, a demand on the part of the
miners for increased wages, which was generally acceded
to; and ultimately wages increased to such an extent that
with restricted time a pitman of ordinary skill can earn at
a rate varying from {£120 to £150 per annum, and, if he
condescends to work five days in the week, considerably more.

A reaction has, however, set in; the enhanced price of
iron has shortened the demand, and with this ought to
come, in the ordinary course of things, a lessening of the
demand for coal and a fall in prices. When notices of a
reduction of wages were served on the pitmen, the result
has invariably been to cause a strike, such as that we have
just witnessed on a gigantic scale in South Wales. The
price of coal has not fallen, as was to have been expected,
for the pitmen have been taught by their leaders that the
price may be artificially kept up by shortening the time of
labour and restricting the supply. The miner has learned
that by working four days in the week he can earn enough
wages to supply his wants for the seven, and he does not
care to earn more. The idea of ‘‘making hay while the
sun shines,” of laying by money earned by working the
ordinary time allotted to mortals for work, is not one by
which he is governed,—or, if so, he is prevented from acting
upon it by a mighty unseen influence to which he feels
bound to render unquestioned submission.

If the colliery proprietors insist on a reduction of wages,
or longer hours of work, the result is a “strike.’’ Looked
at from a neutral stand-point, it is impossible to conceive a
more clumsy device for settling a question between employer
and employed, especially in coal-mining. For it is abun-
dantly evident that, in the vast majority of cases, if the
proprietors of collieries could see their way to a fair profit,
by yielding to the demands of the men, they would do so

1873.] The Coal Famine. 149

sooner than expose themselvesto the disastrous consequences
of a general strike over a large mining district. For let us
enquire fora moment what are the consequences to both
parties in such a district, for instance, as that of South
Wales. To the employer it means loss of customers,
cessation of interest on capital invested in the mines, often
very large, deterioration of plant and machinery, the mines
becoming choked, or becoming filled with water in some
instances; and, lastly, the spectacle—which to a man of
even ordinary humanity must be hard to endure—of destitu- —
tion and misery around his own doors, or at least on his
own property. To the employed a strike means either a
miserable pittance doled out from some Union Fund,—
instead of abundant wages,—the exhaustion of the store
laid by for ‘‘a rainy day,” or starvation itself. It means
idleness in place of industry, poverty instead of wealth,
degradation and demoralisation instead of self-respect. And
when all is over, when the war has been waged ‘“‘to the
bitter end,” the workman returns to his employment morally
and physically impaired; and often, after the loss of a con-
siderable sum in hard cash, commences again with wages no
higher than those against which he struck.

Mayhap the result of a strike is to annihilate some branch
of manufacture, or to drive it from the district; and the
workman finds, when too late, that he has been taking ‘the
bread out of the mouth of himself and his family. The
ship-building trade of London is a case in point; and in
South Wales, where iron-smelting was in some cases a
source of little or no profit to the employer, the result of the
recent strike has been to close, perhaps permanently, a
considerable number of iron-furnaces, whereby a large |
number of men will lose their daily bread.

If these views were more generally understood amongst
the mining population, and if they would exercise that inde-
pendence of thought and action which is the heritage of
every free man, strikes would become a thing of the past;
men would work, and the price of each commodity would
find its own level according to the laws of political economy.
It is to be feared, however, that the mining population is in
a state as regards education which is not creditable to a
British subject. In some districts, both in Scotland and
England, the miners and their families are in a state of
gross ignorance, and so wretchedly housed that even decency
is out of the question. This may be due, in some measure,
to their improvident habits, for the wages they earn are suf-
ficient to provide them with much better accommodation.

150 The Coal Famine. ' [April,

But it is also a matter which the employers should look
after; and we venture to think that with the inducements
offered by a substantial house, with good accommodation
for a family, habits of temperance and forethought would be
nourished. In some cases suitable residences have been
provided, and with good results; and I now have before my
mind, in a central county of England, the recollection of a
substantial row of collier’s houses, each with a little garden
in front, and with four—or at least three—rooms for the
tenant; and not only have they been let to the colliers
at fair rentals, but the manager of the works takes good
care that they are properly used, and kept in order by the
inmates.

Much remains to be done to improve the condition of the
working miner; but while he remains often in a state un-
worthy of a Christian community, can it be wondered at
that he should be a ready instrument in the hands of
designing men, and surrender the right of private judgment
and individual action to self-appointed leaders as ignorant
as himself, and far more selfish?

One of the main causes of the present short supply of
coal is the refusal of the miners to work fulltime. Their
fathers were accustomed to work five, or even six, days in
the week, but the present generation is content with four or
four and a half. In consequence of this the mines are un-
occupied during two and a half or three days in the week,
less coal is raised, the price is advanced—owing both to the
short supply and because the proprietor has to recoup him-
self for the absence of return on his capital during the idle
days.

The absence of a desire to accumulate money, the reverse
of which may be regarded as in some measure an evidence
of civilisation, so general amongst other classes, is a
peculiar feature in the case of the miner. Most of us
are willing to do extra work in order to add a few
pounds a year to our incomes; but with the pitmen of
parts of Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Scotland, the case is
otherwise. The old motto, ‘‘ A fair day’s wage for a fair
day’s work,” has given place to a new one, “<The least
amount of work for the largest amount of pay.” . Unfortu-
nately the time left at the miner’s disposal, owing to the
short system, is not generally turned to any very high pur-
pose; so that the high wages and short time is of little
benefit to the miner himself, and is most injurious to the
community at large.

Until, however, the miners can be induced to work during

-

187 3.) ! The Coal Famine. I5I

a reasonable time, and supply us with sufficient coal, it be-
hoves the employers to render themselves as independent as
possible of their services. This is only to be done by ex-
tensive introduction of mechanical contrivances for doing
what cannot otherwise be done by hand. Coal-proprietors
and managers have been probably too slow in making use of
such inventions, and should not delay in turning to account
the present state of the labour market. There are many
coal-cutting machines invented, all of more or less use in
saving human labour; one of these, worked by compressed
air, the patent of Messrs. Baird and Co., of Gartsherrie, is
stated to be capable of doing the work of forty men, and
requires only four men to manage. Supposing this to be so,
and as there are about 360,000 men engaged in coal-mining,
it is easy to see that, with the universal use of such machines,
gooo, or say 10,000, men would be sufficient to turn out the
112 millions of tons, now sufficient for our wants. Of course,
from various circumstances, this could not actually be car-
ried out; but the extensive introduction of such machines,
by throwing a large number of unemployed hands on the
labour market, would have the effect of bringing down wages
within reasonable limits, reducing the price of coal, and
making it abundant.

The rise in the price of coal cannot, however, be alto-
gether attributed to the action of those engaged in actual
mining either as employers or workmen. While the price in
London is 50 shillings a ton, it 1s stated that at the pit’s
mouth the price is only 20 shillings, while the railway charge
is only 6 or 8 shillings. After making all reasonable allow-
ances for cartage and profit by merchants, it ought not to be
much over 32 shillings to the consumer. If this be so, the
’ profit to the middle-men or merchants must be beyond all
reason, and the public must have recourse to self-protection.
This can be done by co-operation, which has worked so ad-
vantageously in other departments of produce. Let com-
panies of private individuals be formed who will enter into
agreement to deal directly with the coal-proprietor at the
pit’s mouth, and supply themselves and the public at mode-
rate rates. The undertaking will be attended with no
greater difficulties than those already overcome by co-
operative societies. We are glad to see that proposals for
such co-operative societies for coal supply have actually been
made.

It cannot, however, be said that the public has not in
some degree merited the pressure it now feels. The waste
of coal in manufacturing and household uses has been

I LL Le ee i Ce

152 The Coal Famine. > A Api;

beyond bounds, and required some sharp remedy in order to
work a cure. The only branch of industry where the con-
sumption of coal has been reduced nearly to a minimum is
in iron-smelting, and this only in some special districts, such
as those of Middlesborough, North Lancashire, and parts of
Scotland. What can be done by improvements in the way
of economy is curiously illustrated by the history of iron-
smelting. At the Clyde iron-works, in 1796, according to
the account of Mr. Mushet, no less than g3 tons of coal
were consumed in producing I ton of pig-iron. The quan-
tity of coal now consumed has been reduced to 1 ton
14+ cwts. with the hot blast, or 2 tons 3 qrs. of coke. In
the Middlesborough distri¢t, where the expenditure of fuel
has been reduced to a minimum, the quantity of coke and
coal combined amounts to 33 cwts. I qr. to the ton of pig-
iron. In this district the hot air and gases escaping from
the throat of the furnace are used for calcining the. ore,
heating the blast, and generating the steam for driving the
blowing-engine.

In steam navigation a much-needed saving is being
rapidly effected by the introduction of double cylinders; the
first working at high-pressure, the second using the steam
over again in conjunction with acondenser. This system
has been in use in France for the last twenty years (as I am
assured by Prof. O’ Reilly), and is now used in ail the ocean
steamers of modern construction. The saving of fuel may
be taken at not less than 25 percent, and to this advantage
there is to be added the important one of additional storage
room for goods. .

The greatest amount of waste lies in household consump-
tion. The British public seems inveterately wedded to large
blazing fires, so constructed as to send three-fourths of the
heat up the chimney. Until we overcome our prejudices in
favour of the present form of fire-grate, no large amount of
saving can be effected; but, unquestionably, some modifica-
tion combining the heating surfaces of the stove with the
cheerfulness and ventilation which are the chief advantages
of the present form of open fire-grate would be the means
of effecting a large amount of saving in house-fuel. Mr.
R. Hunt—our best authority on this subje¢t—considers that
the amount of coal consumed for domestic use may be taken
at I ton per head of the population, and that about one-third
of the whole quantity raised is thus consumed,—that is,
about 37,000,000 tons. It is probable that the general sub-
stitution of stoves, or of such a combination of a stove and
grate as above recommended, would result in saving

-

1873.] Railways and thei Future Development. 153

one-third of the above quantity, or twelve millions of tons—a
quantity nearly equal to the total export of coal from
British ports.

It cannot be supposed that such a social revolution as the
re-construction of our house fire-grates involves will be im-
mediately accomplished ; but the foregoing statements will
be sufficient to show how much lies within our power, both
in the way of increasing the output of coal, with diminished
cost at the mines, and of economising the domestic supply
without the sacrifice of warmth within doors. To the co-
operation of the colliery proprietors on the one hand, and
of the public on the other, we must look for an increase of ©
supply and a reduction in the demand; the former by the
extensive increase of machinery, where hand-labour is now
in use; the latter by the introduction of grates constructed
with a view to economy. ‘To manufacturers, who are
always alive to the principle that ‘‘A penny saved is a penny
gained,” we may trust to avail themselves of every improve-
ment that offers itself in the direction of economy in fuel.*
And with regard to the miner, let us hope that the measures
which the Legislature have recently passed for securing to
the young a sound education may have the effect of ren-
dering the rising generation more industrious, more thrifty,
and more independent of influences from without in those
matters of which every man should be the sole judge for
himself.

I RAILWAYS AND THEIR FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT.

By J. W. Grover, Memb. Inst. C.E., &c.

ie seems a very hard dispensation, though it is an incon-
al trovertible one, that those who have, perhaps, conferred

more benefit upon the country during the present cen-
tury than any of their contemporaries, should reap so
little of the reward themselves. The railway shareholder—
I mean the original man who honestly read the prospectus,
and believed in its statements, and who backed his belief
with his money—was too often a victim to his credulity and
enterprising spirit.

* The statement of the Royal Commissioners on this head is satisfactory.
While admitting that coal is still wasted largely in consumption, they add that
for some time past, in our manufactures, there have been constant and perse-
vering efforts to economise coal by the application of improved appliances for

' its consumption. Report, vol. i., p. 93.

VOI itis (N.S.) x

154 Railways and thetr Future Development. [April,

Yet, why not? all venturers standa risk. Certainly, mines
are more sporting investments, to say nothing of the won-
derful and fearful enterprises in unknown corners of the
American continent, into which the British public plunge
with a confidence worthy a better cause. To these, at
least, there is a hope of some sort, remote though it be; the
story may be true—diamonds may be found in ant hills—
and a good round bonus be the occasional reward of the
speculator. But the unfortunate railway shareholder has
no such hope; if, after years of earnest expectation, he
reaches the grand consummation, the summum bonum of five
per cent., he is thankful if not satisfied.

Hence, few will embark in fresh railway enterprises
legitimately; and this being the case—as it undoubtedly is—
we may conclude the summit has been reached. It is true
the rivalries of contending companies will induce them to
support branch lines, but in themselves these branches are
suckers rather than feeders—justly regarded as necessary
evils—to be tolerated only where they cannot be avoided,
as Dr. Johnson said of notes in books. It is now just four
years ago since the Chairman of the London and Brighton
Railway Company told his proprietary, who had subscribed
four millions towards the construction of a number of
branches, that they might as well have used the bank-notes
to light their pipes with; therefore, several important
authorised lines for which the land had been aétually pur-
chased, and, indeed, the works partially completed, were
abandoned, to the chagrin of the districts they were intended
to serve.

Various attempts have since been made, both in Sussex
and Kent, to revive these defunét undertakings, hitherto
without success, and as the system now stands, the failures
are likely to be repeated, and even success itself promises
a crop of financial burthen and disaster.

There is a want of something different from what has
gone before, and several engineering gentlemen of eminence
have given us their ideas on the subject; the gauge question
has been revived by Mr. Fairlie; Mr. Fell kas brought out
the central rail invention, and others equally novel and in-
genious ; wire tramways, as they are called, have been built
for the conveyance of minerals, and suspended railways for
the conveyance of passengers on the tops of posts have been
proposed by one eminent advocate. Yet still no practical

progress has been made, and we find ourselves where we"

were when we began.
Now, it is necessary to begin at the beginning, and to

Pe

1873.] Railways and their Future Development. 155

consider the very elementary principles of a railway’s exist-
ence, to look at the physical and financial questions fairly,
and having them before us, to settle what is to be done in
the future: for depend upon it, the less we ignore the teach-
ings of the past the better; there isno sound progress apart
from experience; hence it is that reforms are seldom intro-
duced from without, although it is the external pressure
which causes them.

It will be well to deal with the physical questions first of
all, before entering upon the financial. The primary con-
ception of a railway is a perfectly smooth, level, and straight
road, upon which fri€tion is reduced to the minimum, so
that heavy loads may be propelled with the least possible
resistance, and at the highest rate of speed.

The earliest type of locomotive engine was designed to
run upon such straight and level roads, and it was supposed
for many years that locomotives could not climb hills or be
made to go round corners.

The first railway carriages were a simple modification of
the stage coaches, names and all. It is interesting to look
at the curious three-bodied ‘‘ Marquis of Stafford,’—with
yellow pannels and windows, filled with ladies in large coal-
scuttle bonnets—as shown in one of Ackermann’s early
engravings of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the
only substantial difference being that, inasmuch as the
railways of those days were made nearly straight, no
arrangement was provided for allowing the axles of the
carriage to radiate as they do partially in common road
vehicles, but both axles were rigidly fastened so as to be
immovable.

Again, as all road vehicles have to turn abrupt corners,
their wheels are made to turn independently upon their
axles, but so soon as flanges were employed to keep the
wheels of the railway carriages between two straight rails,
this arrangement was found unnecessary, and to obtain
greater strength and security, the wheels were rigidly
fastened to the axle, and both were compelled to revolve
together. .

Now, since the primary conception of the perfectly smooth
straight road, a great degeneracy has been of necessity
taking place; with greatly increased demands, less capital
than ever has been forthcoming; consequently the great
cuttings and embankments of early days are being abandoned
as precedents, and it becomes necessary that railways should
approach more closely to the form of ordinary roads, which
follow the surface of the ground only—at small cost.

.

156 Railways and their Future Development. April,

Hence it follows that the rolling-stock itself must revert
more nearly to its original pattern, readopting those con-
trivances which, under altered circumstances, were discarded.

Still keeping to the most elementary principles, for
it is these which are forgotten and misunderstood, and
yet they should be engraven on brass and hung up-
in every railway board room im the world. “Ona
common road, a horse can pull a ton weight in a cart
behind him on the level at 4 to 4+ miles an hour, or,
which is the same thing, if a weight of 70 lbs. were hung
over a pulley and lowered down a well, he could pull
it up at the speed mentioned. It is necessary to be a
little explicit, as the remarks in this paper are intended
for non-technical readers particularly. Now if two strips
of iron called rails are laid upon the aforesaid road,
the friction is reduced seven-fold, that is to say, the same
horse at the same speed could draw 7 tons, the difference
between macadam and iron being as 70 Ibs. to ro Ibs.
This immense advantage, however, disappears when gra-
dients have to be encountered, because the resistance
due to gravity becomes so greatly in excess of the resist-
ance due to friction, and is constant in both cases. For
instance, if on a common road, up a slope of one foot
in ten, the horse takes 5 cwts. in a cart over the macadam,
if rails be laid down up the same hill, he could only increase
the burthen behind him by a little more than 1 cwt.,
or, in all, 64 cwts. ; hence, in this case, the value of the rails
is nearly lost. Hence the small use of tramways where
hills occur.

Upon a very good macadamised road the resistance due
to fri¢tion is usually taken at about one-thirtieth of the whole
load carried; that is to say, if the vehicle were put upona
road sloping I in 30 it would just begin to move of itself.
But upon.a railway, under the most favourable conditions,
the resistance due to friction has been reduced to the two-hun-
dred-and-cightieth part of the whole load carried; that is to say,
the vehicle will begin to move of itself on a gradient of I in 280.
In considering the work which a horse can perform on a
tramway, it is important to bear in mind the question of
speed ; for, according to the experiments of Tredgold, he
can draw exactly four times as much at two miles an hour
as he can at five, and it appears that at three miles an hour
he does the greatest amount of actual useful work, whereas
at ten miles an hour only one-fourth of his actual power is
available, and he cannot exert that for an hour and a half;
whereas at two and a-half miles an hour he can continue

1873.| Railways and their Future Development. 157

working for eight hours. Having these data before us, it is.
easy to compare the values of steam and horse-flesh :—
Suppose coals to cost in the midland districts 18s. 8d. a ton
only, or one-tenth of a penny per lb., and assuming that an
average locomotive engine will not consume more than 5 lbs.
of coal in the hour per horse-power, the cost of fuel per
horse-power will be a halfpenny per hour. Taking the
value of the horse’s provender at 1s. gd. a day only, and
supposing he works for six hours, that would cost 34d.
an hour against a halfpenny in the case of steam, or, as 7 to I
in favour of steam; and this result is obtained on the
supposition that the horse travels only at three miles an
hour.

Now, to sum up the combined advantages, therefore, of
an engine on a level railway against a horse on a level
common road at 10 miles an hour, we shall find that the
former gives an economy over the latter of nearly 300 to 1;
at 5 miles an hour it would stand as 115 to 1; and at
2+ miles an hour as 64 to I.

Such are the enormous advantages of steam and rails, and
with them does it not seem astonishing that better financial
results have not been obtained ? There must be something
wrong somewhere. As Artemus Ward says, “‘ Why is this
thus, and what is the reason of this thusness ?”’

Speed is the delinquent, and the cause of the loss of the
great primary advantages: the vehicles on railways are pro-
pelled very fast ; hence they involve great strength in their
construction, | and enormous weight in proportion to the
paying load carried.

An old stage coach, according to Nicholas Wood, weighed

only 16 to 18 cwts., and would carry upwards of 2 tons
of paying passengers with their luggage, or about {ths of a
hundredweight of dead load to every hundredweight of
paying load. Now, a third-class carriage with four com-
partments would represent 2°8 cwts. of dead weight to every
I cwt. of paying load. Therefore the stage coach has the
advantage over the third-class railway carriage of 6} to 1.
_ It becomes impossible to institute any absolute comparison
between roads and railways at speeds above 10 miles an
hour, because such speeds are impossible on the former for
any considerable distance. Again, the question of gradient
has to be noticed, for in the preceding remarks a level road
and a level railway have only been considered.

As has been explained, where steep gradients occur, the
resistance due to gravity so much outweighs that due to
friction that rails afford a comparatively insignificant

158 Railways and their Future Development. [April,

advantage, and one which is entirely lost if the stock has to
be increased in weight 63 times.

It may easily be shown that on a gradient of I in 10, for
instance, taking the foregoing figures, that the advantages
of a steam-worked railway over a horse-worked road would
be a little more than one-fourth, if the stock on the former
be only 64 times heavier in proportion than the latter would
require. Hence it follows that no railway having gradients of
I in 10 could be worth making (assuming such to be
possible) unless the stock upon it were assimilated to that
of the ordinary omnibus or stage coach-type.

In former times calculations were made by Nichoien
Wood of the comparative costs of conveyance on ordinary
roads by horses; he showed that on an average a stage
waggon could carry at the rate of 2} miles an hour profitably
at 8d. a ton per mile; that a light van or cart at 4 miles
an hour could take for 1s.a mile a ton of goods. Passengers
in stage coaches were charged 3d. a mile each, or 3s. 6d. a
ton, at g miles an hour. Now let us consider what railways
actually do. At the present moment coals are conveyed at
5-8d. per ton per mile, at an average speed of 20 miles an
hour; and this low rate actually leaves a profit. Excursion
trains take passengers at less than 3d. each per mile, at
20 miles an hour, or at 7d. a ton a mile.

Now, bearing in mind the relative proportions of paying
and non-paying loads involved in carrying passengers and
coals, a simple calculation will show that a ton of passengers
could be carried for something less than 1d. a mile, or =th part

of a penny each. . For, although passengers require station
accommodation, they unload themselves, which coals do not.

In the autumn of 1869, the “‘ Times” took up the railway
problem, and in a series of very able articles endeavoured
to show the errors of the present state of things. Although
advocated by so powerful a pen, the reforms still remain
unaccomplished—indeed, uncommenced. It was then shown
that in practice every passenger on a railway involved over
2 tons—of iron and timber—to carry him. Or, according
to Mr. Haughton (late of the L. & N. W. Railway), no more
than 30 per cent of the load which is hauled by a goods
train represents paying weight, the remaining 70- per cent
being dead weight. This seems astonishing, truly, but it
is nothing to the passenger trains, where only 5 per cent, or
even less, of the load pays, the remaining 95 per cent being
made up of apparently dead and unprofitable material. It
is well to keep this clearly in view. In talking about a
passenger, with relation to a railway, one must not picture

1873.] Railways and their Future Development. 159

to oneself a respectable English country gentleman, riding,
perhaps, some 14 stone, but some Homeric giant, magnified
into prehistoric proportions, weightier than an ordinary
Ceylonese elephant, and representing about 20 to 25 full
sacks of coals, or 2} tons.

Yet for three years and more these “‘ facts”” have been
made manifest, and nothing whatever has been done; and,
as matters stand, no alteration of any appreciable extent is
possible, or else it would have been effected long ago. High
speeds involve high requirementsand great strengths in under-
frames, in buffers, couplings, axles, and the entire fabric of
the vehicle, besides in the engine, demanding large fire
boxes and driving wheels. If trains are to run at 60 miles
an hour their construction cannot be materially altered
without some change in the general system itself. Thus
speaks the oracle :—‘‘ The railways of the United Kingdom
are conducted by an accomplished, scientific, and highly-
skilled body of experts, who know their business, do it, and
don’t talk about it; and who, moreover, take out of the
locomotive all they can, and present it freely and exuberantly
to those whom it is their interest as well as their pleasure
to accommodate—the travelling community.”

These remarks are but too true; the travelling community
has been well cared for; perhaps the unfortunate share-
holders in future undertakings should be accommodated too
—by a slice in what isto be so freely and ‘‘ exuberantly ”
given away to those who have taken no risk in the
venture.
iw eetjus proceed. to dissect the existing state of affairs

financially, and see where the money goes, and how. Perhaps
the last year or two have been exceptional; we will take
three years ago. Out of every £100 earned £49 have to be
paid away in working expenses, leaving £51 to be divided
amongst those who built the line.

How are those £49 spent? The table at top of next
page will show generally.

The first three items vary according to the rate of speed
employed ; they form more than one-half of the whole costs,
or 54°54 per cent. A very moderate computation would
show that if lower speeds were employed, not only could
the stock and engines be reduced in weight, but the wear
and tear would be considerably mitigated; the 54°54 per
cent would be reduced to somewhere about 36 per cent, or
Zo per cent less; imcreasing the available balance for
dividend from 51 to 69 per cent, or from 5 to nearly 7 per
cent.

160 Railways and their Future Development. [April,

Per cent of
Working Expenses.

I. The maintenance of she way and works

COSES he Je ys bi Moy Sat Se oan eee ete
2. The locomotive powers ae 2 (ten Cyne
3. Repairs and renewals of carriages and ,

waggons. . Breen ere iets)
4. Traffic charges (coaching ‘and mer- me

chanmdise) v2 254... \ceh my bee ea eee ad Oe
5. Jdxates amd taxes so. 4 dca ey tage ately alee IO
6. Government duty. 52s «eh ee
7. Compensation for personal i injury . “ea OS
8. Ditto loss and damage for goods 0°95
g. Legaland, Parlhamentary.)! @i/ ies). ee
TO. Misceltaneous expenses .icc i cow n aeeet es

Ota tose ee mel, ie le sete EEE Ow

To put the case more simply, suppose a train earns on an
average 5s. 2d. per mile, the working expenses would be
2s. 6d. a mile, made up in the following way :—

d.
1; Maintenance of way and works... . 5°53
2. Locomotive powers. . 8°38
3. Repairs and renewals of carriages @ and
waggons . .° 2°45
4. Traffic charges (coaching. and mer-
Ghlrandiseyy oe Tose eo! th mas ne eaten mecione aatae eae nT
Bs WANALCS BUG CANES. haji) Ue) bulk Mteetganes ie eae
6, (GOVErMMeNE Gut ye us. see ge a bee Ong
7. Compensation for personal i injury sey hei OLAG
8. Ditto loss and damage of goods. 0°29
9. begal and Parliamentary: .o8. 434 eee
10... Miscellaneous expenses” ~-- as is oe eas

—___

Total working expenses. . . 30d.

These figures are the A B C of the railway system in
England as it now exists, and supposed to be the most perfect
in the world, so far as comfort, speed, and constructive skill
is concerned; and the most unsatisfactory as far as com-
mercial result goes, returning on the actual outlay little over
4 per cent. ‘It ends inthis, practically, that on the most
perfectly smooth surface a train costs 2s. 6d. a mile to run it,
to carry an average of 70 passengers, thus showing an
average of nearly 6d.a ton a mile. As the system now
stands nothing better can be hoped for: competition compels

1873.] Railway Development. 161

extravagance and destructive speeds; and, furthermore, the
travelling public have been so spoilt by the useless waste of
Space in the three classes, with smoking and non-smoking
division, that any attempf at reform would be vigorously and
successfully opposed.

The present enormous weight of dead load to paying load
in England is to be greatly accounted for by the variety of
classes and the fluctuating demands for accommodation ; for
to each class there must be a large margin of allowance.

We have— =e.
First Class.

Ditto Smoking.
Second Class.

Ditto Smoking.
Third Class.
Break van and engine.

Here we have five different sets of travellers to accommo-
date; and sometimes, as on market days, there will be three
times as many persons of one particular class to accommodate
as on others; therefore, practically, on each of the five
orders nearly treble the average demand must be provided
for. It is all very well for main lines, but on branches
something else is requisite. Let there be but two classes—

1. Covered carriages, no smoking.
2. Open side cars, smoking.

And by the use of continuous breaks safety can be increased
and a break van dispensed with.
- We should here have two classes instead of five, and,
therefore, bearing in mind that three times the average
number carried has to be allowed for, a proportion of six to
fifteen in our favour. It cannot be too often repeated that
what exists cannot well be altered ; the public have acquired
certain rights by mere custom, and they must be maintained ;
but it is in view of future undertakings only, that the terms
of the new contract can be revised, as between the public
and the coming shareholder. It is, after all, the public’s
best interest to do away with that which impedes railway
development, for it is the public who reap the advantage.

When a little branch railway has to be constructed, why
should the country expect a scale of magnificence in works
and stations like that upon the main line from London to
Liverpool; why should the undertaking be saddled with
bankruptcy from its inception, and what is beneficial in
itself be converted into a bye-word and a hissing. ‘The fact
is, that the world, not excepting engineers themselves, has

MOk. Iil.; (N.S.) Y

162 Railway Development. [April,

been educated up to a certain standard of requirements, and
hence it is absolutely hopeless to look for any change in
England in “ Railways.” Like the Circumlocution Office,
or a Government department, or one of those old-fashioned
blowing engines which I have seen in the iron districts,
which does its work, and must not be meddled with, or else
it would stop altogether, the ‘‘ machinery” would get out
of order by interference, and once out, it could not be
readjusted.

A railway is a railway, and you cannot make anything
else of it. A “light railway” is a misnomer—a term which
has led to a great deal of confusion and loss of money,
although it has received the sanction of the Legislature
(31 and 32 Victoriz)—a “light” railway must be a bad
railway; therefore it is as well to descend at once from the
lofty eminence, and talk about a tramway, steam worked, if
you will, but still a “‘ tramway,” and not a.railway; then at
once we begin to approach the region of dividend and com-
mercial prosperity, and the investing public can be once
more appealed to with prospect of success, and we work on

~ a different scale and without that majesty of design, which

must end in disaster and disappointment.

Before approaching the pra¢tical part of this paper, and
showing what really ought to be, instead of what ought not,
I should briefly draw attention to the fact of a “light rail-
way” in this country being almost an impossibility—not
physically, but from the surroundings. I speak from ex- |
perience: a branch railway is projected on the ordinary
system, and receives the sanction of Parliament; a great
deal of difficulty is found in raising the money, as nobody
will subscribe who can help it; a director or country gen-
tleman, who promises a thousand pounds or two, does so
simply out of patriotic devotion to his distri¢t—for its
development—and looks upon the money as a fonde perdu,
irretrievably gone. The town to be benefited is can-
vassed by a few enthusiastic agents, who succeed in placing
a few hundred shares of £5 each amongst the tradesmen,
who give as they would to a charitable association. At last
it is found that the whole amount got together is infinitely
below what is wanted; indeed, only a fractional part of it.

Then an appeal is made to the Board of Trade, to give
permission for a redu¢tion in the style of construction,—
light rails, light permanent way, light bridges, light stations,
all cheap and bad, and in the end most costly—are sanc-
tioned, and twenty-five per cent is knocked off the required
capital. All promises well; inspired with fresh confidence,

1873.] Railway Development. 163

the directors venture on a start, and something begins to
show in the country. Then comes the fatal step, the trunk
line, which the branch runs out of, never having had any
confidence in the little sucker, and having treated it with
contempt, if not with hostility, begins to see an actual move,
and therefore undertakes to work the line at 50 per cent,
perhaps, of the’ gross receipts. All goes well now, the 50
per cent agreement is what everybody has been crying out
for, and at last have got, but it is a new era of misfortune
only—the reign of King Stork over King Log.

The working company, before taking over the new
property, instructs its engineer to report upon its condition ;
he is a gentleman who has been used to the substantial
abundance of the past ; he does not understand the ‘‘ light ”
system: to him’ a light: rail:is’a bad» one.) His engines
weigh 45 tons with their tenders ; and he knows the
locomotive superintendent will pick out one of the oldest
and worst to work this unfortunate branch, besides a few
old coaches unfit for the main line, therefore he cannot
accept light bridges. Again, he will find that all the gradients
have been made steep, and the curves sharp, to avoid
expensive earth works; this in his opinion, and justly, would
actually involve a heavier permanent way than he is using
on his main line, and so on, till the whole thing has to be
re-made; and the working expenses—nominally 50 per cent,
but, in effect, with all sorts of junction charges and renewal
claims, over 65 per cent—entirely swamps the “light ©
system,” and its specious and delusive economy.

Wise and able men amongst engineers have seen and felt
this, and have freely acknowledged that a branch line must
be absolutely something different from the parent stem, so
that it could not be worked in common with and into it.
Hence, they have advocated change of gauge, apart from its
own intrinsic merits, as most completely defining the two
systems and preventing their overlapping; it certainly does
give to the smaller system an independence and integrity
which has great advantages in many ways, but the isolation
is too complete in a small country like England, already
intersected with lines of a generally standard gauge, except
in one or two instances, and these especial. For the un-
developed States of Europe and America, for South America
and our Indian Empire, where distances are vast and traffic
sparse, a gauge narrower than 4 feet 83 inches can be used
with some advantage and economy; and if the country is
at all rough or mountainous, with a mineral traffic, then
the necessity for the small gauge is paramount, for it then
becomes a question of small gauge against no line at all.

164 Railway Development. (April,

The little Festiniog. Railway, in North Wales, has been
frequently illustrated in support of the arguments for an
extremely narrow line, for though only 2 feet wide between
the rails it has paid dividends exceeding 12 per cent—that it
has been assumed somewhat hastily that the dividend varies
inversely as the gauge, and that by halving the width between
the rails the profits can be doubled. The fallacy of this
argument is proved at Festiniog itself; for there, even on
the face of the same grand mountains, overlooking the same
fair valley of the Dwryd river, is another line, not a branch
of the first, but rather its continuation to the village of
Festiniog, though worked and made by an independent
company, which has returned no dividend to its shareholders.

The Festiniog Railway proper has great advantages quite
exceptional, and these have been turned to the very best
account by the skill and energy of Mr. C. Spooner, C.E.,
the engineer, who, by adopting the Fairlie Double Bogie
Engines, has obtained great power under very adverse cir-
cumstances and want of room. Yet it must never be for-
gotten that the elements of success are manifest. Over
one hundred thousand tons of slate annually have to be
transported, and all down hill: there is not a fifth of the
load to take back in the empties ; there is no competition
whatever. The toll has been nearly treble, at least over
double that charged by any other line for many years; and
the line has actual agreements with most of the great
quarries by which they would be prevented from any in-
dependent action to reduce their freights.

The slates in themselves form a most compact and
handy class of goods for carriage. The average speed,
moreover, of passenger and goods trains does not exceed
8 to 12 miles an hour. All these circumstances prevent us
from taking the Festiniog line as any fair example of a
system which would work well elsewhere. To visit it,
and to enjoy one of the delightful rides up the mountain
side, with the panorama of land and sea around and crags
above, and look down on the meadows by Maentwrog spread
out as a verdant parterre, severed by the silver riband-like
stream, is a pleasure to be remembered in a life. There is
no such thing to be found elsewhere in the wide world; it
is unique, and the enjoyment is accompanied by the exquisite
sense of having made some new discovery. Let us for a
moment analyse the feeling of having unlearnt the great
railway lesson one has been learning all one’s life till one
visited by chance the vale of Festiniog. For this, and this
alone, the journey is worth making, and whoever goes with

1873.] Railway Development. 165

his eyes open will not return empty; he will feel that his
preconceived notions of what was necessary to a railway’s
existence are torn to shreds and scattered to the four winds.
His prejudices of railway education will have been shaken
to their foundation, if not uprooted altogether, and he will -
say with the philosopher of the last century, that “all his
knowledge only shows him that he really knows nothing
at all.”

Hence the great success of this Festiniog Railway as an
exemplar. Because it is different it has been taken hastily
as perfection, and has been recommended in cases to which
it is wholly unsuited. Yet honour to it for its great work.
The Russian Empire, the North and Southern Continents
of America, and now I[ndia itself, have not thought it beneath
them to learn from the little Welsh Railway; and it may
be truly said that it is the first practical step in the right
direction, and has awakened men’s minds more than any-
thing else to the necessity for something different, and
something better.

It will now be the object of this paper to describe a
small and very unpretending ‘‘steam tramway,” constructed
by the Duke of Buckingham for the development of his
properties in Buckinghamshire, which in the writer’s opinion
seems to offer the most universally applicable example of
what branch railways must be in the future in England,
and perhaps in less developed regions of the world’s surface.

This little line was commenced on 8th September, 1870,
and the first four miles, from Quainton as far as Wotton,
were opened on 4th April, 1871; the greater portion of the
remainder was used for mineral and agricultural produce in
November, 1871, but the last quarter of a mile up to Brill
was not brought into use till April, 1872. The main line
is nearly seven miles long, and the gauge the same as that
upon the adjoining railways, viz., 4 feet 8} inches.

The cost of this “‘ steam tramway,” including sidings
and two goods sheds, was rather less than £1400 a mile
without land, which belongs principally to the Duke of
Buckingham. The gradients between Quainton and Wotton
are favourable, the worst being rin 78. But from Wotton
to Brill they are comparatively heavy, varying from I in 100
to I in 51, the total ascent in the last three miles being
130 feet. The line is worked by Messrs. Chaplin and Horne,
but the maintenance is undertaken by His Grace the Duke,
who executed the work with the assistance of his own
engineers, and without a contractor. The expenses of
maintenance (and certain other works) is at the rate of

166 Railway Development. (April,

£380 a year; the total working expenses being estimated at
£650, including Io per cent interest on two engines; the
earnings being at the rate of about £1350 to £1400 a year,
leaving a profit for dividend at the rate of over 7 per cent
on the outlay, exclusive of land in the first year, a result
probably without parallel in the history of English railways.

This little line traverses the most ordinary agricultural -
country ; there are no great slate quarries or manufacturing
establishments to create any exceptional trade. The case
is one which affords a striking instance of what can be done
by steam and rails incommon Englishcountry. “The traffic
consists of coal, road metal, manure from London, and
general goods inwards; of hay and straw, grain, timber,
bark outwards; of cattle inwards from Herefordshire in
spring, and fat cattle to London in the winter.

The coaching traffic consists of passengers and milk, at
present carried by a Great Western composite carriage,
which has been borrowed, and which weighs 8 tons, a great
deal too much for the work it has to do.

The line is worked by one 6-horse Aveling and Porter ~
engine, weighing less than ro tons, and costing about £400.
The engine makes two double trips a day, and a second
one is now provided. The former is found sufficient, and
very low rates are charged, London manures being brought
at 1d. per ton per mile throughout.

It should be observed that these engines have no springs, .
and consequently travel somewhat roughly. Perhaps too
great economy has been sought in them; an expenditure of
£600 would have ensured a really efficient machine.

The speed employed varies from four to eight miles an
hour, and it was not intended to carry passengers at all in
the first instance; but the demand for accommodation in
the trains was so great that the passenger carriage had to
be borrowed, and the numbers carried were 627 in the first
four months of last year.

Unfortunately, no statements of the aétual costs and
earnings are published beyond April last; but the impulse
to trade and agriculture, due to the tramway, is extra-
ordinary; and has exceeded the best expectations. The
district served is one by no means densely populated, on
the contrary, the whole of the villages, including Brill, do
not total up to more than 2000 persons, or less than 300a
mile. Three years ago, the idea of making a branch rail-
way to serve such a district would have been considered
insanity; for all over the country branch lines are seen,
having actual towns upon them, which nevertheless cannot

1873.] Railway Development. 167

pay any dividend at all, and are frequently obliged to appeal
for refuge to the ‘‘ Court.” Yet here we have an actual
proof of the capabilities of iron and steam to serve a
district, and not to forget its shareholders; for, even after
allowing something for the cost of land and administration,
such as might be contingent on an enterprise carried out
without the aid of one great proprietor, there is in the
Wotton revenue a good balance on the right side.

It is only right, in concluding these remarks on this
curious branch, to say that there are no platforms, the rails
weigh only 30 lbs. to the yard, and the line is not fenced
except in grazing meadows; at each main road crossing
there is a siding for trucks; the guard issues tickets whilst
travelling in the train, the tickets being torn from a book as
in a tramway-carriage ; one ordinary train is instanced as a
fair average down, it consisted of the engine, a Great
Western railway-carriage, five empty coal trucks, and three
trucks laden with hay, which altogether weighed about
50 tons.

The staff of servants working the train consists of one
engine-driver, one breaksman, and one guard; at Messrs.
Chaplin and Horne’s offices, at Brill, there is a manager
and two clerks. The principal traffic is in coal, of which
from 100 tons to 140 tons go up weekly.

How many parts of England, and more in Scotland and
Ireland, are languishing for want of such humble but
efficient steam tramways; how enormously might the pro-
ductive powers of the soil be increased by such easy access
to and from the railway system; every farmer might have the
railway wagons brought to his homestead, giving him cheap
lime, coal, and manure, and taking out his hay, straw, and
cattle ; and furthermore, what a field is here opened out for
the investment of capital now seeking employment and only
finding it in foreign enterprises. By a little careful
selection of the country, by the co-operation of the land-
owners, and with the aid of an occasional paper mill,
quarry, or manufactory, such undertakings might be made
to pay large and handsome dividends, very much exceeding
those obtained in the Wotton tramway. Their development
and their success must depend on the landowners them-
selves: if they will obstinately persist in making all kinds
of monstrous claims for severance and land, no investor
could reasonably be asked to embark in the scheme; but if
they would content themselves with fair rent charges and
agricultural values, their properties might be benefited ina
way to yield them handsome returns.

168 Railway Development. (April,

As such tramways must necessarily follow the surface of
the ground to a great extent, avoiding heavy earth-works, it
is worth while to consider what really are the limits of
gradient.

If we take two pieces of clean iron and lay one on the
other, and gradually lift one end of the lower one till the
superincumbent piece bégins to slide, we shall find that
this sliding takes place at a slope somewhere between I in
4 and 1 in 6; this, therefore, is the ultimate co-efficient of
friction, and varies according to the condition of the surfaces
in contact of the metal.

Let the uppermost piece of iron be taken to represent the
‘engine, the lower one the rail, the wheels of this engine
being locked and prevented from turning g, it will just stand
at iin 4 to1in6; therefore, if the wheels are caused to
revolve, it can just climb this gradient under the most
favourable circumstances.

But rain, fogs, and sleet prevent this result from being
arrived at in prattice, and engineers seem to agree that I in
Io is the most that can be climbed in all weathers with
certainty ; therefore, taking this as the datum, up half that
gradient, or I in 20, the engine can take a load behind it
equal to its own weight, and up I in 30 twice that weight.

Therefore a I10-ton engine can haul 20 tons up I in 30, or
two loaded wagons, of say 5 tons each, carrying 10 tons of
paying load: the non-paying load being Io tons.

It would appear, therefore, that I in 30 is about the
steepest incline which should be adopted for any length ;
this gives a rise of 176 feet in a -mile, and practically
commands most countries.

Near Aberdare Junction, on the Taff Vale Railway, ordi-
nary locomotives can be seen regularly working up I in 18,
—which is a practical proof of the foregoing statements,—
they take loads behind them of 45 tons.

Between Manchester and Oldham, where the traffic is
enormous, the gradients reach as high as 1-in 27—and
ordinary locomotives with coupled wheels climb this, with
loads behind them of 60 to 80 tons regularly.

These instances merely show extreme cases neither to be
copied nor commended, but where occasion requires to be
employed sparingly as precedents.

If r in 30 be the worst place on the tramroad, a 1o-ton
engine could nevertheless haul two cars containing over
I50 passengers up it; this would be more than would be
requisite in an agricultural district.

Having roughly defined the limit of gradient, let us

oe ee a eT el

1873.] Railway Development. 169

finally consider the curves possible, for after all these are
the most important questions of all; we have seen that we
can get over hills, but we now require to go round corners, or
very sharp elbows, as explained before in this paper; the
axles of railway carriages are firmly fastened underneath,
so that the vehicle has no tendency to follow the curve or
lock as an ordinary four-wheel vehicle upon a common
road has; hence engineers seldom adopt curves sharper
than 660 feet radius on railways, although there are in-
stances as low as 300 feet: the travelling becomes very
bad, and the grinding is fearful. That something better
can be done has been demonstrated during the last two
years; any one can see, in daily use, at the Fenchurch-
street station two railway-carriages of four wheels each,
mounted on bogies in such a way as to be able to go round
very sharp corners; these vehicles are mounted on Grover’s
patent under-frames, and the results obtained by them in
the duration of their tyres, and consequent absence from
friction and grind, have been remarkable.

It is true that the ordinary 8-wheeled double bogie
vehicle in use on the American railways will do the same
thing, but the enormous length and weight of such cars
prevents them from being employed profitably on steam
tramways; what is really wanted is a short handy vehicle,
capable of being shunted and moved about at the station by
a couple of men easily.

With respect to the question of engine there is not so much
difficulty ; a small traction-engine has its wheels very close
together, consequently it will take a sharp curve without
difficulty ; besides which, Mr. Fairlie has constru¢ted en-
gines on his double bogie system, which have immense
power, and are capable of going round curves of 50 feet
radius; in mountain districts these engines are most
valuable, and enable gradients to be worked easily which
would otherwise be almost impracticable.

In South America they are in daily use, taking loads of
120 tons up a gradient of I in 25, continuous for’rr miles
on the Iquique Line, and also on the Mexican railway.

It appears, therefore, that the necessary mechanical
difficulties have been practically surmounted; all is ready
to hand, the engineer has it in his power to overcome the
obstructions which nature has laid in his way, and those
only remain which are due to the prejudice of education
and human nature; a great lesson has been learnt,—which
must be unlearnt,—but the task is not a difficult one if it be
met with the spirit of sincere attention and honest endeavour.

VOL. 17. (N.S:) a

170 Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. (April,

A few words more before concluding on the management
of existing railways as they stand. It has been taken for
granted that, where high speeds are adopted, no substantial —
change can take place in the strength of the vehicles or the
weights of the engines; but why should not express stock
be kept distinét, and a considerable redu¢tion be made in
that which is meant for ordinary service? Such an eco-
nomy is being effected on the South London Railway by
the present locomotive superintendent, Mr. Stroudley, who
has constructed some light and neat carriages, with central
buffers, drawn by small engines weighing only 23 tons;
these trains are worthy imitation—they are a step in the
right dire¢tion, and if more fully adopted would give better
dividends and reduced fares. The real fact is, that great
obstacles are placed in the way of railway officials, in con-
sequence of the division of their responsibility. The loco-
motive superintendent thinks little about the permanent
way—which is not under him, but adopts great strengths
and weights, whereby he increases the “life” of his stock.
The engineer who has charge of the permanent way com-
plains, but has noremedy. Noreal improvement is possible
until some ruling mind governs each system, and insists
upon comprehensive reforms and the adoption of those
inventions which guarantee sure economies.

III. CORAL REEFS AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD.

By J. CLirTon Warp, F.G.S.
Of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.

HERE is nothing which so much helps forward geo-
logical science as the study of our globe as it now is.
Every fresh discovery in physical geography helps to

explain some hitherto mysterious geological fact. The
greater part of the world has yet to be travelled over
scientifically, and when this is done, the geological science
of that day will probably be as much in advance of our
present knowledge as our to-day’s science is-of that of
twenty years back.

Geology made a great advance when Darwin explained
the mystery of coral reefs, for by their accurate study,
geologists learnt how slowly and gradually large tracts of
‘land were submerged, and in what way great thicknesses
of limestone could be formed—not by the preservation so

1873.] Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. I7I

much of actual reefs, as by their disintegration and the
widespread deposition of coralline sediment.

Geology made yet another great advance when Agassiz,
bringing his knowledge of existing glaciers to bear upon
certain phenomena in Scotland and England, showed how
certainly our now temperate climate was once an arctic one,
and that the diluvial phenomena were for the most part
easily explained, on the supposition of the existence of a
former glacial period.

Of late, the possibility of determining the time that has
passed away since that périod of extreme cold has animated
the hopes of geologists, and the physicist and astronomer
combined have brought their knowledge to bear upon the
question. The result, so far, is known to all through the
various papers of Mr. Croll. But since truth will stand all
shocks, and show itself more truth-like after each attack,
it should be the aim of geologists to test all theories put
forward to explain series of facts in every possible way ;
and more especially when those theories are supported by
mathematical arguments and reasoning is it incumbent upon
the students of nature to see well to the ground-work upon
which the mathematician builds his indisputable structure.

It is well known that, according to Mr. Croll’s explana-
tion of the cause of the glacial period, those agents producing
an extremely cold climate over the greater part of the
northern hemisphere would give rise to a proportionally
hot one in the southern.

Scientific observation in the southern hemisphere is now
bringing before us the fact that, at no very distant period,
an extreme glacial climate prevailed there also, and, more-
over, that the relics of a former great ice-sheet in the
southern hemisphere seem as fresh and of equal value to
those of the northern ice-sheet.

Coral reefs are, at the present day, confined within the
isotherms of 68°. In proportion as the ice-sheets in either
hemisphere are extended into lower latitudes, so must the
isotherms of 68° approach the equator, and the coral reef
zone become restricted. Let us see what would be the
probable result upon the distribution of coral reefs, 1st, of
an extended ice-sheet in the northern hemisphere, and, at
the same time, an increase of heat in the southern; 2nd, of
an extended ice-sheet in the southern hemisphere, and a pro-
portional increase of heat in the northern; 3rd, of greatly
extended ice-sheet in both hemispheres at the same period.

1. The study of North American geology shows that,
during the glacial period, an ice-sheet completely enveloped

172 Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. [April,

that continent down to the parallel of 39°, while the greater
part of Northern Europe was similarly ice-clad. |

The present southern limit of perpetually frozen ground
in the northern hemisphere is, for a great part of its course,
between the parallels of 55° and 60°, though, from the
southern point of Greenland to the eastern part of Russia,
it runs up toa latitude of 70°. The northern isotherm of
68° roughly corresponds to a latitude of from 30° to 35°, so
that now there is an average of 25° of latitude between the
southern limit of frozen ground and the northern limit of
reef-builders, though, at two points, they approach one
another within about 15°. If the former be extended south-
wards as far as the parallel of 40°, are we justified in con-
cluding that the latter would be thrust southwards in a
proportional degree, that is, to a parallel of from 5° to 10°?
If so, it is clear that the Equator of Heat, instead of being,
for the greater part of its course, north of the equator, as
now, might be considerably south of it, even supposing the
climate of the southern hemisphere to be no warmer than
at present. But if, as we are supposing, the southern
hemisphere was under a very hot climate, the equator of heat
might be still farther removed from the geographical equator.

Under this condition of things, it would seem certain
that there could be but a small range of reefs north of the
equator, but that they might extend farther south than at
present. Supposing the climate of both hemispheres slowly
to approximate to that which now prevails, it is evident
that the oldest reefs would be found south of the equator.
Now the atolls undoubtedly furnish the evidence of greatest
antiquity, since their formation—on Darwin’s view of their
origin—clearly shows a very gradual sinking of land
throughout immense periods of time. Hence we should
expect to find the greatest number of atolls south of the
equator, and the reefs north of it to belong mostly to the
classes of fringing and barrier reefs, which is indeed found
to be the case. Moreover, could we hit upon some sure
average rate of the growth of reefs, and know the exact
relation which such rate of growth bears to the rate of sub-
sidence, or otherwise, of the land, we should have, in these
more northern reefs, some indication of the time that has
elapsed since the close of the glacial period in the northern |
hemisphere.

In an article in the ‘‘ Geological Magazine” for January,
1869, I suggested that the present distribution of coral reefs
seemed to show that those south of the equator were of
much greater age than those north of it, that the sinking of
the supposed old Pacific continent, perhaps, commenced

1873.] Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. 7

long ere the beginning of the glacial period in the northern
hemisphere, and continued uninterruptedly all through that
period, the atolls being slowly built up throughout the
whole of that time, and that, as the northern climate
became finally milder, they were gradually extended further
north. Dana estimates the subsidence in the Pacific area
as not less than 6000 feet, and taking the rate of subsidence
and the upward growth of a reef as 1 ft. per century, this
would give a period of 600,000 years for the formation of
the Pacific atolls, without allowing for any time of inter-
mittent upward movement, or times during which there
might be little or no movement in either direction. The
instance of the Florida reefs was also brought forward ;
here some I0 reefs, one within the other, have been formed,
probably since the ice-sheet disappeared, only g° farther
north, and each reef being taken at 70 ft. in thickness, and
the rate of growth as above, a period of 70,000 years is
given for their formation. Hence, on the whole, the present
distribution of coral reefs, especially of atolls—for the most
part south of the equator—would seem to favour the idea of
a glacial climate having prevailed in the northern hemisphere
at a much more recent period than in the southern. But,
on the other hand, it may be argued, that atolls, perhaps,
do not occur north of the equator in any abundance, because
the requisite sinking land was not present, and this argu-
ment may hold good to a certain extent, especially as it is
the very existence of atoll reefs that marks in great measure
the broad land of subsidence in the Pacific.

2. Let us now take the case of an extreme glacial climate
in the southern hemisphere, and a proportional increase of
heat in the northern.

Agassiz, in the results of his South American Expedition,
has just shown that an ice-sheet probably enveloped the
southern part of South America, down to the latitude of at
least 37°, and even supposing the sheet not to have extended
so far as that in the north did, on account of the less amount
of continental land round the southern pole, are we not
justified in concluding that the southern isotherm of 68°
and the equator of heat itself would be shifted’ considerably
north, and the growth of coral reefs rendered as generally
impossible south of the equator as they probably were
north of it during the undoubted glacial period? Supposing
no glacial period to have visited the northern hemisphere
from the time of extreme southern glaciation until now, we
should have expected to find north of the equator coral reefs
of great thickness, and atolls in great abundance, provided

174 Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. (April,

only the requisite slow subsidence occurred in the northern
equatorial region. And the absence of a great coral reef
development, in the shape of atolls, north cf the equator,
points, therefore, either to the want of the requisite slowly
subsiding area, or to the advent of a cold period subsequent
to that occurring over the southern hemisphere, and, there-
fore, checking the coral growth.

3. What now would probably be the ees of things,
supposing the extreme glacial climate occurred simul-
taneously in both hemispheres? Agassiz says,* ‘‘ Let me
state that I have not noticed anything to confirm the idea
that the glaciers of the northern hemisphere have alternated
with those of the southern -hemisphere in their greatest
extension, as is. assumed by those who connect with the
precession of the equinoxes the difference of temperature
required for the change. The abrasions of the rocks seemed
to me neither more nor less fresh in one hemisphere than
in the other. Rid

Undoubedly, the extreme glaciation in both hemispheres
is the most recent of geological changes; both north and
south of the equator it is of younger date than the late
Tertiary deposits. Since, however, a Miocene, or Pliocene,
fauna and flora may not be of the same age precisely
in both hemispheres, time being required for the slow pro-
gress of new animals and plants into far latitudes, it follows
that the glaciation, though affecting rocks of these ages,
and therefore posterior to them, may not be of equal age
both in the north and south. Granted, however, that the
period of glaciation was approximately the same in both
hemispheres, does it not follow that tropical life would be
hard put to for a place of abode?

In this case the two isotherms of 68° would be made to ap-
proach each other from both hemispheres, and the equatorial
belt inhabitable by reef-builders very much narrowed; in
fact, it is conceivable that during such a simultaneous
maximum of cold in both hemispheres the combined effect
on equatorial heat would be such as to squeeze out, as it
were, some forms of tropical life, and confine others to very
narrow bounds. On the present supposition, therefore, if
the climate ameliorated slowly from the time of extreme
cold north and south, to the present day, we might expect
to find the thickest reefs or the greatest number of atolls close
about the equator, always provided that there were areas of
subsidence sufficient to allow of the free growth of atolls.

* See his Report of South American Expedition, as given in “ Nature,”
Aug., 1872, p. 272.

1873.] Coral Reefs and the Glacial Pernod. 175

There is another point which might perhaps throw some light
upon the question. It is well known that high equatorial
lands or corn lands south of the equator are tenanted by
north temperate forms of life, left on the mountain ranges in
such latitudes as the extreme cold of the glacial period
decreased. Darwin says,* ‘‘ From the presence of temperate
forms on the highlands across the whole of equatorial
Africa, and along the peninsula of India to Ceylon and the
Malay Archipelago, and in a less well-marked manner across
the wide expanse of tropical South America, it appears
almost certain that at some former period, no doubt during
the most severe part of the glacial period, the lowlands of
these great continents were everywhere tenanted under the
equator by a considerable number of temperate forms. At
this period the equatorial climate at the level of the sea
was probably about the same with that now experienced at
the height of from 5000 to 6000 feet under the same
latitudes, or perhaps even rather cooler. During this, the
coldest period, the lowlands under the equator must have
been clothed with a mingled tropical and temperate vegeta-
tation.”

Now if both hemispheres were simultaneously visited by
an extreme glacial period, we should expeé¢t to find about an
equal share of northern and southern forms left about the
equatorial highlands, unless, indeed, the ice-sheet was much
more developed in the one hemisphere than the other, which
might arise from larger areas of land on one side of the
equator than the other. At all events we should not expect
to find a very marked preponderance of forms from one side,
especially along those equatorial parts with continental
tracts of land both north and south.

Again, if the extreme glacial climate has visited the
southern hemisphere at a later date than the northern, we
should expect to find a preponderance of south-temperate -
forms of life on equatorial highlands rather than of north-
temperate forms, especially along those parts of the equatorial
belt where there was continental land to the south. Lastly,
if the glacial period prevailed in the northern hemisphere
some time after the last cold era in the southern, the north-
temperate forms of life would prevail on equatorial high-
lands almost to the exclusion of south-temperate—these
latter being the relics of a former southern cold. What do
we actually find to be the case as regards this distribution
of north- and south-temperate forms respectively ? I again

* Origin of Species, p. 455.

176 Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. (April,

quote Darwin*—“‘ It is a remarkable fact, strongly insisted
on by Hooker in regard to America, and by Alph. de
Candolle in regard to Australia, that many more identical
or now slightly modified species have migrated from the
north to the south than in a reverse direction. We see,
however, a few southern forms in the mountains of Borneo
and Abyssinia. I suspect that this preponderant migration
from the north to the south is due to the greater extent of
land in the north, and to the northern forms having existed
in their own homes in greater numbers, and having con-
sequently been advanced through natural selection and
competition to a higher stage of perfection or dominating
power than the southern forms.”

The fact is evident, then, that northern forms more encroach
upon equatorial and southern regions than southern upon
equatorial and northern. Is this due wholly to the greater
extent of northern land, as Darwin suggests, or to the south-
ward driving force of a cold period having a¢ted more
vecently than the northward driving force; in other words,
does it not point to a glacial period having prevailed in the
north more recently than in the south?

From this brief consideration of the probable effects of—
(1) latest glaciation in northern hemisphere; (2) latest
glaciation in southern hemisphere ; (3) simultaneous glacia-
tion in both hemispheres; what are our results? Mainly
these, I think:—

1. That an extended ice-sheet in the northern hemisphere
would necessarily thrust farther south the equator of heat,
and consequently the two isotherms of 68° within which
limit the reef-builders occur.

2. That this effect would be increased by the southern
hemisphere being unduly hot, just in proportion as the
northern was unduly cold.

3. Under these conditions coral reefs would occur in
greatest force south of the equator, and, supposing the
climate in both hemispheres slowly to approximate to what
it is at present, we might now expect to find the oldest—
and, therefore, probably the thickest—reefs south of the
equator.

4. Could some sure standard of the growth of coral-reefs
be established, we might, by comparing the reefs north and
south of the equator, form some idea of the shortest period
of time which could have elapsed since an extreme glacial
climate prevailed in either the one or the other hemisphere.

Origin of Species, 5th edition, chap. xi., p. 457.

1873.| Coral Reefs and the Glacial Period. 7G

_ Example: The reefs of Florida may have taken 70,000 years
in formation—therefore the glacial climate, with its ice-sheet
extending south into 39° north latitude, cannot have ceased
less than 70,000 years ago, because these reefs have every
appearance of having been uninterruptedly formed, and not
of being partly pre-glacial and partly post-glacial.* Again,
the South Pacific atolls represent a sinking of 6000 feet ;
this at 1 foot per century, without allowing for intervals,
would give 600,000 years for their formation, which from
the very nature of atolls must have been continuous—there-
fore a glacial climate, with an ice-sheet on the continental
lands extending north into 37° south latitude, could not
probably have existed in the southern hemisphere within
that period.

5. It must, however, be remembered that one of the con-

ditions for the formation of atolls is the existence of an ‘

area of slow subsidence, which condition may not have
occurred in the northern hemisphere within the 68° isotherm.

6. If an extreme glacial climate occurred latest in the
southern hemisphere, and coincidently with it an extreme
hot climate in the north, we might expect to find the oldest
coal-reefs north of the equator.

7. An extreme glacial climate prevailing in both hemi-
spheres simultaneously would restrict the coral reefs to very
narrow limits on either side of the equator, unless, owing to
a less amount of land in the southern hemisphere, the ice-
sheet there should not be so continuous and extensive, in
which case irregularities in their distribution might occur.
On this supposition, the age of the most southerly South
Pacific atolls would probably indicate the least time that
could have elapsed since the ice-sheet disappeared, since
atolls necessitate a continuous act of formation, and they
could not be formed partly in pre-glacial and partly in post-
glacial times.

8. If the glacial climate prevailed last in the northern
hemisphere, we should expect to find north-temperate forms
of life more numerous than south-temperate on equatorial
highlands; if the southern hemisphere was the most
recently glaciated, the south-temperate forms would be
more abundant on the equatorial highlands than the north-
temperate; if both hemispheres were glaciated at the same
time there would be about an equal mingling of north- and
south-temperate forms about the equator.

Moe ihe itacts of the’ :case -are—-(1) “That the largest

* I believe I am right in saying that there is no evidence of a long break in
their formation.

WO oni (N.S) 2A

178 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

number of atolls and the thickest reefs occur south of the
equator; (2) That the north-temperate forms of life in
equatorial regions greatly exceed the south-temperate forms.
10. The general conclusion from these faéts seems to be,
that the northern hemisphere suffered glaciation at the latest
period, and that the southern hemisphere was glaciated at
a time perhaps more remote from the period of the northern
glaciation than that is from the present.

IV. THE PLANET MARS IN 1873.

By Ricnarp A. Proctor, B.A. (Cambridge),
Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society.

NPAHE planet Mars, after being unfavourably placed for
observation during two years, has returned to a
position where he can be studied advantageously. On

April 27th he will be in opposition, and therefore due
south, or at his highest above the horizon at midnight.
Then, also, he will present his largest apparent disc, or
very nearly so (at least so far as the present opposition is
concerned). Moreover, as will be seen farther on, there are
circumstances which render the study of the planet while in
our neighbourhood particularly interesting on this occasion.
Therefore the opportunity seems a favourable one for
entering into the consideration of the various facts of interest
which have been made known respecting Mars. But in-
asmuch as I have on more than one occasion discussed the
principal features of the planet, I shall here restrict myself
as far as possible to circumstances presenting some degree
of novelty, and devote much of my space to the suggestion
of observations which should be made by telescopists during
the next two or three months.

It will be known to most of my readers that the planet
Mars is the only primary member of the solar system whose
condition can be studied under circumstances sufficiently
favourable to enable us to arrive at satisfactory conclusions
respecting the planet’s physical condition. Venus approaches
us more nearly, and is more brilliantly illuminated; but
when Venus is at her nearest she lies directly towards the
sun, and her unillumined side is turned towards us. She
is more favourably seen when near her elongations, but is
then much farther away than Mars at his nearest, at which
time he (unlike Venus) is most favourably situated for obser-
vation. Moreover, the great brightness with which Venus

1873.| The Planet Mars in 1873. | 179

is illuminated renders the study of her surface exceedingly
difficult. Asimilar remark applies to Mercury; and it need
hardly be said that the proximity of Mercury to the sun
presents a yet more serious difficulty to the telescopist, in
the fact that Mercury is never far removed from the sun a's
respects apparent position.

On the other hand, when we pass from Mars to the other
superior planets, we find that we must necessarily study the
surface even of Jupiter and Saturn under conditions very
much less favourable than those which exist in the case of
Mars. When at his nearest,.that is, when he is in opposition
near the perihelion of his orbit, Mars is but about 35 million
miles from the earth; and even when he is in opposition
near aphelion his distance does not exceed 61 million miles.
But Jupiter is never less than 360 millions of miles from
the earth, and Saturn never less than 732 millions of miles.
So that taking the case of Jupiter at his nearest as compared
with Mars in opposition near perihelion, we see that in the
first place Jupiter is more than ten times as far away, and the
apparent dimensions of equal parts of his surface are therefore
reduced more than a hundred times as much, and also Jupiter
is very much less brilliantly illuminated by thesun. Forthe
least distance of Jupiter from the sun is 452,692,000 miles,
the least distance of Mars 126,318,000 miles, the former
distance exceeding the latter about 3, times; and as
illumination varies as the square of the distance, it follows
that equal surfaces of Jupiter and Mars (both in perihelion)
receive from the sun quantities of light in the proportion
of about 13 to 1. Now this consideration is important in
comparing the circumstances under which we study Jupiter
_and Mars. For, although in the case of Venus we have
spoken of a degree of brightness which interferes prejudicially
with observation, yet in the case of Mars and Jupiter we
are not troubled with an excess of light, insomuch that the
smaller quantity received from (equal surfaces of) Jupiter
introduces a difficulty. When the highest magnifying
powers are used, on the best observing nights, there is a
‘want of luminosity in the disc of Jupiter which renders the
study of his surface more difficult than it would otherwise be.*

* The intrinsic brightness of Jupiter is not reduced to the same extent as
the quantity of light received by equal portions of his surface (compared with
that of Mars). Whether this be owing to the greater reflective power of his
surface (that is, of the surface which forms his visible disc), or to some in-
herent luminosity possessed by the planet, is not as yet determined. Adhuc
sub judice lis est. But that the peculiarity is very noteworthy will appear from
the considerations discussed farther on. In fact, Z6llner estimates the refleCtive
power of the surface of Jupiter at more than:twice that of the surface of
Mars, or greater in the ratio of 624 to 267. Prof. Bond (the elder), of America,
estimated the reflective power of the surface of Jupiter still higher.

180 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

It is hardly necessary to inform the reader that-the point
of chief interest in the study of Mars is the determination
of the degree in which he resembles or differs from our
earth. And in one respect the discussion of this question
is more interesting than it would be in the case of a planet
like Venus, which is the equal (or nearly so) of the earth
in size. Mars is so much smaller than the earth, that
although he belongs to the same family—that is to the
inner or so-called terrestrial family of planets—the question
might well arise whether he belongs in reality to the same
order. He is, in fact, nearer to our moon in volume than
to the earth, and comes about midway between the earth
and moon as respects mass.* Now we know that the moon
is totally unlike the earth in all the circumstances which we
associate with the requirements of living creatures; and
therefore it might well be believed that Mars is as likely to
resemble the moon as the earth in this respect, and is even
more likely to occupy a position in-the scale of creation
utterly unlike that which is occupied by either the moon or
the earth. It is the discussion of this question, in the light
of the evidence obtained by observation, which renders the
study of the planet Mars so full of interest.

I will briefly recapitulate what is known about Mars,
noting that the matter is more fully dealt with in my “‘ Other
Worlds,” and in a paper on Mars in my “Essays on
Astronomy.” It is necessary for me to allude to these prior
discussions of my subject, since otherwise the present paper
might seem wanting in completeness. My purpose is to
treat as briefly as possible of those matters on which I
have already touched, in order that as much as possible of
the present essay may deal with new matter.

We know first that the surface of Mars is divided into
land and water; and that the continents and oceans of
Mars have the shapes depicted in the projections which
(for another primary purpose, however) illustrate the present
essay. The land has a tint suggesting the idea that the
chief constituent of the soil may be a substance resembling
our sandstones; though on this point it would be unsafe to

* By this I do not mean that his mass is nearly the arithmetical mean
between the mass of the earth and that of the moon, but nearly the geometrical
mean. Thus the mass of the earth being taken as unity, that of the moon is
o-o114, and the arithmetical mean of these quantities is 0°5057. Now the mass
of Mars is 0-118, or less than a quarter of this arithmetical mean. - But the
geometrical mean between 1 and o-o114 is about o-107, which approaches
nearly enough to the value of the mass of Mars to justify the remark in the
text. It must not be forgotten, however, that as respects the actual quantity
of matter he contains, Mars resembles the moon more nearly than the earth.

1873.] The Planet Mars mm 1873. | 18r

speculate too confidently, since the observed colour is
probably produced by the blending together of a great
number of different tints. That the bluish tra¢éts on Mars
are oceanic may be inferred almost with absolute certainty,
simply because we know that the atmosphere of Mars is at
times loaded with considerable quantities of the vapour of
waters) Lins they specitoscope has told us; for it. need
hardly be remarked that for the lines due to water vapour
to be seen at all in the spectrum of the planet, the quantity
of aqueous vapour then present in the Martial atmosphere
must be very great. I remark in passing, to remove possible
misapprehensions on the part of those who are unfamiliar
with Dr. Huggins’s researches on Mars, that he has shown
beyond dispute that the water-lines in the spectrum were
not due (at the time of observation) to our own atmosphere.
Then this result agrees excellently with the observations
which had been made for many years on the white spots
near the poles of Mars. Sir W. Herschel had come to
the conclusion that these spots are the polar snows of Mars,
partly because this conclusion seemed justified by terrestrial
analysis, and partly because the white spots waxed and
waned in magnitude, in accordance with the theory that
they are snowy regions waxing in winter and waning in
summer. Snows cannot be produced without large water-
covered regions; and the bluish tra¢ts have precisely the
appearance which we should expect Martial oceans to
present. Then, we have already seen that the spectroscope
gives evidence of aqueous vapour in the Martial atmosphere.
There is then, therefore, a permanent atmosphere (for no
physicist can entertain for an instant the belief that the
Martial atmosphere consists solely of aqueous vapour).
There must, moreover, be winds, and probably clouds and
rain, besides those other meteorological phenomena depend-
ing on the increase and diminution of the quantity of aqueous
vapour present in the atmosphere. Accordingly, the tele-
scopist finds ample evidence of such phenomena in the
appearance of Mars. He finds that known Martial lands
and seas are often concealed from view, as if under a layer
of clouds; he has been even able to watch the gradual
dissipation of such cloud-layers, as if under the rays of the
sun as it rose higher in the Martial skies. He sees all
round the disc of Mars a whitish light, which can be
explained as due to rounded or cumulus clouds in the
Martial atmosphere.* He notes the greater distinctness of

* In my “ Essays on Astronomy,” I show that this explanation is available;
and I add as another explanation, the possibility that the morning and evening

182 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

the hemisphere of Mars, which at the time of observation
is passing through its summer season, and readily interprets
the indistinctness of the other hemisphere as due to greater
prevalence of clouds during the Martial winter. He caneven
recognise a difference in the colour of the planet as a whole,
as though at certain times there were a great increase or
diminution of the total quantity of cloud in the Martial air.

All these circumstances indicate a resemblance rather to
our earth than to the moon, where, as we know, there is
neither water nor any considerable atmosphere; and when
we consider the physical relations involved by the circum-
stances thus far noted, we find much to suggest the idea
that Mars deserves to be regarded as a miniature of our
earth. It seems reasonable to infer that since the regions
where snow is constantly present, extend on Mars to lati-
tudes resembling those which limit our own regions of
perpetual snow, there must be a certain climatic resem-
blance between the two planets, notwithstanding the fact
that Mars receives so much less heat (on mile per mile of
surface) than the earth. If we remember that the mean
distance of Mars from the sun exceeds that of the earth in
the proportion of more than 15 to 10, so that the supply of
heat from the sun is less in the proportion of 100 to 225, we
cannot but be surprised to find that any resemblance of the
sort should exist. And yet, unless we adopt a view pre-
sently to be discussed, I apprehend that very little doubt
can exist upon the subject. For although, as has been well
pointed out by Prof. Tyndall, the presence uf snow is an in-
dication of the action of heat, it is manifest that it must
indicate also the existence of cold, and that the relative
extent of the permanent snow regions of a planet must form

skies of Mars are ordinarily clouded. But although the second explanation is
obviously in accordance with the whiteness near the edge of the disc (since
at the parts near the eastern edge day is breaking on Mars, while at the parts
near the western edge evening is approaching), the explanation must, never-
theless, be abandoned in presence of the fact that near the terminator of
gibbous Mars there is a marked loss of brightness. For here if there were a
misty sky on Mars, the whitish light should be seen, and would compensate
for the greater obliquity of the sun’s rays. As such light-is not seen near the
terminator, the influence clearly is, that the morning and evening skies of
Mars are not specially cloudy, but that the white light seen near the edge of the
disc depends (according to the first explanation) on the obliquity with which
the line of sight falls on those parts. The illustration in my “ Essays ’”’ shows
how this obliquity would result in causing the whole of the light here
received to be that reflected from clouds. I do not think any other explanation
is possible; certainly I cannot conceive that any reliance can be placed on
the influence of Zdéllner, that Mars is covered over with hills having a mean
slope of 72°. The great point to be determined, however, is whether the edge
of the terminator does or does not show signs of evening or morning mists.

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 183

a reliable indication of the general climate of the planet.
Indeed, it must be noted that when he pointed out the fact
to which I have referred, Prof. Tyndall offered no expla-
nation of it. He simply noted the error of those who would
seek to explain the former presence of enormous glaciers
solely by the action of cold. ‘‘ Vast masses of mountain ice
indicate infallibly,” he said, ‘‘ the existence of commensurate
masses of atmospheric vapour, and a proportionately vast
action on the part of the sun. Ina distilling apparatus, if
you require to augment the quantity distilled, you would
not surely attempt to obtain the low temperature necessary
to condensation by taking the fire from under your boiler;
but this, if I understand them aright, is what has been done
by those philosophers who have sought to produce the
ancient glaciers by diminishing the sun’s heat. It is quite
manifest that the thing most needed to improve the glaciers
is an improved condenser ; we cannot afford to lose an iota of
solar action; we need, if anything, more vapour, but we
need a condenser so powerful that this vapour, instead of fall-
ing in liquid showers to the earth, shall be so far reduced in
temperature as to descend in snow. The problem, I think,
is thus narrowed to the precise issue on which its solution
depends.” Now, it is important to notice that what is here
affirmed of glaciers does not apply with equal force to snow
regions at the poles of a planet like.the earth or Mars. All
the snow which covers these regions must have been formed
originally by the action of heat. But a degree of heat, very
moderate in amount, would cause the evaporation of sufficient
quantities of vapour to produce the snow which covers a
widely-extended region. In fact, we know that even in the
arctic regions mists and clouds are formed, whence even-
tually snow is produced, and that these mists and clouds
are not due in all cases to aqueous vapour which has been .
formed in warmer latitudes, but are actually produced over
ice-covered regions in calm weather; when, therefore, no
air is arriving from warmer places. Now, manifestly the snow
which covers the polar regions of Mars must either have
been formed from vapour raised and condensed in those
very regions, or else from vapour raised in lower latitudes
and condensed near the poles. In the former case, there
must be heat enough in the aré¢tic regions to produce eva-
poration, and therefore, a fortiori, the heat in lower latitudes
must in that respect resemble the heat we experience in our
temperate, zomes.,: In the other case, there mauist, be sreat
processes of evaporation, corresponding to those which take
place on our earth; there must be winds carrying the moist

‘Yr

hg

184 The Planet Mars in 1873. . (April,

air polewards (whence, necessarily, winds blowing towards
the equator may be inferred); and there must, in fa@, not
only be general climatic relations resembling those on our
earth, but also similar meteorological phenomena.

It is not so easy as has been sometimes supposed (by my-
self amongst others) to decide between these two solutions.
All that the telescope reveals in Mars has been held to:show
that the latter solution must be accepted. We actually
appear to see the clouds, which are formed in Martial tem-
perate regions, showing that great quantities of aqueous
vapour are commonly present in the atmosphere over these
regions. We know that more heat than that which would
evaporate aqueous vapour near the arctic regions must
necessarily be expended on the great oceans of Mars, and
that therefore aqueous vapour must be raised into the air
over these oceans. And we have seen that spectroscopic
analysis confirms this conclusion, or rather establishes it as
a demonstrated fact.

But we are thus brought into the presence of somewhat
serious difficulties.

In the first place, let us remember that the dire¢t supply
of heat from the sun is certainly that which has been men-
tioned above. In other words, the surface of Mars receives,
mile for mile, less than 4-gths of the heat which our earth
receives. This heat may be treasured up (as it were) more
completely, or owing to some cause unknown may act more
efficiently; but there can be no question that no greater
amount of heat is actually received. So that we have this
first difficulty to encounter, that regarding Mars as a
whole, he seems to be more than twice as well warmed
as in the nature of things he would be, supposing the con-
dition of his surface and of his atmosphere resembled what
we are acquainted with on earth.

But now as to his atmosphere. Let us suppose that it is
constituted like the earth’s atmosphere, and let us enquire
what must be its density and pressure under such and such
conditions. But first it may be asked whether we may not
be justified in forming some such opinion as to the quantity
of air around Mars which is indicated in Mr. Williams’s
work ‘‘ The Fuel of the Sun.” Here, as is probably known
to many of my readers, the assumption is made that every
celestial body has a certain proportion of air around it,a
proportion somewhat artificially determined by Mr. Wil-
liams, as depending on a numerical relation, the necessity of
which is not demonstrated by the evidence. Nevertheless,
it seems a reasonable assumption that the larger bodies

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 185

should have a vaporous envelope of greater extent, whether
we regard such envelope as originally a portion of the once
wholly vaporous mass of the planet or as partially gathered
in by the planet’s attraction on vaporous matter in the
inter-planetary spaces. And if we assume that the quantity
of atmosphere would be proportional to the mass of the
planet,—that is to the centre or third power of the planet’s
radius, multiplied by the number representing the density
of the planet,—then since the surface of the planet is pro-
portional to the square of the radius, it would follow that
the quantity of air vertically above each square mile of a
planet’s surface would vary directly as the product of the
numbers representing the diameter and the density of the
planet. This will be thought as probable a conclusion as
Mr. Williams’s, and in the present instance it leads to a
very similar result. We may adopt it provisionally, in
order to see what general results we obtain by following
such considerations.

Applying this rule to Mars, whose diameter is about
6-r1ths, and density about 3-roths of the earth’s, we obtain
for the quantity of air above each square mile of the surface

of Mars, the expression a x Z, or 2 where the corre-

sponding expression of the earth is unity,—so that, quite
nearly enough for our present purpose, the quantity of air
above each square mile of the surface of Mars would be
2-5ths of the quantity above each square mile of the earth’s
surface. But the pressure and therefore the density of the
air at the mean level of a planet depend on the quantity
of air above each unit of area, and the attraction of gravity
at the planet’s surface; for this pressure is solely produced
by the weight of the air. Gravity on Mars is represented
by 0°387, where terrestrial gravity is unity; and multiply-
ing 2 by 0°387 we obtain 0°1548, which represents (on our
assumptions) the pressure of the atmosphere on Mars, when
unity represents the atmospheric pressure at our sea-level.
Mr. Williams deduces from his assumption a pressure of
0°179. According to one view, the mercurial barometer
would stand at about 4% inches; according to the other, at
about 54 inches on Mars.

Now it is not difficult to perceive that with an atmo-
sphere such as this, and a supply of solar heat equal only
to 4-gths of that which we receive from the sun, Mars
might present most of the appearances actually observed.
This has been shown (very ably, in my opinion) by
Mr. Williams; and although I shall proceed presently to

VOI PETG NS.) 2B

186 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

consider certain features suggesting a different theory, I
must point out that the balance of evidence appears to me
to be decidedly in favour of his theory. Meantime I will
follow the line of reasoning pursued by Mr. Williams,
noting that much of what he says must be regarded as
following obviously from the theory on which it is based.

In the first place, it is clear that with so shallow an
-atmosphere and so small a direct supply of solar heat, the
cold in Mars would be intense. The mean temperature
would be below the freezing-point. Nevertheless in the
day time, especially in low latitudes, the heating power of
the solar rays would be considerable. It would not be so
intense as on the summits of our loftier mountains, when a
mid-day sun is pouring his rays on the snow-masses there,
but would correspond rather to the heat of the sun at about
ten or eleven on a summer’s morning in Switzerland. It
would certainly suffice to melt any surface snows, and also
‘the surface ice of the Martial oceans, which on the theory
Wwe are considering must be regarded as frozen throughout
their depth.

Now, in considering what would fallen as the day pro-
ceeded, we find some difficulty in deciding whether there
would be an inflow toward the warmed mid-day regions or
an air-current flowing outwards (we are speaking now of
surface-currents). On earth there is a flow of air towards
the region where evaporation is taking place, and it has
been urged that this is due to the fact that the aqueous
vapour, rising by reason of its relative lightness, causes
upward currents in the permanent atmosphere, and that
thus an indraught is produced. On the other hand, where
evaporation proceeds rapidly, there is a great addition to
the atmosphere and consequently an increase of pressure,
which would tend to occasion an outflow. In the case we
are dealing with, the latter effect might prevail ; but in any
case it is not perhaps very important to consider the ques-
tion; because, whether the surface-flow were towards or
from the region of evaporation, there would be a flow of
moisture-laden air from that region. In one case it would
be a surface-flow, in the other it would be an upper-air
current ; but it is immaterial, so far as our present purpose
is concerned, whether the outward flow took place in the
upper or lower regions of the air.

_Then as the day proceeded, and some considerable time
before sunset, ‘‘a feathery hoar-frost”’ would begin to fall.
‘* There would,” in fact, ‘‘ be the same kind of action which
Sir J. Herschel has described as necessarily taking place in

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 187

the moon if any water exists on that satellite, and which he
compares to the cryophorus experiment. There should,
however, be some difference between the case of Mars and
the moon. The vacuum of Mars being only comparative,
the action would be much slower and less decided than in
Sir J. Herschel’s supposed case; and the mean temperature
of Mars being so much lower, the freezing-point and con-
sequent precipitation of a haze of hoar-frost must com-
mence considerably before reaching the actual boundary
between light and darkness; at that angular distance, in
fact, from solar verticality, where the cooling influences of
the planetary radiation,—aided by those of the remaining
ground-ice,—must reduce the surface temperature to the
freezing-point.” ‘‘ Thus,” proceeds Mr. Williams, “there
would be no great well-defined masses of vesicular vapour
floating irregularly, like our clouds, in the atmosphere of
Mars,—no cumulus, no cumulo-stratus, nor even cirro-
cumulus clouds; and, excepting at the borders of the Polar
ice, nothing denser than a thin veil of stratus or cirro-
stratus cloud, formed of ice-crystals,—the kind of cloud or
mist which in our atmosphere makes halo round the moon,
and only hides her face sufficiently to exaggerate her beauty,
like the gauze ‘complexion-veil’ of the coquette. The
mid-day region, and a certain distance round it, would but
rarely be subject to this small degree of obscuration, as the
sun’s heat there should under ordinary circumstances hold
all the vapours it had raised in complete and transparent
solution.”

It will be gathered, from what has been already stated,
that while the results thus indicated accord well with the
general features of Mars, they do not agree with the
observed appearance of the terminator, when Mars is
gibbous. I pause to note this circumstance, because it is
manifestly important that observation should be specially
directed to the examination of the actual brightness near
the terminator of Mars; and it chances that, as will pre-
sently be more particularly indicated, the present opposition-
_ period of Mars is particularly well suited for the observation
of this feature. But it may be also well to note in this
place, that in one circumstance the aspect of Mars cor-
responds well with Mr. Williams’s theory. Mr. Dawes
makes the following remarks, in describing the appearances
presented by Mars during the opposition of 1865, when the
planet was particularly well placed for observation :—‘‘ On
the whole,” he says, ‘‘my impression has been that Mars
has not usually a very cloudy atmosphere. During the last

188 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

opposition, the permanence and nearly equable distinctness
of the principal features, under similar circumstances, was
surprising. On no occasion could I satisfy myself that any
part was decidedly less distinct than might be expected
from the appearance of the other features then visible.
The very white spots noticed on a few occasions, which
certainly gave the impression of masses of snow or the
reflection from the upper surface of masses of cloud, formed
the only decided. exception, unless we include the somewhat
remarkable fact that the short and rather thick dark line
plainly seen near the North Pole on November 14th was
invisible on the 12th, when the narrow strait extending from
that part of the northern hemisphere towards the south
and other objeéts in the same vicinity were well seen. On
November roth, also, the northern extremity of that narrow
strait was invisible, though it might have been expected to
be quite as well seen as on the 12th, and even better than
on January 22nd. ‘These exceptions to the prevalent clear-
ness of the Martial atmosphere, both relate to regions in
high Martial latitudes, and therefore literally tend to ‘ prove
Flichemle..7 |

We come next to the very natural and effective expla-
nation of the Martial snow-caps, in Mr. Williams’s theory.
We have seen how, under the supposed circumstances,
there would be a deposition of hoar-frost continually taking
place all round the disc of Mars. Now, ‘‘the rotation of
‘the planet will produce,” as Mr. Williams points out, “a
considerable difference in the results of this deposition. All
that falls on the east and west sides of the planet will be
thawed and evaporated by the next day’s sunshine,* so that
the maximum accumulation in these directions can be but
one night’s deposition; but on the north and the south there
will be continual accumulation, which will only be thawed
up to a certain latitude by the annual summer presentation,
of either hemisphere to the sun.” The distance between
the mean limits of the north and south patches of accu-
mulated hoar-frost may be taken as an approximate measure
of the diameter of the circle over which the sun’s rays are
capable of raising the day-time temperature above the
freezing-point (or rather perhaps, of melting quite through
the deposited layer of light snow).” Here Mr. Williams
notes a consideration which suggests an interesting point
for observation. He remarks that the boundary of the

* The part on the west is actually coming into sunshine, so that “‘ the day’s
sunshine” would be a more correct expression than “the next day’s sun-
shine,” as respects this part of the planet.

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 189g

region, where the evening deposition of hoar-frost was in
progress, should not appear so sharp and well defined as the
limit of the morning thaw.

We come next to a rather sensational feature of the
theory, or rather of the consequences attributed to it: ‘* At
the poles,” says Mr. Williams, ‘‘and for some distance
around them, the annual amount of deposition must exceed
the annual amount of thawing and evaporation, and there-
fore a gigantic glacial mountain must there accumulate,
with a continual growth and tendency to assume a conical
form. As the deposition of ice-crystals would commence
before actual sunset, and would probably reach its maximum
or even be finished before reaching the boundary line of day
and night, in consequence of the thinness of the atmosphere
of Mars and the resulting rapidity of radiation, the building
up of this polar mountain would be very irregular. In
mid-winter, the lower slopes of its sides would receive the
greatest accessions. With the advancing line of daylight
the elevation of the zone of maximum deposition would in-
crease until it reached the summit. ‘This coincidence of
maximum deposition with the summit would occur twice a
year, before and after midsummer. During the summer,
the only regions receiving any deposition at all would be the
summit and its immediate vicinity; while, at the same
time, its sides would be rapidly thawing by the powerful
action of the continuous sunshine of the long arctic summer
day. At this season, the slopes of the arctic mountain
would be riven by gigantic ice-floods and water-floods, ava-
lanches, glaciers, and torrents.”

While admitting as almost a necessary consequence of
the supposed condition of Mars that there would be an
accumulation of snow towards the poles of the planet, I
must confess I cannot follow Mr. Williams in assuming —
that the snow-caps can attain a thickness sufficient to in-
crease perceptibly the apparent diameter of the planet. It
is true that the telescopist recognises an apparent projection
of the polar snows beyond the circular outline of the disc.
But irradiation affords so sufficient and satisfactory an
explanation of this circumstance as to leave in my opinion
little to be desired; whereas the accumulation of snowy
masses to a depth of several miles appears difficult to
accept, when it is remembered how relatively small must be
the quantity of aqueous vapour which could be raised into
the tenuous Martial atmosphere. Nevertheless, as Mr.
Williams has advocated with some ingenuity the theory not
only thatsuch masses exist, but that great glacial catastrophes

190 | The Planet Mars in 1873. [April,

occur which are recognisable by the terrestrial tele-
scopist, I shall venture to quote some observations by the
late Gen. Mitchel (the American observer), which seem to
accord singularly well with that rather startling theory. _

First, let us examine what in Mr. Williams’s opinion
would happen and be seen :—‘“‘ The tendency of the summer
growth of the summit and undermining of the sides would
be,” he remarks, “to bring about periodical catastrophes,
by the more or less complete toppling over of the mountain
cone in the form of a gigantic avalanche. The occurrence
of such a catastrophe would be most sensibly indicated to a
terrestrial observer by an irregular and temporary extension
of the polar whiteness; where the debris of the great ava-
lanche had been hurled beyond the general glacial boundary,
and had usurped the region of the summer thaw.” The
evidence quoted by Mr. Williams himself is an observation
made by Prof. Phillips, of Oxford, and two practised
observers—Messrs. Luff and Blorridge, working with him.
‘“We noticed,” says Prof. Phillips, ‘‘a gleaming mass of
snow very distinét, so much so, that as happened with the
south polar snow of 1862, it seemed to project beyond the
circular outline, an optical effeét no doubt due to the bright
irradiation.” On this Mr. Williams remarks that, although
Prof. Phillips attributes this appearance to irradiation, it
may have been due to the actual heaping of the avalanche
material of the overthrown polar ice-cone. But the follow-
ing observations by Mitchel seem far more strikingly to
favour Mr. Williams’s bold and ingenious hypothesis :—

‘*T will here record,” says Mitchel, at p. 89 of his ‘‘ Popular
Astronomy,” ‘‘ some singular phenomena connected with the
‘snow-zone,’ which, so far as I know, have not been noticed
elsewhere. On the night of July 12, 1845, the bright polar
spot presented an appearance never exhibited at any pre-
ceding or succeeding observation. In the very centre of the
white surface was a dark spot, which retained its position
during several hours, and was distinétly seen by two friends
who passed the night with me in the observatory. It was
much darker and better defined than any spot previously or
subsequently observed here; and, indeed, after an exa-
mination of more than eighty drawings at previous oppo-
sitions, I find no notice of a dark spot ever having been
seen in the bright snow-zone. On the following evening no
trace of a dark spot was to be seen, and it has never after
been visible.” -This is singularly suggestive of the falling
away of a great portion of the snow-cone, followed very
soon (as would naturally happen) by the snowing over of

7.
.
ee ee ee eee di be

conth ate

m373.) The Planet.Mars in 1873. Igt

the cavity thus formed. The other observation is fully as
singular :—‘‘ On the evening of August 25, 1845, the snow-
zone, which for several weeks had presented a regular out-
line nearly circular in appearance, was found to be some-
what flattened at the under part, and extended east and
west, so as to show a figure like a rectangle with its corners
rounded. On the evening of the 30th August, I observed
for the first time a small bright spot, nearly or quite round,
projecting out of the lower side of the polar spot. , In the
early part of the evening the small bright spot seemed to be
partly buried in the large one. After the lapse of an hour
or more my attention was again directed to the planet,
when I was astonished to find a manifest change in the
position of this small bright spot. It had apparently sepa-
rated from the large spot, and the edges of the two were
now in contact, whereas when first seen they overlapped by
an amount quite equal to one-third of the diameter of the
small spot. On the following evening I found a recurrence
of the same phenomenon” (in other words, the phenomenon
was shown to be optical, and depending on the relative
positions of two great snow-masses). ‘‘In the course of a
few days,” proceeds Mitchel, ‘“‘the small spot gradually
faded from the sight and was not seen at any subsequent
observation.”

Certainly these observations accord remarkably well with
Mr. Williams’s theory respecting the polar snows of Mars.
The objections to the theory are found mainly in facts
already mentioned. ‘Thus it is difficult to understand how
a sufficient quantity of the vapour of water should be pre-
sent in the Martial atmosphere to produce the dark bands
seen by Dr. Huggins, if the atmosphere itself (that is the
permanent atmosphere) were so tenuous as the theory
implies. It must, however, be noted that the tenuity of the
atmosphere would encourage evaporation ; in fact, the boil- —
ing point at the surface of Mars would be so low as 138°
with Mr. Wiliams’s assumption as to the atmospheric
pressure, and lower still with mine. Nor does so greata
difficulty arise as at first sight might be supposed from the
fact that large Martial regions have at times seemed to be
clouded over, since, in the first place, clouds would not be
an unfrequent phenomenon in tenuous atmosphere; and
under certain circumstances, as for example great atmo-
spheric disturbances or the effects of such arctic catas-
trophes as Mr. Williams has described, there might be
occasional extensions of dense, though perhaps shallow,
cloud-layers, or heavy mists, over wide tracts of the surface

192 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

of Mars. The one great difficulty which, as it seems to me,
would be fatal to Mr. Williams’s theory, if demonstrably
shown to exist, is the darkening near the terminator of the
planet. It is possible, however, that this darkening may be
shown to be merely relative. It is to be remembered that,
assuming Mr. Williams’s theory to be true, the region of
evening or morning whitening would be very much less
foreshortened at the time of corresponding quadrature
than as seen when the disc is full. The obvious consequence
of this would be that on the side towards the terminator
there would be a much broader whitened border, and not only
would the phenomenon be less noticeable on that account
(since the narrowness of the white bordering is what renders
it so remarkable), but the gradation of light would be much
slower. Then, from the obliquity with which the solar rays fall
on the parts towards the terminator, there is necessarily (what-
ever theory weadopt),a real defalcationof light there, and this
defalcation may probably be more easily recognisable than
the mere excess of light due to the whiteness of this part of
the disc. In fact, passing from the centre of the illuminated
half of Mars to the terminator, we have first the ruddy or
greenish tints of the lands or seas, then a gradually in-
creasing whiteness up to the absolute white of the hoar-
frost covered region, then a gradual defalcation of light
without change of colour; and the sole question is, Is the
latter defalcation likely to be more or less recognisable by the
telescopist than the deficiency of light in the middle of the disc
on account of the ruddiness or greenness there? It is by
no means certain what answer 1s to be given to this question.
The subject has not, indeed, been specially studied by
telescopists. When it has been studied with due photo-
metric appliances, and under favourable circumstances
(for which the present opposition-period of Mars affords an
excellent opportunity) it may be possible to form a decided
opinion on the exceedingly interesting and important sugges-
tions made by Mr. Williams.

I shall not make many remarks upon the ordinary theory
that the meteorological latitudes of Mars resemble those of
our own earth, because this theory has been discussed at con-
siderable length in my works referred to above. But there
is one point on which I must make a few remarks. If we
remember that the power of an atmosphere to increase the
mean temperature depends in the main-on its density at
the mean level of the planet, we shall see that for Mars to
have a climate such »as that of our earth, there must be
much more air above each square mile of the planet’s

1873.] The Planet Mars im 1873. 193

surface than there is above each square mile of the earth’s
surface. For the density of the air at the sea-level is pro-
portional to the weight of the air above each unit of surface.
For this weight, in the case of Mars, to be the same as in
the case of the earth, the quantity of air above each unit of
surface must be greater in the proportion of 1000 to 387,
that being the proportion in which terrestrial gravity exceeds
gravity at the surface of Mars. Taking 18 to 7 as suf-
ficiently near, we have the following conseyuences if we
assume that at the surface of Mars the atmospheric pressure
is the same as on the earth. We have in the first placea
coating of air, which is greater in quantity,-square mile for
square mile, than on the earth in the proportion of 18 to 7.
But it must also be correspondingly greater in depth, for
we know that on the earth the pressure is halved at a
height of 33 miles, in other words that half the atmosphere
lies below this height. At seven miles the pressure is
reduced to one-fourth—that is, three-fourths of the air lie
below this level: and so on. Now, in the case of Mars,
the reduction proceeds in the same way, but at different
heights. We must increase 33 in the proportion of 18 to 7
to obtain the height above the mean surface of Mars, at
which the atmospheric pressure is reduced one-half. This
gives nine miles as the elevation required. At a height of
18 miles, the pressure is reduced to one-fourth; and so on.
Now on our assumption as to the actual quantity above
each square mile of the surface of Mars, the region above
the mean level of the planet to a height of 18 miles is
occupied by air, having a mean density as great as that of
the air below the height of seven miles from the terrestrial
sea-level. Moreover, if we assume a height of 35 miles
only as that to which the optically effective atmosphere of
the earth extends, we get for the corresponding height in
the case of Mars no less than go miles. Now, remember-
ing that the diameter of Mars is but about 4400 miles, it
seems clear that an atmosphere so deep as this should be
telescopically recognisable.

But this is not all: if Mars had an atmosphere no denser
at the sea-level than the terrestrial atmosphere, he would —
not have the same climate as the earth ; for as we have seen
the solar light and heat at Mars are reduced in the pro-
portion of about 4 to 9 as compared with the solar light and
heat at the earth. A very much denser, and therefore a very
much deeper, atmosphere than that deduced above would be
required to produce a Martial climate resembling our own ;
and even then, it may be questioned whether with his

WOR, Lit. (N.S) ae

194. The Planet Mars in 1873. [April,

relatively small ocean surface (here I refer to the actual pro-
portion between the extent of land and water on Mars, and
not merely to the extent of water surface in square miles),
the atmosphere would be sufficiently vapour-laden to pro-
duce the required warmth. For it is to be remembered that -
dry air is almost perfectly diathermanous, as well for the
luminous as for the obscure heat-rays, and that therefore
the heat of Mars would be freely radiated away into space,
unless the air were freely laden with aqueous vapour. It
seems difficult to believe that Mars has an atmosphere so
deep and dense as the conditions here considered appear to
require.

On the whole, I cannot but think that the balance of
evidence is in favour of the theory that Mars has a relatively
rare atmosphere, and that the various phenomena pre-
sented by the planet are to be explained in the way suggested
by Mr. Williams.

The reader will perceive that a considerable degree of
interest attaches to the study of Mars. We are by no means
dealing with a planet whose physical habitudes have been
thoroughly mastered and interpreted.

But, apart from these considerations, the present opposi-
tion of the planet is one which is peculiarly favourable to the
investigation of the planet’s condition. A reference to the
accompanying figure (and to the plate illustrating this essay)
will serve to show this.

In the first place, let it be noticed that when Mars is in
opposition, on April 27, he is not far from the place where
he is at his mean distance from the sun; for M’ isthe place
of his aphelion. So far, therefore, as the epoch of opposition
is concerned, the present return of the planet may be re-
garded as having a medium value..

Let it next be noticed that the midsummer of the planet’s
northern hemisphere occurs when Mars is not far past his
aphelion, and that the period illustrated by the figure cor-
responds to the summer months of North Mars. Nowa
peculiar interest attaches to this circumstance. Mars re-
sembles the earth (at the present time, and for many years
past and to come) in having his solstices near the aphelion
and perihelion of his orbit; and the resemblance extends
even to the circumstance that the summer of North Mars
occurs when the planet is near aphelion, precisely as our
summer in the northern hemisphere occurs when the earth
is near aphelion. And precisely similar consequences
follow from the relation in both cases. Our northern sum-
mer is mitigated by increase of distance from the sun, while

a”

4073-1]

The Planet

/
M :
Sin
APHELION

MIDSUMMER
IN NORTH-MARS

am
oy

POSITION OF
MARS" GLOBE

Mars in 1873.

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. | 197

the northern winter is mitigated by the reduced distance of
the sun; and, on the contrary, the summer heat and winter
cold of the southern hemisphere are both intensified. Just
so it necessarily happens in the case of Mars, but the
effets are more marked, because of the greater eccentricity
of the orbit of Mars. The heat received by Mars at mid-
summer of his northern hemisphere is less than that
received at mid-winter, in the proportion of about 7 to Io.
Of course this is more than compensated, in north latitudes
resembling our mid-temperate and subarctic zones, by the
greater length of the summer’s day and the greater height
of the midday sun in summer. Nevertheless, the contrast
between summer and winter must be most importantly re-
duced by the relation. On the other hand, the summer of
the southern and winter of the southern hemisphere of
Mars are intensified by the circumstance that more heat is
received directly from the sun at the time of southern mid-
summer than at the time of southern mid-winter, in the
proportion of 10 to 7. The northern summer is also longer
than the southern, to the following extent :—Counting from
the vernal to the autumnal equinox the northern summer
contains 3714 days, while the southern contains only 2964
days. Thus we have, in the northern hemishere, a long
mild summer and a short mild winter; in the southern
hemisphere, we have a short but (relatively) hot summer
and a long and bitter winter.

It is manifest that, under these circumstances, we may
fairly look for a great difference in the aspect of the northern
half of the planet during the present opposition period,
when the effects of the northern summer (counting still
from equinox to equinox) are nearly at a maximum, and
that presented during the corresponding opposition-period
for the southern half of the planet,—the period, namely,
including the opposition of 1864. Then the southern half
had passed through its relatively intense summer, and there
was a relatively rapid diminution of heat towards the mean
heat at the equinox. Now the northern half has passed
through its mitigated summer, and a relatively slow diminu-
tion of heat is taking place. As several excellent pictures
of Mars were taken by Mr. Dawes, in 1864-65,* it will be
possible to institute a comparison between the phenomena
then observed and those which may be recognised on the
present occasion.

It is next to be noticed that the present opposition-period

* The four best appear among the coloured illustrations of my “ Other
Worlds.”

198 The Planet Mars in 1873. (April,

is singularly favourable for observing the gibbous phase of
Mars after opposition. For it will be perceived that, even
when the line joining the sun and Mars is immediately in-
clined to the line joining the earth and Mars,—as E,M.,
E;Ms, and E,M,,—the distance of the planet is not very
much greater than when Mars is in opposition at M,. Thus
the disc of the planet, it will be seen (from the illustrative
plate), diminishes much more slowly in size after opposition
than it had increased before opposition. The telescopist
should not lose this excellent opportunity for studying the
way in which the disc seems coloured near the terminator,
A careful comparison between the part of the disc near the
terminator and on the opposite side cannot but prove most
instructive. It will be observed that the terminator marks
the place where morning is breaking on Mars (before oppo-
sition, of course, the terminator marks the place of Martial
sunset); accordingly the occasion is favourable for deter-
mining whether, supposing there is whitish light near the
terminator, that light is sharply defined towards the middle
of the disc. Of course this can be done at any epoch of the
opposition-period; but it can be best done near quadrature,
because either the morning or evening part of the planet is
then less foreshortened than at other times.

Next notice another circumstance. Whereas the motion
of Mars on his orbit causes the solar elevation north of the
Martial equator to continually diminish throughout the
period dealt with in the figure,* the elevation of the earth
north of the Martial equator does not change in the same
way. It is easy to see why this is. We may regard Mars,
during the opposition-period, with reference to its bearing
from the earth when Mars is at M,, his bearing from the
earth is the same as his bearing from the sun when he is
near Mg, and accordingly the elevation of the earth north of
the equator-plane of Mars is nearly the same on February
26th as the elevation of the sun north of the same-plane on
May 12th.t Then, as seen from the earth, Mars sways

* Precisely in the same way, of course, as in the case of the earth, as
specially illustrated in my ‘“ Sun-Views of the Earth.”

+ The table towards the end of the present note gives the actual relations
of the Martial globe, as well with reference to the circles and parallels of
declination as to the sun. For the convenience of the reader who may care,
to test the results here tabulated, I give the formule and elements from which
the table has been calculated. :

The elements on which the determination of the axial position of Mars has
been based are those given in No. 858 of the ‘‘ Astronomische Nachrichten,”
in a paper by Dr. Oudemans upon the observations made by Bessel with the
K6énigsberg heliometer, between the years 1830 and 1837. He gives (as quoted
in a note by Mr. Hind in 1867)—

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 199

slightly forwards, for E,M, is slightly inclined (and in that
sense) to E,M,; hence, precisely as happens from the for-
ward motion of Mars round the sun (in this part of his
orbit), the elevation of the earth south of his equator-plane
slightly diminishes. But from this position right onwards,
until the position Mg (or thereabouts), Mars is swaying back-
wards (around the earth); hence all this time the elevation
of the earth south of the planet’s equator-plane is increasing.
And lastly, as Mars moves forwards round the earth, after
passing Mg, the elevation of the earth south of the equator-
plane slightly diminishes. These results are indicated in
the table which is given in the foot-note.

Now it is easy to perceive how these results accord with
the presentation of Mars in the nine projections of the
illustrative plate. In projection 1 we see how the terminator,
continued beyond its northern extremity (at the bottom of
the projection), must pass farther from the-pole than does

Longitude of ae Of Wars cite as ote 349 I
Watitude ~ cite (Mision ig tad, ok Gee)

Assuming these cee | to oo. to 1834°0, we find—

for ecliptic.

Longitude of ascending node of equator of Mars upon

is Orbit {N’) 9... SON ich, Sk Wagar atau, OCnta ent
Obliquity of martial ecliptic (i Ne SRE COR cAtes © cay ey kare
And hence—
' Ascending node of equator of Mars on the earth’s
equator (N) Petes Pet ree ae at ee eM we le eS O
Pmclinatiom (Uist. ys ae eal ee (ee au ved gis 99°55°6

For 1873°0+¢ these values give—

N=47 53+0°50#
1=39 43-0°25t.

I have adopted these values in the computation of f and / in the accom-
panying table; p being the apparent inclination of the axis of Mars to the
circle of declination, and / the elevation of the earth above the equator of the ©
planet; using the following formula :—

Let a be the geocentric right ascension of Mars
* declination ry
and Q an auxiliary angle such that—
tan Q =tanz. sin (2—N),
then— ;
sin Q
t = —.. 4% cot (a—N
ae cos (Q—6) ( )

tan J = tan (Q—4) cos p.

These formule are given by Mr. Hind in the note referred to above, and are
the same as are used in the ‘* Nautical Almanac ” for determining the position
and phase of Saturn’s ring. (They are given in full, with others, among the
explanations of the tables in my “‘ Treatise on Saturn”). But in Mr. Hind’s

and—

200 The Planet Mars in 1873. Bjorn Pm

the actual boundary of the disc. It is clear, moreover, that
the upper or southern part of the disc is viewed more dire@tly
than it is illuminated ; for, where the edge of the terminator
is there seen, the solar rays are falling tangentially on the
globe of Mars, whereas the lines of sight from the earth do
not here fall tangentially. (Of course the same remark

note, by an inadvertency, the denominator in the expression for tan # is written
sin (Q—6). The following formule can be used, if preferred :—
cos /.sin p=—sin 1. cos (a—N)
cosl.cosp= sin I.sin (a—N) sin 6 + cosI cos 6
sinJ= sin I.sin (a—N) cos 6—cosI sin 6.
Moreover, if l' be the elevation of the sun above the plane of the ring, d the
heliocentric longitude of Mars, then, with sufficient approximation,—
sin J’= sin (A—2’) sin I’.
Strictly speaking, formule corresponding to those given at p. 229 of my
** Treatise on Saturn” should be employed, viz., putting—
8 = Mars’ heliocentric latitude,
vy = longitude of ascending node of Mars’ orbit on ecliptic,
and §3'= arc from ascending node of Mars’ orbit on ecliptic to ascending
node of Mars’ equator on his orbit.
Then assuming—
cos ¥ = cos (\—v) cos 6,

we have —
sin l'=sin (¥— §') sin I’.

Date. ‘

Real p- 1. v. A-N.
1873. oo 4s oN or hg o.- 4
Feb. 26 41 4 W 15 7N 25 a7 Ni, 108 21
Mar. 13 41 3 oe 24 29 LES ses
28 4I 4 14 15 22 49 122 10
April 12 41 10 TH ge 20 47 129 I5
27 le gees 17 57 18 23 136 29

May 12 40 31 20 30 I5 40 143 53

27 40 2 22 18 I2 30 I5I 27
June 11 40.1.2 22 59 G25 159 13
26 40: 33 22 36 5 50 107° TE

It will be seen that the value of # changes very little during the four months.
Usually p changeslargely. Thus inthe opposition-period of 1866-7, p ranged
in value between 9° 50’ and 21° 52’. The reason of the approach to constancy
in the value of during the present opposition is readily seen on a considera-
tion of the figure given above. For we see that, viewed from the earth, Mars
first slightly advances, then retrogrades through opposition, and then slightly
advances. As this motion takes place along a part of the ecliptic where that
circle is descending from the first point of Libra to the tropic of Capricorn, it
follows that, so far as this motion is concerned, the apparent slope of the
polar axis of Mars to a declination circle (west) at first slightly diminishes,
then increases, and towards the end slightly diminishes again. This change
depends simply on the inclination of different parts of the ecliptic to declina-
tion circles. But the apparent slope of the axis of Mars is also changing
precisely as the opening out of his equator is changing (see column under J),
being least when the opening out of the equator is greatest, and vice versa.
So far as this cause of change is concerned, the slope of the axis first slightly
increases, then diminishes, and towards the end slightly increases again.
Comparing these with the changes due to the other cause, we see that the two
changes are compensatory. Hence # remains very nearly constant. -

MARS w 1873.
Opposition, Apr.2/. |

1. Feb.26, 12> fe.
2. Marto AZ

3. Mar.28, 12
4.. Apr.12, 125

Di Ape 2712
(Opposition )

6. May 12.124
7. May 27, 12h

8.June 11, 124
9. June 26, 12%

R.A. PROCTOR, DEL. MALBY & SONS, LitH.

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 201

applies to every part of the terminator, but the point has
been already considered for the middle parts). Now the
result of this is, that the southern parts of Mars, where
winter is in progress, are better'seen than they would be if
the line of sight from the earth were coincident with the
line from the sun. Similar remarks apply to projections 2,
3, and 4, but to a gradually diminishing degree.

After opposition the reverse holds,—a fact of more im-
portance, because it is the polar part of the planet which is
now more directly viewed than illuminated. It is seen from
the projections 6, 7, 8, and g, how the terminator now
passes between the north pole and the northern edge of the
disc. It is obvious that the opportunity is thus an excellent
one for studying the behaviour of the north polar snow as
the summer months pass gradually on towards the autumnal
equinox. This opportunity ought not to be lost by those
who possess telescopes sufficiently powerful to distinguish
the shape and dimensions of the polar snow-caps.

Lastly, it remains that I should make a few remarks on
the features of the surface of Mars.

It will be understood that the projections in the illustrative
plate are not intended to resemble pictures of Mars.* The
land regions and oceans, for instance, are carried right to the
very edge of the disc, whereas in reality they are concealed
near the edge, under the white light already referred to. These
projections are, in fact, masses of Mars, but an orthographic
or natural projection, so that they show the various features
as they would be seen if Mars were like a terrestrial globe
and his aspect not affected by meteorological relations of
any sort.

I may be permitted to point out that it was by means of
constructions resembling those in the illustrative plate that

* The woodcut shows the method by which the areographic features of
Mars, for the epochs indicated in the plate, have been determined from an
observation of Mars made on February 23, 1867, at 6h. 45m. p.m., by Mr.
Browning. (The hour in each case is midnight, Greenwich mean time). The
picture of Mars then obtained is shown in Plate II. of my ‘“ Essays on
Astronomy.” Between the date of that observation and April 27, 1873, mid-
night, there is an interval of 194,850,900 seconds. Taking the rotation period
of Mars as 88642'73 seconds, I find that the number of rotations of Mars
amounts to 2198 + a rotation through 57°. I take the Kaiser Sea as 21° from
the central meridian in Mr. Browning’s picture (approaching the meridian),
and the line joining the Earth and Mars on April 27 makes an angle of about
117° with the corresponding line on February 23, 1867. This obviously
amounts to setting Mars 117° back in rotation. Thus, instead of 2198
Rot. + 57°, we have 2198 Rot. — 60°, or the Kaiser Sea 81° from the central
meridian, instead of 21° as on Feb. 23, 1867, at 6h.45m. The picture of Mars
for April 27, No. 5 of the plate, corresponds with this result. The others have
been obtained from similar considerations, account being taken in every case
of the changing bearing of Mars from the earth.

MOL) (lle (N.S-) 2D

202 The Planet Mars tn 1873. fApril,

I succeeded in interpreting the telescopic pictures of Mars
obtained by Dawes, and in forming from them the stereo-
graphic and Mercator’s charts of Mars which appear in my
“Other Worlds ” and “‘ Essays on Astronomy ” respectively.
For every picture which he lent me or had published I con-
struéted the proper orthographic projection, of suitable size,
and carefully timed with reference to the actual rotation
progress of Mars. It need hardly be said that the results
were not found to be in strict accordance, simply because
Mr. Dawes in drawing was not able to represent the features
of Mars precisely as they were. Eye-judgments must
always be, to some slight extent, faulty; and though some
of his pictures must have been remarkably accurate (espe-
cially those taken in his later years), yet some slight dis-
cordances nevertheless existed. The charts, as finally drawn
by me, present the features so that their shapes form a sort
of mean between the various shapes which result from the
separate drawings. 7

I believe it will be found that the telescopic study of the
planet during the approaching opposition, with continual
and careful reference to the accompanying projections, will
enable any tolerably good draughtsman, possessed of ade-
quate telescopic means, to improve our knowledge of the
planet’s features. It need hardly be said that, from the
various projections given in the plate, the aspect of the
planet at any time may be readily determined. The meri-
dians marked on the planet are 30 degrees apart, and, since
the planet rotates once upon its axis in 24h. 37m. 223s., it
follows that he rotates so as to carry one of these meridians
to the place occupied by the next forwards in a period of
zh. 3m. 7s. very nearly. This would be stri€tly correct if it
were not for the circumstance that, as we see Mars from the
earth, account has to be taken of the varying direction in
which he is seen. For instance, comparing the position of
Mars at M, in the figure with his position at M,, it is mani-
fest that it would be insufficient merely to consider so many
rotations and parts of a rotation, in order to deduce his
aspect at any given hour when he is near M,. For the line

from M, to the earth at E, is, as it were, swayed round from.

the dire¢tion occupied by the line from Mars at M, to the
earth at E,, and in a direction contrary to that of the
planet’s rotation; see the globe of the planet in the lower
left-hand corner of the picture. And it is plain- that this
has ‘precisely the same effect as though the planet had
rotated so much farther forward.

But although in long intervals this 1s an important

ee

1873.] The Planet Mars in 1873. 203

consideration, it is not important in determining the aspect of
the planet at any hour on any day intermediate to those
corresponding to the projections of the plate. For we see
from the figure that the lines E,M,, E,M,, &c., are in every
case inclined at a small angle to their next neighbour lines.
Moreover, by determining the aspect of Mars, from the
nearest of the projections in point of time, we are sure of
not having more than half even of this difference. Also, by
means of a protractor, the angular change of the line of
sight can be determined from the figure, and taken duly into
account.

It is convenient to notice that at any given hour on any
night the planet presents appreciably the same aspect as on
the preceding night, 37m. 22s. earlier.

So far as the shapes of the parallels on the different pro-
jections are concerned, it is manifest that the change is too
slight, from projection to projection, to introduce any diffi-
culty. Nor will any draughtsman find any trouble in
reducing or enlarging the scale to the proper dimensions,
should he think this necessary. I believe that further
explanation of these points is unnecessary, but to- prevent
any difficulty which may arise I will take an example :—Let
us suppose the observer desires to know the aspect of the
planet at 1 o’clock on the morning of May rst (that is, in
astronomical time, at 13h. on April 30th). In this case
three days and one hour have elapsed after 12h. April 27th,
the epoch of projection 5. Now three Martial days are
equal to three of our days and th. 52m. 8+s. So that Mars
at 1 on May ist will be rotated as much forward, compared
with the aspect observed in projection 5, as corresponds to
52m. 84s.; but from meridian to meridian in the projections
corresponds to an interval of 2h. 3m. 7s. So that each
meridian in projection 5 must be shifted forwards by a less
distance than that separating it from the next meridian, in
the proportion that 52m. 84s. is less than 2h. 3m. 7s., or
that 3128+ is less than 7387. This proportion may be taken
Homie same as 3 to 7.. So that, ii we ttacethe parallels
and circular outline of disc from projection 5, and shift each
meridian (this also can be done in tracing,—that is, there is
no occasion to pencil the meridians as they actually are)
forwards by three-sevenths of the space separating it from
the next to the left, we have the required meridians and
parallels. The features can then be drawn in from projec-
tion 5, being carried forward by the same amount as the
meridians. In most cases the application of this method
requires the features to be completed from one of the other

204 The Keni’s Hole Machatrodus. (April,

projections. But there is no difficulty in doing this, because
the connection between the different projections is very
readily traced. Thus, although in comparing I and 2 we
find nothing to guide us,—for, in fact, the hemispheres shown
are almost exactly opposite,—yet projection 3 at once sup-
plies features lying to the right of those shown in 1; and
projection 4 at once supplies features lying to the left of
those shown ini. So projections 4 and 5 supply features
lying to the right and left of those shown in proje¢tion 2.
And so throughout the series.

V. THE KENT’S HOLE MACHAIRODUS.
By W. PENGELLY, F.R.S., F.G.S.

I; HE late Rev. John MacEnery, of Torquay, and Kent’s

Hole, near the same town, rendered each other famous.
= Those who knew the former tell us that the truth is
by no means exceeded in the following eulogy on his grave-
stone, near the belfry door, in Torre churchyard :—‘‘ He had
an heart formed for friendship; and, whilst as a clergyman he
conciliated all classes by his amiable manners, he inspired
respect as a scholar by the vigour of his understanding, his
polished taste, and varied learning.” Nevertheless, he is
now almost exclusively known as the first who made any
important discoveries in the great natural mausoleum near
which he lived and died.

Though Kent’s Hole appears to have been known from
time immemorial, and was one of ‘‘the lions” of the dis-
triét in the 18th century, and though fossil bones were
discovered in it in 1824, first by Mr. Northmore, and after-
wards by Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, it was not until
Mr. MacEnery commenced his researches in 1825 that
paleontologists and archeologists became aware of its great
importance.

Amongst his reputed discoveries none have attra¢ted so
much attention as (Ist) the inosculation of relics of human
industry with bones of extin¢ét mammals, and (2nd) the
occurrence of remains of the animal formerly known as
Ursus cultridens, but now as Machairodus latidens ; and long
after some of the best thinkers had accepted the former they
remained sceptical respecting the latter. The difficulty was
as follows :—Remains of Machairodus had been found at
Epplesheim, in Germany, and in the Val d’Arno, in Italy,

See se ee

1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 205

but in deposits considerably older than those in Kent’s
Cavern; moreover, no indication of the genus had been
found in any other part of Britain. So strongly was this
difficulty felt by one eminent palzontologist that he was
wont to express the opinion that MacEnery had obtained
some of the specimens found in Italy, that in his collection
they had got mixed with the Kent’s Hole fossils, and that
he had incorreCtly, though in perfect good faith, ascribed
them to his favourite cavern. Recently, however, all the
facts of the case have been collected and _ published,*
and no doubt now remains of the perfect correctness of
MacEnery’s statements. They have, moreover, been con-
firmed by the Committee at present exploring the cavern,
who had the good fortune to discover there a tooth of the
Same species.

In this paper, which is to be devoted to the Kent’s Hole
Machairodus, the following points will be discussed ;—

1. The evidence that MacEnery found Machairodus in
the cavern.

2nd. The remains of it which he discovered.

3rd. Its era.

4th. Its place in the zoological series.

I. The Evidence that MacEnery found Machairodus in
Kent’s Cavern.—Mac Enery states that he commenced his
systematic “diggings at the close of 1825,” + and, as will
presently be shown, that he found the fossils in question in
January, 1826. The earliest known published mention of
the discovery appears in the following notice, of fossils and
a communication, received by Professor Jameson from
ry Buckland, printed’ in the: “ Edin! {Phil. Jour.” for
April, 1826.{ ‘‘ Professor Buckland has lately sent to Pro-
fessor Jameson, for the College Museum, several specimens
of bone from the hyzena’s den at Kent’s Hole, near Torquay,
all of which he considers as bearing the most decided marks
of teeth and gnawing upon them. ..._ [In the cavern.]
There are also album grecum, as at Kirkdale, and stumps of
gnawed horns of deer, and the bony bases of horns of
rhinoceroses, but no horns of this animal, although more than
a hundred of its teeth have been already found; also the
teeth of many infant elephants, numberless bones of horses,
elks, deer, and oxen; and gnawed bones of hyznas, with
their single teeth and tusks; also the teeth and tusks of

* Trans. Devon. Assoc., ili., p. 483, 494, iv., p. 467.
t Lbtd., Wi. p..444.
+ Vol. xiv., p. 363-4.

206 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. [April,

bears, tigers, wolves, and foxes, and of an unknown carnivorous
animal, at least as large as a tiger, the genus of which has not
yet been determined.”’*

It is perhaps worthy of note that, as the ‘‘ Philosophical
Journal ” was published quarterly, no mention of a discovery
made in January, 1826, could have appeared in its pages
earlier than in the number for April of the same year—that
from which the foregoing quotation has been taken.

If any doubt exists as to the great ‘‘ unknown carnivorous
animal” being Machairodus, it will probably be removed by
the following extract from a letter sent by Dr. Buckland to
Mr. MacEnery, and of which a copy is preserved in the
archives of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society ;—

‘‘ Lyons, 14th March, 1826.

‘* My dear Sir,—I should have forwarded the enclosedt
from Paris had I not waited to visit a spot in Auvergne,
where they have recently discovered a deposit of animals
similar to those of Kent’s Cave, in a bed of diluvial sand
and gravel.

‘‘The resemblance is still more striking from the fact of
there being among them the teeth of your unknown ammal,t
which turns out to be the Ursus cultridens of Cuvier, which
had till now been found only in the Vald’Arno. Thereisa
complete skull of this bear in the collection at Florence.

* * * * *

I have sent the gnawed fragments you gave me to Scotland,
and trust that ere this opposition in that quarter will have
. @eased.:

It cannot be doubted that the ‘‘ unknown animal,”’ which
turned out to be Ursus cultvidens mentioned by Buckland in
the letter just quoted, was the ‘‘unknown carnivorous
animal’’ he spoke of in his communication to Jameson.

It was well known that Mr. MacEnery intended to pub-
lish by subscription an account of his researches. A copy of
his prospectus, now before us, shows that it was to be
illustrated with thirty plates representing the objects in the
natural size, and that specimens of the plates had been pre-
pared, and were on view. At his death, however, in 1841,
the work had not been published, nor could his manuscript
be found, and the plates appear to have been lost sight of.
Subsequently, the manuscript was recovered, and seventeen
of the lithographed stones were also found. The work was

* These italics are not in the original.

+ Letter from the Baron Cuvier to Rev. J. MacEnery.
{ These words are not italicised in the original.

a

1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 207

by no means ready for the press, but in 1859 Mr. E. Vivian,
of Torquay, published a compilation from it; and through
the liberality of Mr. F. Buckland, whose property the stones
had become, he was allowed to have some proof impressions
taken for its illustration. The plates are distinguished with
letters of the alphabet, from B to T inclusive, J and O being
missing. The first sixteen contain figures of the remains of
animals, and the seventeenth of flint implements. They all
state that the specimens represented on them were found in
‘** Kent’s Hole, Torquay;”’ fourteen of them that they were
‘*‘lithographed from nature by G. Scharf;” one, F, that it
was delineated by ‘‘ Mary Buckland,” and lithographed by
“ G. Sehari; ~ the remaining. two,.H and I, are silent on
this point; twelve give the information that the specimens
mene dound) by Kkev.. J.° McEnery.; one, C, by Kev. L.'P:
Welland, whilst the remaining four give no information on
the subject.

Plate F contains seven figures representing, in the natural
size, different aspects of at least three distinct canines, and
has the following label :—‘‘ Mary Buckland del., G. Scharf,
lithog., Nat. size. Teeth of Ursus cultridens. Found in
the Cave of Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, Devon, by Revd.
Mr. McEnery, January, 1826, in diluvial mud, mix’d with
teeth and gnaw’d bones of rhinoceros, elephant, horse, ox,
elk, and deer, with teeth and bones of hyzenas, bears, wolves,
foxes, &c.” It is the only plate in the series which was
drawn by ‘‘ Mary Buckland,” or bears the date on which
the specimens were found, or names the animals with whose
remains they were mixed. In short, there was a full recog-
nition of the fact that the discovery was regarded as one of
importance. It may be, too, that scepticism respecting it
was foreseen and provided for, so far as was possible.

The plate, as we have seen, states that the teeth were
found in January, 1826, and this harmonises with the facts,
that according to the records of the Geological Society
of London, one of them was presented to that body by
Mis. "cazalet, February 17th,’ 1826; and that Sir W- C-
Trevelyan, as he has been so good as to inform us, was at
Torquay in 1826, about the end of February and beginning
of March; that on the last day of the former he spent some
hours excavating in the cavern, and that one of the teeth of
Machairodus was given to him by Mrs. Cazalet (he thinks),
and not by Mr. MacEnery.

In his manuscript, the whole of which was published in
1869, exactly as he left it,* Mr. MacEnery mentioned the

* See Trans. Devon Assoc., ili., p. 1gr-482.

208 The Kent’s Hole M achairodus. - [April,

discovery of the Machairodus remains no fewer than seven
distinct times, and states that he found them in a branch of
the cavern known as the Wolf's Cave.*

Of the foregoing statements the following is briefly the
sum :—Mr. MacEnery commenced his systematic researches
at the close of 1825. In January, 1826, he discovered in the
Wolf’s Cave, teeth of an animal, which he submitted to
Dr. Buckland, who, like himself, was ignorant of their true
character. Very shortly after their discovery, he gave two
of them to Mrs. Cazalet, his friend and co-religionist, t who ~
presented one of them to the Geological Society of London,
on the 17th February, 1826, and the other to Sir W. C.
Trevelyan about the end of that month or the beginning of
the next. Prior to 14th March, Dr. Buckland, describing
the contents of the cavern to Prefessor Jameson, mentioned
the occurrence of “‘ an unknown carnivorous animal at least
as large as a tiger, the genus of which had not been deter-
mined.” Subsequently, Dr. Buckland visited Paris, when
he submitted the teeth, or more probably casts of them, to
the Baron Cuvier, and on March 14th, 1826, when writing
to Mr. MacEnery from Lyons, he informed him that his
‘“ unknown animal” had turned out to be the Ursus cultridens ;
adding, and this to one with whose palentological know-
ledge he was well acquainted, that previously it had been
found only in the Val d’Arno.

If the written statements of Mr. MacEnery, Dr. Buckland,
and Sir W. C. Trevelyan be insufficient to establish the
proposition that Machairodus remains had been found in
Kent’s Cavern, we may well despair of evidence. Happily,
however, the proposition was confirmed on July 2gth, 1872,
as has been already stated, when the Committee at present
charged with the exploration of the cavern. by the British
Association discovered another tooth of the same species.

Il. The remains of Machatrodus which MacEnery discovered
in the Cavern.—Respecting the remains of Machairodus he
found in Kent’s Hole, MacEnery says “it is scarce, only
five teeth having been found.” Proceeding to describe one
of the teeth, he says, “‘ Its form is semi-lunar, compressed,
and tapering to a point like a blade; and along the course
of the enamel, which occupies nearly one-half of its entire
length and assumes a fine edge, it is delicately dentated—
vide plate F, figs. 1, 2, 3, exhibiting different views of the
most perfect tooth. The curved fang was snapped off, and

* Ibid., pp. 240, 243, 294, 368-70, 371-2, 421, and 456-7.
+ Mr. MacEnery was the Roman Catholic Priest at Torquay.

nS iy 4 7

1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 209

the hollow of the tooth disclosed, which, with its unworn
point, shows it to have belonged to a young individual.
The other teeth represented in the same plate are truncated
at their apex, and despoiled of their posterior serrature,
while the anterior indenture isentire. ... Theappearance
Olethe blunted) apex of the’ teeth bespeaks the effect of
violence. The part is not worn down and polished as is the
case with teeth employed in bruising vegetables, but broken
shagply on, ast trom ‘the act.of piercing its foe. » ~. The
enamel is longitudinally situated, and the base of the fang is
distinguished by dotted lines in strong relief?

‘* Judging from the wear of the apex and the solidity of the
fangs, three of the specimens belonged to adult individuals.
They are all gnawed at their base, and the young one
cracked across.’’*

In a subsequent passage he adds :—‘‘ In addition to the
canines, I have lately discovered in the same bed a small
tooth about an inch long. ‘The internal face of the enamel
is fringed with a serrated border. This tooth is dis-
tinguished further by two tubercles or protuberances at the

base of the enamel, from which the serration springs, and

describes a pointed arch on the internal surface, vide figs.
8, 9.t The body of the tooth in this specimen is not com-
pressed but rounded. Whether this belongs to an inferior
species of U. cultvidens, or is simply the incisor anterior to
the canine of U. cultrvidens, 1 am not able to pronounce with
certainty.’ ft !

This latter tooth was subsequently identified, figured, and
described by Professor Qwen as the right external upper
incisor of his Machatrodus latidens.|| MacEnery’s statement
respecting its size must have been based on a rough guess,
not on actual measurement, for, instead of being ‘‘ about an
inch long,” it measured, according to Professor Owen’s
figure, 1°97 inches in length, in a straight line, from the
vertex of the crown to the base of the fang.

What has become of the incisor appears to be entirely
unknown; but the five canines have all been traced. One
of them, as we have seen, was presented to the Museum of
the Geological Society of London; and Sir W. C. Trevelyan
has recently presented his specimen to the Museum of the

’ foia: pps 369,370.

+ These figures are not known. From the fact that he does not specify the
plate in which they occur, it seems probable that they were to be added to
plate F, the last he had previously specified, and that in which the canines of
Machairodus were represented.

+ Ibid., p. 370.

|| Hist. Brit. Fossil Mammals, &c., 1846, pp. 177, 182.

VOL. Ill. (N:S.) 2E

210 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. [April,

Geological Survey in Jermyn Street, London. The remain-
ing three were in MacEnery’s collection at his decease, and
were disposed of at the sale of his effeéts. Dr. Battersby,
late of Torquay, says ina letter to us on the subject, ‘‘ There
was a card sold at Mr. MacEnery’s sale with three teeth
(serrated on each side), and marked Ursus cultridens. ‘These
were purchased jointly by Dr. Phillips and myself. After
the sale was over, Mr. Konig, of the British Museum, came
to me and said he had been particularly anxious to have
bought them, but had not observed they were on the card
until after it was knocked down. Dr. Phillips and I then
agreed to give him one for the Museum. Dr. Phillips sent
his to the Museum at Oxford. ... The third I forwarded
to Lord Enniskillen, with a number of other teeth, &c., I
had purchased for him.” ... Lord Enniskillen subse-
quently sent his specimen to the Museum of the College of
Surgeons, London. It is unnecessary to add that the
specimens are carefully preserved in the five museums named
above.

As will subsequently be shown, the.upper and lower
canines of Machairodus are so very dissimilar as to render it
quite safe to assert that the Kent’s Hole specimens all
belonged to the upper series, and thus to render it certain
that at least three individuals of Machatrodus latidens found
their way to Britain ; and, from what has been stated, that
two of them were adults and perhaps aged, whilst the third
was young.

The following questions, however, have lately been raised
respecting the actual number of teeth found :—

1. Were there not more than five canines?

2. Were there not two incisors ?

1. The Number of the Canines.—During the progress of his
researches, Mr. MacEnery sent specimens of the cavern
remains and casts of the rarer fossils to various museums,
and amongst others to London, Paris, York, and Bristol.
His present to York included “‘a correct cast of one of the
serrated teeth of the Ursus culividens of Cuvier,” and was
accompanied by a descriptive letter, dated May 3, 1826,
enclosing copies of the letters which, as already mentioned,
he had received from Cuvier and Buckland. In the Report
on MacEnery’s present and communication, drawn up by
the Rev. W. V. Harcourt, President of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society, and laid before that body, it is stated that
“MM. Cuvier .°.5. 4 found. one en the specimensy.-. tones
the canine tooth of that species of bear which he has
named Ursus cultridens ;” and from this passage it has been

1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 2x

inferred that an actual tooth, and not a cast merely, formed
part of the present sent to Paris. There is nothing, how-
ever, in either of the letters to justify this inference. On
the contrary, MacEnery’s list of the specimens he sent to
York closes with the remark that ‘‘ Similar collections to
the one now forwarded have been transmitted to Cuvier for
the Paris Museum, to Professor Buckland for the London
Geological Society, and to Bristol;” thus rendering it at
least probable that, as to York, a ‘‘ correct cast” only was
sent to Paris. That casts were sent thither is quite certain,
for, when visiting the museum, May 2nd, 1872, we made a
special and successful search for them; and whilst they
were before us, made the following notes :—‘‘ In the Pale-
ontological Museum, in the Jardin des Plantes, there are
three plaster casts of teeth of Machairodus from Kent’s
Cavern, two canines, and one incisor. The crown of the
first is broken.

** The following three labels accompany them :—

‘‘Label i. ‘ Felis cultridens d’Angleterre, Ost. Pl. xvii.’

‘*‘Label 2. ‘ Modéles en Platre de 2 canines superieures
donnés, par Mr. Mac-Enri.’

‘*Label 3. ‘ Modéles en Platre d’un Incisive sup. par Mr.
Mac-Enri.’”’

There was certainly no actual tooth of Machairodus from
Kent’s Hole in the collection; and when it is remarked
that the casts presented in 1826 had been carefully pre-
served for forty-six years, it may be concluded that less
care would not have been bestowed on an original tooth,
and that there is nothing to warrant the belief that more
than five canines—the number mentioned by MacEnery—
were found in the cavern.

2. The Number of the Incisors—We have already seen that
according to MacEnery’s statement he found one incisor,
and that when describing it he referred to figs. 8 and 9g,
which do not occur in any of his series of plates which
have been recovered, but were perhaps intended to be intro-
duced into ‘‘ Plate F’”—his Machairodus plate.

In 1869, several plates were presented to the Torquay
Natural History Society by gentlemen who had obtained
them from an executor of Mr. MacEnery, whose property
they formerly were; many of them were copies of the
seventeen already mentioned, but two of them were new
ones belonging to the same series—plates O.and U. Besides
these were some that certainly did not represent Kent’s
Cavern fossils, and had nothing whatever to do with the
series. There was one, however, a drawing in Indian-ink,

212 The Kent's Hole Machatrodus. [April,

containing five figures, two of them representing different
aspects of a portion of the upper jaw of a horse, whilst the
remaining three were those of two incisors of Machairodus,
in all respects closely resembling the incisor of Mach. latidens
from Kent’s Cavern, figured, as already stated, by Professor
Owen. Besides the figures, there is nothing on the plate but
the words “‘ J. Scharf del, 1837.”

On the strength of these three figures it has recently been
concluded that MacEnery found two incisors in Kent’s
Hole,* but, in reply, it may be stated that there is nothing
to indicate that the plate in question belonged to the cavern. ©
series, or represented Kent’s Hole fossils; and that, if it did,
it could not have been the plate to which he referred, as it
contains but five figures, whilst his reference was to “ figs.
8 and g.” In short, it seems impossible to deny that the
evidence that MacEnery found more than one incisor is
certainly very inconclusive. ;

It is perhaps worthy of remark that Professor Gervais, in
his Zoologie et Palaontologie Francgaises has the following
observation under ‘‘ Machatrodus latidens’’:—“* Fossil from
England in Kent’s Cavern. I cite this species among our
fossils of France from a single incisor: found near Du Puy
(Haute Loire) by M. Aymard, in soil probably diluvian,
and which he has communicated to me; this tooth quite
resembles, by its crenulated edges, that which was dis-
covered in England by Mr..MacEnery, and that of
De Blainville and M. Owen.’”t Is it possible that the
figures in the plate under notice are those of the two
Machairodus incisors, found one in Kent’s Hole, by Mac
Enery, the other near Du Puy, by Aymard, and placed side
by side for comparison ? .

III. The Eva of the Kents Cavern Machatrodus.—It has
been already stated that one of the difficulties in the
way of the acceptance of MacEnery’s reputed discovery,
was that the Machairodus remains found in continental
Europe belonged to deposits of higher antiquity—those of
Epplesheim and Auvergne being miocene, and those of
the Val d’Arno pliocene; and though the difficulty was
at least partially removed by the fact that the Kent’s Hole
fossils, though of the same genus, belonged to a distinct
species, it was still held to be so remarkable as to require

* See ‘‘ The British Pleistocene Mammalia.” By W. Boyp Dawkins, M.A.,
F.R.S., and W. AYSHFORD SANFORD, F.G.S., Part iv., Pal. Soc., 1872, pages
185—188.

t Op. cit., 2nd edit., 1859, p. 231.

1873.] The Kent's Hole Maehairodus. 213

confirmation. At present, however, the chronological
chasm has been almost, if not entirely, bridged over by
M. Aymard’s discovery of a tooth of the same species near
du Puy, and the disinterment in Buenos Ayres of an almost
complete skeleton of Mach.neogacus, to be described more fully
in the sequel, which, according to Dr. H. Burmeister, was
the contemporary of the Megatherium and other pleistocene
forms.

In discussing the question immediately before us, it will
be necessary to give a brief description of the successive
deposits in Kent’s Hole :—First, or uppermost, was a very
dark coloured mud, from 3 to 12 inches in depth, and known
as the Black Mould. Beneath it was a floor of stalagmite,
commonly of laminated and granular structure, and termed
the Granular Stalagmite or Floor. Next below was an
accumulation of bright red loam, with about 50 per cent of
angular fragments of limestone, and designated the Cave-
Earth. In certain parts of the cavern this rested on a second
or lower floor of stalagmite, of highly crystalline texture, in
some places upwards of 12 feet thick, and termed the
Crystalline Stalagnute or Floor. Under this lay, so far as is
at present known, the lowest and oldest deposit of the
cavern, consisting of sub- angular and rounded pieces of
dark red grit, embedded in a sandy paste of the same colour ;
the whole being known as the Breccia. Large coherent
masses of the breccia, as well as of the granular stalagmite,
occurred in various branches of the cavern incorporated in
the cave-earth ; thus showing that prior to the introduction
of the latter they were more important formations than they
are at present.

All these deposits contained bones and teeth of animals.
In the uppermost, or black mould, they were those of
existing species, but in all below it remains of extinct as
well as of recent forms presented themselves. In the cave-
earth and the granular stalagmite formed on it, but especially
the former, the ordinary cave mammals were very abundant;
the hyzena being the most prevalent, but followed very closely
by the horse and rhinoceros. Remains of megaceros, ox,
deer, badger, mammoth, and bear were by no means rare;
whilst those of fox, lion, reindeer, and wolf were less
prevalent; and those of beaver, glutton, and Machairodus
were very scarce. In the lower deposits—the crystalline
stalagmite and the breccla—remains of animals were less
uniformly distributed. In some places none were met with
throughout considerable areas, whilst in others they formed
50 per cent of the entire deposit ; but, so far as is at present

214 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. _ [April,

known, they were exclusively those of bears. Not only
were there no bones or teeth of the hyzna, but none of his
coprolites, nor were any of the bones broken after his well-
known pattern, or scored with his teeth marks.

The bones found in the black mould, or most modern
deposit, differed much in specific gravity from those in the
lower accumulations, and were generally so light as to float
in water. The remains in the cave-earth and breccia had
lost their animal matter, and adhered to the tongue when
applied to it, so as frequently to support their own weight ;
but those from the latter were much more mineralised than
the specimens found in the cave-earth.

The following general statements may be of service here :—

1. Animal remains were much more abundant in the
mechanical deposits than in the stalagmites.

2. The period represented by the Breccia and Crystalline
Stalagmite may, so far as the cavern is concerned, be termed
the Ursine period ; the deposits having yielded remains of
bears only.

3. The period of the Cave-Earth and Granular Stalagmite
may be denominated the Hyena period; the hyena remains
being restricted to these deposits.

4. The period of the Black Mould may be called the
Ovine period; remains of the sheep having been found in
but not below this accumulation.

5. The bones of each period were distinguishable by their
mineral condition; those in the Black Mould being much
lighter, and those in the Breccia being more mineralised, than
the remains yielded by the Cave-Earth.

Some of the masses of breccia occasionally incorporated
in the cave-earth were found to contain bones possessing all
the characters of such as were met with in the undisturbed
breccia; and a few fossils, easily distinguishable by their
mineral condition, had certainly been dislodged from the
breccia or older deposit, and re-deposited in the relatively
modern cave-earth, without being attended by any dis-
coverable portion of the accumulation in which they had
been primarily interred. Hence the question, ‘‘Is not this
the History of the Kent’s Hole Machairodus?” is one which
presents itself when considering the era of that species,
and which presses for a distin¢ét and definite reply. Indeed,
it has recently received a qualified answer in the affirmative,*
but which appears to us not to be borne out by the evidence.

The following is the substance of MacEnery’s statements

* See Brit. Pleist. Mammals, Pal. Soc., Part iv., 1872, p. 191.

1873.,| The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 215

having a bearing on this question :—No teeth of Machairodus
weve found in those parts of the cavern in which the deposit
yielded remains of bears only ; in other words, in the breccia.
This he regarded as a very noteworthy fact, as he supposed
the animal to have been a species of bear. They were met
with in the branch known as the Wolf’s Cave, mixed with
the teeth and bones of hyznas, and the gnawed bones of
rhinoceros, elephant, and the other ordinary cave-earth
mammals. Though some of the remains mixed with them
bore marks indicative of contusion, they, though “‘ delicately-
edged,” bore no such indications. The fang of one of the
canines had been broken across, and all the others had been
gnawed.* Having carefully examined some of the canines,
we can confirm the statement that they are gnawed ; and can
add that their mineral condition is that of specimens from
the Cave-Earth, not the Breccia.

Had the teeth in question been derived from the breccia
and re-deposited in the cave-earth, it might have been ex-
pected that some remains of the same kind would have been
met with amongst the immense number of fossils found in
the undisturbed original deposit ; but instead of this, neither
MacEnery nor the British Association Committee, whose
uninterrupted and systematic labours have now extended
over eight years, met with the least trace of Machairodus in
the breccia. Again, the present explorers carefully re-
examined all the deposit broken up, but not removed, by
MacEnery in the Wolf’s Cave, and they excavated there to
a depth greater than that to which he restricted himself;
but they neither met with any detached bone or tooth having
the mineral character indicative of fossils from the breccia,
nor any trace of the older deposit, either as incorporated
fragments or im situ. When to these facts—important,
though negative—it is added that the teeth under notice
have the mineral condition betokening the cave-earth, and
that they have not suffered abrasion or contusion, which it
is scarcely possible to suppose they would have escaped
had they undergone dislodgment, transportation, and re-
deposition, especially when the very delicate serration of
their edges is borne in mind, a very strong case seems to be
made out in favour of the proposition that Machatrodus
latidens was a member of the Cave-Earth fauna. There is,
however, another and a most important fact. As already
stated, the fangs of the canines are gnawed; the work, in
all probability, of the hyzena—an animal which seems to

* See Trans. Devon. Assoc., Part iii., pp. 240, 243, 294, 370, 371, and 457.

216 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. a [April,

have been master of the cavern during the cave-earth era,
but of which no indications whatever have been found in
the breccia.

The conclusion to which the foregoing faéts concur in
pointing, was confirmed by the incisor found, as already
stated, by the British Association Committee, July 2oth,
1872. It lay in the uppermost foot-level of cave earth,
below the granular stalagmite, and below it were teeth of
hyzena, horse, and bear; in short, the evidence shows that
the Kent’s Hole Machairodus belonged to the cave-earth, or
hyzena period; and, should any facts hereafter present them-
selves proving it to have been a member of the fauna of the
Breccia, they will in no way disturb this conclusion, but will
simply prove that, like the cave bear, Machairodus latidens
belonged to both eras.

IV. The Place of Machairodus in the Zoological Series.—
Remains of animals, all now recognised as belonging to the
genus Machairodus, have been found in Italy, Germany,
various parts of France, England, Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and
the Sewalik hills in India, and have been described under
the names.of Ursus cultridens, U. etruscus et cultridens, U.
cultridens arvernensis, U. cultridens issidorensis, U. depranodon,
Felis cultridens, F. cultridens etuariorum, F. megantereon, F.
megantereon et cultridens, F. palmidens, Machairodus cultridens,
M. latidens, M. paluudens, M. neogacus, Megantereon brevidens,
M. macroscelis, Hyena neogaea, Smilodon populator, Munifelis
bonaérensis, Stenodon, and A gnotherium.

Professor Nesti was the first to describe the large falciform
canines from the Val d’Arno, and in 1824 he exhibited them
to Cuvier, who referred them to the genus Ursus, under the
name of Ursus cultridens. In 1828, M. Bravard found a
complete skull in Auvergne, with the falciformal canines
im situ, and proved that the jaw was like that of the cat’s;
hence he proposed that the animal should be called Felis
megantereon et cultridens. In 1833, Dr. Kaup, in his descrip-
tion of the Epplesheim fossils in the Darmstadt collection,
pointed out that the compressed canines had neither the
longitudinal grooves nor the two ridges which characterise
feline canines, that no carnivorous quadruped had the
enamelled crown of the canine so long, or its concave edge
so serrated, and that in these respects they resembled the
teeth of the Megalosaurus,—an extinct species of gigantic
land-saurian,—and he proposed. a new genus, Machatrodus
(sabre- toothed) for *the> iextinet- species to ELS they
ners

1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machatrodus. ey,

Besides the upper tusks, Kaup was acquainted with those
of the under jaw, which are comparatively very small; and,
not thinking that they belonged to the same animal, as-
signed them to another genus, which he named A gnothertum.

Dr. Lund, digging in the bone caves of Brazil, found joints
of toes and molars which he thought those of a hyena, and
described them under the name of H. neogaea in 1839; sub-
sequently, being convinced by the singular tusk that the.
animal belonged to a distinct genus, he made it known
under the name of Smzlodon populator. His Smuilodon, how-
ever, was the Machairodus.

In 1846, Professor Owen, describing the Kent’s Hole
Machairodus, says, ‘‘In this extinét animal, as in the
Machatrodus cultvidens of the Val d’Arno, and the M.
megantereon of Auvergne, the canines curved backwards, in
form like a pruning-knife, having the greater part of the
compressed crown provided with a double-cutting edge of
serrated enamel; that on the concave margin being con-
tinued to the pane the convex margin becoming thicker
there, like the back of a knife, to give strength. Thus,
each movement of the jaw, with a tooth thus formed, com-
bined the power of the knife and saw, whilst the apex, in
making the first incision, acted like the two-edged point of
a sabre. The backward curvature of the full-grown teeth
enabled them to retain, like barbs, the prey whose quivering
flesh they. penetrated. ... One of the largest of the
canines of the Machairodus cultridens from the Val d’Arno
measures 8°5 inches in length along the anterior curve, and
I°5 inchesin breadth at the base of the crown. The largest
of the canines of the Machatrodus from Kent’s Hole measures
six inches along the anterior curve, and one inch two lines
across the base of the crown; the English specimens are
also thinner or more compressed in proportion to their
breadth, especially at the anterior part of the crown, which
is sharper than in the M. cultridens. These differences are
so constant and well marked as to establish the specific dis-
tinctness of the large British sabre-toothed feline animal;
for which, therefore, I propose the name of Machairodus
latidens (broad-toothed, sabre-toothed.]”’*

It is obvious that Professor Owen acquiesced in separating
the animals under discussion from the typical Felidae, that
he adopted the generic name of Machairodus proposed for
them by Professor Kaup, and that he regarded the Kent’s
Hole form as specifically distin¢ét from that of the Val
@Arno. The last decision was objected to by the late

* Brit. Foss. Mam., p. 179, 181.
WO. fl." (N.S:) aE

218 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. [April,

Dr. Falconer, who says, ‘“‘ The length of the Italian tooth
il is 8°5 in., and the breadth of the crown at the base 1°5in.,
while the corresponding measurements of the English speci-
mens are 6 and 1°2 in. "The breadth of the English tooth
ought to be only r°o6in., were the proportion to the length
the same as in the Italian. Owen says these differences are
constant and well marked. But are they sufficient for a
distinction of species, or are the materials sufficiently abun-
dant to affirm their constancy? I thinknot. In my opinion,
the English Machatrodus latidens is probably the same as the
Italian M. cultridens.” *

It has always struck us that in this passage the case is
not stated with the author’s well-known usual fairness.
Professor Owen named his species, no doubt, from the
greater relative breadth of the crown of the canine, but he
separated it from the Italian, not on this account only, but
also because of the difference in actual dimensions, the greater
relative compression of the English specimens, and the
sharper anterior edges of their crowns. Be this as it may,
Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Ayshford Sanford, having stated
Dr. Falconer’s objection, say, ‘“ We consider the British
Macherodus latidens, Owen, to be distin@ from the M. cul-
tvidens of the Continent ;”f and they call attention to Pro-
fessor Gervais’s statement that the incisors in the almost
entire skull found in Auvergne by M. Bravard, and admitted
by all to be M. cultvidens, are not crenulated as in M.
latidens.t

In 1844, Dr. Franz Xavier Muniz found near Lujan,
12 leagues west of Buenos Ayres, the almost complete
skeleton of a beast of prey, a contemporary of “the
Megatherium, Mylodon, Glyptodon, Taxodon, and Mas-
todon. Finding nothing like it in Cuvier’s Ossem. Foss., ©
he described it under the name of Munzfelis bonaérensis, in
the ‘’Gaceta. Mercantil” of oth Odt., 1825:

It proved, however, to be the skeleton of a species of Ma-
chairodus, and in October, 1865, Dr. Herman Burmeister, who
in 1861 took the management of the State Museum of Buenos
Ayres, succeeded in securing the specimen for his museum,
through the munificence of Mr. William Wheelwright, con-
tractor of the Argentine Central Railway from Rosario to Cor-
dova. Dr. Burmeister proposes publishing a full description in
the ‘‘ Anales del Mus. publ. de B.A.,” but in the meantime he
has sent to his friends in Germany a brief notice of the

== ————————
=

* Palzont. Memoirs, 1868, vol. ii., p. 459.
+ Brit, Pleist.. Mam, Part IV 1872, p. 1387.
t Zoologie et Palzontologie Frang¢aises, 2nd. Ed., 1859, p. 231.

1873.| The Kent's Hole Machatrodus. 219

most important parts of the construction. This paper was
“‘ specially printed from the treatises of the Natural History
Society at Halle,’ and is accompanied by a figure, from a
photograph of the skeleton as it now stands in the Museum,
which shows its excellent preservation. We propose incor-
porating a very condensed summary of Dr. Burmeister’s
paper, of which, so far as we are aware, no notice has ap-
peared in British journals, for though the skeleton is not that
of Machatrodus latidens, it is beyond all comparison the most
perfect specimen of the genus which has been found, and
cannot fail to throw considerable light on his British
relative.

The country between the small towns of Lujan and
Meroedes forms an oval trough, running from S.W. to N.E.,
in the midst of which is the little river on which both towns
are situated. It is peculiarly rich in well-preserved skele-
tons of gigantic animals, most of which are on the level of
the water, or a little above it.

As the species is the same as that found in Brazil by
Dr. Lund, who, apparently not aware of the researches of
Dr. Kaup, described it under the name of Hyena neogaea,
in 1839, or six years before Dr. Muniz described his specimen
as Munifelis bonaérensis, Dr. Burmeister has done the
former an act of justice by acknowledging the priority
of his specific name, and calling the creature Macherodus
neogaeus.

Everything about the body resembles that of the Felidae,
and but for the skull and teeth no one would be able to dis-
tinguish it from that genus. Notwithstanding the great size
of its tusks, the animal did not reach the size of the existing
lion or tiger, and the cave-lion (felis spel@a) was consider-
ably larger.

The following measurements show that relatively to the
length of the body, exclusive of the tail, its skull was shorter
than that of either the lion or tiger :—

Skull. Body. Ratio of Skull to Body.
Gerson a. wee ke 66 in. 18g : 1000
Ser eh ial ear kao Ue 60 in. 194 : 1000
Magen, Heo. 4. T3307. F2ATe 186 : 1000

Though, as shown above, the skull is actually longer, it is
much smaller than that of the tiger. In the enormous
development of the crista occtpitalis it resembles the hyena.
The face is of great breadth, which is probably due to the
astonishing size of the upper tusks, and the long oval form
of the relatively small eye orbits.

220 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. [April,

The under jaw of Mach. neo. is considerably smaller than
that of the lion, and only a little longer, but at the same
time decidedly muchnarrower than that of the jaguar; but the
palate is much broader than that of the lion or tiger, at
least in front., The following measurements, in inches, of
the length of the under jaw, from the front edge of the tusk
to the back part of the edge of the neck, in some of the
larger Felide and Mach. neo. may be of interest here :—
Cave-lion (Felis spelea), 11°43; Lion (FP. leo), 9:45: Liger
(F. tigris), 8°3; Ounce (fF. onca), 779; and Mach. neo., 8°7.
The under jaw of Machairodus is known with certainty by
the forestanding edge-comb of the chin on each side, beside
which lies the great canine of the upper jaw. It seems to
indicate that the point of this tusk could not be hidden
under the lips when the mouth is closed, though the upper
lip was much broader and more Heshy than that of the
existing Felidae.

The Buenos Ayres skull contains three upper and two
lower molars on each side. The foremost of the lower
series is wanting, and there is no trace of analveolus. The
number and formation of tubercles on them is quite like
those of the feline animals.

The following are the dimensions of the upper canine :—
Length of the crown 5 inches, of the gum 1 inch, of the
root 4°5 inches; total length in a straight line 10°5 inches.
The under tusk is surprisingly small in comparison, and
scarcely larger than the upper outer incisor. Both the
upper and lower canines are devoid of the longitudinal
furrows which the tusks of the real FPelide possess—two
upon each side of the upper, and one on the outer side of
the lower.

The external upper incisors, like the lower canines, are
conical, bluntly pointed, slightly bent inwards, and bluntly
three-cornered. In the Felide the outer incisors, especially
in the upper jaw, are much larger than the inner ones,
which are of equal size; whilst in the lower series a differ-
ence of size is perceptible between the inner and the middle
ones on each side. In Machairodus neogaeus the difference
of size between the three on each side, in each jaw, is much
more considerable, and the gradual increase from inwards
to outwards is not to be mistaken. The teeth of the upper
and lower jaws also harmonise more with each other both
in form and size—each one of the lower series being a little
smaller than the corresponding incisor in the upper. The
following measurements of the crowns clearly show the
proportions of the several teeth :—

.1873.] The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. 221
Upper. Lower.
Nonlet IciSOG obs weOwoq meats 8.6 Or st imeh

Middle do. ob) eR ONTO er ss es LOLS ONS
Ofer. de: OO Rat Fs a eA Oe ee ee
“Canine do. Litany OOM ws Nraig ad oy EP OD Vee

In the form of their crowns, the difference between the
incisors of the Felid@ and Machairodus is very decided ; for,
~ instead of being chisel-shaped as in the former, every one
in the latter is thoroughly conical, extends to a simple
rounded point, and is slightly incurved throughout, the
point itself standing perpendicularly. Close to the point
are two more or less sharp edges, which run along both
sides of the crown and get thick.and callous below. At the
bottom of the crown they turn inwards, get weaker, and
approach each other at an angle, which includes a blunt
and scarcely perceptible tubercle. These edges have also
slight notches corresponding to those of the under tusk.

The conical form of the incisors, as well as the lancet-
like upper canines, shows in a high degree the bloodthirsty
nature of the Machairodus. Assuming, as very probable,
that the objects of his bloodthirstiness were the great
Edentata of South America—the Megatherium, Scelidothe-
rium, Mylodon, and Glyptodon—it is clear that a sharp
long-pointed set of teeth was necessary for killing animals
covered with a hard coat of mail, and only a beast of prey
_like the Machairodus could have been able to kill them.
These large animals did not possess the means of active
defence. Even the powerful claws of their fore-legs were of
no use. For defence, they had only their clumsy figures
and coats of mail. The Machairodus, therefore, required
the long sharp tusks and pointed incisors to be able
to take hold of and kill his prey. The tusk of a tiger or
lion could not possibly have penetrated the skin of a
Mylodon or Glyptodon. It harmonises well with this
description that the South American species of Machai-
rodus possessed such great upper and relatively small lower
tusks; as it was only there that the coated gigantic animals
existed. In Kaup’s species the upper tusks were smaller
and the lower ones larger; and Machairodus latidens, as re-
presented by Owen, differs still more from M. neogacus.
The incisor figured by Owen has a thicker, but not a
shorter, crown than that of the same tooth in the Buenos
Ayres skeleton. This shows a much less disproportion in
M. latidens in the extent of the incisors and tusks, and
enables us to show this characteristic as a necessary con-
sequence of a difference of construction for their food.

222 The Kent’s Hole Machairodus. [April,

No part of the skeleton of Machairodus neogaeus differs so
much as the head from the corresponding part in the ex-
isting Pelide. Theneck has a length of 15°25 inches. The
atlas is shorter and a little broader, but not stronger, than
that of the tiger ; and is much inferior to that of Felis spelea.
Its form approaches that of the hyena. The dorsal vertebre
are fourteen in number, the lumbar six, and the pelvic three.
The tail is entirely wanting, but there are indications that
it was smaller than in the existing large Felid@, and probably
not larger than that of the lynx.

The breast-bone and ribs are perfectly like those in the
genus Felis. The former consists of nine pieces of bone,
with a tenth, or terminal one, of cartilage. ‘There are
fourteen pairs of ribs, the first being 6°3 inches long, almost
everywhere equally broad, and a little compressed; the
second is thinner, and the succeeding ones get much thinner
upward, thicker below, and teminate in a knob-like swelling.
They increase in length to the seventh, which, like the
three following it, is 11°4 inches long; after this they
decrease to the fourteenth, which, like the first, measures
6°3 inches. How many of them were false has not been
ascertained.

The bones of the extremities, taken singly, closely resemble
those of the Felid@e, but when united it is seen that the fore-
arm and lower leg are short in proportion to the upper arm
and thigh. This will be clearly apparent in the following
table, where the lengths are given in inches :—

Mach. neo. Felis spelea. F. tigris. F.domestica.
GHP is). eine) eae es, 9°84 3°42
PUM RIS hn .'s. act EA OO 14°96 iZ-76 4°OI
Radi (ices oh noe 13°78 II‘02 3°94
Means 7.6 1 So. ae i) T¥'D2 3°54
Metacarp: ied.” 477454 5°39 4°25 by
PEIMIS tie ae dac ee eee (?} 12°70 4°33
Sacrum. exe. jen ZO 5°04 2°76 0°79
Bentur Sn te bas 16°85 14°17 4°72
Tibia orate kia ee Es, 12°70 AZ.
Calcaneuia ---5 lt) aee4 ee ee ie: 122
Metatars. med. . 3°94 5°55 4°96 1a7

Whilst the lower bones of the fore-limbs are thus com-
paratively short, they are much stouter than those of the
existing Felidg. The bones of the lion, the most robust
of the genus, scarcely reaches them.

It is clear that an animal like Machairodus, possessing
such capacities for securing its prey, required very powerful

1873.| The Kent's Hole Machairodus. 223

claws; and these excite astonishment by their size and
solidity, especially on the inner toes of the fore paws. Even
the same bones in Felis spelea, as figured by Schmerling,
are only a little longer, whilst the toes are much larger.

The shortening of the fore-limbs is much greater than
that of the hinder. From the size of the scapula, the arm
and hand of the Machairodus might have been expected to
exceed those of the tiger, especially as the upper arm is
much longer and thicker ; but whilst the living tiger has a
shorter shoulder-blade and a shorter upper arm, it hasa
longer fore-arm and paw, and the bones are much thinner
than those of Machairodus neogaeus; hence, the strength
of the animal is much less. The tiger is quicker and more
versatile, but his power of beating down and grasping his
prey is certainly less than that of Machairodus was.

Though in the hind limbs the difference is less marked,
the lower leg was 5°12 inches shorter than the thigh, whilst
Imetienticer-tme difterence.is but. 1°47 inches. . “Fhe foot,
notwithstanding, is almost of equal length in the two
animals, and the heel of Machairodus was even longer than
that of the tiger, thus proving the greater power of the
former in its hinder extremities also.

There is no further difference between the number, position,
and size of the hand and ankles of Machairodus and those
of the living Pelide than that all the small bones of the
former are much stronger. It is the same with the bones
of the toes, which, and especially those of the thumb of
the fore-paw, are of extraordinary solidity and size.*

Palzontologists are at present acquainted with the follow-
ing species of the genus Machairodus :—

M. cultridens, found in Italy, Germany, and France.
M. latidens, » » Lngland and France.

M. palmidens,T ,, ,, France.

M.-sivalensts, 4), ,, India.

M. neogaeus, ,, ,, Braziland Buenos Ayres.

* See Bericht tber ein Skelet von Machcerodus, im Staats-Museum, zu
Buenos Aires, von Dr. HERM. BURMEISTER. Halle: Druck und Verlag von
H. W. Schmidt. 1867.

+ See GERVAIS, op. cit., p. 231.

224 Atmospheric Life Germs. [April,

Vivi ATMOSPHERIC LIFE GER Ms:

es
ORD Bacon in the ‘‘ Novum Organum” (Book II.,
S| Aphorism 13), says, ‘‘ All putrefaction exhibits some

o-” slight degree of heat, though not enough to be per-
ceptible to the touch : for neither the substances which by
putrefaction are converted into animalcule, as flesh and
cheese, nor rotten wood which shines in the Hack are warm
to the touch.” He thus gives as a definition of spontaneous
generation the conversion of substances, such as flesh and
| cheese, into animalcule. The joke of Dr. Johnson on Tom
Davies, a bankrupt bookseller, who took to authorship, that
he was “‘an author generated by the corruption of a book-
seller,” is evidently a hint as to his’ conne¢tion with Grub
Street through an illusion to the popular belief.

The first recorded facts undermining the old belief in
‘‘spontaneous generation,” were those of Redi, published
in 1638, leading to the first exact experiments in closed
vessels of Needham in 1745, and of Spallanzani in 1765 ;
the experiments with air purified by heating of Schwann,
and with air passed through oil of vitriol of Schultze in
1837; the proof that the solid particles of yeast alone can
cause fermentation by Helmholtz in 1844; Schroeder and
Dusch’s experiments with air filtered through cotton-wool
in 1854; and the repetition’ of the foregoing and complete
investigation of the subject by Pasteur in 1862. The object
of this paper is to make these last experiments more widely
known; unfortunately they must be stripped of detail, and
thereby robbed of much of their strength of argument.
Few persons are familiar with the mode of experimenting,
the facts observed, and the remarkable chain of evidence
afforded by these most carefully-executed, most complete,
and therefore most trustworthy, experiments.

Pasteur’s Microscopic Examination of the Sohd Particles
. Diffused in the Atmosphere.

The question which Pasteur first set himself to answer
was, Is it possible to gain an approximate idea of the re-
lation a volume of ordinary air bears to the number of
germs that the air may contain? Let us see what means
were taken to determine the number and the nature of
floating particles diffused in the air.

By means of a water aspirator air was drawn from a
quiet street, and also from the gardens of the Ecole
Normale, in Paris, at some distance from the ground, through

1873.] Atmospheric Life Germs. 225

a tube containining a plug not of cotton-wool, as in the experl-
ments of Schrceder, but of soluble pyroxyline, such as is used
for making collodion. The amount of air aspirated in a
given time was accurately measured, and after a sufficient
interval the soluble cotton plug was removed and treated with
its solvents, alcohol and ether. After allowing the dust to
subside in a tube, the collodion was syphoned off, and more
alcohol and ether added to effect the perfect removal of the
collodion. The completely-washed dust was placed on a
microscope slip and examined in a drop of water. By
ordinary methads the action of different reagents, such as
iodine water, potash, sulphuric acid, and colouring matters
on the particles was tried. This process disclosed the fact
that there 1s in ordinary air a variable number of corpuscles,
ranging ia size from extreme minuteness up to the diameters
of o°0I m.m. to 0°0I5 m.m.; some translucent particles of
a regular shape so closely resemble the spores of the most
common fungi that the most able microscopist could see no
differencein them. Thecorpuscles were evidently organised,
resembling completely the germs of the lowest organisms,
and so diverse in size and structure as to belong without
_ doubt to very various species. The soluble cotton used was
previously tested and found to contain no residue insoluble
in alcohol and ether beyond a fibre or two. By exposing a
plug of pyroxyline for twenty-four hours to a current of air
passing at the rate of a litre the minute after a succession
of fine spring days, it was found that many myriads of
organised corpuscles were collected.

Experiments with Heated Atr.

Although it appears there are in air organised corpuscles
in great numbers which are indistinguishable from the
germs of the lowest organisms, is it really a fact that
amongst these there are particles capable of germination ?
This interesting question was answered in a conclusive
manner. Firstly,.the faéts announced by Schwann were
firmly established, although they had previously been
attacked by Mantegazza, Joly and Musset, and Pouchet.
The solution, sealed up in flasks, was one extremely liable
to change ; its composition was—

BAER MAA kwet te Ped} iends ein lish nis |p OOMDa Rese
Sua 2/5 Ow 9
Albumenoid wad cael iiss

from yeast . : yor2 to 0°7 parts.

Boiled for two or three minutes, and then placed in contact
VOL. 01. (N.S.) 2G

226 Atmospheric Life Germs. [April,

with air previously heated tc redness, not a single doubtful
result was obtained, although repeated at least fifty times;
not a single trace of any organised production was seen
even after eighteen months, keeping at a temperature of
25,/to 30 \C.; while, if the liquid be leit to ordinaiy warn
for a day or two, it never fails to become filled with bacteria
or vibriones, or covered with mould. ‘The experiment of
Schwann applied to this sugar solution is, therefore, of
. irreproachable exactitude. Schwann, however, did not
always succeed so well as he wished, and the experience of
Mantegazza and Pouchet was at variance with his general
conclusions; even Pasteur himself in some experiments
failed to preserve his liquids. ‘These are the particular in-
stances:—Five flasks of 250 c.c. capacity, containing 80 c.c.
of the sugar solution, were boiled, and during ebullition
sealed up. The points were broken under mercury, and
pure gases in all cases but one let intothe flasks. Organisms
were found in every case after four days. In all these ex-
periments, as in those likewise of Schwann, which were
contrary to the result of his first experiment with extract of
meat, it was the mercury that introduced the germs. In
making such experiments with a mercury trough, preserva-
tion of the liquid will not always succeed, even if it succeeds
sometimes. If the sugar solution be replaced by milk and
treated by either of the methods above described, the milk
putrefies. These results, so different and contradictory, find
a natural explanation further on, but so far they are facts of
a troublesome nature.

Germination of the Dust which exists suspended im the Aur, im
Liquids suitable to the Development of the Lowest Organisms.

The facts ascertained so far are :—

1. That there exist suspended in the air organised
corpuscles exactly like the germs of the lowest organisms.

2. That sugar solutions with the liquor from beer yeast,
a fluid extremely alterable in ordinary air, remains un-
changed and limpid, without even giving rise to infusoria
or fungi, when left in contact with air previously heated.

The question now arises, how is it possible to sow an
albuminous sugar solution with germs collected by means
of pyroxyline in the manner already described ?

Taking a flask containing such a sugar solution kept at
25 to 30 C. for one or two months unchanged, in contact
with previously heated air, the sealed-up end is connected
by means of a caoutchouc tube with one part of a T tube,
while another is in connection with an air-pump, and a

1873.] Atmospheric Life Germs. 227

third with a platinum tube heated to redness. Between
the T tube, however, and the flask is a wide tube containing
a very narrow one within it, holding a plug of gun-cotton,
through which a large volume of air has been passed. The
tap in connection with the heated platinum tube was closed,
and the one in connection with the air-pump opened ; after
exhausting air was admitted through the red-hot platinum,
the tap was closed, and the air again pumped out, fresh air
being admitted through the heated tube; this was repeated
three or four times. ‘The stop-cocks were then closed, and
the sealed beak of the flask was_ broken within the india-
rubber connection ; the plug of gun-cotton was shaken into
the liquid, after which the flask was sealed up again. All
experiments so performed resulted in the liquid, after three
Gunioundays Jexposure to: a temperature ef 25-to 3a "Cz,
decomposing, and being found to contain ba¢teria, vibriones,
and fungi, just exactly like those in flasks exposed to ordinary
air. There was no difference in the length of time requisite
for the change, the forms of life occurring, or the nature of
the change resulting in flasks so treated, and those with the
same liquid exposed to common atmospheric air. These
experiments can scarcely be surpassed for beauty in their
arrangement, or for the importance and clearness of the
evidence they afford. Yet thinking that it might be objected
that the gun-cotton had given rise to the changes produced,
Pasteur made use of plugs of asbestos, and found a like
result ; but when the plugs of asbestos were heated red-hot
previous to being put into the flasks, the lhquids remained
unchanged in every case, and so constantly and with such
perfect exactitude after an immense number of trials did
the results remain the same, that the experimenter himself
was astonished.

Extension of previous results to other very alterable Liquids—
Urine, Milk, and Albuminous Sugar Solution mixed with
Carbonate of Lime.

The facility with which urine exposed to the air becomes
altered, and the change which takes place is well knowr.
It becomes turbid and alkaline, sometimes filled with bacteria,
or covered with patches of mucor or Penicillium glaucum.
Often there is formed, when the temperature is not higher
than 15° C., a pellicle consisting of a remarkable mucor
closely resembling tovwla, but which is believed by Pasteur
to be a different species. It consists of transparent cells,
often without a nucleus, and considerably smaller than the
cells of beer-yeast. There is also present in urine, when

228 Atmospheric Life Germs. (April,

alkaline from the carbonate of ammonia resulting from the
changed urea, a peculiar fungus in necklace-like groups,
and this organism Pasteur is fully persuaded is the cause of
urea being converted into carbonate of ammonia. An in-
teresting observation was made with regard to the turbidity
of liquids, which generally is the first sign of alteration ;
this is caused not merely by the presence of minute
organisms, such as bacteria, but by their movements in the
liquid ; for when they are dead they settle to the bottom of
the vessel, and the liquid becomes clear again. Many
flasks of urine were treated in the manner already described
—that is to say, they were boiled, and heated air was
admitted to them. After preservation for months at 25° to
30 C. without-change, plugs of asbestos through which
air had been drawn were introduced; and then in cases
where the liquid was alkaline, strings of this peculiar fungus
were found invariably, and crystals of ammonio-magnesian
phosphate were deposited. It was observed that Bacterium
termo appears ina liquid before any other organism. ‘This
infusorium is so small that it would be impossible to dis-
tinguish its germ; but even if the appearance of its germ
were known it would be still less possible to recognise it
among the various particles of organised dust collected from
suspension in the atmosphere. :

In experimenting with milk boiled in flasks and exposed
to heated air, it was found that generally in from eight to
ten days, but in one case after so long a time as a month,
the milk was found to be curdled. Microscopic examination
showed that the whey was filled with vibriones, often of
the species Vibrio lineola, and bacteria. The air of the
flasks showed that the oxygen was replaced by carbonic
acid ; yet swarms of these vibriones were living in an
atmosphere without oxygen. The most important observa-
tion which leads to an explanation of the extraordinary
behaviour of milk in these experiments, is the fact that no
mucor, torula, or penicillium—nothing but bateria or
vibriones—were found in the liquid. The obvious conclusion
is, that these organisms or their germs are not destroyed by
a temperature of 100° C. when the heated liquid which
serves to develop them enjoys certain properties. To test
this supposition, the milk was boiled under pressure, so
that the temperature was raised during ebullition to 110°C.,
and then heated air was admitted, of course at the usual
atmospheric pressure; flasks treated in this way were kept
an indefinite period without the production of any life what-
ever. The milk preserved its flavour, its odour, and all its

:

1873.] Atmospheric Life Germs. 229

properties. Sometimes a slight oxidation of fatty matter
took place, as could only be expected in such a considerable
body of air; this was’ proved by an analysis of the air.
In such cases the milk had a slightly suety taste. But
what condition prevents the development of vibriones in
sugar solutions and urine when heated to too C.? It is
te fact that they contain a trace’ of acid.) Milk is an
alkaline liquid. If a liquid of the following composition :—

UIE Wat etah Wop tna Iban Ln ye Tee, SETS
MEA SEALE Fe! oi. ers a BORNE.
Carbonateton lime... 4.1! ery JT enme

bes boiled im asks “at-1oo -©., filled with, heated air and
sealed up and left to itself at 25° to 30°, in from two to
four days it becomes turbid from vibriones, which have a
_very lively motion. It was found that a species of mucor
alter a time covered the surface of the liquid. It seems,
‘therefore, that under these particular conditions, that the
germs of this cryptogam had resisted the temperature of
boiling water. An important confirmation of these ex-
periments regarding the failure of a temperature of r00° C.
to destroy certain germs here follows. Milk which had
been preserved some months had a plug of asbestos pre-
sumably containing germs introduced into it by the manner
already described ; it was sealed up, and the flask was then
plunged into boiling water; in eight days bacteria and
vibriones were found in swarms. It was further discovered
that 108° was too low a temperature to effect the pies avanien
of these liquids.

It cannot be too forcibly impressed on the reader by what
means and with what success Pasteur demonstrated the fact
of myriads of organisms occupying comparatively small
volumes of air. This is a point to which his detra¢tors
have willingly made themselves blind; they tell us the
organisms are few in number without any experimental
proof; while, on the other hand, Dr. Angus Smith and
Mr. Dancer estimated that there were 373 millions of
organisms, many of which were recognisable, in 2500 litres
of Manchester air.*

Another Method for showing that all the Organisms produced by
previously heated Infusions have for their origin the particles
which exist suspended im ordinary Atmospheric Arr.

_ Says Pasteur, ‘‘I believe it to be rigorously established
in the preceding chapters that all the organised productions

* Air and Rain, Pp» 505.

(
230 Atmospheric Life Germs. (April,

of infusions previously heated, have no other origin than
the solid particles which are always carried in the air and
left deposited constantly upon everything. Could there still
remain the least doubt of this in the mind of the reader, it
will be dissipated by the experiments I will now describe.”

The experiments consisted in placing in glass flasks the
following liquids, all of which are very changeable in con-
tact with ordinary air, yeast liquor, sugar solution and
yeast liquor, urine, beet-root juice, and infusion of pears;
the flasks were then drawn out so as to have a long neck
with many bends in all directions. The liquid is boiled for
some minutes, while the steam escapes plentifully from the
open neck; the flasks are then left to themselves without
being sealed, and, strange to say, though the air enters, the
liquid may be preserved for an indefinite period—an in-
teresting fact for those who are accustomed to make experl-
ments of such a delicate nature as this subject requires.
There is no fear of transporting these flasks from place to
place, or submitting them to the varying temperature of the
seasons ; the liquids show not the slightest alteration in
taste or smell; they are truly specimens of Appert’s food-
preserving process. In some cases there was a direct
oxidation of the matter, a purely chemical process. But it
has already been shown how this action of oxygen was
always limited when organised productions were developed im
liquds. The explanation of these new facts is, that the air
on first entering comes in contact with water vapour at the
temperature of 100° C., and is so rendered harmless; what
follows enters but slowly, and leaves its germs or particles
of active matter in the moist curvatures of the tube-neck.
.After remaining many months in a warm place, the necks
“of the flasks are cracked off by a file-mark without other
disturbance, and in twenty-four hours to thirty-six or forty-
eight, fungi and infusoria make their appearance in the
usual manner.

The same experiments can be made with milk, but then
the milk must be boiled under pressure; milk has been kept
for months in these open flasks without change at a tem-
perature of 25° to 30°C. The production of organisms can
always be started in these flasks by briskly shaking the
liquid or by sealing during ebullition, and after cooling
allowing the air to enter suddenly by breaking the point of
the tube.

Many such flasks, exhibited at the Academy of Sciences,
were preserved with their contents unchanged for eighteen
months, although extremely prone to decomposition.

————

1873.] Atmospheric Life Germs. Zt

‘‘The great interest of this method is, that it unques-
tionably proves that the origin of life in infusions which
have been boiled is solely due to solid particles suspended
in the air. Neither a gas, divers fluids, electricity, mag-
netism, ozone, things known or hidden causes, there is
absolutely nothing in ordinary atmospheric air which, fail-
me these! solid particles, ‘cam tbe the cause“of the ‘putre-
faction or fermentation of the liquids which we have
studied.” It has so far been definitely proved by Pasteur,
and stated in the following manner ;—

‘rst, Uhat, there’ are constantly, im ordinary air, o1-
ganised particles which cannot be distinguished from the
true germs of the organisms found in infusions.

“‘ond. When these particles and the amorphous débris
associated with them are sown in liquids, which have been
previously boiled and which remained unchanged in air pre-
viously heated, there appear in these liquids exactly the
same forms of life as arise in them when they are exposed
to the open air.”

‘‘Such being the case, could a partisan of spontaneous
generation wish to uphold his principles even in the face of
this double proposition ? He might, but then his argument
would necessarily be of the following kind, of which I leave
ime? reader te judge dor himself.. Thereare in the air, he
might say, solid particles, such as carbonate of lime, silica,
soot, fibres of linen, wool, and cotton, starch granules .
and besides these organised corpuscles having a perfect re-
semblance to the spores of the Mucedineze or the germs of
Infusoria. I prefer to attribute the origin of Mucedinez and
Infusoria to the first amorphous substances rather than to
the second.”

This has actually been asserted. Could there be more
eccentric reasoning ? Reasoning it isnot. That question
is beyond the pale of an to which common sense
dictates the answer.

It is not exactly true that the smallest quantity of ordinary Air
gives rise im an Infusion to the Orgamsms peculiar to this
Infusion. Experiments on the Arr of various Localities.
Inconventence of employing Mercury in Experiments relative
to Spontaneous Generation.

If the smallest quantity of air in contact with an infusion
gives rise to organisms, and these organisms are not of
spontaneous origin, then it follows that in the minute por-
tion of air there must exist a multitude of the germs of very
different organisms; in such numbers, too, that, as Pouchet

»

232 Atmospheric Life Germs. [April :

says, the air would be so loaded with organic matter as to
form a thick fog. Strong as this reasoning is, it would be
still stronger if 1t were shown that different forms of life are
derived from different germs: this may be so, but it has not
been proved. |
Experimental proof of this statement, the error in which
lies in gross exaggeration, was made by sealing up during
ebullition flasks of 250 c.c. capacity containing about 80 c.c.
of various liquids. On breaking the points of these flasks
in certain noted places, the air entered with a rush into the
empty space, carrying the germs along with it; after re-
sealing, the flasks were placed in a warm situation and any
change noted. In some cases the decomposition followed,
_and the production of the usual forms of life ; in other cases
the flask remained as if they had been filled with heated air,
quite unchanged. In two experiments made in the open air
after a slight shower in the month of June, both resulted in
the production of organisms; in four others, aftera heavy rain
in the same place, two of the flasks had their contents remain
unchanged for at least thirteen months afterwards. These
experiments were made, it is easily seen, in an agitated air,
but Pasteur carried his labours into the cellars of the Paris
Observatory, where the air is quite still except when agi-
tated by the movements of the experimenter, and in that
region below the surface of the earth where the temperature
is unaffected by the changes of the seasons. It is to be
expected that air, in which there is so little to cause its dis-
_ turbance, would have deposited on the ground the germs
which at one time floated in it. A greater proportion of
flasks therefore, if opened and re-sealed in such an atmo-
sphere, should have their contents preserved. Out of ten
experiments made under such conditions with yeast water,
in only one was any living thing found; while eleven expe-
riments made in the court-yard of the observatory at a
distance of 50 centimetres from the ground, and at the same
time, rendered in every case the usual forms of life ; a modi-
fication of these trials was made by letting air into flasks of
_liquid at various mountain heights. E:ghty-three flasks,
prepared in the manner already mentioned, were expe-
rimented on: twenty of these were filled up with air at the
foot of the heights which form the first plateau of the Jura ;
twenty others on one of the peaks of the Jura, 850 metres
above the sea-level; and the remaining twenty were carried
to Montanvert, near the Mer de Glace, at. an elevation of
2000 metres. The result was, that of the twenty opened on
the lowest level, eight contained organisms; of the twenty

a ee ee ee ee ee

E073). Atmospheric Life Germs. 233

on the Jura, five only contained any; and lastly, of the
twenty filled at Montanvert, while a strong wind blew
from the deepest gorges of the Glacier de Bois, one only was
altered. The method of opening the flasks was to hold
them above the head, with the point turned from the wind,
and by a pair of iron forceps, which had just been heated in
a spirit-lamp flame, the point was broken. The drawn-
out point had been previously scratched with a file and

heated ; otherwise particles of dust adhering to the glass’

would have been carried into the liquid by the in-rush
of air.

A remarkable and interesting fact connected with these
experiments was, that on one occasion Pasteur opened his
flasks, and, on account of not being able to see the flame
of his lamp against the brilliancy of the snow, it was impos-
sible to re-seal them ; the flasks were necessarily carried back
to the little inn at Montanvert to be closed up. Everyone
of these flasks contained organisms after keeping for a short
time. On the glacier then, there are no germs in the atmo-
sphere, but at the neighbouring inn the air warms with life,
and life from all parts of the world, brought by the travellers.
On opening the flasks they were held above the head, so as
to prevent the possibility of germs attached to the person
being deposited in them.

Explanation of the Cause of Failure of the Experiments in which
Mercury 1s used.

Flasks containing liquids which had been kept for a great
length of time were conne¢ted with an air-pump and a red-
hot platinum tube: after repeated exhaustion and re-filling
with heated air, the communication was made between the
flask and the platinum tube, and a globule of mercury taken
out of a mercury trough in the laboratory, which had pre-
viously been introduced into the connecting-tube of india-
rubber, was made to roll into the flask; on re-sealing and
keeping for a few days, fermentation ensued in every case,
just as certainly as when the asbestos plugs and the adher-
ing germs were sown in similar liquids. This case leaves
no doubt regarding the cause of failure of experiments
in which the liquid comes in contact with mercury by
the flasks being broken under the surface of the quick-
silver.

There are other facts which Pasteur established, of great
interest and importance in connection with the nutrition of
ferments, mucors and vibriones. Instead of experimenting
on milk, urine, or solutions containing the liquor from yeast,

MOL. Aillel(N.S.) 2

234 Atmospheric Life Germs. [April,

he made use of such an infusion as the following; that is to
Say, a mixture of perfectly definite chemical substances :—

Pure water.) 20s... “ae ees
pugae-catdy -.\ =. + +50 ee oe
Tartrate of ammonia . . o0'2 to 0’5 part
Ashes of yeast 2.0) .5 2 (2) te ae

On impregnating such a liquid, when supplied with heated
air, with germs collected from the atmosphere, bacteria,
vibriones, and mucors, &c., were soon developed ; the albu-
menoid and fatty matters, the essential oils, and pigments be-
longing to these organisms being derived from the elements
of the ammonia salt, the phosphates, and the sugar. These
complete organisms were built up out of the material afforded
by such a mixture of simple substances, a faét which is
quite contrary to Pouchet’s declaration that ovules or germs
were evolved from a sort of vitality remaining in lifeless, or,
rather, dead, matter—that is to say, matter deprived of life.

A solution consisting of—

Pure water.) 37) =e y.'s <2) OD pees

Sugar-candy . Se eee Cae oe
Tartrate of ammonia . . o0'2 to 0’5 part
Weast ‘Sshes)| pi. tls | * OTL pare

Pure calcium carbonate . 3 to 5 parts

showed much the same phenomenon, in fact, differing only
by a more marked tendency towards the changes called
lactic, viscous, and butyric fermentations; and all ferments,
whether vegetable or animal, characteristic of these changes
were produced, simultaneously or successively.

Prof. Tyndall, in 1870, gave us a means of investigation,
supplementary to the microscope, and of extreme delicacy.
Aided by Prof. Huxley, he proved that particles in a liquid,
quite invisible under an obje¢t-glass readily showing bodies
samp Of an inch in diameter were revealed with the greatest
ease by means of a beam of light. If the air were pure, a
beam of sunlight travelling a darkened room would be in-
visible except where «it struck upon the wall. It is the
scattering of the light by the floating dust which makes the
track luminous, the larger and more numerous the particles
the greater the luminosity. Hydrogen, coal-gas, air passed
through cotton-wool, and the air of still places, were found to
be free from floating matter. The writer, who has devoted
much attention to this subject since 1865, made use of this
discovery to aid him in a very careful repetition of some ex-
periments published by Dr. Bastian in “‘ Nature” of June

= 1

Po Z 3. | Atmospheric Life Germs. 235

30th, 1870. The following few lines are a slight sketch of
the results; for particulars the reader must be referred to
uae *' Procecdings of the Royal Society.” for 13872, p. 140.

Tubes cleansed with the greatest possible care, and after-
wards heated to redness, were filled with solutions of the
same composition as those which it was said by Bastian
gave rise to organisms im vacuo after heating to so higha
temperature as 150° C.; the water and liquids were tested ac-
cording to Prof. Tyndall’s method with a beam of light.
After keeping for twelve months, during which time, on
frequent examination with a ray of light, no change was
seen to have taken place, drops of the liquids were allowed
to. run on to slips of glass placed in a bell-jar of hydrogen,
such being a space shown to be free from floating matter.
The microscope, with a higher power than that employed
by Dr. Bastian, showed the solutions to be free from all
organisms; nevertheless, portions let out into previously
heated flasks, in a few days invariably became charged with
living things. The original tubes, to which only pure air
had been admitted, were kept weeks and weeks, and still no
signs of life were visible in them ; some of these tubes are
in existence now, and still in the same condition. Here,
then, were liquids, first, kept 7 vacuo, secondly, in pure
alr, thirdly, i in ordinary air, and only under the last condition
did they become filled with life, and that happened in every
case. Without wishing to refleét on the work of anyone, it
is simply stating a matter of fact to say, that results in favour
of the theory of evolution de novo may be obtained most
easily, and the more careless the experimenter the more
successful would he be in that direction. We therefore see
not only the extreme caution with which statements ad-
vancing heterogenesis should be received, but also the over-
balancing weight of evidence contained in well-determined
facts tending in an opposite direction.

236 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (April,

SOL ee ELE DOLMEN MOUNDS AND AMORPHO-
LITHIC MONUMENTS OF BRITTANY.

THE AMORPHOLITHIC LINES AND AVENUES.

By S. P. OLiver, Capt. Royal Artillery, F.R.G.S.,
Corresponding Member of the Anthropological Institute.

Parr TM
M Rk. LUKIS deprecates the proneness of the native

archeologists to dogmatise upon the intended uses
and destination of these remains without a sufficient
knowledge of their construction (from what we have already
quoted, it will be seen that our theorists are not far behind
the Breton savants in wild and ingenious supposition); and
he partly agrees with Mr. Stuart, of Edinburgh, as to circles
of stones not being temples, but sepulchral enclosures, but
considers that as yet there is but insufficient evidence to
show that the terminating circles of Menec and Kerlescant
were used as burial-places, although Mr. Lukis himself
found, in 1869, fragments of coarse clay vessels, flint scrapers,
and chippings, within the area of the latter circle. Mr. Lukis
comes to the following conclusion :—‘‘ [¢ 7s posszble, therefore,
that groups of pillars arranged in lines and circles, and associated
together, may have served a purpose in some way connected with
the funeral rites or solemnities that preceded interment.” Since
the above was written, Mr. Lukis has measured and planned
a circle at Keswick; within this circle, and touching it, is
an internal structure, which has every appearance of having
served as a sepulchre; it may or may not be coeval with
the circle, but Mr. Lukis’s own impression is that it belongs
to the original plan, and, if so, tends to confirm Mr. Stuart’s
view that these circles are sepulchral. It is a well-attested
fact that many of the ‘“‘ Motes” and ‘‘ Things” in Scotland
were surrounded with circles of monoliths, sometimes termed
“‘raises.” That many of the circles and lines in Scotland
are connected with sepulchral remains appears evident from
Sir Henry Dryden’s account of the following lines and
circles—

CxS

‘‘Lines, Battle Moss, Yarhouse.
Lines and cist, Garry Whin.
Lines, ‘ Many Stones,’ Clyth.
Lines, Camster.

Circle ? Achanloch.
Circle, Guidebest, Latheronwheel.

1873.] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 237

“The groups of lines in France (of far larger stones and
greater lengththan those in Caithness) have the largest stones,
and widest intervals and the highest ground (the heads), to the
W., or thereabouts, and the smallest stones, and narrowest
intervals and lowest ground (the tails), to the E., or there-
abouts. The Caithness groups differ entirely in principle.
The one at Yarhouse loch runs N. and S., does not radiate,
and is on nearly level ground; but the three others have
the narrower intervals and higher ground to the N. (which
end we may call the head), and radiate towards the S. and
lower ground. The group at Battlemoss, near Yarhouse, is
on ground falling slightly to N.W. It consists of eight lines
placed Nand) S:) Phe width at the: S.end is 44 ft. Whe
lines are somewhat irregular, and appear to radiate slightly
towards the N., but this is uncertain. One line extends
384 ft., and another one 170 ft., but the remaining six now
only extend 133 ft. The ground is covered with peat and
heather, and other stones may be hidden below the surface.
There is no cairn or other grave now visible in proximity to
eielines. Ihe largest stomes are about 2 ft. 6 in. high, 2:it.
bun: wide, and 1 it. 3 in. thick.

“The group at Garrywhin consists of six lines. The whole
width at the head.(N.E. end) is 50 ft., and at the bottom
heer lnescentral tines! bears N:N:B. or: SS: W, |The
lewethor this line is.g00 ft.. The fall. is 20 it. to the S.S.W,
Pistbeenead 1s; a) cist of) Slabs, 3 ft. Oin. by 241t. 6in., and
Zit. 4in., deep, placed E»and W. As this grave is on the
highest point of the knoll, and as the lines commence at it,
it is fair to presume that they are connected. In the cist
were found ashes, pieces of pottery, and flint chips, but no
bones. As the cist is between the third and fourth lines,
it is fair to presume that there never were more than six
lines.

‘The group called ‘ Many Stones’ has the head on the
top of a knoll from which the ground falls on all sides. The
lines are on the S. slope, and are twenty-two in number.
The width at the head or N. end is 118 ft., and at the bottom
is reo ut. The length in the centre is 145 ft., but there is
no proof that this was the original length, and the presump-
Hon 1s tae reverse. Lhe average bearing is N: and S., and
the fall ro ft. 3 in. The largest stones now remaining are
about 3 ft. high, 3 ft. wide, and 1 ft. 6 in. thick. ‘There are
numerous blocks of stone lying about the head, where, how-
ever, the rock is exposed, but the example of Garrywhin
makes it probable that a cairn once existed on this knoll.
There are no traces of any sunk grave, but the cairn may

238 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. |April,

have contained a chamber above ground, like many in the
vicinity.

‘““The group at Camster is on the moor, on ground falling
slightly to the S.W. A considerable depth of peat overlies
the rock here, and many stones are below the surface. There
are now six lines ascertained. The length is 305 ft., width
at the head, or N. end, 30 ft., and at the tail, or lower end,
53 ft. The average bearing is N. and S. The stones are
smaller than at the last-mentioned group. There is no cairn
or other grave apparent close to these lines, but in a direc-
tion due N., at 346 ft., is acairn. No stones are now trace-
able between ; but as there are gaps in the lines themselves,
this blank interval may once‘have had lines on it to connect
the cairn with the existing group. No habitation now exists
near the spot, but there were many in this strath, which
may account for destruction of stones in former times. A |
few hundred feet farther N. is the huge horned cairn de- ;
scribed by Mr. Anderson, and at 436 ft. N.N.E. from the ;
small cairn is the round chambered-cairn described in the
same paper.”

Mr. Barnwell writes as follows :—

‘In North Wales is a remarkable example of a circle and
avenue, unnoticed by Pennant and other writers. The des-
cription of it is given by Miss Davies, of Penmaen Dovey,
the daughter and representative of one of the most accom-
plished scholars and judicious antiquaries of Wales. It is :
situated between two streams, called Cwym-y-Rhewi and
Avon-y-Disgynfa, looking down from a considerable elevation
on the Vale of Mochnant, and two miles above the well-
known waterfall of Pistill-y-Rhaiadr. It consists of a large
circle of isolated stones, of which thirteen were remaining
when Miss Davies last saw it, and an avenue of two rows
still retaining thirty-nine, and many portions of others that
had been broken up. In the centre of the circle is a deep
hollow, the site, no doubt, of the sepulchral chamber. The
name Rhos-y-beddau, or the graves on the moor, has rescued
the monument from being claimed by the Druids. The
avenue appears to lead directly into the circle, the breadth
of it corresponding to the space between the two stones of
the circle where the circle and avenue meet, but it is pro-
bable that a stone or two is wanting at this part of the
circle. |

‘‘In the northern part of Pembrokeshire is a single line of
stones of great size, which Fenton does not mention, although
he deliberately pulled to pieces a fine cromlech near it, and
which seems to have been connected with this row of stones,

1873. | The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 239

for it was probably continued further northwards than it is
at present. On referring to the Ordnance Map, a little to
the right of the word ‘ Lianlawer,’ will be seen the position
of the line called in the map ‘ Parc-y-marw’ (field of the
dead); and.a little further to the east, but slightly to the
north, is marked down the cromlech destroyed by Fenton,
and of which only some small fragments remain. ‘The line
of stones is parallel to the narrow road, and if continued
would pass within a few paces of the ruined cromlech. Here,
as at Rhos-y-beddau, the name points to the character of
the monument; for experience has shown that local names
of this kind in Wales, handed down from time immemorial,
may be generally depended on. Local tradition, however,
adds an account of a desperate battle fought on the spot,
among the pillar-stones themselves, as if the possession of
them were said to have been the sole object of the com-
batants. A lady, clad all in white, appears to those who
are rash enough to walk that way by night; and so ancient
is this tradition, which is still firmly believed, that a short
distance before the stones commence, a foot-path, by long
use now become public, turns across the fields to the left,
making a détour of nearly a mile before it leads again into
the road. During day-time the peasants do not think it
necessary to take the roundabout course. The road itself is
evidently one of great antiquity, and apparently led to the
great work at Dinas. The height of the stones is not so
striking, as their lower part is embedded in the tall bank of
earth that does the duty of an ordinary edge; but some of
them are full 16 feet long.”

Mr. Lukis having shown conclusively that the lines of
Carnac constitute not one monument, but three distinct
groups, proceeds to compare them with Avebury. He re-
marks that now there is very little clue to its original plan,
and that we are compelled to accept the inaccurate drawings
of antiquaries of the seventeenth and early part of the
eighteenth centuries. Whilst he confesses himself sceptical
with regard to the ground-plan of Avebury as given by
Stukeley, his doubt is strengthened by his intimate acquaint-
ance with the Carnac and other groups of stone lines in
Brittany. He prefers the more careful drawing in the plans
of Aubray to the fanciful restoration of Stukeley, and gives
as his opinion that the remains at Avebury were originally
three distinét monuments; viz., one group of concentric
circles, and short avenue, on Overton Hill; the second, of
the larger circles and avenue of Avebury; whilst the third
monument of like character, z.¢., composed of rows of stones

240 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [April,

associated with a circle, lay on the Beckhampton side. Mr.
Lukis, however, feels that he has very little evidence in
support of his views, with which, however, he will find many
archeologists ready to agree. Beyond the fact that in both
the Avebury and Carnac remains circles are associated with
avenues, he finds the points of resemblance few and faint,
and the points of dissimilarity numerous and strong: how-
ever, as one point of resemblance, he states that in Brittany
the circular enclosure is invariably situated on an elevation,
or on the summit of gently rising ground. In Wiltshire, one
set of concentric circles is on Overton Hill, and the great
circle of Avebury is also on a gentle elevation. ‘Thus far,
although the comparison of Avebury has not done much
towards the elucidation of Carnac, yet the example of Carnac
has taught us to look at Avebury in a new light.

Among the points of dissimilarity are the following, viz.:
—At Carnac there are many—ten, eleven, and even thirteen
rows of stones; at Avebury there were never more than
two. With the B rittany circles there is no vallum or fosse,
nor’are there any concentric’ circles, allot which features
appear to be characteristic of the Wiltshire remains.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson describes the stone lines of Dart-
moor as leading up to concentric circles with cromlechs or
kists, and as therefore being in some way connected with
sepulchral and religious rites. Again, Mr. Spence Bate, in
his supplementary report on the prehistoric remains of
Dartmoor, mentions an extensive avenue’ in the neighbour-
hood of Corydon Ball, consisting of seven or eight rows,
extending at least a hundred yards, with suggestive traces
of what may have formed portions of a circle at the eastern
extremity. A huge cairn, with a portion of a kist, are also
mentioned near the same locality. It would be interesting
to compare the seven or eight rows of stones at Corydon
Ball with those described in this paper as to their parallelism
or convergence, &c.

There are systems of avenues of stones with circles in
various other parts of the world—in Lombardy, Africa,
India, &c. We may quote the elaborately ornamented
megalithic avenues leading to the tombs of the emperors of
China as modern developments of the primeval structures.
Thus we read that the great tomb (the Ling or resting-
place of Yung-Lo, of the Ming dynasty), thirty miles from
Pekin, consists of an enormous mound or earth-barrow,
covered with trees. Its height is not mentioned, but it is
evidently considerable, from the fact that the circular wall
which surrounds it is a mile in circumference. In the

a. a a,

1873.| The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 241

centre of the mound is a stone chamber containing the sar-
cophagus in which is the corpse. ‘This chamber or vault is
approached by an arched tunnel, the entrance to which is
bricked up. This entrance is approached by a paved cause-
Way, passing through numerous arches, gateways, courts,
and halls of sacrifice, and through a long avenue of colossal
marble figures, sixteen pairs of wolves, kelins, horses,
camels, elephants, and twelve pairs of warriors, priests, and
civil officers. Whether this avenue is orientated or not is
not noticed, but an idea of the size of these colossal marble
figures may be formed from the following :—‘‘ During the
building of the late Emperor Heen-fung’s tomb, a road one
hundred miles long was made from the quarries of Fang-
shan to the Tung-ling, and a block of marble fifteen feet
long, twelve feet high, and twelve feet broad, weighing sixty
tons, was seen by several of us then resident in Pekin, being
dragged along this road on a strong truck or car drawn by
Smasnunedred mules and horses.’’: .),. +. 2-60 This block
was to be cut into the figure of an elephant to be placed
as one of the guardians of the tomb.”—(W. Lockhart,
5Oe, IN. Gy. S:,. 1866).

Similarly, near Nankin, there exist avenues of colossal
stone figures, attributed to the same Ming dynasty, in con-
nection with the tombs, but what these tombs consist of is
not mentioned. More south, in Fokhien, and doubtless
throughout southern China, are found the horse-shoe or
omega-shaped tombs which in some cases are associated
with analogous approaches. Although not covered by arti-
ficial tumuli, the sepulchral chambers are excavated in the
side of the natural hills, whilst those belonging to high
officials are approached through avenues of stone pillars
and carved figures, animal and human, although on a much
smaller scale than those of Pekin and Nankin. A sketch of
a group of these tombs, said to be those of former governors
of Canton, at the foot of the White Cloud mountains, is
exhibited.

Now we may venture to assume that all cromlechs, dol-
mens, kists, and other sepulchral stone chambers of every
description, were originally covered with tumuli. Some of
the tumuli appear to have had their bases strengthened by
revetments or boundary walls of large upright stones. In
Great Britain and the Channel Islands we frequently find
that the tumuli have disappeared, leaving the structures
thoroughly denuded of the smaller stones, earth, or sand
which originally covered them, whilst the large blocks
forming the revetment remain, and have been generally

VOL. Tit. (N.S. ) ar

!]

242 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. _[April, ©

termed “‘ fevistaliths.”” These features certainly are unusual
in Brittany, where, however, there are some examples,—at
Kerlescant, Plouneour, and elsewhere. Now lately the
author ventured to suggest that the circles of stone in Brit-
tany and elsewhere might be looked upon as the possible
remains of colossal ‘‘ peristaliths,” the sole indications of
gigantic tumuli which may formerly have filled their interior
space, and which have now disappeared by atmospherical,
aqueous, and human agencies during the lapse of centuries.
Nor need we much wonder if no trace of the actual
sepulchral chambers within be left, when we consider that
the largest tumuli have generally been found to contain the
most insignificant kists; besides, it is far from improbable
that the builders of the huge mounds, such as those at
Mont St. Michel, &c., in the immediate neighbourhood of
the lines and circles, constructed their barrows from the
material afforded by the débvis of the more ancient tumuli
within the circles. |

Mr. Fergusson, in his recent work on ‘‘ Rude Stone
Monuments,” gives John Stuart (“‘ Sculptured Stones of
Scotland ”’) the credit of having first remarked—‘‘ Remove
the cairn from New Grange and the pillars would form
another Callernish ;” but thirty-seven years ago Mr. Lesh-
ingham Smith* notices the ingenious suggestion of. the
Messrs. Anderson, viz., that ‘‘ the circles usually called
Drmudical temples are nothing more than catrns without the
loose stones.”

Since, however, the above suggestion was offered by the
present writer to the late Ethnological Society, he (the
author) is altogether inclined to admit the conclusion to
which Fergusson has arrived, viz., that the stone circles in
Europe appear to have been introduced in supercession to the
circular earthern mounds which surround the early tumuli
of our downs. These earthern enclosures still continued to
be used surrounding stone monuments of the latest ages,
but, if Mr. Fergusson is not mistaken, also gave rise to the
form itself. For instance, the circle at Stanton Moor—
called the nine maidens—may be looked upon as a
transitorial example.

The circular mound, which is thirty feet in diameter, en-
closed a sepulchral tumulus, as was no doubt the case from
time immemorial, but in this instance was further adorned

* Vide “Excursions through the Highlands and Isles of Scotland in 1835
and 1836,” by the Rev. C. LesHincHam SmiTH, M.A., Christ’s College,
Cambridge.

1873.1 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 243

and dignified by the circle of stones erected upon it. A
century or so afterwards, when stone had become more re-
cognised as a building material, the circular mound may
have been disused, and then the stone circle would alone
remain. Fergusson also figures a woodcut, taken from
Haxthausen’s work of the uncovered base of a kurgan or
tumulus at. Nikolajew, in the government of Cherson,
which he suggests may give us a hint as to the genesis of
circles. The tumulus was cleared away, and its base was
found to be composed of three or four concentric circles of
upright stones surrounding what appears to be a kist of five
stones in the centre. Similar arrangements have been
found in Algerian tumuli, and it looks as if the first kist of
the sepulchral circle may have arisen from such an arrange-
ment having become familiar before being covered over, just as
Fergusson supposes the free-standing dolmen to have arisen
from the uncovered cist having excited such admiration as to
make its framers unwilling to hide it. In fact, just as the
free-standing dolmen and cromlech may be looked upon as the
skeletons of original chambered tumuli after the flesh of the
sepulchral mound, which gave meaning to the structure, had
disappeared, so we may look upon the circle as the repre-
sentative of the revetting peristalith which formerly encircled
the tumulus, but which tumulus was ultimately never filled
fins and similarly, we shall not be far wrong in looking
upon the avenues which lead fo circles as a development of
the funnel-shaped narrow entrances to these same cham-
bered tumuli. That they were intended for permanence is
evident, and the people who erected them must have had
similar associations of ideas regarding life and death as
had both the Egyptians and Buddhists ; the former, accord-
ing to Diodorus Siculus, called the dwellings of the living
mere ‘‘ lodging-houses ;” their tombs, on the contrary, they
looked forward to as their “‘ eternal homes.”

Anyhow, whether there were actually tumuli or not within
these circular enclosures, the sepulchral theory seems the
most fitting conclusion to arrive at; and if this be so, then
the avenues may be looked upon as approaches of a cere- |
monial character connected with funeral rites, not neces-
sarily only those which preceded interment, but for subsequent
visitations, as shown by the permanent construction of these
monuments, which were evidently intended to last through
future ages.

As to this day in China the clans and families annually
revisit the tombs of their ancestors for the purpose of wor-
ship and sacrifice, repairing and cleaning the graves, and

244 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (April,

placing food for the dead, &c., so through the alignments of
Brittany may have passed at stated periods of time to do
honour to the resting-place of their forefathers, the de-
scendants of those whose bones rested within the sepulchral
circles.

That there is some connection, as regards the funeral
rites practised from ancient times, by the most orthodox of
the Chinese, with oriculation and stone pillars appears plain
from the following, taken from ‘‘ The Life and Teachings of
Confucius,” by J. Legge. ‘‘ According to the statutes of
Hea, the corpse was dressed and coffined at the top of the
eastern steps, treating the dead as if he were still the host.
Under the Yin the ceremony was performed between the
two pillars, as if the dead were both host and guest. The
rule of Chow is to perform it at the top of the western steps,
treating the dead as if he were a guest.”

That the custom of surrounding the sepulchres of mighty
kings is of remote origin throughout the East is evident
from what we know of the funeral ceremonies practised at
the time of the invasion of Western Asia by the Scythians,
625 B.c. Thus the Chakravartins, a branch of the great
‘Scythian race, or Sakas, were styled the Wheel-kings—in
fact, Kings of the Circle—i.e., monarchs who ruled all within
the chakra of rocks supposed to surround the world.
Hence, as the symbol of universal authority, the tombs of
these kings, after their cremation and certain recognised
ceremonies, were surrounded by a circular range of rocks or
unhewn stones—in fact, amorpholiths, to signify that they
were Lords of the Universe. So Sakya Buddha requested
that he should be buried according to the rules of the
Chakravartins, z.c., that his remains—after undergoing

certain prescribed ceremonies—should be burned, and his.

tomb erected in the method known among the Sakas or
Sakyas, viz., by raising over his ashes a vast mound of
earth, and surrounding it with the usual emblems of
authority—the circle of amorpholiths. How fully this rule
was attended to in the erection of topes or sttipas is too well
known to need illustration. These topes or stupas were at
first only mounds of earth, included within a circular
wooden rail or ring of steles, as we find in India and Ceylon.
But when the munificence of Asoka was brought to bear on
the subject, these old and barbarous mounds were destroyed,
and topes faced with stone—in many instances magnificently
wrought and ornamented—came into date. But in these
the original idea was never lost sight of; they are all
designed to indicate the authority of a universal monarch—

—=-- —_ °&«-

LS 7/2 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 245

not a monarch only of the world, but according to the ex-
panded creed of Buddhism at the time of Asoka, lord of
the ‘‘three worlds,” also :—(1). The world of men, signified
by the square plinth on which the dagoba rests surrounded
by the circular rail. (2). The world of Dévas, signified by
the dome or vault of heaven; and (3). The world of space,
signified by the kchétra that rises from the Tce, ending in
the symbol of the boundless empyrean—the three-forked
flame or trisul. (Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, by
». eal).

In Ceylon, the bell-shaped reli-shrines or Dagobas are
surrounded with concentric circles of monoliths of various
numbers.

Thus, at Thuparamya (250 B.c.), there are three con-
centric circles; and at another, on the hill of Mehentele,
the concentric rows of granite pillars rise to half the height
of the central mound. At Sandei and Amravati also we
find the well known circles; at the former in the shape of
stone imitation of wooden railings, and at the latter in two
concentric circles of upright stones (193 feet outer diameter)
carved with minuteness.

In India stone worship is very prevalent, and, in conse-
quence, the custom of ere¢ting amorpholiths is not yet
extinct. In every part of Southern India four or five stones
may often be seen in the ryots fields, placed in a row and
daubed with red paint, which they consider as guardians of
the field, and call the five Pandus. Col. Forbes Leslie
supposes that this red paint is intended to represent blood.
The god of each Khond village is represented by three stones.
Col. Leslie gives the drawing of a group of sacred stones
near Delgaum, in the Dekkan: the three largest stood in
front of the centre of two straight lines, each of which con-
sisted of thirteen stones. These lines were close together,
and the edges of the stones were placed as near to each
other as it was possible to do with slabs which, although
selected, had never been artificially shaped. The stone in
the centre of each line was nearly as high as the highest of
the three that stood in front, but the others gradually de-
creased in size from the centre, until those at the ends were
less than a foot above the ground into which they were all
secured. Three stones, not fixed, were placed in front of
the centres of the group. All the stones had been seleted
of an angular shape, with somewhat of an obelisk form in
general appearance. The central group and double lines
faced nearly east, and on that side were whitewashed: on
the white, near, although not reaching quite to, the apex of

246 The Amorpholithic M onuments of Brittany. _—_ [April,

each stone, was a large spot of red paint, two-thirds of which
from the centre were blackened over. Dr. Hooker, too,
remarks that among the Khasias “funeral ceremonies are
the only-ones of any importance, and they are often con-
ducted with barbaric pomp and expense; and rude stones
of gigantic proportions are erected as monuments, singly or
in rows, or supporting one another like those of Stonehenge,
which they rival in proportions.”” Major Godwin Austen
describes some trilithons of the Khasias of immense size.
The great stone of one of these monuments weighed 23 tons
18 cwt., and another is described as measuring 30 ft. by 13 ft.
and 1 ft. 4in. in thickness, and supported on massive mono-
liths. Mr. W. F. Holland also describes circles of massive
stones as existing in the Peninsula of Sinai.

Mr. Fergusson has well shown how in India the tumulus
has developed into the tope, and the tope into the temple.
It is almost to be wondered at that he did not notice the ex-
<. traordinary analogy between the groups, rows, and avenues

‘of unhewn stones, and those thousand-pillared chadries and

choulirtes of the Southern Hindu temple-builders whose most:

important application is their use as nuptial halls, in which
the annual mysteries sacred to the union of the male and
female divinities are celebrated. Their other uses are, accord-
ing to Fergusson, in his “‘ Handbook of Architecture,” most
various—serving as porches to temples, as halls of ceremony,
cloisters—where the dancing girls dance and sing—or as
swinging-porches for the gods, who appear to have been
pleased with such innocent amusement. At Tinnevelly, for
instance, the great pillared hall has roo columns in its
length by ten in width, so that it would have tooo pillars,
were not twenty-four omitted to make way for a small
temple.

At Chillumbrum, the hall is twenty-four, pillars wide by
forty-one in length, which, adding the sixteen of the porch,
would make up the number; but some are omitted in the
centre, to make space for ceremonies, so that the actual
number is only 930.

At Seringham the hall is of about the same extent, and
several other temples have halls, the number of whose pillars
varies from 600 to 1000. In most instances no two pillars
are exactly alike.

The temple of Tiruvalur measures externally 945 ft. by
701 ft. In the outer court, and towards the principal en-
trance, is the great chouliry, intended apparently to have had
1000 columns, being sixteen pillars wide by forty-three in
depth, one half, however, of them support no roof, so that the

1873.| The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 247

structure, according to Fergusson, is “‘ probably” (or, as he
says in another place, evidently) unfinished. If this great
temple is really finished, as does not seem improbable, we
have here some hundreds of carved pillars forming an ap-
proach of several avenues, which have been erected within
recent times for a specific object. ,

Fergusson, it must be borne it mind, gives no reason for
supposing that this edifice is unfinished, or that the architects
ever contemplated putting a roof on these columns, and it is
certainly well worth noticing, and enquiry should be made
upon this subject.

The whole number of columns standing is 688 ; they are
all equally spaced, except that there is a broad aisle down
the centre, and a narrower transverse avenue in the direction
of the entrance. Fergusson gives a plate (No. 65), taken
from Ram-Raz’s ‘ Hindu Architecture,’ which shows the
forest of pillars supporting no roof. Fergusson likens the
great choultry to the Stoa Basilica of Herod’s restored
Temple.

Another analogy in the great development of stone avenues
may be noticed in the avenues of sphinxes extending for
miles on the banks of the Nile, connecting the Hypostyle
Halls, Pylons, &c., of the palace-temples of great Thebes.

Fergusson’s conclusion as to the age and destination of the
Carnac stone rows may be summed up briefly as follows :—

(x.) That it is most improbable that a temple should ex-
tend over six or seven miles of country; in fact, he hardly
knows any proposition that appears to him so ‘manifestly
absurd as that these stone-rows were temples, and he feels
sure that no one who thinks twice of the matter will venture
again to affirm it.

(2.) It seems equally clear that they were not erected for
any Civic or civil purpose. No meetings could be held, and
no administrative funCtions could be carried on in or around
them.

(3.) They are not sepulchral, in the ordinary sense of the
term, aS nowhere were men buried in rows like this, extend-
ing over miles of heath and barren country; moreover, the
French savants have dug repeatedly, and found no trace of
burial. “‘ It no doubt is true that the long barrow at Kerles-
eant, the dolmen at Kermario, and the enclosure at Menec,
may have been, imdeed, most probably were, burying-places, but
they can no more be considered the monument than the
drums and fifes can be considered the regiment. ‘They are
only adjuncts; the great rows must be considered as essen-
tially the monuments.” (Why so ?)

232 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [April,

(4.) Being neither temples nor town-halls, nor even sepul-
chres, they must be trophies—the memorial of some great
battle or battles.

So far as to Mr. Fergusson’s conclusion as to their inter-
pretation—next, as to their date :-—

(1.) Czesar never mentioned them, therefore they could
not have existed when he wrote his Commentaries.

(2.) No medizval rhapsodist ever attempted to give them
a pre-Roman origin.

(3.) The event represented by these stone-rows therefore
is limited to the period which elapsed between the overthrow
of the Roman power by Maximus, A.D. 383, and the time
when the people of the country were converted to Chris-
tianity in the early part of the sixth century.

(4.) Finally, Grallon was engaged in two wars—one against
the Romans, and the other against the Norse pirates—and
it is to this, as connecting the stone monuments with a
northern people, that Fergusson is inclined to ascribe the
erection of the Carnac alignments. In faét, they com-
memorate a battle or campaign fought between the years
380 and 550 A.D., the Arthurian age.

It may be safely left to our readers to decide whether
they are satisfied with this decision, after perusal of the
foregoing notes; but we cannot conclude without observing
that if the Veneti erected the lines of amorpholiths, whether
they were temples, sepulchres, trophies, or town-halls,
they would have certainly handed down to their present
descendants, the modern Morbihannais, their true character
and meaning, which at present is as much an obscure
enigma to them as it is to all who have yet enquired
into this subject. It is to be hoped that a more satisfac-
tory conclusion than that of Mr. Fergusson’s may yet be
arrived at.

1873.] (245 )

Nr@eP re Es cOr YB O:0 Kes .

Our Seamen: an Appeal. By Sam. Pirmsoiit, M.P. London:
Virtue and 'Co.*

SURELY a more terrible bonk than this has never beén written.
It differs from all other narratives of the terrible. In all fearful
natural catastrophes the remembrance that what has happened
has been inevitable has its influence in fortifying the mind. In
reading of destructive wars or battles, we recognise some object
which in the view at least of the combatants has rendered the
destruction of life and property a necessary evil. Narratives of
plague and pestilence are generally adorned by acts of heroism
which cause us almost to forget the horrors of the events with
which the narrative deals. Shipwrecks, in like manner—only not
such shipwrecks as the book before us deals with—have their
grand episodes. And, moreover, in war and battle, plague,
pestilence, and famine, in shipwreck and explosion, we seldom
have instances of the deliberate destruction of human beings
by their fellows. Nay, even such events as the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew or the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution,
have usually resulted rather from the inversion of a high motive
than from any utterly base and sordid consideration.

But in the book before us we have the account of the syste-
matic destruction of life and property for certain sums of money.
We see bands of men sent to almost certain death by a con-
trivance as terrible as the boat of Nero, but calculated to operate
on a far larger scale. And more marvellous than all, we see
bodies of men, ready for the sake of a moderate wage, to face
what amounts very nearly to the certainty of death; though by
an ingenious arrangement of our laws matters are so arranged
that a part of this heroism commonly depends on the dread of
the disgrace of imprisonment in our common gaols.

At the root of the system leading (if all that this book says
can be maintained) to these fearful results, is the system of in-
surance employed as against sea-risks. This system is probably
but little known to the general public. We propose to give a
brief account of its peculiarities. In the first place, a ship is
not insured by any one Company, but by a large number of
persons, who (from the mode in which the risk is accepted) are
called ‘“‘underwriters.” Each of these accepts a very small part
of the risk. Accordingly, if a ship is lost, and there are reasons
to fear that there has not been fair play, each underwriter has
but a small interest in making any inquiry into the affair. But
this is not all. No underwriter is strong enough to dispute a
claim. An underwriter so acting incurs odious misrepresentation
and suspicion, and, as a rule, by one such a@t completely ends
his career as an underwriter,—this too, even though “the brokers

WOE. IT. (N.S.} 2K

246 Notices of Books. [April,

through whom future business is to come are fully satisfied that
he did right, that the disputed claim was founded in fraud.”

Is it necessary to point to the consequences of such a system ?
The great bulk of our shipowners are, doubtless, altogether free
from suspicion. But in any large body of men, there will always
be some few who are ready to gain money by any means available
tothem. The system of underwriting offers such means. A
ship may be bought which is unseaworthy, or may be sailed until
repairs are absolutely essential to her safety, or may be built
without the necessary precautions to ensure her from breaking
up under blows which a stouter ship would resist. Sucha ship
may be overloaded until from this cause alone she is unsafe.
And every voyage she makes thus overloaded repays the owner
better than a safe journey with a moderate load. But then she
may be insured for more than the value of ship and cargo; and
her destruction may be rendered practically a certainty by over-
loading her until she could only sail safely with the lightest
breeze. She may even be overloaded to such an extent as to
ensure her destruction within sight of the port she is leaving.
‘‘A large ship put out to sea one day,” says Mr. Plimsoll in the

. book before us. ‘‘ She was so deep that T. M. said to me as she

went, ‘She is nothing but a coffin for the fellows on board of
her.’ He watched and watched, fascinated almost by the deadly
peril of the crew; and he did not watch for nothing. Before he
left his look-out to go home, he saw her go down.”

It might be supposed that the men capable of thus trading on
the lives of men and on the present system of insuring ships would
soon be recognised and avoided by the underwriters. But, un-
fortunately, a long time is required to establish a character as a
completely unscrupulous insurer. ‘‘In the meantime, ship after
ship goes down, and with them the lives of sailors mostly in the
prime of manhood. Inanorthern port some years ago, there
was a collier fleet well known by the name of ‘ X’s coffins.’
When these shipowners fail to find regular insurance, they still
have the resource of joining mutual security clubs; and even
without this they often find it pays to go on sending out very old
and infirm ships, which would bring nothing if offered for sale.”
‘‘ Ships are insured as long as possible, and when re-christening
and all other dodges fail, even with underwriters, then they form
mutual insurance clubs, and go on until the ships fill and go
down in some breeze, or strike and go to pieces.”’

It is singular that Mr. Plimsoll, who notices everything else
which would strengthen his case with the commercial public,
fails to notice how shipowners must needs suffer by this system.
We may be sure the underwriters do not suffer in the long run,
or they would give up insuring. What happens, then? Why,
manifestly, sea-risks are increased, and the honest shipowners
have to pay higher rates to cover the increase of risk due to the
dishonest insurers. It is thus the interest of the shipowners as

1873.] Notices of Books. 247

a body (for as a body they are just men) to remove the evil from
their midst. And this we may safely say, that no shipowner
with a grain of sense, and whose conscience is clear of offence,
can oppose Mr. Plimsoll’s plea for a full inquiry into these horrors.

Mr. Plimsoll considers that a law against over insuring, and
another requiring that ships unfit for the sea should not be
allowed to sail, are the main requirements to meet the occasion.
The cases he cites in support of this view should be read and
studied by all who wish to understand how the matter really
stands. His book is full of interest apart from the great object
which he has in view; and as we are all more or less interested in
the welfare of our commercial marine, the present treatise should
be, and we trust will be, widely read. No one who reads it will
refuse Mr. Plimsoll the heartiest wishes for his success ; and we
believe that most of his readers will give him real assistance in
his efforts to remove a great scandal from our midst. °

The Eruption of Vesuvius in 1872. By Prof. Lurci PALMIERI,
of the University of Naples, Director of the Vesuvian
Observatory. With Notes and an Introductory Sketch of the
Present State of Knowledge of Terrestrial Vulcanicity, by
ROBERT, MALLET, Mem, Inst. C.E., F.R.S, &e. London:
Asher and Co.

Tue publishers of this work have done well in securing the
services of Mr. Mallet to introduce Prof. Palmieri’s ‘‘ Incendio
Vesuviano ” to the English public. Mr. Mallet’s mastery of the
subject of seismology and vulcanology is unsurpassed ; and we
owe to him the definite enunciation of what will be before long
accepted—we entertain little question—as the true theory of
terrestrial vulcanicity. . It was obviously desirable that the
description of so important a seismological event as the recent
eruption of Vesuvius should be submitted to the investigation
of one who would not regard it in its sensational aspect, or
merely in its historical relation to former events of the kind, but
would recognise its true scientific aspect. It is, however, to be
noted that Prof. Palmieri himself is a true student of science.
Mallet justly remarks, Palmieri’s ‘‘ Narrative of the events of
the eruption is characterised by exactness of observation, and a
sobriety of language, so widely different from the exaggerated
_ style of sensational writing that is found: in almost all such
accounts, that I do the author no more than justice in thus ex-
pressing my view of its merits.”

The volume before us is about equally divided between Mr.
Mallet’s introduction and Prof. Palmieri’s account of the late
eruption. We shall consider the two portions separately, since, as

a matter of fact, they are distinct in subject matter.

In the introduction, Mr. Mallet sketches what appears to him

to be the present position of terrestrial vulcanicity, tracing the

248 Notices of Books. [April,

outlines and relations of the two branches of scientific investi-
gation—vulcanology and seismology—by which its true nature
and part in the cosmos are chiefly to be ascertained.” He re-
marks, by way of defining his subject, that ‘“‘ Vulcanicity properly
comprehends all that we see or know of actions taking place
upon and modifying the surface of our globe, which are referable
not to forces of origin above the surface, and acting superficially,
but to causes that have been or are in operation beneath it. It
embraces all that Humboldt has somewhat vaguely called ‘“‘ the
reactions of the interior of a planet upon its exterior.” He in-
dicates the relation between-astronomy and physical geology,
which overlap each other, through vulcanicity. He then sketches
the history and progress of knowledge in the chief domains of
vulcanicity. In discussing the more recent contributions to the
science, commencing with his early paper ‘‘On the Dynamics of
Earthquakes,” which appeared early in 1846, he takes occasion to
point out that Mr. Hopkins, of Cambridge, in his Report ‘*On
the Geological Theories of Elevation and Earthquakes,” read
before the British Association in June, 1847, did him some in-
justice. He remarks, that if his paper be compared with Mr.
Hopkins’s Report, it will be found that as respects the earthquake
part, the latter work. parades in a mathematical dress some
portion of the general theory of earthquake movements, pre-
viously published by Mr. Mallet. <‘‘ This,” he proceeds, ‘‘is but
too mystifyingly suggestive of the ‘ Pereant qui mea ante mihi
dixerunt’”” (a somewhat novel rendering of the hackneyed
quotation, by the way). We dwell on this point, because in
Prof. Phillips’s ‘‘ Vesuvius,” the injustice (unintentionally, of
course) is continued, and the theory of earthquakes is too im-
portant a contribution to science to be handed over to one who
certainly was not its author. The definition of an earthquake
in Mr. Mallet’s paper of 1846 sufficiently indicates the main
teaching of his theory; an earthquake he there says, is ‘“ The
transit of a wave or waves of elastic compression in any direction,
from vertically upwards or horizontally, in any azimuth, through
the crust and surface of the earth, from any centre of impulse or
from more than one, and which may be attended with sound and
tidal waves dependent upon the impulse and upon circumstances
of position as to sea and land.” The whole paper should, how-
ever, be carefully studied by those who wish to form a just
opinion of the position in which Mr. Mallet stands with respect
to the view of earthquakes, soon to become the established theory
on the subject.

From the date of the publication of that paper until that of
the paper recently contributed by him to the Royal Society, Mr.
Mallet has continued his researches, experimental and mathe-
matical, and the views to which he has been led may be regarded
as affording, in the main, the most complete and satisfactory
account of the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes yet

1873.] Notices of Books. 249

extant. Passing over those portions of his views which relate
to the period when our globe first liquefied from the nebulous
condition, and to the earliest stages of cooling by radiation, when
the crust was extremely thin, as also his account of the defor-
mation of the spheroid as one of the first effec¢ts of its con-
traction, we find that he has endeavoured to show that the rate
of contraction of the crust while very thin exceeded that of the
large fluid nucleus supporting it, and so gave rise to tangential
tensions in the crust, fracturing it into segments; but next,
‘“‘that as the crust thickened, these tensions were gradually con-
verted into tangential pressures, the contraction of the nucleus
now beginning to exceed (for equal losses of heat) that of the
crust through which it cooled. At this stage these tangential
pressures gave rise to the chief elevations of mountain chains,—
not by liquid matter by any process being injected from beneath
vertically, but by such pressures mutually reacting along certain
lines, being resolved into the vertical, and forcing upwards more
or less of the crust itself. The great outlines of the mountain
ranges and the greater elevation of the land were designated
and formed during the long periods that elapsed in which the
continually increasing thickness of the crust remained such that
it was still, as a whole, flexible enough, or opposed sufficiently
little resistance to crushing to admit of the uprise of mountain
chains by resolved tangential pressures.” ‘As our earth is still
a cooling body, and the crust, however, now thicker and more
rigid, is still incapable of sustaining the tangential pressures to
which it is now exposed, so it is by no means inferred that (re-
latively) slow and small movements of elevation and depression may
not still and now be going on upon the earth’s surface; in fact,
all the phenomena of elevation and depression, Ten@dine. cee.
which at a much remoter period acted upon a much grander and
more effective scale.” <‘‘ But the thickness of the earth’s crust,
thus constantly added to, by accretion of solidifying matter from
the still liquid or pasty nucleus, as the whole mass has cooled,
has now assumed such a thickness as to be able to offer a too
considerable resistance to the tangential pressures to admit of
its giving way to any large extent by revolution upwards; yet
the cooling of the whole mass is going on, and contraction
though unequal, both of thick crust and of hotter nucleus
beneath also, whether the latter be now liquid or not.” <‘‘ For
equal decrements of heat, or by the cooling in equal times, the
hotter nucleus contracts more than does its envelope of solid
matter. The result is now, as at all periods since the, signs
changed of the tangential forces, thus brought into play, 2.e.,
since they became tangential pressures ; that the nucleus tends
to shrink away, as it were, from beneath the crust, and to leave
the latter, unsupported or but partially supported, as a spheroidal
dome above it.” Mr. Mallet shows that, in this state of things,
and under the actual conditions to which the crust of the earth

250 Notices of Books. [April,

is subjected, this crust must crush, ‘“‘to follow down after the
shrinking nucleus. . . . It must crush unequally, both re-
garded superficially and as to depth; and the crushing will not
be absolutely constant and uniform anywhere or at any time, or
at any of those places of weakness to which it will be principally
confined, but will be more or less irregular, quasi-periodic, or
paroxysmal; as is, indeed, the way in which all known material
substances (more or less rigid) give way to a slow but constantly
increasing steady pressure.”

Such is a brief sketch of the general views of Mallet; but for
the details, and particularly for the estimates of the rate at
which the vulcanic processes now.in progress are taking place,
and an account of the experiments conducted to obtain these
estimates, the reader is referred to the present work.

It is hardly necessary to point out how much the interest of
Palmieri’s narrative is enhanced by its association in this
treatise with Mr. Mallet’s inquiries into the phenomena of the
earth’s crust. In fact, Mr. Mallet has specially tested his views
by a study of the phenomena. presented during the last two
thousand years by Vesuvius, ‘‘the best known volcano in the
world.”

Nevertheless, it is to be noted that Palmier? s Memoir con-
tains much which does not bear directly on Vulcanology. It
will be none the less interesting on this score, however, to the
general reader; and we recommend all those who are desirous to
learn all the circumstances of a great and characteristic eruption
of Vesuvius, to turn to the pages of this book. As Mr. Mallet
well remarks, ‘‘a special narration such as this should not
suffer in popular estimation by the fact that Prof. J. Phillips
has so recently given to the world the best general account of
Vesuvius in its historical and some of its scientific aspects
which has yet appeared.”

Papers relating to the Transit of Venus in 1874. Prepared
under the Direction of the Commission Authorised. by
Congress. Published by Authority of the Hon. Secretary
of the Navy. Part I. Washington.

THESE papers consist of a series of letters on the subject, the
most important being those from Mr. Rutherford, and of an
essay ‘“‘On the Application of Photography to the Observation
of the Transits of Venus,” by Professor Newcomb. Mr. Ruther-
ford describes his method for photographing the sun as a guide
to the method of photographing the phenomena of the transit;
and then says—‘‘If the whole matter of ordering instruments
for the photographing of the transit of Venus were in my
control, with my present lights, I should have an achromatic
objective of five inches aperture, and seventy inches focus, in a
cell which would allow of the application, in front of it, of a lens

1O730\ Notices of Books. 251

of flint-glass of such curves as would shorten the focal distance
(for photographing) to sixty inches. At the proper point, I
would place between the two distances an enlarging-lens so con-
structed that the normal image of the sun in the principal focus
(then about half an inch) would be enlarged to two inches at the
distance of ten inches from the principal focus, viz., at 70 inches
from the objective. The camera-box and tube should be one
tube, and the focalising rack and screw should be located at the
objective end of the tube, thus simplifying the whole arrange-
ment and permitting the use of braces, from end to end, to pre-
vent flexure ; and on taking off the photographic corrector, and
taking out the enlarging-lens, the instrument will be all ready
for vision. On consideration, I do not think I would counsel a
smaller telescope than the one I have named.”

Professor Newcomb divides the proposed methods of observing
the transits of Venus into two classes. The first consists in
fixing the moment at which the planet is in contact with the
limb of the sun; the second, in determining the relative position
of the centre of the planet and the centre of the sun as often as
possible during the transit. The first method, although only
that has hitherto been thought practicable, Prof. Newcomb con-
ceives liable to inaccuracies; and he proposes photography as
the aid to the second method, in order to form an image of the
sun with Venus on its disc, so that points on the plates corre-
sponding to the centres of the discs can be fixed with precision,
the linear distance between these points being determined by
means of a micrometer, and the angle of position obtained from
a reference line—this line bearing a relation to the circle of right
ascension passing through the sun’s centre. For the details of
the process of photographing the transit, the corrections neces-
sary in the glasses, we must refer the reader to the original
papers.

There are some considerable difficulties connected with this
method. The greatest difficulty would appear to be, that the
required element appears only as a minute difference between
two comparatively long arcs, too long to be measured by a
micrometer. But Professor Winlock’s apparatus would remove
many of the disadvantages.

These papers contain so much important matter that we hope
soon to see the second part.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.
Vol. iv.: The Geology of the London Basin. Part I.: The
Chalk and the Eocene Beds of the Southern and Western
Tracts. By Witit1am WuitakerR, B.A.(Lond.). (Parts by
H. W. Bristow, F.R.S., and T. Mc. K. Huaues, M.A.)
London: Longmans, Green, and Co.; and Stanford. 1872.

It is obviously a matter of convenience to the public that the
Maps of the Geological Survey, as they are issued sheet by

252 Notices of Books. (April,

sheet, should be accompanied by short explanatory memoirs.
But, since it necessarily happens that the areas comprised
within these sheets are bounded in an arbitrary fashion, it be-
comes in the highest degree desirable that—as the work of the
Survey progresses, and districts with well-defined natural limits
are worked out—the information scattered through the shorter
memoirs on the separate sheets should from time to time be
gathered together and expanded into special volumes, each
devoted to a full description of the geology of some extensive
tract of country, bounded by well-marked physical features.
Such a volume is the admirable memoir by Mr. Whitaker on
the Geology of the London Basin.

Much misconception prevails respecting the true nature of
this so-called ‘‘ Basin.”’ Misled by the popular use of the term,
and accustomed to the caricatured sections given in most geo-
logical works, one finds it difficult to realise the very gentle
nature of the trough in which the metropolis is seated, and the
true dip and relation of the beds within the London area. But
on studying the sections issued by the Geological Survey, which
are drawn on the same scale horizontally and vertically, it is
immediately seen that the disturbances which have affected the
strata in the south of England have been of the tamest possible
kind—that there have been no vast foldings of the beds, no
great elevation here or depression there—and’ that such high-
sounding phrases as “the great arch of the Weald,” or ‘the
deep trough of the London Basin,” are equally deceptive.
“When compared with its horizontal extent,” says Mr.
Whitaker, ‘“ the vertical displacement in the latter area is indeed
trifling.”

The chalk is the lowest formation exposed within the London
Basin, though well-sections have reached the Upper Greensand,
the Gault, and certain lower beds—perhaps of Neocomian age,
or even older. Above the chalk come the Lower Eocenes, com-
prising the Thanet beds, the Woolwich and Reading beds, the
Oldhaven beds, and the London Clay. It may not be amiss to
remark the name ‘‘Oldhaven beds” was proposed by Mr.
Whitaker, in 1866, for some sands and pebble-beds equally dis-
tinct from the London clay above and from the Woolwich beds
below. These beds are well exposed at Oldhaven Gap, on the
Kentish coast, near the Reculvers. Passing from the Lower to
the Middle Eocenes, we find in the London Basin the Lower,
Middle, and Upper Bagshot series; but the beds above these
are not represented in the London area, and to study the
Eocenes it is necessary to cross to the Hampshire basin. As to
the various superficial deposits, they are well enough exposed, it
is true, within the London basin, but it formed no part of Mr.
Whitaker’s plan to describe them, as it is proposed that they
shall form the subject of the second part of this volume.

In the systematic preparation of this memoir, Mr. Whitaker's

1873.] Notices of Books. 253

course has been to notice the several geological formations in
ascending order—first describing their general nature, and then
detailing their range, their lithological characters, and _ the
sections in which they are exposed.

Having thus described the nature and range of the various
formations, the author devotes one chapter to the disturbances
which the beds have suffered, and another to the physical
features which they present. In discussing the causes which
have given to the country its present contours, Mr. Whitaker
clearly shows that the surface has been sculptured into its pre-
sent form of hill and scarp and dale by subaérial denudation,
rather than by marine action—that, in fact, the varied features
of the scenery are mainly, if not exclusively, due to meteoric
agencies—to rain, rivers, frost, and the like—agencies which are
ever silently at work under our eyes, and are fully competent to
effect all that has been ascribed to their action, if only sufficient
time be granted for the work.

The concluding chapter of the Memoir is devoted to Economic
Geology—a subject which, in this area, does not admit of very
extensive treatment. But perhaps the most valuable part of the
work—as a work of reference—is to be found in its copious
Appendices. One of these, on the Bibliography of the subject,
shows in a remarkable manner Mr. Whitaker’s extensive ac-
quaintance with geological literature ; whilst the second Ap-
pendix contains details of upwards of 500 well-sections and
borings within the area under description. Finally, Mr. Ethe-
ridge and some other paleontologists contribute valuable lists
of fossils from the beds of the London Basin.

Before closing the work we should remark that, though the
great bulk of the text has been written by Mr. Whitaker, certain
parts have been contributed by his colleagues—Mr. H. W. Bris-
tow, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of England and
Wales; and Mr. T. McK. Hughes, M.A., the new Wood-
wardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge.

The publication of this elaborate volume leaves no longer any
excuse for ignorance on the geology of the country around Lon-
don. It must, however, be confessed that the physical features
of the country within a moderate distance of the metropolis are
not such as tend to foster geological tastes; and, in spite of the
labours of Mr. Prestwich and of the Geological,Survey, we fear
that among the millions who dwell within the area of the London
basin, there are comparatively few who know anything of the
true nature of the ground beneath them. ‘“‘ Turpe est in patria
vivere, et patriam non cognoscere.”

VOL. td. (N.S.) Zee,

254 Notices of Books. (April,

The Theory of Strains in Girders and Similar Structures, Sc.
By Binpon B. Stoney, M.A. London: Longmans, Green,
and Co.. 1873.

THE constantly growing demand for education, in every path
in life, must soon have the effect of replacing those hard-headed,
practical, self-taught, but untheoretical engineers who, it cannot
be denied, have been the pioneers of the profession, and to
whom credit is due for the construction of many important
and magnificent works. But, as is stated by Mr. Stoney in his
preface, ‘‘ practice which was formerly excusable, or even
worthy of the highest commendation, would, now that knowledge
has increased, be propery described as culpable waste.” At
the present day, the eng.ue2r requires not only to be a practical
man, but he should alg be well acquainted with the physical
laws by which his works are regulated, so that he may at once
combine strength and refinement in his structural details.

Nothing can be more important, in connection with engineering
structures, than a complete knowledge of the strength of the
materials employed, and this again requires to be augmented
with a full appreciation of the duty to be performed by each
portion of such structures; in other words, of the strain or
stress to which each such portion is subjected, and of its capa-
bilities to resist it. The work now before us is a handbook to
such knowledge, so far as iron structures are concerned, accom-
panied by observations on the application of theory to practice,
and tables of the strength and other properties of materials,
compiled from such authorities as Hodgkinson, Tredgold,
Wertheim, Young, Fairbairn, Barlow, &c.

The principle of strains is based on the fact that on the appli-
cation of force all bodies change either form or volume, or both
together. For convenience sake such strains are divided under
five heads, namely, tensile, compressive, transverse, shearing,
and torsional strains, according as they are caused by tearing
asunder, crushing, breaking across, cutting, and twisting asunder,
respectively. As the strength of any material depends ulti-
mately on its capability of sustaining strains, it is of essential
importance to know the ultimate resistance to tension or com-
pression which each material possesses, and thence deduce
those strains which may be safely imposed in practice; and the
object of the present work is to put before the student in this
branch of science the results of the investigations, carefully
worked out, by those who have given more particular attention
to the subject. Besides the strains of tension and compression,
the elongation and shortening of the material subject to strain
claims attention, for experience has proved that the safe working
strain of any material does not exceed its sensible limit of uni- ©
form: elastic reaction, generally called the limit of elasticity.
This limit may also be defined to be the greatest strain that does
not produce an appreciable set.

1873.] Notices of Books. 255

The investigation of transverse strains may be reduced to the
three following fundamental laws in mechanics, viz., the resolu-
tion of forces, the law of the lever, and the equality of mo-
ments, upon which are founded all the investigations given of
the strength of materials when subject to transverse strain.

After an introductory chapter, our author enters upon a con-
sideration of the circumstances of flanged girders with braced or
thin continuous webs, when subjected to six different conditions
of weight or strain. In this part of the work the formule inves-
tigated refer to transverse strains only, the horizontal strains in
braced or thin continuous webs being so inconsiderable that they
may be practically neglected. All girders have what is called a
neutral surface and a neutral axis, the former being that surface
along which the resultant of the horizontal components of all
the diagonal forces equal cipher, and the latter the line of de-
marcation between the horizontal elastic forces of tension and
compression exerted by the fibres in that particular section of
the girder. The sum of the moments of the horizontal elastic
forces in any transverse section round any point whatsoever is
the moment of resistance of that particular section, or, as it is
also called, the moment of rupture. The coefficient of rupture
varies, of course, with different materials, and, in order to enable
_the formule given on the above subject to be the better applied,
a table of coefficients is given.

As the result of several investigations, it is laid down as a rule
that the strength of similar girders varies as the square of their
lineal dimensions, but the weight of the girder itself varies as

the cube of its lineal dimensions.

Space will not admit of our following Mr. Stoney’s book in
such detail as the interest of the subject would otherwise justify.
The calculations given respecting one class of girders are con-
tinued to girders of various sections, to girders with parallel
flanges but having webs formed of various-shaped bracings, to
girders with oblique or curved flanges, &c. The chapter on
‘“‘ Deflection of Girders” is an important one, showing, as it
does, that girders of uniform section throughout are often de-
fective from a scientific point of view. In all properly constructed
girders each part is duly proportioned to the maximum strain
which can pass through it, so that no material is wasted; and
when this occurs in a girder with horizontal flanges and a
uniformly distributed load, that is, the load which produces the
maximum strain in the flanges, these latter will taper from the

centre, where their section is greatest, towards the ends as the
ordinates of a parabola.

Having considered and given rules for the quantity of mate-
rials, and the angle of economy for braced girders, there follow
chapters on torsion, the crushing strength of materials, and rules
for the strength of pillars, whether circular or braced. These, of
course, have reference to the construction of piers and abut-

SSS Se
SS ee —

256 Notices of Books. [April,

ments, or other supports for girders, and are most important.
The tensile strength of materials is very fully discussed, and is
followed by chapters on Shearing-Strains, Elasticity and Set,
and Temperature. Next follow chapters on the detail parts of
girders and bridges, such as flanges, web, cross-girders and
platform, working load, &c.; after which several pages are given
to estimation of girder work, which forms a most fitting sequel
to what has preceded. The book concludes with an appendix, in
which many interesting and detailed particulars are given of the
Boyne Lattice Bridge, on the Dublin and Belfast Junction Rail-
way, which affords a practical illustration of the theories laid
down in the main body of the book.

On the Cause, Date, and Duration of the Last Glacial Epoch of
Geology, and the Probable Antiquity of Man. With an Inves-
tigation and Description of a New Movement of the Earth.
By. Lieut.-Col. Drayson, -R.A., F.R.A.5S., &c. — Londgar
Chapman and Hall. 1873. .

In spite of all that has been written—whether by geologist, as-
tronomer, or physicist—in explanation of the different conditions
of climate in past phases of the earth’s history, the subject still
remains so enshrouded in obscurity that light from any quarter
should be gladly greeted. Perhaps the most remarkable—cer-
tainly the most interesting—of these climatic conditions is repre-
sented by that period which geologists recognise as the Glacial
Epoch,—an epoch in which arctic conditions seem to have pre-
vailed over the northern hemisphere down to at least the forty-
fifth parallel of latitude. It is universally conceded that this
episode in the history of our planet occurred in comparatively
recent geological times, but we are as ignorant of its absolute
date and period of duration as of the physical causes by which
it was brought about. It is, however, to the solution of these
problems that Col. Drayson addresses himself in the present
work. ‘

Rather than offer his own description of the Glacial Epoch,
the author cites copiously from the writings of Ramsay, Lyell,
Agassiz, Page, and other geologists. He then discusses and
dismisses the several theories which have from time to time
been advanced with the view of explaining the cause of these
glacial conditions,—such as the passages of the earth, with the
rest of the solar system, through zones of space of different
temperatures; the assumed changes in the excentricity of the
earth’s orbit ; differences in the distribution of the great masses
of land and water; and alteration in the position of the earth’s
poles by shifting of the axis. It is strange that we fail to find
here any reference to the writings of Mr. Croll, who has, of late
years, so ably discussed some of these theories,

1873.] Notices of Books. 257

In introducing his own explanation, Col. Drayson begins by
examining the three principal movements of the earth—its rota-
tion on its axis, its revolution round the sun, and especially the
slow movement of its axis round the pole of the ecliptic. It is
almost universally laid down by astronomical authorities that the
pole of the heavens moves in a circle round the pole of the
ecliptic, as a centre, constantly maintaining an angular distance
of 23° 28 from that centre. The author seeks to refute this
generally-accepted proposition, and endeavours to prove that the
earth’s axis describes a circle—not round the pole of the ecliptic
as a centre, but round another centre 6° distant from the pole.
As the full astronomical discussion of this movement is reserved
for a forthcoming volume, we withhold criticism on this part of
the work, and confine ourselves to the geological consequences
which tend to flow from the author’s data.

Assuming Col. Drayson’s premisses, it follows that during one
revolution of the pole of the heavens round the pole of the
ecliptic, occupying about 31,840 years, there must be a variation
of 12° in the obliquity of the ecliptic. This variation is sufficient
to account for extracrdinary changes of climate on the surface of
the earth. It is calculated that at the date 13,702 B.c. the obli-
quity was at its maximum, namely, 35° 25’ 47”. At that time,
therefore, the arctic circle would be brought down to this distance
from the pole, and our own islands would consequently come
within the frigid zone. But whilst our winters were thus cha-
racterised by arctic severity, the author argues that the summers
must have been almost tropical. In winter, then, the country
would be covered with a complete mantle of ice, and in summer
this would be rapidly thawed, giving rise to heavy floods and
vast numbers of icebergs.

We have seen that, according to our author, the Glacial Epoch
was at its height in 13,700 B.c. He believes, however, that the
occurrence of great alternations of temperature, producing
marked effects on the climate, extended over a period of about
16,000 years—8o000 before and 8000 after the maximum. The
glacial period would, therefore, have begun in 21,700 B.c., and
terminated in 5700 B.c.

Assuming the course of the pole to be uniform, there would
be a recurrence of glacial periods every 31,000 years. Prof.
Ramsay, from the study of certain beds of breccia, long ago in-
sisted on the necessity of recognising earlier glacial periods ; and
the very phrasing of Col. Drayson’s title, ‘‘ The Last Glacial
Epoch,” shows that he, too, believes in previous periods of alike
character. Few geologists will, however, agree with the author
in his curious suggestion that these extreme climatic conditions
may account for the alternation of different beds in our coal-
measures, much less forthe bands of flint in our chalk.

In closing Col. Drayson’s work, the geological reader, though
anxious to accept many of his conclusions, will feel that he must

258 ; Notices of Books. (April,

be guided mainly by the verdict of the astronomer. After twelve
years of patient thought upon his favourite subject, the author
ventures to maintain that certain time-honoured principles in
Astronomy require correction. That he is thus bold enough to
be original is no reason why his propositions should not be can-
didly discussed. Every new idea makes its way in the world
with difficulty ; and we hope that the mere novelty of the author’s
views, whether right or wrong, will not preclude him from a fair
hearing by men of science. ‘The imputation of novelty,” says
Locke ‘is a terrible charge amongst those who judge of men’s

heads as they do of their perukes—by the fashion; and can .

allow none to be right but received doctrines.”

The School Manual of Geology. By J. BEETE Jukes, M.A.,
F.R.S., &c. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. Edited
by ALFRED J. JUKES-BRowneE, of St. John’s Coll., Cambridge.
Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. 1873.

WirTH the exception of the classic writings of Sir Charles Lyell,
there are perhaps no modern text-books better known to the stu-
dent than the Manuals of the late Prof. Jukes. His were no
mere compilations, as elementary treatises too often are, but
were the work of a field geologist, whose heart was in his
hammer. ‘The success of Jukes’s larger volume, the ‘Students’
Manual,” induced the author, about ten years ago, to write an
introductory work, under the title of the “‘School Manual of
Geology.” Since the lamented death of Prof. Jukes new editions
of both works have been called for; the editing of the larger
Manual was entrusted to the author’s colleague, Prof. Geikie ;
that of the smaller Manual to the author’s nephew, Mr. A.
Jukes-Browne.

Since the original appearance of the ‘‘School Manual”
geology has made great advances. But whilst duty to the reader
has compelled the editor to effect many alterations, he has wisely
forborne, from respect to his uncle’s memory, to unnecessarily
interfere with the original plan of the work. Jukes’s ‘ School
Manual” remains, then, what it has always been—one of our
best text-books for the student of elementary geology.

Geological Stories ; A Series of Autobiographies in Chronological
Order. By J. E. Tayzor, F.G.S., &c. London: Hardwicke.
1873.

Jupaine from the large number of ‘ Play-Books of Science”

constantly being issued, there must be a large section of the

reading public desirous of acquiring a smattering of scientific
knowledge without the labour of systematic study. To such
readers Mr. Taylor’s ‘‘ Stories” will be peculiarly acceptable.

*

we _—

1873.] Notices of Books. 259

Written in a pleasing gossiping style, they lead the reader
smoothly onwards, until he finds himself in possession of a great -
deal of geological information.

These stories have, for the most part, already appeared in
*¢ Science Gossip,” a journal of which the author is editor; but
they are now arranged in chronological order, so as to present a
simple and picturesque view of the past history of our Earth.
The autobiographies are told by pieces of granite, quartz, slate,
limestone, sandstone, coal, rock-salt, jet, Purbeck marble, chalk,
clay, lignite, the ‘‘ Crags,” a boulder, and a gravel-pit.

Whilst recommending these ‘“‘ Stories ” to the class of readers
for whom they were primarily intended, we cannot help re-
marking an unsatisfactory looseness of expression, common to
most popular writings, but annoying to the scientific reader.
For example, confining ourselves to the first chapter,—the story
of a piece of granite,—we object to alumina, soda, potash, lime,
and other oxides, being constantly called ‘‘elements;” nor are
we pleased to hear the chemical constituents of mica and of
ieisoun, spoken of as) ‘(mixed > together im these’ minerals
respectively. But the most curious statement in this chapter is
that felspar may be detected in a mass of granite by being ‘so
soft that you may scratch it with your finger-nail!” If this ex-
traordinary assertion is made on the authority of personal
examination, it is clear that either certain parts of the author’s
exo-skeleton had acquired an unwonted degree of induration, or
the specimen under test was advancing to a state of kaolinisa-
tion. Mr. Taylor is evidently more at home when speaking of
fossils than of minerals; and, as might be supposed, we find
him at his best in the later chapters, from the ‘“ Story of the
Crags” onwards.

Despite any little defects observable here aad there, the work
contains an attractive collection of stories well calculated to
quicken a taste for geology in those who may be too careless
about the grand Science of the Earth to apply themselves to the
study of systematic treatises.

The Owen’s College Funior Course of Practical Chemistry. By
ow oscon,” BoA.) FIRS. Professor, of (Chemistry ym
Owen’s College, Manchester, and Francis Jones, Chemical
Master in the Grammar School, Manchester. London: Mac-
millan and Co.

THE number of elementary works on chemistry which have been
lately issued from the English press proves that the importance
of this science is at last beginning to receive something like due
recognition. Amongst these treatises few are likely to prove
more valuable than the one before us, which bears the impress
of having been arranged by one who, like Prof. Roscoe, has

260 : Notices of Books. (April,

learnt from prolonged experience what the student exactly
needs. The synoptical tables for the detection and qualitative
separation of the elementary bodies, when occurring in com-
pounds or mixtures, are well arranged. The student who can
give a correct reply to the questions contained in the last section
will have laid a firm foundation, and will be well prepared for
turning his attention to the higher departments of the science.
We can therefore confidently recommend this Manual, both to
students and toteachers of chemistry, as an excellent syllabus
for a practical course of instruction.

The General Glaciation of far-Connaught and its Neighbourhood,
in the Counties of Galway and Mayo. By G. H. Kinanan,
M.R.I.A., Of the Irish Branch of the Geological Survey of
the United Kingdom ; and M. H. Ciosez, M.R.I.A. Dublin:
Hedges, Foster, and Go. 1725

Tue mapping of both kinds of the glacial phenomena considered
in this pamphlet was commenced seven years ago by Mr. G. H.
Kinahan, and was carried on during the course of his work on
the Geological Survey. The pamphlet may be said to include
a complete view of the glaciation of the district, although many
admirable notices and descriptions have appeared from the pen
of Prof. King, Messrs. Ormsby and Campbell, and others.

Signal Service U.S. Army: Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit

of Commerce and Agriculture. Published by Order of the
Secretary of War.

«‘Tury do these things better abroad,” is as true of meteorology
as of many other instances of perhaps more personal moment. A
vast number of observations have been shown by Mr. Norman
Lockyer to be necessary to the determination of a weather-cycle,
and it may be considered probable that the nation first achieving
a collection of these data will be the first to make a decisive step
in meteorological science. If this hold goods, America certainly
appears the country to which the honour will accrue. We have
received a copy of these telegrams published during one day by
the U.S. Army Signal Service, accompanied by two weather
maps. .The telegrams give (for seventy-three stations) the
height of the barometer, the change in the last eight hours, the
temperature and change in the last twenty-four hours, relative
humidity, the direction, velocity, and pressure (in the per square
foot) of the wind, the amount and direction of upper and lower
clouds, the rain- fall, and the state of weather at each station.

Se ee

1873.] | Notices of Books. 261

These particulars are issued and telegraphed thrice daily, and
during the day there are also issued maps of the Continent,
showing what has been the state of the weather during the last
four-and-twenty hours, and what will probably be the state of
the weather during the next twenty-four. Upon the immense
importance of such numerous details it is impossible to be
too emphatic; a similarly perfect system should be demanded
by science frorn our own Government before it should be too
late to reap the full benefit of the labours of English meteorologists.
We know that great progress has been made in our own meteoro-
logical department, but still we are very far from the advanced
ground of our American cousins, who will quickly bear off the
palm in this respect, if it be not already gone.

VOL. III. (N.S.) 2M

_* Elgin Courant.”

( 262 ) (April,

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

MINING.

CONSIDERING the present exceptional state of the coal-market, it is by no
means surprising that public attention should eagerly fasten on the news of
any discovery of coal, or of kindred mineral, which may perchance afford a
seasonable supply of fuel. Unusual currency has, therefore, been given to
certain announcements respecting the recent discovery of coal in different
parts of the British Isles; but most of these announcements refer to localities
where the existence of mineral fuel has long been known to the geologist, and
we must confess that at present there seems no likelihood of any really new
centres of coal-mining being established.

Whitecliff Bay, at the eastern extremity of the Isle of Wight, is one of
these coal-bearing localities, to which attention has recently been directed. It
appears that the gales in the Channel have swept away much of the sand and
shingle which usually cover the shore of the bay, and have laid bare what has
been described as a seam of coal, from 6 to 7 feet in width, extending ina
straight line from the foot of the cliffs down to low-water mark. The tertiary
strata in Whitecliff Bay rest in an almost vertical position against the highly-
inclined chalk, and, striking directly across the island from east to west,
reappear on the opposite side, in the well-known section in Alum Bay. Now
it happens that in Alum Bay beds of lignite have long been known to occur
in that division of the Middle Bagshot series known as the Bracklesham beds.
Prof. Ramsay and Mr. Bristow examined these beds in 1860, and observed
that each seam was based upon a stratum of clay resembling the underclay of
the coal-measures. Some few years ago similar beds were detected by the
Geological Survey in Whitecliff Bay ; and the recent discovery resolves itself
into a fresh exposure of these Bracklesham coals. It is not, however, likely
that these seams will ever prove of any commercial value.

Rumours are afloat of great discoveries of coal and cannel in Sutherland-
shire. Yet, as faras can be gathered from authentic sources, it seems that
these reputed discoveries refer merely to the coals and shales of the Middle
Oolites of Brora, well known to every geologist. No one denies that in
certain parts of the world great deposits of Mesozoic coal are extensively and
profitably worked; but, bearing in mind the very limited occurrence of such
coals in our own islands, it seems doubtful whether their commercial develop-
ment will ever be remunerative to the British capitalist.

In Elginshire there are not wanting voices to advocate a search for coal, in
spite of the adverse geological conditions of the locality. It is true Mr. Judd’s.
admirable researches on Scottish Geology have recently placed beyond doubt
the fact that the celebrated Elgin sandstone must be referred to the New Red
and not to the Old Red sandstone—a conclusion to which Prof. Huxley’s
study of its reptilian fossils had previously pointed. Nevertheless this con-
clusion does not in any way lend itself to the support of those views on the
probability of finding coal which have found expression in some of the Scotch
papers. For it is surely the height of geological folly to suppose that every
bit of New Red must needs have coal-measures beneath it: and, indeed, the
highest geological authorities are of opinion that these measures were never
deposited within the area of the Elgin sandstone. We are glad to observe
that the “Atheneum” has called attention to the folly of this projected
enterprise, which has been so staunchly, yet unscientifically, supported by the

Some valuable researches on the conditions under which safety-lamps are ~

truly safe have been conduéted by Mr.-R. Galloway, partly at the new
Laboratories at South Kensington, and partly at the Meteorological Office.

Mr. Galloway has already found that if a Davy lamp be burning tranquilly im

1873.] Metallurgy. 263

an explosive atmosphere, the transmission of a sound-wave, produced by a
slight explosion of gunpowder, is sufficient to determine the communication
of flame from the lamp to the surrounding atmosphere. Hitherto it has been
generally assumed that the occurrence of a colliery explosion, after firing a
shot, is due to actual communication of flame from the gunpowder to the
fire-damp; but Mr. Galloway’s experiments show that it is much more likely
that the explosion is determined by the noise of the shot being propagated
through the galleries of the rfiine to the safety-lamps. An admirable experi-
ment to illustrate this point was exhibited by Dr. W. Spottiswoode at a recent
lecture at the Royal Institution. A lighted Davy lamp was surrounded by
streams of coal-gas issuing from a number of jets round the base of the lamp.
One extremity of a long tin tube, open at both ends, was placed in connection ,
with the lamp, while a pistol was fired at the other end, a caoutchouc
diaphragm being interposed in the tube to prevent the transmission of a direct
current of air. The sound-wave, generated by the report, travelled along the
tube, and, as soon as it reached the flame, caused ignition of the surrounding
atmosphere—the lamp being immediately enveloped in flames.

An improved self-extinguishing safety-lamp, which appears to combine
security, simplicity, and strength, has been patented by Mr. Yates, of Duke
Street, Westminster. The lower part of the lamp, containing the reservoir of
oil, is furnished with a locking-bolt, which bears against some ratchet teeth
fixed to the base of the upper portion, or cage of wire-gauze. While the lamp
is being screwed into,ts cage the bolt runs readily over these teeth, but when
the two parts are screwed together it is impossible to unscrew them until this
bolt has been withdrawn. This is effected by turning a milled head attached
to the unlocking screw at the base of the lamp, but the very ac of turning
this screw causes the wick to be so depressed in its socket that before the
lamp can be opened the flame is effectually extinguished. It therefore becomes
impossible for the miner to tamper with his lamp without immediate extinction
of the light. Nor is there any inducement to open the lamp for lack of light,
for unusual brilliancy is obtained by a silver-plated concave reflector fixed
behind the light, and a strong well-annealed glass lens secured in a metal
frame in front. It is further claimed for the Yates lamp that, though giving a
brilliant light, it consumes much less oil than is usually burnt in the ordinary
Davy lamp.

A description of the remarkable deposits of Fossiliferous Iron Ore in
Southern Pennsylvania, by Prof. B. Silliman, has been published in the
“ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute.’ These deposits occur in a group
of Silurian rocks, known locally as the ‘‘ Surgent Shales ’—the equivalent of
our Wenlock beds. Three zones of ore are found on three distinét horizons in
these shales—the Levant ore, the Twin beds of fossil ore, and the Hematites
at the top of the series. By far the most important of these iron ores are the *
Twin beds of: fossil ore,—an ore notable for its purity, its uniformity of
structure, and its wide distribution. ‘‘ It is believed,’ says Prof. Silliman, ‘‘ to
be, of all deposits of iron ore in the known world, the most extensive and
important.”

Attention’ has been called, by Prof. Hull, the Director of the Geological
Survey of Ireland, to the brown hematite occurring in the Lower Silurian
rocks, at several localities in the counties of Longford and Cavan.

A description of the iron ores of Nova Scotia, and the manufacture of
Acadian iron, has appeared in the ‘‘ Mining Journal.’ It seems likely that
the present high price of iron may lead to the development of the iron-
producing resources of this colony.

METALLURGY.

Some improvements in effecting the removal of phosphorus from pig-iron,
during the process of puddling, have been introduced by Prof. Scheerer, of the
Mining Academy of Freiberg, in Saxony. Chloride of calcium and chloride
of sodium are mixed in about equal proportions, and the two salts fused

264 Progress in Science. [April,

together. The fused mixture is run into waterproof paper cases, each holding
about 2 lbs., and these cases are introduced into the puddling-furnace one by
one, so that the dephosphorising mixture may be thoroughly incorporated
with the charge. To ensure satisfactory results, it is recommended to use
three times as much of the mixture as the iron contains phosphorus.

According to a method of preparing steel lately proposed by Messrs. F.
Bajault and M. Roche, a mixture of cast-iron and powdered hzmatite is
smelted, and the produd cast in the form of pigs, these pigs being then heated
for a considerable time in a furnace of peculiar construction. The rough steel
thus obtained may be melted, either in crucibles or in a reverberatory furnace.
A sample of steel prepared in this manner yielded, on analysis—Combined
carbon, 0°43 per cent; uncombined carbon, o°8; silicon, 0:13; sulphur and
phosphorus, none.

Mr. H. Defty, of Middlesbro’-on-Tees, has patented his trunk-refinery and
puddling-furnace. This furnace is provided with an inclined revolving cham-
ber, surrounded at intervals by cast-iron clips which bear upon pulleys on an

inclined shaft, rotated by steam-power. The molten iron passes from the ©

smelting-furnace into the chamber, and the lining of this chamber assists in
bringing the metal into a malleable state. The metal passes into an oven at
the lower end of the chamber, where it is received, with the slag, in-a bogie or
ingot-mould; whilst the products of combustion, passing from the furnace
through the chamber, are utilised in the cupola furnace employed in preparing
the metal.

A new system of fettling with oxide of iron, recommended for use in the
manufa@ure of finished iron, has been patented by Mr. T: Greener and Mr.
W. Ellis. The mill-furnmace in which such fettling is used should have a
gradual fall from the fore-plate of from 3 to ? of a foot; the refuse from the
iron gradually collects in its descent towards the flue, and is there tapped into
a bogie. Before use in the puddling-furnace the fettling is broken up in a
Blake’s crusher.

Although the manufacture of charcoal-iron is not at present carried on to
any great extent in France, there are still a few furnaces which treat high-
class ores, and produce a charcoal-iron of first quality. As such works usually
possess sufficient hydraulic power to keep the machinery in motion, and as
the hot-blast is but rarely employed, the only means of utilising the waste
gases from these blast-furnaces seems to be their employment in the puddling-
furnace or in the refinery. A method of using these gases has been patented
by M. de Langdale, and has been described by M. V. de Lespinats in the
** Bulletin de la Société de l’Industrie Minérale.” The gases are taken off by
a common English cup-and-cone, and are then washed and cooled by a shower
of water, so that the aqueous vapour present is effectually condensed. The
necessary temperature is obtained in the puddling-furnace by using Siemens’s
regenerators.

Dud Dudley’s quaint treatise, entitled Mettalum Mariis, has been reprinted,
by request, in the “‘ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute ” (1872, vol. ii.,
No. 4). The same number of this journal contains a translation, by Mr.
Ernest Bell, of a German paper, ‘‘ On the Working of Blast-Furnaces with
Raw Coal, at Gleiwitz, in Upper Silesia,” by Dr. Wedding. There will also
be found in this journal an abridged translation of the Report of the Com-
mission appointed by the iron-masters of Belgium to visit this country
and examine the working of Danks’s rotary puddling-furnace, at Middles-
borough.

A new technical journal is devoting itself to the interests of_the iron trade.
The old-established ‘‘ Mechanics’ Magazine” has arisen in an entirely new
shape, and, under the title of ‘‘ von,” now forms a useful weekly journal dedi-
cated to metallurgy and allied branches of industry.

1073. Mineralogy. 265

MINERALOGY.

Considerable interest was excited a short time back by M. Jeremejew’s an-
nouncement that he had discovered diamonds imbedded in a rare Russian
mineral known-as Xanthophyllite.* Wishing to verify Jeremejew’s observa-
tions, Dr. Knop, of Carlsruhe, has been quietly working at the subject, and
has recently come to the conclusion that the so-called crystals of diamond
are merely angular cavities, suggesting, it is true, the well-known forms in.
which the diamond is wont to crystallise, but nevertheless destitute of the
veriest trace of diamond, or of any other mineral substance. It might, how-
ever, be fairly supposed that the cavities, though now empty, originally con-
tained certain crystalline materials which impressed their angular form upon
these hollows. Some curious experiments by Knop lead, however, to an
opposite conclusion. He obtained thin sections of xanthophyllite, which,
when magnified 1500 diameters, appeared to be absolutely destitute of any of
these angular cavities: nevertheless, after treating the preparation with sul-
phuric acid, numerous cavities were recognised exactly similar to those referred
in other cases to the presence of diamonds. In other experiments, ‘fine
lamellze of xanthophyllite were carefully examined in all directions under the
microscope, and the entire absence of any crystalline impressions thus deter-
mined; the object was then touched with a few drops of concentrated sulphuric
acid, and heated until white fumes appeared. The preparation, when cooled,
was protected with a cover-glass, and placed under the microscope, when it
exhibited swarms of beautiful tetrahedral cavities, sharply defined, regularly
formed, and arranged in parallel rows. From these and other observations,
the autnor feels justified in concluding that the angular cavities in the Russian
xanthophyllite have nothing to do with the presence of diamonds, but owe
their origin merely to the corrosive action of acids.

Further ‘“‘ Mineralogical Notices,” by Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Flight, have
been published in the “ Journal of the Chemical Society.” The first portion
of the present communication refers to the heterogeneous substances grouped
together under the name of Isopyre. It appears that these are, for the most
part, merely impure forms of opal, associated with other mineral substances.
The rare species to which Brooke, many years ago, gave the name of Percylite,
—an oxychloride of lead and copper, occurring in beautiful blue crystals,
belonging to the cuvic system,—has hitherto been known only by a single
specimen, said to have come from Sonora, in Mexico, and now exhibited in the
British Museum. It is, therefore, of interest to learn from Prof. Maskelyne
that Percylite has been found among minerals from South Africa. Among
other points of interest in this paper, a comparison is suggested between cer-
tain minerals from Redruth, in Cornwall, and those recently discovered at
Schneeberg, in Saxony, and attention is ealed to the simultaneous presence
of bismuth and uranium in association with arsenic, in minerals from these
widely-distant localities.

Another recent contribution to British mineralogy is due to Prof. Church,
who has communicated to the Chemical Society some analyses of certain
mineral arseniates and phosphates. The minerals examined comprise some
transparent crystals of the fluor-apatite known as asparagus stone (Werner’s
Spargelstein); the rare species arseniosiderite, which occurs in a deposit of
manganese-ore at Romanéche, Macon; and the West of England minerals—
Childrenite, ehlite, tyrolite, and wavellite.

Breithaupt, the venerable mineralogist, though retired from the professorship
which he so long held in the Mining Academy of Freiberg, in Saxony, has not
rested from his labours. Unable, through loss of sight, either to read or to
write, he di@tates to his assistant, Herr Frenzel, and has thus been able to
contribute to Leonhard and Geinitz’s ‘‘ Jahrbuch” some recent ‘‘ Mineralo-
gical Notices.” Among these notices he gives the full charafers of tke
mineral which he described some time ago as Nantokite. This is a chloride of

> SEE Quart, Journ. Science, No. XXXII., OG., 1871, p. 541.

266 © Progress in Scuence. [April,

copper from Chili, containing CuzClz, which on exposure to the atmosphere
readily becomes encrusted with atacamite; and it is suggested that most
if not all the atacamite is probably formed from Nantokite. Waénklerite is the
name given by Breithaupt to a new Spanish mineral, of which large quantities
are said to have been sold in England as cobalt-ore. From an analysis by Dr.
C. Winkler the following unattractive formula has beén deduced :—
8(5CoO.2CO2+4H20) + 6(Co203.H20) + 8(2Cu0.CO2+ H,0)+
+4(2CaO.As,0;+6H,0).

A new mineral-species has been described by Dr. Lasaulx, under the name
of Ardennite. It is a brown or pale yellow mineral, occurring in fibrous
masses without distinét crystalline form. Analysis shows it to be a silicate
of alumina and manganese, with small quantities of magnesia, lime, and ferric
oxide; but what is especially notable is the presence of 6°17 per cent of
vanadic acid, The mineral comes from Ottrez, in the Belgian Ardennes—
whence the name.

Ardennite seems to be the same mineral which M. Pisani has lately
described under the name of Dewalquite, but his analysis gives only 1°8 per
cent of vanadic acid.

The rare Scotch mineral described by Brooke, in 1820, as Lanarkite, has
been recently studied by Pisani. According to Brooke, it is a sulphato-
carbonate of lead, partially soluble with effervescence in nitric acid, and leaving
a residue of sulphate of lead. Unable to observe this behaviour, Pisani has
been led to analyse a typical specimen of Lanarkite from Leadhills, in
Lanarkshire. He finds no carbonate of lead, though upwards of 7 per cent
of carbonic anhydride is recorded in some of the older analyses. According
to Pisani, the mineral known in most collections as Lanarkite is merely a basic
carbonate of lead.

We owe to the same energetic mineralogist a recent analysis of the mineral
termed by M. Adam Avite. This is an amorphous substance, resembling
nickeline, and found in a vein in Mont Ar, at the foot of the Pic de Ger, in the
Basses-Pyrénées. The analysis leads to the formula Ni,(Sb,As), and there-
fore shows that Arite is not a distin& species, but is merely an arsenical
variety of the mineral long known as Breithauptite.

M. Pisani has also published an analysis of the New Jersey mineral
SFeffersonite; from which it appears that this species belongs to the group of
pyroxenes.

The third part of Dr. Carl Klein’s ‘‘ Mineralogische Mittheilungen” has
been published, but is a purely crystallographic memoir, descriptive of the
zinc-blende and anatase of the Binnenthal, in Switzerland.

It is worth recording that Dr. Kenngott has found, in a specimen of basalt
from Landeck, in Silesia, some curious enclosures of quartz.

M. Daubrée has presented to the French Academy of Sciences a note, by
Mr. L. Smith, describing the mass of meteoric iron which fell, in 1862, at
Victoria West, Cape Colony. The iron yielded on analysis—Iron; 88°83;
nickel, 10°14; cobalt, 0°53; phosphorus, 0°28; and small quantities of copper.

The same communication contains some remarks on the mineral Enstatite,
a silicate of magnesia originally described by Prof. Shepard as Chladnite.

Some researches, by M. Pisani, on the native amalgams of silver occurring
at Kongsberg, in Norway, show that two distin& amalgams are found,—the
one containing AgeHg, and therefore identical with Arquerite ; and the other
containing only 4°9 per cent of mercury, corresponding to the formula
AgisHg. Should the latter prove to be a definite species it is to be called
Kongsbergite.

‘A paper ‘“‘ On the Composition of some Zeolites’ has been read before the
Glasgow Philosophical Society, by Mr. J. Wallace Young. The paper con-
tains analyses of Scotch specimens of analcime, thomsonite, natrolite, and
stilbite,—the alkalies in which have been determined by Lawrence Smith’s
method.

ee ee ee

1873,] _ Engineering. 267

The little green pebbles commonly sold to touriyts in loma have been.
analysed by Mr. E. C. C. Stanford, and found to be & variety of serpentine,
notable for containing manganese.

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Guns.—The first 35-ton gun, known by the name of the ‘* Woolwich Infant,”
has recently formed the subject of a report, as to the state of its interior, by
the Inspector of Ordnance. After thirty-eight horizontal discharges, after its
bore had been enlarged to 12 inches, the interior had sustained injuries, caused
by four cracks, four fissures, and some deep roughnesses: two of the cracks
were on the lower side of the bore, and all the other injuries on the upper
side, their centres coinciding with the point where the front studs of the shot-
hammer and the rear studs come into driving bearing. The gun is being rebuilt
at a cost of about £700 or £800.

On the gth of January last Commander Dawson, R.N., read a paper, at the
Royal United Service Institution, on the ‘* Powder-Pressures in the First
35-ton Gun,” illustrated by diagrams showing the state of its interior on
leaving and on returning to the gun-factories, and by corresponding diagrams
of some other disabled Woolwich guns. After thirty-five discharges from the
11°6-inch bore, this gun was reduced by boring it up to 12-inch calibre, with a
corresponding reduction of the pressures. But after thirty-eight horizontal
discharges the 12-inch bore was so injured by the projectiles as to necessitate
the rebuilding of the gun. The table of pressures shows that when the
12-inch bore was fresh from the factory, 110-lb. W. A. P. charges gave very
regular maximum pressures of 20°1 tons; but when the 12-inch bore had sus-
tained thirty-four to thirty-eight discharges the registers were very irregular,
and averaged 31°3 tons. Similarly, the first 115-lb. W. A. P. charges, in the
12-inch bore, gave very regular mean maximum pressures of 22°5 tons, but
subsequently increased to 44°5 tons; and the 120-lb. charges began at 20 tons
and increased to 66 tons. The whole of the injuries in the bore of the gun
are, however, recorded in a certain short part of the bore outside the area of
maximum pressures, and precisely where the oblique movement of the axis of
the projectile about its studs would have its greatest force. The same mis-
direction of mechanical forces was shown to be in operation in other guns
similarly rifled, tending to impede the free exit of the shot, to injure the
projectile and the guns, and to diminish the velocities and striking force, whilst
giving rise to accumulation of gases and elevation of pressures in the bore.

Shells.—A series of experiments have recently been carried out in Austria
in order to test the relative merits of steel and chilled iron shells. These
trials appear to have been very exhaustive, and the results confirm what had
previously been arrived at, namely, that the former are superior for naval
purposes. The steel projectiles were found to pierce the shield with a consi-
derable excess of force without breaking up, whilst the chilled shells only
penetrate to the second plate and break up. The effec of the live shells also
accords with this; the steel shells explode in the wood backing, and their
fragments are hurled behind the target. The chilled shells burst in front of
the second plate, and thus virtually produce no effect, being kept by the side
far from the interior of the ship.

Dynamite.—A very interesting series of experiments have recently been
carried out with this powerful explosive, among the sand-hills of Ardeer, on
the coast of Ayrshire, where the British Dynamite Company have erected
their factory. These experiments were carried out in order to satisfy the
traffic-managers of the Scotch railways of the almost total immunity from
danger that is displayed by this valuable material under all conditions of
carriage. They were conducted under the superintendence of Mr. A. Nobel,
the patentee and technical director of the Company. The results were most
conclusive and satisfactory, proving the dynamite to be perfectly harmless under
mere percussion, or when subjected to flame, but capable of exerting a most
powerful effe& when exploded in the usual manner with a Bickford fuse..

268 Progress im Science. (April,

The mode of using dynamite is to make it into cartridges, and a percussion-
cap very similar to an ordinary gun-cap is fixed to the end of the fuse. The
cartridge having been opened at one end, the cap is pressed into the dynamite,
and secured there by ordinary twine. When used for mining purposes, the
cartridge having been placed in the bore hole, and damped with water or sand,
the fuse ignites the cap, and the explosion of the cap explodes the dynamite.
It has been proved by experiments that a cartridge containing 3 ounces of
dynamite has as much disruptive effect as 1 lb. of powder.

Railways.—The Institution of Civil Engineers has been occupied during
the whole of six or seven evenings with the discussion of a paper by Mr. W.
T. Thornton, of the Public Works Department, India Office, on “ The Rela-
tive Advantages of the 5 ft. 6 in. Gauge and of the Metre Gauge for the State
Railways of India, particularly for those of the Punjab.” The author, in his
paper, after referring to estimates for narrow-gauge lines by Mr. Hawkshaw
and Mr. Fowler, drew an average between the results of the two estimates,
and thus attempted to prove that the saving to be effected by the introduction
of narrow-gauge lines into India would not be less than £1000 per mile, which,
for the 10,000 miles of State railways already in contemplation, would show a
total saving of not less than ten millions sterling in their construction. And
it was stated that belief in its superior economy was the one solitary reason
why the Indian Government had adopted a narrow gauge for its State railways.
After going into a lengthened discussion, having reference more particularly to
the Punjab railways, the case for the Government of India was summed up
thus :—That by making the Punjab lines on the metre gauge it would save
£530,000, at the lowest computation. To have adopted a light standard,
instead of a metre gauge, would have occasioned a waste of a like amount,
against which there would not have been the smallest-strategical set-off, nor
any other compensation of any kind, except a slightly increased commercial
convenience, not exceeding in capitalised value £17,000 at the outside.

Soudan Railway.—Perhaps one of the most important lines of railway
communication now in course of construction is the Soudan Railway, running
up the Valley of the Nile, in Egypt, and destined not only to open up the rich
country traversed by that river, but eventually it will also doubtless form a
very important rival to the Suez Canal route to India, as it will, when com-
pleted, shorten the length of the journey by three days. In consequence of
the hard rocky nature of the ground, in many parts, the proposal to canalise
the Nile so as to form a continuous water-communication past the great
cataracts, as was proposed by Mr. Hawkshaw in 1865, will not be adopted.
According to the plan proposed by Mr. Fowler, and now under construction,
the first cataract will be passed by a ship-incline of 2 miles in length, to be
worked. by hydraulic power; and at the second, or great cataract, a line of
railway—56o0 miles in length—will open up communication to the Soudan
country, and this will eventually be extended to Massowah, on the Red Sea,
a further distance of 430 miles. This new route will be altogether 1900 miles
in length. Commencing at Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, the existing
railways terminating at Roda will cover 310 miles of the distance. At Roda
the passengers will be transferred to light and swift steamboats, and for 600
miles southwards the Nile will form the highway for inland traffic. In this
distance the first cataract has to be passed, at which there is a difference in
level of about 12°5 feet at high, and 15 feet at low Nile. This, as we have
said, is to be passed by the construction of a ship-incline, nearly 2 miles in
fength, on the right bank of the river, commencing at the bottom of the cata-
ract between the island of Sehayl and the river-bank, and terminating on the
higher level in the harbour of Shelall, north of the celebrated island of
Philz. Rails will be laid on the incline, and suitable carriages constructed to
‘run upon them. The vessel to be raised or lowered will be floated upon these
carriages or cradles, the ship and carriage being then drawn over the incline
by hydraulic engines driven by water, at high pressure, pumped into huge
accumulators, at the summit of the incline, by a pair of large water-wheels
placed upon pontoons and moored in one of the rapids of the cataract. A
speed of from 4 to 7 miles an hour will thus be imparted to the vessel, according

f
a
:
ao fil .

1873.] | Geology. 269

to the height of the Nile and weight of the vessel. Thence the river commu-
nication will extend to Wady Halfa, the commencement of the Soudan
Railway. A transference from steamboats to railway will take place at this
point, and the 560 miles of the Soudan Railway will extend to Skendy. From
Skendy to Massowah, the port on the Red Sea where the sea-passage will be
again resumed, is 430 miles, which will be accomplished by an extension of
the Soudan Railway. The gauge fixed on for the railway is 3 feet 6 inches.

Rail Economy.—In December last a paper, by C. P. Sandberg, was read
before the American Society of Civil Engineers, in New York, upon “ Rail
Economy,” in which—under the three heads Iron Rails, Steel Rails, and
Traffic Capacity—the author dealt with the saving that might be effected in
the item of railway cost. It was remarked that the late increased expense of
iron added to the cost of railway construction, and tended to reduce the
quality of rails; that Welsh rails were now often inferior in quality, but in
the Cleveland district rail-making had greatly improved, chiefly by the increased
application of fettling in the puddling-furnace. No late improvement, it was
Observed, promised so much to perfect iron rail-making as mechanical pud-
dling, which now seemed to be an entire success. The demand for steel rails
has become so great that they can now hardly be obtained at any price, whilst
the supply is also limited by the lack of ore free from sulphur and phosphorus.
The Siemens-Martin process of steel-making is declared to be superior to the
Bessemer process, as it requires a less pure ore, but it has thus far proceeded
so little that it can hardly be called a source of supply in the great market.
Usually a steel rail will carry one-fifth more dead load than an iron one;
hence, for the same traffic, the steel rail, in comparison with the iron, should
not be reduced in weight more than 20 percent. The weight passed over
good iron rails, before rejection, has been found to average 10,000,000 tons,
which may be taken to represent the life of extra iron rails, and six times that
the life of good 56-lb. steel rails. On the London and North-Western line
steel rails have lasted twenty times as long as iron; and on the Metropolitan
Railway, with the greatest traffic in the world, where iron would not have
lasted six months, steel will stand from three to four years. Prof. Rankine
says the weight of the rails per yard in length should equal fifteen times the
greatest load on the locomotive-drivers in tons. Perdonnet, in France, takes
twelve in place of fifteen. The author of the paper, by adopting a section
which permits a fish-joint stronger than the others in general use to be
made, takes ten and less; thus for a 60-lb. rail the weight on drivers is put at
6} tons. Fish-plates of steel will enable rails to carry from 15 to 20 per cent
greater load than if iron were used of the same section.

3 GEOLOGY.

Obituary.—The Rev. Adam Sedgwick.—Geological science has expanded so
much during the past fifty years that it is difficult for any one man to be master
of all the subjects it embraces. Sir Charles Lyell has expressed the difficulty
he has felt from year to year in keeping up with its progress, and no man has
done more to further the advancement of geology than he, by presenting the
principles and general results of the science before the public. We have very
few of those veteran geologists left who conned, as it were, the early history
of geology with its present advanced state, who have contributed most largely
to lay the foundations (which are lasting monuments to their honour) to
which the geologists of the present day are adding detailed work—and there is
plenty of that to be done.

The Rev. Adam Sedgwick, who died on the 27th of January last, at the ad-
vanced age of 87, was one of those veterans who helped to lay the foundations
of geological science, and who is therefore intimately conneéted with its
progress. Although for some years past he took no very a¢tive part in the
furthering of geology, he yet remained until death at his post of Professor of
Geology in the University of Cambridge, which post he had held since the
year 1818, when he succeeded Professor Hailstone. ;

At this period little was known in England of geological science, but a

VOL. III. (N.S.) 2N

| 270 Progress in Science. (April,

general notion prevailed, agreeing closely with the theory of old Dr. John
Woodward, who founded the chair, that all fossils were the result of a universal
deluge which had once swept over the whole earth, and to the agency of which
all the strata owed their origin.

Professor Sedgwick directed some of his earliest inquiries to the stru@ture
of Devon and Cornwall, in which counties the relations of the rocks present
problems of great difficulty—even now much discussion takes place in regard
to them, as was pointed out in the last number of the “‘ Quarterly Journal of
Science.” Professor Sedgwick, sometimes accompanied by Sir Roderick
Murchison, examined the distri@ in great detail, and determined, if not the
true age of the beds, their true succession.

Professor Sedgwick devoted his attention at times to the Continent, and ex-
plained the geological stru@ure of the Alps and Rhenish provinces. In the
“Geological Magazine” for April, 1870, there was a biographical notice and
a portrait of this eminent geologist: in the former was a list of forty-four papers
contributed by him, a few in conjunction with Sir R. Murchison or Mr. W.
Peile—all contributions to geological science. Among these we may mention
his Memoirs on the Magnesian Limestone of the North of England; on the
Trap Rocks of Durham and Cumberland; on the Fossiliferous Strata of the
North of Scotland, and on the Isle of Arran; on the Mountains of Cumberland
and North Wales; and his Essays on Slaty Cleavage.

These show the extent of country examined by Professor Sedgwick, and the
many subjects he was master of.

No member of his University has contributed in a higher degree than he to
elevate its character as a school of the natural sciences, and many of our leading
geologists owe their first geological lessons to Sedgwick, who as a leG@urerwas
clear, earnest, and philosophical, full of energy, and even to the last vigorous,
and, when his health permitted, cheerful and full of humourous anecdote.

To Professor Sedgwick also the University is indebted for much care and
liberality in providing for the now large colleGtions of the Geological Museum,
the nucleus of which was Dr. Woodward’s own small cabinet.

It is some satisfaction to learn that the post of professor of geology in the
University of Cambridge left vacant by the decease of the venerable Sedgwick,
has been filled by a distinguished pupil of his—Mr. T. McKenny Hughes,
M.A., F.S.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. Mr.
Hughes has done much detailed field-work on the geological survey in Kent,
Hertfordshire, and in the Lake Distri@. He has written portions of the
Survey Memoirs illustrating the geology of the Lake Distri@, and has also
contributed largely to Mr. Whitaker’s Memoir on the Geology of the London
Basin. The “ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,” and the ‘* Geo-
logical Magazine,” contain papers by Mr. Hughes; and he is not only known
as a clear writer, but as a ready and clear lecturer.

Geological Awards.—The awards of the Geological Society of London may
be looked upon as the highest honours conferred upon geologists in this country,
and they are intimately connected with the progress of the science, being either
the reward of a life’s devotion to its advancement, or a stimulus to one in early
life to continue researches which have materially assisted the progress of
geology. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held in February last,
the president, the Duke of Argyll, presented the Wollaston Gold Medal to
Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., F.R.S., &c., for the services he has rendered to
geology, during a period extending over forty years, in-the special attention he
has bestowed on the structure and affinities of fossil fishes and reptiles. The
balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund was awarded to Mr.
J. W, Judd, F.G.S., in recognition of his valuable researches in the Neocomian
and Jurassic rocks of England, and in the Oolitic rocks of the west coast of
Scotland. The Murchison Medal, the first award made under and in fulfil-
ment of the will of the late Sir Roderick Murchison, was handed to Mr. William
Davis, of the British Museum, in recognition of the services he has rendered
to palzontology, in the skill and knowledge he has displayed in the recon-
struction of extinG@ forms of life; and the balance of the Murchison Fund was
awarded to Prof. Oswald Heer, of Zurich, for his researches in fossil botany

1873.] | Geology. 271

and entomology, and particularly for the light he has thrown upon the Miocene
Flora.

Sivatigraphical Geology.—Attention has been directed, particularly on the
Continent, to deposits which fill up gaps in the table of strata. England is no
longer considered as forming an epitome of the geology of the world, and yet
gaps are being filled up in it, rather than new unconiormities made out. On the
Continent, the Tithonic stage of Stramberg forms in places a gradual passage
between the Neocomian and Jurassic strata, which elsewhere, as in Northern
Germany, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, are uncomformable.

Some discussion has taken place in regard to the Punfield formation, named
by Mr. Judd. This he regarded as Neocomian, though still closely conneéted
with the Wealden, and, in fact, forming a transitional series of beds between
the two, though absolutely belonging to neither, and therefore worthy of a
- distiné name. Mr. Meyer, who recently read a paper on the subject before
the Geological Society of London, repudiates the distin@tive name, and includes
the Punfield beds in the lower Greensand.

The Midford sands, so called by Prof. Phillips, occupy an intermediate
position between the Inferior Oolite and the Upper Lias clay, but for a long
time their true position was obscured by the appellation of either Upper Lias
sands, or sands of the Inferior Oolite, according to the formation to which the
writer inclined to consider them as more closely related. The term Midford
sands, therefore, removes a good deal of misunderstanding, and its adoption
will cause the neutral position of the beds to be better recognised.

In the same way the discussions’ as to whether the Rhzetic or Penarth beds
of England belonged more closely to the Lias or the Keuper are rendered
needless, when both their stratigraphical and palzontological features are
taken into account. It is now known that they present a gradual passage
between the two, and although but a feeble representative of the beds developed
on the Continent, they are yet a complete series in our country, and, as such,
link the Keuper and Oolitic rocks in one conformable series.

It is becoming more evident that the sequence of beds which holds good in
one place requires some modification in another. Like sedimentary conditions
certainly did not always prevail over very large areas, while the organic
remains will vary in a measure according to the different physical conditions
which prevailed. Thus our Oolitic system varies greatly in its extension from
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, through Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, to
Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Dorsetshire. The divisions of the North-
amptonshire Oolites have received a great deal of attention recently from
Mr. S. Sharp and Mr. J. W. Judd, and the former geologist has this year given
a second paper to the Geological Society of London on the subject. He showed
that the series of beds were as follows :—

Clay
Great Oolite 4 Limestone
[pines Esturian Clays.
Lincolnshire Limestone (present only as a thin
band in the north-east portion of the district.)
Lower Estuarine beds
Feruginous Beds

Inferior Oolite
| j Northampton Sand.

Upper Lias Clay.

He considered that the great Oolite clay represented the Forest Marble and
the Bradford clay of the West of England; that the Great Oolite limestone
was nearly equivalent to the Great Oolite of Bath and the Cotteswolds; that
the Upper Estuarine clays were identical with the Stonefield slate of Oxford-
shire; that the Lincolnshire limestone was nearly synchronous with the grey
limestone of Yorkshire (Inferior Oolite), and probably with the lower portion
of the Am. Humphriesianus zone of the West of England, but extending a
little below this zone; that the Lower Estuarine answered to the Lower Plant
Shale of Yorkshire, but had no representative in the west; that the upper
portion of the ferruginous beds of the Northampton sand was nearly upon the

272 Progress in Sctence. |April,

same horizon as the Glaizedale and Dogger beds of Yorkshire and the Am.
Murchisone zone of the west ; and that the lower portion of the Northampton
sand was represented by the Am. opalinus zone and the Midford sand.

Palgontology.—Mr. S. H. Scudder has recently described a new fossil but-
terfly (Satyrites Reynessii), from a tertiary deposit at Aix, in Provence. The
fossil is a natural imprint, and its state of preservation shows that it had
undergone great maceration in quiet water before being covered up by the
deposits which have preserved its most essential features. The inse@ is
placed on its side, with the wings elevated one against the other, the legs
spread out as if it were suspended, the spiral proboscis unrolled, and the
antennz lowered in the same direction as the legs. The nearest living repre-
sentative of this fossil butterfly are natives of India.

Mr. A. G. Butler has described, in the ‘‘ Geological Magazine" for January,
a new fossil butterfly (Palgontina Oolitica) belonging to the family Nymphalidae,
This inse& belongs to a group completely tropical, its nearest allies being
tropical American genera. It is interesting as belonging to the highest family
of butterflies, and to a sub-family intermediate in charaéter between two
others—namely, the Satyring and Nymphalina, but it is especially interesting
as being the oldest fossil butterfly yet discovered.

Prof. O. C. Marsh, who has added largely to our knowledge of the fossil
vertebrata of North America, announces the discovery of fossil quadrumana
in the Eocene strata of Wyoming. These remains closely resemble, especially
in many of the larger bones, some of the Lemurs, while the anterior part of
the lower jaws is similar to that of the marmozets. The teeth are more
numerous than in any known quadrumana.

Prof. Marsh also describes a new carnivore from the tertiary strata of
Wyoming, named Oreocyon latidens. The remains indicate an animal about
as large as a lion: the canine and premolar teeth of the lower jaw somewhat
resemble those in the hyzna, but there were only two incisors in each ramus.

One of the most interesting discoveries of recent years has also just been made
known by Prof. Marsh. It belongs to a new sub-class of fossil birds (Odon-
tornithes). The remains were discovered in the Upper Cretaceous Shale of
Kansas. The type species of this group is called Ichthyornis dispar: it has
well-developed teeth in both jaws, very numerous, too, and implanted in distin@
sockets. The possession of teeth, and also of bi-concave vertebre, imply that
these remains cannot be placed in the present group of birds, and hence a new
sub-class has been formed. The bird was no larger than a pigeon; it was
carnivorous, and probably aquatic. The fortunate discovery of these interest-
ing remains is an important gain to paleontology, and does much to break
down the old distin@ions between birds and reptiles, which the Archaopteryz
has so materially diminished.

Prof. H. A. Nicholson has described a new genus of ‘Tubicolar Annelides,
(Conchicolites) for some forms found growing upon the shells of Orthocerata
in the Lower Silurian rocks of the north of England. The tubes in this genus
agree with those of the modern Serpule in being calcareous, and they differ
altogether from those of the extiné genus Cornulites in being altogether
destitute of any cellular structure.

The affinities of Calceola sandalina, one of the most problematic of fossils,
have been lately discussed by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing. It has been referred
to the Conchifera, Rudistes, and Brachiopoda, but Mr. Stebbing agrees with
Suess and Lindstrém in placing the genus among the Zoantharia rugosa. He
refrains from giving the convenient name of coral to the Calceola, because
Lindstrém, following Agassiz, gives reasons of some weight for separating the
Rugosa from the true polypes, and conjectures them to be allied rather to the
Hydrozoa than to the Anthozoa.

Dr. Anton Fric has described a new érustacean from the Polirschiefer, near
Bilin, in Bohemia, which he names Palemon exul. The discovery is remark-
able, on account of its being a marine crustacean in a fresh-water deposit.

Mr. H. Hicks has described a number of new species of fossils from the —

Tremadoc rocks of St. David’s, South Wales, which prove that these rocks are
nearly allied to the lower part of the Tremadoc rocks of North Wales. The

a

1873.| Geology. 273

discovery of a number of well-marked species of Lamelli branchiata in beds of
an earlier date than those in which their presence had previously been known
is of great interest.

Mr. Henry Woodward has described a new genus of shore-crabs, Litoricola,
from the Lower Eocene deposits at Portsmouth; and a new trilobite, Encri-
nurus cristagallt, from the Cape of Good Hope.

From a letter we have received from Prof. Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer-
Royal for Scotland, we find that there has been a good deal of exploring work
going on lately at the Great Pyramid. An explorer has been found in
Mr. Waynman Dixon, a young engineer of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who has been
in Egypt for nearly a year and a half, building an iron bridge across the Nile
at Boolak, opposite to the Pyramids. He went out well read up in the new
scientific theory of the Great Pyramid, and most earnest to promote its
development, and has utilised all his spare time towards that end—latterly
indeed, after his bridge was finished, going out to the Pyramid hill, living in
the tombs there to be close to the spot, and attended by our old Arab servants
as well as some of his own English workmen. His elder brother, Mr. John
Dixon, of Cannon Street, London, occasionally went out to help, and some
companionship was afforded during part of the time by Dr. Grant, an English
physician in Cairo, but the soul of the whole movement was Mr. Waynman
Dixon himself. In company with his head carpenter, ‘‘ Jim Grundy,’ Mr. W.
Dixon has taken casts of critical portions of the coffer, also of the ‘‘ boss” on
the granite leaf, has observed thermometers extensively, and taken several
important re-measurings. He has also been boring away in divers places,
hoping to find another chamber; but neither chamber nor passage has he yet
met with, though in the Queen’s chamber he has discovered the inner ends of
two small channels like those in the King’s chamber. They are rectangular,
9g’ x8" nearly, go back lorizontally about 7 feet, and then rise at an angle of
about 32°, and go no one yet knows where. These channels had not been
recognised before, as this outcrop into the Queen’s chamber had been neatly
filled up with a thin plate of white stone, looking superficially like the rock of
the walls. One of them is in the north wall, and the other in the south.
Inside them were found squeezed out flakes of white mortar (since then
analysed by Dr. Wallace, of Glasgow, and found to be not carbonate, but
sulphate, of lime), an ordinary ‘‘miva” stone-ball weight of the ordinary old
‘‘profane”’ Egyptians, a little bronze sort of grapnel hook, and a little staff of
trimmed cedar-like wood a few inches long, but nearly perished. These
channels it is proposed to call Dixon’s channels. Outsidethe Pyramid, Mr. W.
Dixon has discovered the finest specimen of a loose casing stone of the Great
Pyramid known to exist; and he has also, in company with Dr. Grant, made
a grand expedition into the Libyan Desert to examine the supposed Pyramid
there, hitherto called Dr. Luder’s Pyramid. It turned out to be no artificial
structure at all, but a natural hill of a conical shape, and near it were abundant
remains of silicified tree-trunks lying here and there, with petrified shells and
jasper pebbles. From what has been done we may gather—

(a). The casing stone fragment has five worked surfaces, and two of them
being ends, we can measure for the first time the length of a casing stone of
the Great Pyramid as well as its angle; and what is its length? Twenty-five
inches and a fraction, or the sacred and scientific cubit,—not of the profane
and idolatrous Egyptians, but of Noah, the Hebrews, and the anciently concealed
parts of the Great Pyramid.

(b). Two measures were made in the extreme passage by Mr. W. Dixon,
Dr. Grant touching a line on either wall, supposed to have been drawn for an
important purpose by the very architeé of the primeval monument himself,
and requiring, according to the scientific theory, to show a distance of 2170
inches from acrucial part of the interior, The result along the east wall
shows 2170°5, and along the west wall 2170°4, when used in conjunétion with
Prof. Smyth’s measures in ‘‘ Life and Work,” printed long before that theore-
tical conclusion had been thought of.

(c). Mr. John Dixon sent an account and drawings of the findings in Dixon’s
channels to the ‘‘ Graphic”? newspaper. So far so well. But he also sent

[ yee

rie

Fo PRES Ae

274 Progress in Science. (April,

drawings of well-known parts of the Pyramid,—hand drawings—and very
accurate ones too, of parts of the Pyramid already photographed; and thereby
he destroyed knowledge, and retarded the development of the public mind.

(d). Prof. Smyth weighed the grey granite ball.and found it 8320 ers. ; and there-
fore declared it to be a profane Egyptian miva belonging to some of the hod-
men about the Pyramid; Sir G. Wilkinson having already published the
weight of the Egyptian miva at 8303 grs. But he advised Mr. W. Dixon to
have it authoritatively weighed by the “ Warden of the Standards.”

(e). The Warden of the Standards did so, made the weight 0-03 er. different
from Prof. Smyth’s, and then wrote a letter to“ Nature,” December 26,
describing the whole affair on one side, giving a wandering anachronical conclu-
sion of his own, that the ball may have been an Esyptian miva, without saying
a word of Prof. Smyth’s conclusion; and then, worse stil], declaring that
Sir. H. Jarvis’s pamphlet in 1869 was the Jatest and most satisfaGory account
of the length of the Great Pyramid’s box-side, and advocating both his (Sir H. J.’s)
mistaken reading of Herodotus and his garbled version of the result of dire&
measures. ;

({). Two letters have been sent by independent parties to “ Nature,”
pointing out the errors of the Warden of the Standards, but its editor has
refused them both insertion; and, consequently, a third party has sent off a
letter to “‘ Les Mondes ” in Paris.

LIGHT.

Mr. H. R. Pro@er has described to the Newcastle Chemical Society a glass
reading-scale for dire@ vision speGtroscopes. The apparatus consists of a

Fic. 1.

-) == 12

VY PIS VLE 4
Oth hhhhs Gi SI II Ff,
WL MMT

mahogany frame, of }-in. planed boards, for holding Browning's dire@ vision
pocket speGroscope and reading-scale. @ 4, wood block with V-groove for

1873.] Light. 275

holding the spe&troscope; b b, brass clamp and screws for fixing it in its posi-
tion, and for holding the wire ring, ¢ c, to stretch the wire supports, dd, of
a black curtain for keeping out stray light from the side-hole of the speéro-
scope; eé, photographed glass millimetre, or other scale of equal parts,
sliding between two upright mahogany cheeks, f f, and lighted from behind
by the gas-jet, 2 ¢; hh,atin screen to shade the flame; ee, the dark-glass
scale with transparent graduations at mm, seen in the spectroscope above
and below the spectrum ; the upper one can be shut off by a black card screen,
11, slipped down in front of the glass plate; and all but three scale-divisions
of the lower one, at any point, can be stopped out by acard slider, kk, slioping
through slits in the two side-cheeks of the frame, to confine the vision to the

_ graduations closest to any line. The glass plate is backed behind by a piece of
oiled paper gummed by its edges to the photographic plate. Prof. Herschel stated
that he has also made an addition to Browning’s pocket microscope. He put the -
thinnest possible film of mica on the glass plate which fitted the eye, and he
held it in place with a small india-rubber ring. That film of mica, by in-
equalities of its thickness, or other refracting properties which it possesses,
eclipses certain rays of particular refrangibility, and, according to the thick-
ness, it will eclipse more or fewer bands in the whole range of the spectro-
scope; so that, looking through it, you get the spectroscope divided into com-
partments by dark bands. As these bands are not easily seen, he thought
he would bore a hole in the side of the spectroscope, and get a scale
reflected in its prisms; and if this scale was to be a pocket one, he must,
in this hole, which was bored through, put a small lens, and fix the scale close
in front of that lens, for use as a scale of reference. The use of a spectroscope
resolves itself into placing every line according to its scale position on any
arbitrary scale, but as far as possible on the scale of what is called the
natural standard scale of wave-lengths. If the position of every line which
is mapped can be given in wave-length, its description is then intelligible
to everybody. The scale fitted to this spectroscope, of uniform intervals,
would enable spectra to Le recognised; but being a new instrument its indica-
tions first require to be reduced to some well-known standard. The sim-
plest way of recording them would be by wave-lengths. The positions of
successive lines, as seen in the common spectroscope, are not in the simple
proportions of their wave-lengths; the blue lines are more spread out than
corresponds to the differences of their wave-lengths, and the red lines are nearer
together, while the wave-lengths in the latter part of the spectrum are far
apart; and therefore the question was how to pass from a uniform scale used
in a spectroscope, in the manner shown by Mr. Procter, to the scale of wave-
lengths. He had quite recently found that a uniform scale, used with any
spectroscope, like that divided in Mr. Proéter’s instrument into millimetres,
is approximately proportional to a scale of inverse fourth-powers of the wave-
length. If, for example, we take the readings of the sodium line, and of any
other known line of the spectrum, on a scale of equal parts, and replace
them and all the other readings of the scalein proportion by the inverse fourth-
powers of the wave-length, we would then find that we can pass from the
uniform scale to the wave-length by taking the inverse (or reciprocal) of the
readings so replaced, and taking the fourth-root of that reciprocal to obtain
the wave-length. It so nearly was the case in all prisms of ordinary dispersion,
as to present an almost accurate means of passing without trouble from the
uniform scale of the spectroscope to the wave-lengths; and although it is
not quite true of the whole range of the spectroscope, yet if used between the
short interval of two neighbouring lines to find the wave-length of an
intermediate line, it will give the wave-length of that line directly from the
milimetre scale.

The following is a description of Procter’s direct-vision micrometer scale for
pocket spectroscopes. A A’, small diredct-vision spectroscope. BB’, a parallel
brass tube (first slide of a miniature toy telescope) braced to the tube and
draw-tube of the spectroscope by the double rings of bent copper plate,
aa, 6b (seen also in Fig. 2). The ring, a, slides on the main tube of the

276 Progress in Science. : [April,

speGroscope by a collar of soft leather interposed between them. cc, small holes
about one-eighth inch diameter drilled opposite to each other in the brass
tubes for viewing a magnified image of the reading scale, B, refle@ed in the
prism face, d. ef,a lens of short focus, and thin silvered glass diagonal

Fic. 2.

mirror, cemented on a cork, g, in the stopped eye-end of the telescope
tube, for obtaining a magnified view of the glass reading scale at B. The
latter is marked in transparent lines on an opaque ground, as shown in Fig. 3,
and is illuminated by the same dire@ light as that of which the speSdrum
is observed.

We are indebted to Mr. R. C. Johnson for an account of a curious physical
phenomenon witnessed at Ziza—a lunar dew-bow. Ziza is a ruined city
which is situated about 20 miles E. of the northern part of the Dead Sea on
the table-land of Moab, and is about 3000 feet above the sea-level. The
Moabite Expedition was camping there on the night of the 24th February, 1872,
close to a large reservoir. Mr. Johnson says, “‘ It was full moon (at 11 a.m. of
the same day), and having seen ducks come down to the reservoir, we turned
out about 8 p.m. to lie in wait for them against the sloping banks of the
reservoir. An exceedingly heavy dew had fallen, and I noticed when walking
with my back towards the moon that I was preceded by a faint circular halo
(extent of circle about 3 of circumference); the origin of which at first was
rather puzzling. On attentively considering the position of my eye and the
halo with regard to the moon, I found that it was exaGly at the angle required
for an inverted rain-bow, and that it must really be adew-bow. It seemed
brighter than a lunar rain-bow, which I have once beheld. Dr. Tristram also
noticed it after his attention had been called to it. I may also state that a
similar thing was seen in sunlight when a very fine dew was thickly spread
upon some large webs made by caterpillars in the same country. This was
looked out for after having previously seen the lunar dew-bow.

An instrument invented in Germany for testing colour-blindness consists of
a rotating apparatus, which moves a disc whose centre is a circle, one half ~
black and the other white. Outside of this is a ring half red and half green,
then another ring of violet and red, then the outside ring of violet and green.
When rapidly rotated, the centre appears to be coloured grey, that is black
and white mixed. To a green-blind person, the middle ring will appear grey,

Togas) Light. 277

that being a result to him of a mixture of violet and red. The outer ring will
appear grey to a red-blind person, and the inner one grey to a violet-blind.

Microscopy.—A new form of pocket microscope has been contrived by
Prof. G. T. Brown of the Royal Veterinary College. In general construction
it somewhat resembles the well-known clinical microscope of Dr. Beale, but is
very much smaller, the extreme length being only 3 inches, and packed in its
case with two slides and some thin glass measures 3} inches in length by
I inch wide, and ri inches in depth. A case double in width will hold,in addition,
an extra eye-piece, two objectives in boxes, a glass tube, and two dissecting
needles. The short body necessarily involves a loss of magnifying power;
this is, however, met by using a very deep eye-piece, the instrument with an
E eye-piece giving the same power as an A eye-piece with a 1o-inch body.
The fine adjustment is made, as in Dr. Beale’s instrument, by sliding the
draw-tube containing the eye-piece, a mode 6f adjustment characterised by its
extreme sensitiveness. It is capable of working with powers as high as an im-
mersion twelfth. The instrument has been especially designed for observa-
tions in veterinary’ practice, where it is necessary to have the microscope
ready for use at any place: for this purpose it is especially suited, as packed in
its case, it is less in dimensions than any case of surgicalinstruments. It will
no doubt prove very useful to field naturalists, and often prevent worthless
gatherings being brought home by permitting examinations to be made on the
spot. The only disadvantage of the microscope is, that owing to its small
size, the objectives and slips of glass are of corresponding dimensions. This
prevents the utilisation of the observer’s stock of objectives, and also the ex-
amination of objects mounted on the usual 3 x1 slides.

At the suggestion of Dr. Pigott, a micrometer scale kas been ruled by Mr.
Ackland on the flat side of a plano-convex lens of very long focus; this is in-
serted into the diaphragm of the eye-piece. The definition of the object is less
impaired than when the old form, having several plane glass surfaces, is used..,
It is also easier to make with accuracy, as there is always more or less
difficulty in working perfectly true parallel surfaces: It will doubtless
prove of equal value for dividing the field of the microscope into a number of
squares for the purpose of making drawings, a favourite method with some
observers, and to whom better definition than with the original plane disc
will be a welcome improvement.

Some guide to beginners in the use of the micro-spectroscope has long been
a desideratum ; this want is likely to be supplied. An introductory work on
the subjeé, with numerous figures of absorption-spectra} lithographed by the
author, is reported to be in progress. Work in this department has been
much hindered by the want of such help, many instruments being almost use-
less to their owners for lack of some practical hints as to their employment.
The subject is one which has a future before it ; little or nothing is at present
understood as to cause of ithe remarkable phenomena of the absorption-
spectrum, and there is plenty of work, with the probability of valuable dis-
coveries, for those who apply themselves to such researches.

Mr. T. Johnston English has brought before the Quekett Microscopical
Club a new apparatus for injecting animal tissues for microscopical purposes.’
The instrument consists of a Woulfe’s bottle with three necks. No. 1 is
fitted accurately with a cork, through which passes a glass tube about the
diameter of a goose-quill, one end of which reaches to the bottom of the
bottle, and to the other bent end is tied about 12 inches of india-rubber tubing
of the same diameter. The glass tube is made perfedtly air-tight in the neck
of the bottle by sealing-wax varnish, and the india-rubber one is closed by a
pinch-cock. In No. 2 neck is placed a simple contrivance which answers the
purpose of a condensing syringe. It consists of.a piece of glass tubing 5 or 6
inches in length fixed air-tight in the cork; to its upper extremity is attached
a small india-rubber ball, having a small hole in one side, and to the lower
end a small oil-silk valve, like those used in air-pumps, opening downwards.
The third neck is closed by a cork, and serves to introduce the inje@ting fluids.
To use the instrument, the proper sized nozzle is fixed on the india-rubber

VOL. Ill. (N. S.) 2a

278 Progress in Scieuce. (April,

tube, which isclosed by the pinch-cock. The requisite quantity of fluid is then
poured into the bottle, and the cork firmly inserted. Pressure is now made
on the india-rubber ball, taking care to close the hole with the finger. By
this means air is forced down the tube through the valve into the bottle. On
_ removing the pressure from the ball, the valve closes and the ball is re-filled
through the hole in its side, and the compression can be increased to the
necessary extent. The pinch-cock is now cautiously opened, and the fluid
rushes up the tube completely filling it and the nozzle; the cock is then
closed, preventing further exit, and the instrument isready foruse. Thenozzle
is introduced and tied into an artery in the same way as with the ordinary
syringe. The inventor prefers glass nozzles to those of metal, as they are
lighter, can be made very easily, and drawn out to very fine points. The in-
strument has the advantage of being self-aGting, and leaving the uperator the
free use of both his hands, besidgs being more regular in its action than the
usual syringe, saving in the Rata of those well practised in its use.
A form of apparatus nearly similar is employed by Dr. Rutherford ; in this,
however, the pressure is obtained by means of a column of water.

The subje@ of mounting objects in the dry way has received some attention
from Mr. W. Ackland, F.R.M.S. Where thin cells are required, he employs
a ring of the varnish already mentioned in this Journal (vol. ii., N.S., p. 271) ;
- this is allowed to become throughly dry before being used, a number of cells
being made and kept in stock. Where thicker objects are to be mounted, metal
or glass cells are used, coated on their upper surface with the same varnish.
The cover is fixed by being clipped to the cell; heat is then applied, and the
varnish softened. Upon cooling, the cover is securely fastened. Where from
the nature of the object the slide cannot be safely heated, a thick disc of brass
sufficiently heated is applied to the cover with the same result. For attaching
delicate objects to slides, the following preparations are used :—

No. i. Quinine Solution—

Sulphate quinine cla eg barns a epee

PEEIE ACG (32. 8 ae Sew) oon pS

Wrater So fo Pe 1 ae ee ee
No. 2. Gelatine Solution—

Gelatine® . o.oo. Whee ee oe See

Glycerine 5 drops.

Quinine solution as above .. TI ounce.

No. 3. Gum Solution—
Gum tragacanth ue fata is odes ky ERS
GlycenRne oe.) 24 Ss, Aes 1 ee ee
Ouinine solution: ->.. ..) 55 4 1 Omnee.

A small portion of No. 2 or No. 3 solution is spread upon the glass before the
cell is made. When the objects are to be attached to the glass they are
placed on the prepared gum or gelatine surface, and the slide placed under a
bell glass containing a saucer of water; this softens the coating, and attaches
the minute objects. They are then dried under another bell glass, the moisture
being absorbed by chloride of calcium. The covers are then fixed as before
mentioned. The quinine solution may be used to prevent mouldiness in paste
or gum, and is an advantageous substitute for the bichloride of mercury usually
employed for this purpose, as the mixture is not poisonous.

Mr. F. H. Wenham has communicated to the Royal Society* the formule
for the improved microscopic objectives recently constructed by him. .His
paper contains an account of the successive improvements in the construction
of object-glasses. AQ little before the year 1829, the three superimposed
achromatic lenses appear to have been in use; but no knowledge of their
pioperties had as yet been arrived at, and it was not until Mr. J. J. Lister
announced his discovery of the aflanatic faci to the Royal Society in the same
year that any marked improvement took place. In the year 1831, the late
Andrew Ross successfully constructed an object-glass on this principle, and at

* Proceedings Royal Society, October 31, 1872.

res Heat. 279

the same time made the discovery of the aberrations caused by covering the

object with a film of glass, and applied the means for their correction. Mr.
Wenham then described the increase of aperture obtained by the use of the
triple front lens. This was followed by Mr. Lister’s introduction of a triple back
lens in the year 1850, by which the aperture of the 34th was increased to 130°
or more, and this form was employed for high powers until quite recently.
The next advance was Mr. Wenham’s discovery of the feeble correcting power
for colour of the flint concave in the triple front, and his successful substitution
for it of a thick single lens, the form now usually employed in the best high-
power objectives. His attempt was to substitute a single lens in place of the
middle doublet. This, however, for reasons shown in his diagram, failed to
produce the desired result, and led to the employment of a triplet between two
single lenses. By this means perfect corrections were obtained, and the con-
struction of the object-glass much simplified, there being only ten surfaces and
but one concave of dense flint used in correcting four convex lenses of crown
glass. Mr. Wenham in planning an object-glass prefers constructing a diagram
on a large scale, as being far less intricate than mathematical calculation.
The paper is very fully illustrated, and will be duly appreciated by all
interested in the construction of objectives, as it forms an admirable sequel to
the valuable series of papers by the same author in the first volume of the
“Monthly Microscopical Journal.”

, HEAD:

Professor Wheildon, of Concord, U.S.A., advances, in opposition to what is
known as the Gulf Stream Theory, an atmospheric theory to account for
amelioration of climate and an open sea in the polar regions. The accounts
of Arctic voyages show sudden rises of temperature when nothing but an un-
limited extent of ice is near. These changes could not have been conse-
quences of proximity of open water, which at the highest, would only be 29°
of temperature. The theory of Professor Wheildon is that open, melting ice,
rain after snow, and other phenomena in Arctic regions, are not caused by
winds warmed by an open sea, but by a circulation of air in which warm
winds descend from upper atmospheres; being a circulation by which winds
heated at the equator reach the poles.

Having occasion to cool a red-hot copper ball, Mr. W. F. Barrett plunged it
into a vessel of soapy water. The ball entered the water without any hissing
or perceptible evolution of steam; and upon being removed seemed as brightly
incandescent as before; other metal balls were then tried with the same result.
The soapy water was then replaced by fresh; but upon plunging an incan-
descent ball into this, the hissing was loud and the evolution of steam copious.
Mr. Barrett infers that the presence of soap in the water contributed to the
formation of the spheroidal state. Further observation showed also that
albumen, glycerine, and organic matters generally facilitated its occurrence.
The author seeks to establish a possible relationship between this phenomenon
and certain boiler explosions, from the possible entrance into boilers of oil or
other organic matter.

The Earl of Rosse has communicated to the Royal Society a paper ‘‘ On the
Radiation of Heat from the Moon, the Law of its Absorption by our Atmo-
sphere, and its variation in amount with her Phases,” in which he gives an
account of a series of observations made in the Observatory of Birr Castle, in
further prosecution of a shorter and less carefully conducted investigation, as
regards many details, which forms the subject of two former communications
(‘‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,” vol. xvii., p. 436; xix., p. g) to the Royal
Society. The observations were first corrected for change of the moon’s dis-
tance from the place of observation, and change of phase during the continu-
ance of each night’s work, and thus a curve, whose ordinates represented the
scale-readings (corrected), and whose abscisse represented the corresponding
altitudes, was obtained for each night’s work. By combining all these a single
curve, and table for reducing all the observations to the same zenith-distance
was obtained, which proved to be nearly, but not quite, the same as that found

———

em
‘

/

280 Progress in Scieuce. (April,

by Professor Seidel for the light of the stars. By employing the table thus de-
duced, and also reducing the heat-determinations obtained on the various
nights for change of distance of the sun, a more accurate phase-curve was
deduced, indicating a more rapid increase of the radiant heat on approaching
full moon than was given by the formula previously employed, but still not so
much as Prof. Zollner’s gives for the moon’s light. By employing Laplace’s
formula for the extinction of light in our atmosphere the heat-effe& in terms of
the scale-readings was deduced, and an approximation to the height of the
atmosphere attempted. Froma series of simultaneous measurements of the
moon’s heat and light, at intervals during the partial eclipse of November 14,
1872, when clouds did not interfere, it was found that the heat and light
diminish nearly, if not quite, proportionally ; the minimum for both occurring
at or very near the middle of the eclipse, when they were reduced to about
half their amounts before and after contaét with the penumbra.

ELECTRICITY.

M. Gramme’s constant current magneto-eleftric machine is now applied to
the purposes of lighting and electroplating. As our readers are aware, the
arrangement of this machine permits of the obtaining of an electric current
in one direction, perfectly continuous, and of great strength. Mr. Sabine,
who has recently tested one of the smaller varieties of these instruments,
states that it gave an electromotive force of 68 to 258 Minotti’s cells with 60
to 230 turns of the handle per minute. The instrument in question was com-
posed of 36 bobbins, each containing 180 yards of No. 40 copper wire, revolving
before six magnets. One of these machines is shortly to be employed in the
lighting of the clock-tower of the Houses of Parliament.

Nearly related to this instrument is that of M. Le Roux, for exhibiting a
modification of Faraday’s celebrated experiment with the copper-disc indudtion-
apparatus. A disc of red copper, 15 c.m. in diameter and 2 m.m. in thickness,
receives from a multiplying motion a rotary speed of 180 turns per minute as
amaximum. This disc is arranged between two circular masses of soft iron,
these masses being connected by a frame of soft iron, portions of the frame
forming the core of four electro-magnets. The faces of the masses of soft
iron thus acquire an opposite polarity. With this apparatus a bright-spark
can be obtained.

Mr. Willoughby Smith records a most interesting experiment relating to the
conductivity of selenium, a metal of very high resistance. Mr. Smith took
several bars of the metal, of from 5 to 10 c.m. in length and 1 to 1} m.m. in
diameter. Each bar was hermetically sealed in a glass tube, and had a
platinum wire at each end for the purpose of connection. It was found that
the resistance altered materially, according to the intensity of the light to
which the metal was subjected. When the bars were fixed in a box witha
sealed cover, so as to exclude all light, their resistance was at its highest, and
remained very constant; but immediately the cover of the box was removed
the condu¢tivity increased from 15 to Ioo per cent, according to the intensity
of the light falling upon the box. Merely intercepting the light by passing
the hand before an ordinary gas-burner, placed several feet from the bar, in-,
creased the resistance 15 to 20 percent. If the light be intercepted with glass
of various colours, the resistance varies according to the amount of light
passing through. To insure that temperature in no way affected the experi-
ment, one of the bars was placed in a trough of water, so that there was about
an inch of water for the light to pass through. The results were the same.
And when a strong light, from the ignition of a narrow band of magnesium,
was held about 9 inches above the sealed tube, the resistance immediately fell
more than two-thirds, returning to its normal condition immediately the light
was extinguished.

Considerable excitement has prevailed in ele@rical ‘circles, caused by a paper
published by M. du Moncel, in ‘‘ Comptes Rendus,” as to the conditions of the
maximum resistance. His conclusions—instead of indicating that, for a gal-
vanometer to attain the best possible conditions of sensibility with regard to

1873.] Technology. 281

a circuit of given resistance, it should be necessary that the resistance of the
magnetising helix should equal that of the exterior circuit—have shown that
the conditions of sensibility admit of a much greater length of wire than
would correspond to the resistance of the exterior circuit. His calculations
and experiments prove the maximum to be obtained with helices presenting
twice the resistance of the exterior circuit.

M. Benoit has found the initial resistance in steel and iron to be doubled at
170°; in silver, copper, and gold, at 255°; in platinum, at 455°. In alloys the
increase is generally more feeble ; in standard alloy, for example, the resistance
is increased at 860° by only 0-3 of the value at zero. The coefficient of ex-
pansion was carefully taken into account.

Dr. Blake, of the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, announces the dis-
covery of a current of electricity running north and south, at a distance of
about 150 miles from the Pacific coast, along a belt of metallic deposits,
serving as a conducting-chain. ;

TECHNOLOGY.

It is estimated that there from 20,000 to 25,000 persons in Europe daily
engaged in the preparation of hair and the manufacture of felt hats, in which
processes they are exposed to mercurial poisoning. M. Hilairet, in experi-
menting on this subject, impregnated skins with a neutral substance, as
molasses, or dextrine, or sugar, then put them in nitric acid, and found that
by the action of the nitrous and hyponitric acids thus developed, the hair un-
derwent a change of structure corresponding exactly to that obtained by means °
of the solution of mercury in nitric acid.

Von Scherzet, who first introduced to Europeans a varnish made by the
Chinese, by beating together fresh blood and quick-lime, and used to make
wooden articles completely water-tight, states that he has seen in Pekin
wooden chests, which have been varnished with it, and after a journey
‘over Siberia to St. Petersburg and back, were still sound and perfectly water-
tight. Baskets of straw, used for the transportation of oil, are made fit for
the purpose by means of this varnish; it also gives the appearance and
firmness of wood to pasteboard coated with it. Articles required to be ab-
solutely impervious are varnished twice, or at the most three times, by the
Chinese.

M. Hallwachs asserts that not only green, but red carpets also contain
arsenic, particularly the brilliant dark reds now so much in vogue. Samples
of these carpets burned with the blue arsenic flame, gave off the characteristic
garlic odour. Enough colour to give a distinét arsenic reaction could be
rubbed off with the finger. A solution in hydrochloric acid produced the
usual greyish precipitate of metallic arsenic.

A few years ago an oil well was started near Cumberland, Maryland; but
instead of striking oil, the pioneers came upon a gas chamber and penetrated
it. The gas was ignited and continued burning. About a year ago, Mr.
Haworth, of Boston, purchased the well, and obtained a patent for the manu-
faGure of carbon. The gas is allowed to burn against soapstone plates, on
which the carbon is deposited in the form of soot. Six hundred and sixty
burners are now in operation, each burnér consuming 8 cubic feet per hour.
By a mechanical arrangement, the soot is scraped and deposited in large
tin boxes about 3 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 14 feet deep; scrapers are passed
along the soapstone plates every twenty minutes, and the boxes are filled on
their fourth passage. A building, twice the size of the present one, is now
in course of construction. It will have in use 1328 gas burners. The present
consumption of gas amounts to about one-twelfth the whole quantity escaping
from the well. The total consumption of gas by the burners of both buildings
will be one-fourth of the whole. The carbon is generally used for the manu-
facture of ink.

The following is a description of the process for preparing alcohol from
sawdust :—Into an ordinary steam boiler, heated by means of steam, were

282 Progress in Science. |April,

introduced 9 cwts. of wet sawdust, 10°7 cwts. of hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1-18),
and 30 cwts. of water ; after eleven hours’ boiling 19°67 per cent of grape sugar
was formed. The acid was then nearly saturated with chalk. Yeast was
added after the saccharine liquid had cooled down to 30° C., and the fermen-
tation finished in twenty-four hours. 26°5 litres of alcohol of 50 per cent at
15° were obtained quite free from any smell of turpentine, and of excellent
taste. It appears that the preparation of alcohol from sawdust may be
successfully carried on industrially when it is precisely ascertained what
degree of dilution of acid is required, and how long the liquid has to be boiled
to convert all the cellulose into sugar. Fifty kilos. of the sawdust yield
12 litres of alcohol at 50 per cent.

Messrs. Baerle, of Worms, have discovered soluble glass to be a valuable
washing powder and detergent. Take 40 parts of water, at a temperature of
50° to 57° C., and 1 part of soluble glass; plunge the wool into the mixture,
stirring it for a few minutes. Then rinse the wool in cold or tepid water; it
will be found to be quite white and void of smell. Sheep also may be washed
with the same preparation, care being taken to cover the eyes of the animal
with a bandage, to pexform the washing with the solution quickly, and to re-
move the surplus with tepid water. In thecase of combed wool, it should be
first steeped into the solution, and afterwards-into another bath composed of
80 parts of water at 37° C., and 1 part of soluble glass. In this way the em-
ployment of soap or soda is not necessary. For laundry purposes a bath
must be prepared over night with 20 to 30 parts of water at 50° to 57° C., and
’ 1 part of neutral soluble glass ; the linen is plunged into this bath and left until
the following morning, when, after the bath has been re-heated with additional
hot water, it is to be worked with a wooden stamp. The colour of the solution
shows when the fabric is clean. The operation is completed by rising with a
little soap; but it is well to pass the fabric again through a weak solution,
consisting of 1 part of soluble glass to 50 parts of water at 45° to 50° C., and
then to rinse in fresh water.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

A new burette has been lately used in Paris. It consists of an upright tube
drawn out to a fine aperture below, like that of Mohr, and supported in the
same manner. The opening at top is fitted with a perforated cork, through
which plays a glass rod, reaching down to the bottom, and ground conically,
so as to fit water-tight into the tapering delivery-end of the burette. A lateral
aperture at the top serves to charge the instrument. This form is useful in
working with solutions of permanganate of potash, or other reagents which
attack the india-rubber which in Mohr’s pattern connects the delivery-tube to
the body of the burette.

MM. Samal and Berouson have recently patented anew method of bleaching
animal textile fabrics, by means of a feeble solution of the sulphurets of so-
dium and potassium. These products remove the gum in preparing silk and
in scouring wool. In the first case the bath should be boiling; in the second,
the temperature of the alkaline sulphuret should not exceed 50° C. The more
difficult it may be to remove the gum and prepare the silk, the less the solution
should be sulphuretted; in some instances the protosulphuret may be
employed. The aluminates of soda and potash have also been used in the
same manner.

Errata.—P. 173, line rg from bottom, for “land” read *‘ band.” P. 201, line
26 from top, for ‘‘ masses’ read ‘‘ maps.”

Se Raha te eee ee hee

j
’

(1873. (283)

QUARTERLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW.

Ozone and Antozone; their History and Nature. By Cornelius B. Fox, M.D.

Edin. ¥. and A. Churchill.
Elements of Natural Philosophy. By Prof. Sir William Thomson and P. G.
ie se eart 1. Oxford : Clarendon Press.

Lectures on the Philosophy of Law, together with Whewell and Hegel, and
Hegel and W. R. Smith. By J. Hutchison Stirling.

The Circle Squared. By William Upton, B.A. E. and F. Spon.

The Depths of the Sea. By C. Wyville Thomson, LL.D., &c.
Macmillan and Co.

The Year-Book of Fads in Science and Art. By John Timbs.
Lockwood and Co.

Reliquiz Aquitanice. By Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy. Edited by T-

Rupert Jones, F.R.S. Williams and Norgate.
Celestial Obje&s for Common Telescopes. By Rev. T. W. Webb. Third
Edition. Longmans and Co.

Steam in the Engine; its Heat and its Work. By P. Kauffe.
Blackie and Son.

Geometric Turning. By H.S. Savory. Longmans and Co.

Glimpses of the Future Life. By Mungo Ponton, F.R.S.E.

. Longmans and Co.

A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. By James Clerk Maxwell, M.A.,

LL.D. Vols. i. and ii. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
Catechism of Zoology. By Rev. J. F. Blake, M.A., F.G.S.

Longmans and Co.

Physical Geography. By, Archibald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.
Macmillan and Co.

PERIODICALS.
Naval Science.
The Popular Science Review.
The Geological Magazine.
The American Chemist.
The Westminster Review.
Macmillan’s Magazine.
The Civil Service Gazette.
Revue Bibliographique Universelle.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES, &c.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Monthly Microscopical Journal. Robert Hardwicke.
Proceedings of the Royal Soeiety.
Ofversight af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Forhandlingar.
Stockholm : Norstedt and Soner.

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i oS

THE QUARTERLY

rOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

TULY, 1873.

I; SECTS AND SCIENCE.

HE land is full of disputes about sectarianism, de-
nominationalism, religion, and materialism, literature,
and science. There was a time when we had only

two choices—to believe as Romanists or Anglicans; gra-
dually we rose to have three, and Churchmen and Non-
conformists took each their place; but now the busy brain
has split these into numerous parties, and the whisperings
and breathings of history have passed through the stage of
the AXolian harp, and risen into violent storms threatening
to destroy. Galileo’s reputed muttering is becoming one
of.the most powerful voices of modern times, and the terrible
*‘still it moves” is, in some form or other, heard from the
mouths of most scientific men, who threaten to make
science a power in every department of government, and,
as some of them suppose, in all things relating both to
thought and action. Wedo not take the latter view, but
we take (perhaps not all) the former. We do not believe
that physical science will ever govern the whole world, or
the lives of the best of men; we do not even believe that
moral science will rule paramount, or any science whatever
that we can understand, because we consider that there
will be a movement forwards, always in advance of our
reason. But no man who knows the force of natural truths
can help distinctly wishing that man may rapidly be taught
to see their beauty, and gain the power that lies within
them to aid him in the labours of his life, as well as in all
his thoughts and aspirations.

The hopes of humanity from natural science are high;
and when we think of our ancestors wending through the
rainy, roadless, and mud lands of Europe, with straw for
their boots and their stockings, and of ourselves rushing in
an express train, sleeping in an apartment heated with hot
water, we have a foundation for our confidence. When we
see the laws of health setting kingdoms in motion to stop
by united ac¢tion the plague nursery among the pilgrims to
Mecca, and when we learn that civilisation may be promoted

VOL. -III. (N.S.) 2P

28030 "Sects and Science. [July,

amongst the inhabitants of the wildest distriéts, where
communication by messengers is scarcely possible, a simple
wire doing all the work, we begin to see that the great cities
of the world are no longer to be the producers of invention,
and the foct of movement, and that we may have these
scattered over the world without the disadvantages of in-
ordinate congregations of men.

We have the fullest faith in science, a faith which does
not waver, but at present we shall not dilate upon it; we
say it that we may more clearly object to that class of men
who see also its beauty and its power, but have lost the
knowledge of the fact that much beauty and power existed
before it. We have a large class of men who know more
or less of physical science, and having seen the exactness of
many of its conclusions, look to its methods for deciding all
questions arising among them. It is always amusing to see
people with very narrow views—they are generally very
exact within certain limits; very certain, and very deter-
mined; very active, and often very successful, because they
see their end near, and have not far to go. But when we
find that their certainty is akin to that of the boy who is
sure that he will find the rainbow if he only gains the other
hill, and when the means of attaining a great object are as
small as the child’s arms that stretch out for the moon,
knowledge of failure is the only success to be hoped for, a
knowledge that broadens.

Our novels are full of descriptions of the small sectarian
who preaches his little belief in his little chapel, with little
knowledge, to a small congregation; but we are not sure
that such men are the narrowest. Our novels have not yet
sought out the preachers of mere physical science, and ex-
plained the foundation of the truths so scantily dealt out by
them. They have not yet learnt to laugh at a national
faith consisting of geology, or astronomy, or mineralogy, or
pictured the consolations of the soul fed upon chemistry
and physics, or they would have shown how little these are
able to fill the circle of all man’s rational hopes, or even
daily needs. The merely scientific man, whilst enlarging
his own importance and diminishing that of others, forgets
that he is simply doing that which he objects to in others,.
and is forming a sect, and as such, therefore, we paint him
in our minds; and as we desire to be above mere sectarian
views, we refuse to unite with him alone, but shall receive
him as one of the many who preach to us daily their partial
truths, and receive from us our partial assent.

It is our part to advocate the views of men of science so

1873.] Sects and Science. 287

far as to bring science into its proper position in deciding
truth whenever it can decide, but in speaking to the young
we must not be purely chemical or physical, we must re-
member to be men, and must contribute to education in
such a way as to educate the young to become men also.
We shall advocate no little doctrine of Little Bethel, or of
Romanism, Anglicanism, or scientism, as the only sections
in which truth are to be found, but we hope to be ready to
receive it wherever it is. Devoted to physical science as
we are, we should not suppose our sons to be educated by
being continually in a scientific laboratory, any more than
an intelligent. minister of any religion would consider his
children to be educated by having them confined solely to
listen to the teaching from the pulpit.

The struggles of mankind to obtain knowledge have been
long and various, and he only is educated as a man who
has followed them with sufficient attention to enable him
to learn the actual standpoint of humanity, and the method
of arrival. Wecan imagine our ancestors coming out of
the distant East, moving forward slowly towards Europe
with their flocks and their wealth, staying centuries occa-
sionally at a place because they liked it, and had few
enemies, and then moving along to some more favoured spot
when disturbed or becoming greedy of greater gain. Let
us imagine one of them who knew of the whole road, and
at last arrived at the rich lands of Normandy, or obtained
the full throne of England, boasting of the steps he had
made, and ridiculing the stupidity of his forefathers, perhaps
Odin, who was satisfied with poor plains in the North of
Europe, or some cold spot approaching to Scandinavia. It
would be an empty boast that he was greater than Odin;
the triumph may be gained by the least able if he only lives
at the proper time for it. We hear our students of the
present criticising the past with a lightness which is pro-
ductive of smiles, and some of our scientific men are so
elated with their position as the latest men upon the earth,
that they would readily break off their connection with the
past, and live as the men in whom wisdom had first grown.
But they also will move to the past, and their wisdom will
be part of the long line, and they will be mere individuals
in the endless caravan which stretches from the beginning
into the future. It is only when we consider the littleness
of each that we can become truly wide or broad in our
sympathies.

It might be worth while to enquire whether as a nation
we are becoming so or not; probably we are broadening in

288 Sects and Science. [July,

some respects and narrowing in others. If the individual
is giving way to his littleness, is thinking too much of his
own gains and his own happiness, if he is forgetting the
past in the foundation of the present, and is weakening
thereby the foundations of the future to be built on it, it is
for the nation in its collective capacity, or for the wiser
men, to lead the young. This must beso done that they shall
not enter active life as the inferior animals do, with their
mere instinéts and unaccumulated knowledge. We see
great danger of the latter; we see more than danger, we
see Men growing up in this condition of want of early ex-
perience to an extent greater than can be viewed without
objection, although absolute loss is impossible in our busy
world, where the most ignorant uses modern arts of civi-
lisation. There is evidently a strong party in England
determined to break off from the remotest contact with the
traditions of the great eternity behind us, as they have
ceased to think of that which is before us. They are men
of observation mainly, and they have driven their principlesto
an extreme, and attempted to make their observations on
that which is not present. The type of such men is easily
seen in the less civilized state: in mercantile life they are
men who drive little bargains, look after little gains, think
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and witha
firm grip hold enough of the goods of the world to enable
them to live without fear of starvation; wider minds come
into the same field and become great merchants. It seems
to us that we can detect the same or analogous smallness
in the sayings and doings of those who learn only the prac-
tical arts of the scientific men of modern times, dealing only
with physics. They have one mode of thought, clear, sharp,
and beautiful, but they fail to look with the broad views
of humanity, because they have not learnt how humanity
thinks and feels; still they are often the cleverest and
most inventive of men, and humanity will thank them for
their discoveries, and by adopting them will give them
the width of nature. This latter our great institutions,
our universities, ought to look after; it is for them to
think on every side of a question, and to reject nothing that
humanity holds dear. Clearly, however, the small dealer
has instilled into us many of his principles. We seek too
exclusively to teach a boy that which will enable him to
earn his bread; we do as the hens do, and set before them
a few crumbs until they can find enough for themselves—we
feed them as birds do their young, with worms, or with game,
until they can fly after more; only a few can be taught to

1873.] Sects and Science. 289

fly about the heavens for joy, singing with the lark, or
rolling like the tumbler. These are like arts that bring no
bread, but typify leisure, grace, and overflow of life, thought,
and feeling.

The wise men we ought to find in our universities.
They must keep the links of humanity together ; they must
prevent us from looking at subje¢ts from one point of space
or time merely, and enable us to view them from every
good loophole, even out of almost forgotten eyes of Pytha-
goras and Zoroaster, and others, up to our time. And when
the world laughs at such names, as unfit to teach us to
make a thousand pounds a year or a week, we shall say
‘These men saw a world that we do not see; and when
our own view is rather confined, we may see it profitable
to use their vision, and claim for cultivation the fields they
discovered.”

The universities must be broad, or why should we call
them universities? Narrow them, and in that proportion
you make them sectarian. They certainly began with very
limited views, but they have gradually grown, and one or
two include nearly all the circle of human thought. None,
however, include actually the whole. When London Uni-
versity rose and excluded the religious element, that was a
decided step in the formation of a sect. It limited the
universality, so to speak, and although it may be said
nominally to have excluded only one branch of mental
activity, we must remember that the branch was to the
most of the world the most important, and in early times
the only branch taught at seminaries rising to universities.
It was a new step separating, in a prominent manner,
religious and secular education. That separation is going
on still more, and without objecting at all to it we must not
forget the importance of the era passed. We had at once
two sects—two divisions. Some persons will say that these
were not two sects properly, because they attended to
different subjects; but probably no persons will say that
they were not two sects in every sense but the name.
There was a desire to separate from the religious question
from a dislike to it, and this is already a sectarian element
in society; no man can differ from society without being
sectarian unless he is perfectly right, and when he is so we
shall cease to give him any trifling name. But to separate
from religious bodies because you adopt other religious
opinions and make converts is to form a sect in the eyes
of all; and to separate because you object to all religious
opinions is equally to form a sect, unless you can show

290 Sects and Science. [July,

thoroughly that you were absolutely right. Even then you
become a division of society, and this division, begun in Gower
Street formally, has spread over the land, so that we have
the sect of physical science containing many men to whom
the spiritual in religion has positively no meaning at all—
being the fantastic creation of the brain. We do not
say that all this is owing to Gower Street. It took a shape
there, and did good. Now it is not here that we intend to
give our opinion on the subject; we number both classes
among our intimate friends, and we have our opinions; but
at present we say that the movement was seCtarian.
Sadducees always have been reckoned as belonging to a
- religious sect, although denying that which to many men
is the foundation of areligion. In other words, the study of
merely physical science produces a class of men that
influence the religious belief of a country and divide it.

Are we to decide which sect we shall belong to, and
whether Oxford and Cambridge or the London University
are, *to.. rule’ over. the ‘country ?. - This’ “would, \m our
opinion, be a backward step whichever we chose. Science
is growing so rapidly that we cannot tell the limits to its
power; we must give it free scope, we must allow its
reasonings to have their full weight, and we must learn to
give matter its full importance in our reasoning, seeing the 7
great position it holds in creation.

It is our belief that these great representatives of human
thought and progress, the universities, are essential to us in
some form or other; it is difficult to tell what is the best
form, but we may fairly decide which of the two classes of
institutions is the widest or broadest. If we look at Oxford
and Cambridge, or the universities in Scotland and Dublin,
we find that, although beginning with teachings relating to
the spiritual nature of man, they gradually have included
more and more the physical.

The newer university, that of London, excludes the
former. ‘The other universities seem desirous to increase
their professors in every direction ; that of London excludes
at least one direction. We therefore simply conclude that
the older universities have a greater breadth; or look over
more of the field traversed by man, and do not exclude
either class of knowledge. They have certainly their
epinions on one branch, but their studies comprehend both..

Be not surprised, therefore, if we look at the London
University as sectarian in its views, and as fostering a
sectarian knowledge. It must, in a sense, stand somewhat
in the same position as the Methodist College or the

1873.] Sects and Science. 291

a.
College of Independents, and partake of denominationalism.
The result is in our opinion decidedly so. Menasa rule
turn out to be what they are taught to be.

Are we therefore to blame the one or the other? Cer-
tainly not the old for being wide in theory. It will be said
that this is only in theory, and that in practice their
teaching is narrow, and that in former times it was still
narrower, and therefore the London University was called
into existence. This was partly true, and. therefore we
should be sorry to see it otherwise, at least for a while;
this reasoning, however, simply shows that the new insti-
tution was supplementary, and did not even pretend to the
greatest breadth. The spirit of this university seems to
continue unchanged, and there is a growing tendency to
the cultivation of science only. The exclusion of Greek
from the necessities in the matriculated examination is a
step in a similar direction, and one most resolutely fought
for. The tendency is to the cultivation of the present. It
is the same spirit that stimulates the manufacturer to
despise science, and to make his son learn by apprentice-
ship the thumb-rules of his art, although for professions
no university is so strict in encouraging true scientific
_ principle. For this the nation owes it much.

Is it to the same feeling in the nation that we are to
attribute the proposal of the premier to found a university
which should not teach metaphysics? The occasion of the
proposal would lead us to suppose that the cause was quite
different; but the time at which it took place, and its
associations, would lead us to think that he was moved by
the spirit of the age, pressing in directions foreshadowed,
but unseen except to a few.

This may be the case, and unknown even to the author
himself, who certainly is not a man to be guided by merely
material considerations. It comes at the time of the
exclusion of Greek, and with the proposal of one examining
board. ;

We are glad that there are the old and broad universities
ready to receive all knowledge within them, lax sometimes
in their rules, lax in their examinations on some points,
but minute in others—like scholars careless in many things
—but excessively careful of the points they study. The
new comes out with business-like habits, numbers its
students like workmen in a mill, knocks off those that are
not up to the mark, and promotes the best, ruthlessly but
successfully making good men of business—a magnificent
manufactory of professional men—journeymen in science.

292 Sects and Science. [July,

Should we like all England to have one examining board,
all Scotland to have one, all Ireland to have one? Why
not all the nation to have one? If we knew the truth in
perfection, we should decide that all the world ought to
have one, in sections, according to convenience of manage-
ment. But we have not attained to perfeét certainty in
many things, and we object to have the sons of England
educated as if we had. We must havea choice. Ifa man
is narrow in his views, or if he desires that one young man
shall have a professional education for teaching a sect, he
sends him—let us say—to the Methodist College, or the
Unitarian Hall, or the exclusively religious teaching of the
Anglican Church, or the exclusively scientific teaching of
the London University; but if we wish him to learn the
struggles of humanity for knowledge, and the width and
breadth of the attainment, we send him to a variety of
classes, such as may be found at some of the older Uni-
versities, which are keeping up, or attempting to keep up,
with modern times, and without bigotry are allowing the
establishment of as many professorships as money can be
found to maintain.

Yet there are men that would make the whole education
of the country sectarian, that would destroy Oxford and
Cambridge, as distinct units, and make one examining
board decide the education of all the country. We have
heard of a bed of Procrustes, but this is the most severe yet
known to us; we have heard of inquisitions and faith-
makers, and bigots, but none of them have ever set them-
selves up more decidedly above all their fellow-men than
such a plan would exalt the proposed powerful organi-
sation. Freedom of thought would, as a~ matter of
course, be curbed. We should have only one educated
sect, only one direction given to the general bearings of

the mind, although the studies would be various. ‘These ©

great bearings decide that which we call character
in individuals, so difficult to explain but so decided in
its effects. These inexorable examiners, who are pre-
cluded from judging of any but intellectual feats and feats
of the memory, would decide the mode of teaching and the
things to be taught, and the still less exorable council
would appoint the men to examine. The unhappy school
teachers over all the country would be obliged to teach up
to one standard, instead of, as now, having a choice; and
instead of that variety of thought out of which new com-
binations are formed, one universal sameness would
dominate in schools also, which would be as void of light

:

1873.] Sects and Science. 293

and shadow as the universities—dreary and dull. The evil
is already showing itself, partially because as concentration
goes on sameness increases; do not let us increase the
evil. The man who can examine the young men of a
college in metaphysics long enough to influence much of
the habits of the teachers who send pupils to the colleges,
and long enough to accustom them to his text books, has
a power over the generation coming such as no other man
has. A Prime Minister is nothing to him, and all the
powers in Church and State must eventually yield more or
less to his authority, although they may not knowit. The
examiner eventually directs the leading minds. In them
we must consider real power to lie. It once lay in the
army, it once lay in the song-makers, some one says; it lies
to a great extent now with the reasoners, in all cases where
they do not oppose the men of business, and the choice of
modes-of reason is with the examiners.

The genius of this nation has arisen in a great measure
from the diversity of its population; this diversity has pro-
duced difference of training as well as difference of con-
stitution. One great difference, that of training, would be
removed by the one university alluded to, a system which
has never been shown to produce good results.

It is not merely that there is no competition allowed by
it, although that may be a loss, but there is no diversity;
and there is no true freedom of thought where there is no
diversity ; and above all, there is in the exclusive character
of the intention no sufficient breadth.

As proposed in Ireland, the narrowness was such as to
reduce it merely to a school of certain branches.

It is greatly to be wished that no such schemes may be
attempted in England, and it is equally desirable that no
experiments of this lowering character will be brought into
Scotland or Ireland, but that we should retain our uni-
versities founded on the structures laid not merely by the
men of yesterday or the men of last century, but the great
of all centuries, so that we may have institutions in which
the wisdom and science of modern times, the devotion of
medieval ages, the strength of Rome, and the thoughtful
searchings of Greece shall be side by side with the
spiritual character and the search for holiness produced
and hitherto producible only by the teachings of the East.

VOr,.11t. (N.S.) 2Q

294 Actinism and Magnetism. [July,

II. ACTINISM AND MAGNETISM.
By Munao PontTon, F.R.S.E.

_] OW slow have mankind been in searching for and
“1 ascertaining the causes of physical phenomena!
How tardy their efforts to apply their knowledge to
practical purposes, even where the ultimate uses have
proved to be of the highest importance to the well-being of
the human race! How many ages had elapsed before
Franklin discovered the cause of electrical phenomena—
before Volta found how electricity might be developed by
chemical action, and before Oersted perceived the mutual
relations of electricity and magnetism! Even after the
finger had thus been, as it were, pointed to a practical ap-
plication, how many years intervened before this last dis-
covery ripened into the construction of the electric tele-
graph !

In like manner, how many ages had elapsed before
Scheele discovered the actinic action of light in blackening
the chloride of silver; and what a number of years has it
taken to develope that discovery into the art of photography !

It seems wonderful that the attention of mankind was
not earlier attracted to the action of the sunbeams in de-
veloping or altering colours, and that they were not led to
investigate the cause of this curious phenomenon. It
might have been supposed that a careful study of Nature
would have led them to perceive it to be the energy of solar
light that tinges the cheek of the peach with crimson, gives
the apricot its flesh-like tint, imparts to the harebell its
beautiful blue, paints the pansy with alternating brilliant
yellow and deep violet, reddens the rose, and dyes the tulip
with its richly varied hues. The first attempts at tracing
the operation of the sunbeams in the colouring of flowers
were made by screening the petals from the action of the
light ; but these experiments went no farther than to show
that, in some cases, the petals do not acquire their proper
hue when they are thus screened. The subject, indeed,
was little studied until after the discovery of the actinic
action of solar light on other substances. Even yet, one
of the most remarkable cases of what may be termed natural
photography is but little known. It is that of the beautiful
bell-flower of the Cobe@a scandens, which on the first day of
its opening is of a pale-greenish white, but after exposure
for two or three days to the actinism of solar light acquires

1873.] Actinism and Magnetism. 295

arich purple. This actinic action on the juices of plants
has not been deeply investigated, nor has it as yet been ap-
plied to any practical purpose.

Another example occurs in the animal kingdom. The
common earwig, if reared in the dark, is almost colourless,
being of a nearly uniform creamy white; but if it be sub-
sequently exposed for some hours to moderate daylight, it
will eventually acquire its natural dark colours.

It appears to be part of the wise dispensation of Divine
Providence in the government of the human race, that the
most useful discoveries should be made only after the
exertion of a great amount of industry, applied with much
wisdom and skill—and that, too, not by a single individual,
but by a long succession of men. It is given to one to dis-
cover a principle, to another to take advantage of it for the
attainment of some practical end, to a third, a fourth, and
a fifth to make successive improvements in the working out
of the principle, and in modifying its mode of a¢tion. Thus,
Niepce first discovered the effects of light on films of bitu-
men; this result suggested to Daguérre the application of
iodine vapour to produce on plates of silver a film sensitive
to light, and the subsequent development of the image by
mercurial vapour—a photographic process which bears the
name of its inventor, It was Scheele’s discovery of the
action of light on chloride of silver, followed up by Wol-
laston, that led Fox Talbot to its practical application in
obtaining photographic images on paper, and to his further
discovery of the mode of producing a latent photographic
image on iodide of silver capable of subsequent development
by the application of a powerful deoxidising agent. ‘These
results paved the way for Archer, who availed himself of
Scheenbein’s discovery of soluble cotton or collodion to
spread a film of that substance on glass, and charge it with
iodide of silver, so obtaining a more sensitive and manage-
able medium for the reception of the latent photographic
image, to’ be afterwards subjected to the aétion of a de-
veloping agent. Other and later labourers in the field have
greatly improved on those earlier methods, until the taking
of pictures by means of salts of silver and developers has
now reached a pitch of perfection of which the earliest
pioneers in the art had scarcely dared to dream.

To the lot of the author it fell to discover the photo-
graphic properties of the double salts of chromic acid when
in contact with organic matter, and the curious fact that
the disengagement of the chromic acid from the salt under
the action of light, and its immediate re-combination with

a

296 Actinism and Magnetism. [July,

the organic matter, operates in the latter a great change,
rendering gelatine, albumen, and suclr like substances inso-
luble. It was reserved, however, for a succession of other
labourers in the field to develope this discovery into the
method of printing photographs in gelatine, impregnated
with carbon and other pigments. Under the action of light,
gelatine, charged with the bichromate of potash or ammonia,
becomes insoluble by warm water in exact proportion to the
degree in which it has been affected by the light. Hence,
by spreading gelatine in plates of some degree of thickness
on films of collodion, exposing these with their collodion
side next the negative, and subsequently dissolving away
the portions more or less unaffected by the light, pictures
are obtained in relief. Of this property Woodbury availed
himself to take metallic casts from those pictures in relief,

and from these metallic plates to take impressions on paper —

in pigmented gelatine.

The utilisation of the original discovery has been recently
brought to still higher perfection by its having been found
that the plates of gelatine, thus impressed by light, may them-
selves be rendered direCtly available for obtaining impres-
sions On paper in engraver’s ink. Yet how simple the
matter appears now that itis known! When on a plate of
glass, previously coated with white wax dissolved in ether,
there is spread a plate of gelatine charged with bichromate
of potash and chrome alum, and when, after being allow
thoroughly to dry in the dark, this gelatine plate is removed
from the glass, and placed under a negative photograph,
wherever the light penetrates, the gelatine becomes, in a
greater or less degree, not only insoluble in warm water,
but incapable of imbibing moisture. But the parts thus
acted on by light can, with greater or less degrees of readi-
ness, receive engravers’ ink. Those portions which have
been most hardened by the light will receive the stiffest
ink; those which have been but partially hardened will
take on the ink only when it is more or less diluted ; while
those portions which have escaped the action of the light,
and have become moist (but only very slightly swollen) from
imbibing water, refuse the ink altogether. In this manner
every gradation of shade may be given to the impression
‘produced from the gelatine plate, and it issaid that as many
as 1500 impressions may be taken from the same plate,
direct pressure being employed. This last, which is the
most perfe¢t application of the double salts of chromic acid
to photographic purposes, is due to the laborious industry
and skill of Ernest Edwards.

eT. ee oe

1873.] Actinism and Magnetism. 297

The two last-mentioned processes, in both of which the
copies are multiplied by purely mechanical means, afford
the most expeditious and economical methods of attaining
that end. The copies thus produced, however, are not
strictly speaking photographs; while, to an artistic eye,
they are inferior in delicacy to those obtained from the
primary negative by direct actinic action. Much skill has
accordingly been directed towards perfecting the processes
by which the latter sort of pictures may be produced. It
was first pointed out by Mr. Blair that the best mode of
bringing the a¢ctinism to exert its effect on the pigmented
gelatine, is to make the light act from behind, so as to allow
its hardening influence on the gelatine to penetrate to dif-
ferent depths, according to the lights and shades of the
negative. Hence arose the practice of taking the impres-
sions first on paper coated with pigmented gelatine, and
thereafter transferring it to white paper coated with simple
gelatine. Very good effects were obtained,in this way, but
the pictures laboured under the disadvantage of presenting
the image reversed as respects right and left.

To rectify this reversal, recourse was had to the method
of double transfer, as practised by the Autotype Company.
In this process the picture is first transferred from the black
bichromated gelatinised paper to a plate of zinc, and when
the picture has been fully developed by washing the plate
with luke-warm water, it is transferred from the zinc to
white gelatinised paper, on which it appears rectified in
position. An improvement on this method was subsequently
effected by Mr. Johnston, of the Autotype Company, who
discovered that, by coating white gelatinised paper witha
film of wax and grease in certain proportions, the image, if
first transferred to this paper, may be re-transferred from it to
another piece of white paper, prepared with a strong solu-
tion of simple gelatine. By this plan, not onlyis the picture
rectified in position, but the pigment, by imbibing a small
portion of the wax and grease, becomes assimilated to en-
gravers’ ink, and adheres firmly to the paper. The brilliancy
of the picture is increased by washing it with benzine. For
the use of amateurs this last mode of printing in carbon is
the best as yet devised, and it reflects great credit on the
skill of its inventor.

In copying portraits, the author has obtained peculiar
and striking effects by the following method. The portrait
should for this purpose be taken with a dark background—
that of the negative being nearly, though not quite, trans-
parent. The bichromated black gelatinised paper is to be

298 Actinism and Magnetism. [July,;

exposed under the negative for three or four times the
period required for an ordinary picture. A plate of glass,
thoroughly cleansed, having been gently warmed, receives a
thin equable coating of Scehnée varnish. When this is dry,
the picture is transferred from the black-gelatinised - paper
to the glass plate, under luke-warm water in the usual
manner. The picture is then to be washed clean, and
allowed to dry thoroughly. A margin of very thin paper
having been applied all round it, a second very clean thicker
glass plate is to be laid over the picture, and carefully ce-
mented to it all round the edges. The picture is thus
enclosed between the two plates. The back glass (the
thicker of the two) must then be coated with Brunswick
black all over the background of the picture, the outlines
of which must be carefully traced, so that no light may
penetrate between the picture and the background. When
the black varnish is quite dry, the picture is to be placed
at an angle of 45 degrees, with a piece of mat gilt paper
below it. When the transparency is thus viewed by the
light reflected from the gilt paper, it presents the appearance
of a bas-relief. This effeG is so decided, that the spectator
can hardly persuade himself that he is looking on a flat
surface.

While the attention of investigators has thus been for a
considerable number of years past directed almost exclu-
sively to ascertaining the best means of rendering the
actinic properties of light available for practical purposes,
and rightly so, it is not well that the theoretical questions
connected with actinism should be entirely neglected ; for
a thorough search into the principles and modes of actinic
action is the most promising way of arriving at results
which may eventually prove of further pra¢tical utility.

One of the earliest and most interesting questions which
presented itself to the inquiring mind, was the possibility of
explaining actinic action in accordance with the principles
of the undulatory theory of light. In a former work by the
author, the first edition of which was entitled ‘“‘ The Material
Universe,” and the second was (much against his wish)
entitled ‘‘ The Great Architect,” he indicated the manner
in which the formation and subsequent development of the
latent photographic image, both in the process of Daguérre
and in that of Talbot, might be explained agreeably to the
undulatory theory. A further development of his views was
subsequently published in ‘‘ The Engineer,” and again
briefly re-stated in the notes of his more recent work, en-
titled ‘‘ The Beginning, &c.” But as his ideas have thus

1873.] Actinism and Magnetism. — 299

been brought before the public in rather a piecemeal sort of
way, it may not be deemed amiss that they should be here
presented in a more regular and condensed form.

The duality observed in all’ electrical and magnetical phe-
nomena, whether paramagnetic or diamagnetic, raises a
strong presumption that there is in nature a somewhat to
which this dualism is due. The remarkable circumstance
that the magnetic influence, with its duality of manifestation,
passes through the free ether, renders almost compulsory
*the inference that it is in this subtle medium that the
origin of the dualism is to be sought. It is well known that
there is a remarkable connection between the earth’s mag-
netism and the solar spots, and that all magnetic obser-
vatories in our globe have been affected by certain sudden
luminous flashes which have been observed in the solar
photosphere. There can, therefore, be no doubt of the fact
that the magnetic influence does pass through the free
ether, and that magnetic dualism is thus wafted onwards
like luminous waves through the ethereal expanse. Now it
is almost inconceivable that this should happen unless there
were some intrinsic dualism in the ether itself—unless, in
short, it were composed of two fluids, which, like the
nitrogen and oxygen gases of our atmosphere, are mechan-
ically alike, but chemically different. It is needful to sup-
pose them to be mechanically alike—both perfectly elastic
fluids, and that, on their particles being set a vibrating,
they vibrate in the same times, and that these vibrations
are wafted onwards in similar waves of definite lengths.
At least, there have not yet been distinguished any pheno-
mena from which it could be inferred that the supposed two
fluids differ from each other in their mechanical constitution
in any appreciable degree. But it is equally needful to
suppose these two fluids to differ from each other in their
relations to the molecules, ultimates, and atoms of bodies
endowed with the energy of gravitation, of which the ethereal
fluids are themselves destitute; for it is only by such dif-
ferences that the existence of two ethereal fluids can be
established.

Waiving for the present the question of the relation of
the duality of the ether to that of magnetism, and regarding
meanwhile the former as merely a convenient assumption,
let us, by means of it, endeavour to explain actinic action
in the case of iodide of silver, and in particular to account
for the formation of the latent image, and its subsequent
development.

Let it be granted that each molecule of the iodide of

300 Actinism and Magnetism. [July,

silver consists of an ultimate of silver, retaining by a strong
attraction, in close proximity to itself, an ultimate of iodine,
there being, however, at their nearest points, a minute space
filled with the luminiferous ether in a highly compressed
condition. Let it be further assumed that, in this interval,
the two ethereal fluids subsist in a state of partial separation
—the one being accumulated next the silver ultimate by
reason of its being less repellent towards silver, the other
next the iodine ultimate by reason of its being less repel-
lent towards iodine. Call the former of the two ethereal
fluids parargyrine, and the latter pariodine. Suppose that,
in the system of luminous waves in a beam of light ap-
proaching this molecule, there are certain of the waves
whose vibrations are synchronous with those which the
silver ultimate tends to assume, and certain others whose
vibrations are synchronous with those which the iodine
ultimate performs in its tremors. The result will be that
the silver ultimate will begin to vibrate against the iodine
ultimate, and the two will alternately approach and retire.
This, however, they cannot do without promoting a re-
admixture of the parargyrine with the pariodine in their
normal proportions. Such a re-admixture again cannot
take place without weakening the attraction between the
silver and iodine ultimates; for the silver ultimate begins
to be urged by the repulsive energy of the pariodine, which
is for it greater than is that of the parargyrine; while the
iodine ultimate becomes exposed to more of the repulsive
energy of the parargyrine, which is for it greater than is
that of the pariodine. The consequence will be that, at
the moment when by the vibration the ultimates of silver
and iodine are farthest apart, the weakening of the attrac-
tion between them will be considerable. If now there be
introduced another chemical molecule or ultimate having a
strong attraction for the iodine, the probabilities are great
that, at the moment when the vibration attains its extreme
amplitude, the iodine will permanently leave the silver, and
attach itself to the introduced molecule or ultimate for
which it has, at that particular moment, a more powerful
attraction.

On this general principle may be explained the develop-
ment of the latent image, both in the case of the Dagueérreo-
type, and on that of the collodion film. In either case
it is needful to assume that the vibrations established by
the action of the incident light continue for a considerable
time after exposure.

In the Daguérreotype, the effect of the light appears to

1873.| Actinism and Magnetism. 301

be tke disengagement of the iodine from the ultimates of
silver near the surface, where the vibratory action is
greatest—so allowing it to penetrate inwards and attach
itself to those silver ultimates, which are less agitated by
the motion. ‘The iodine thus, as it were, eats its way in-
ward, leaving behind it ultimates of silver more or less dis-
engaged. Accordingly, when the plate is exposed to the
action of mercurial vapour, the ultimates of mercury attach
themselves to those disengaged ultimates of silver, forming
with them a white amalgam, which constitutes the lights of
the picture—the unamalgamated parts of the silver forming
the shadows; while the unaltered film of iodide of silver is
removed by the hyposulphite of soda.

The latent image in the collodion processes presents two
cases—the one that of the wet film, the other that of the
Gry, lhe case -o1 the wet film resembles that of «the -
Daguérreotype. The silver ultimate and the iodine ulti-
‘mate, which it retains near it by its attraction, begin to
vibrate under the stimulus of the incident light. The
parargyrine and pariodine in the intervening space are thus
forced to intermingle—so weakening the attraction between
the two ultimates. This condition continues for a con-
siderable time after the stimulus of the external light is
withdrawn. When a developer is applied, it takes advan-
tage of the moment of greatest weakness, when the ulti-
mates of silver and iodine are in the course of their
vibration farthest asunder, and it effects their separation,
the iodine combining with the developer, while the silver
resumes the metallic form. The deposit of silver in this
case constitutes the shadows of the picture when it is viewed
as a transparency, and it is then accordingly negative; but
when the picture is viewed by reflected light with a piece of
black velvet behind it, the deposit of silver forms the lights
’ of the picture which is then positive, and such are some of
the most pleasing photographs.

When the collodion film is dry, again, it requires more
applied energy to establish the vibratory condition as be-
tween the silver and the iodine ultimates, owing to the
rigidity of the film; and for the same reason the vibrations
are probably arrested the moment that the stimulus of the
external light is withdrawn. But the attraction of the
silver for the iodine has been permanently weakened
through the action of the light, by reason of the re-
admixture of the parargyrine with the pariodine, in the
interval between them, resulting from the vibrations.
Hence, at the moment of the arrest of motion, the ulti-

VOL. III. (N.S.) OR

302 Actinism and Magnetism. [July,

mates of silver and iodine are farther asunder, in the case of
those which have been exposed to the light, than they are
in the case of those which have not been thus stimulated
into vibration. Accordingly, when a developer is applied,
even a very long time after exposure, neh raxi ensues
and silver is precipitated.

When ozone is applied after exposure and before a deve-
loper, it prevents the action of the latter. For the attrac-
tion of ozone for silver is powerful, and uniting itself to that of
the iodine, it prevents the silver from being reduced to the
metallic condition by the developer. Or perhaps it may
neutralise the action of the latter, by supplying it with
something which it prefers to iodine. The vapours of
chlorine, bromine, fluorine, or iodine, applied after exposure
to the light, would probably in like manner prevent the
action of the developer.

On the other hand, it is well known to photographers,
that the presence of a small quantity of free nitric acid
greatly helps the action of light on the iodides, chlorides,
and bromides of silver. It is not difficult to discover the
part which this free nitrate performs. Confining attention
to the case of the iodide of silver, with a slight admixture
of the nitrate applied to the collodion film, and exposed
while moist to the action of light, we must suppose that,
while the silver and iodine ultimates vibrate against each
other, a similar vibratory condition is established as between
the ultimate of silver, and the molecule of nitric acid
with its combined molecule of water. Now in the agitated
condition of these substances, the iodine may momentarily
be brought more within the attra¢tive influence of the con-
stituents of the nitric acid than of the ultimate of silver,
and may form temporary unions with those constituents—
hydriodic and iodic acids, and iodide of nitrogen in small
quantities ; while a portion of the oxygen of the nitric acid
may temporarily become more intimately engaged with the
ultimates of silver. Ifa deoxidising agent be applied while
this state of affairs subsists, the oxygen will be easily dis-
engaged from the metallic silver—the iodine becoming
otherwise permanently occupied. In the case of the dry
collodion film, again, the interchange of the iodine and the
oxygen may become more permanent; so that at whatever
distance of time the developer be applied, it has to with-
draw only oxygen, not iodine, from the silver. The ces-
sation of the action of the developer, however, after a short
interval, in the case of the moist film, seems to indicate
that, when the vibratory action excited by the light ceases,

1873.] Actinism and Magnetism. 303

the oxygen and iodine resume their original positions and
relations, so that all things return to the same condition
in which they were before the film was subjected to the
actinism of the light.

When chloride of silver is applied to paper, in con-
junction with a little free nitrate for printing purposes, the
nitrate greatly quickens the decomposition of the chloride.
This acceleration can hardly be explained on any other
supposition than that the agitation, established by the
actinism, enables the chlorine to migrate from the silver
to the constituents of the nitric acid—forming hydrochloric
and chloric acids—perhaps also chloride of nitrogen, while
part of the oxygen of the acid attaches itself to the silver.
Hence the colour produced is no longer the purple of the
pure chloride, but there is a large admixture of brown from
the oxide.

In the case of the double salts of chromic acid, the sepa-
ration of one of the molecules of chromic acid from the base
takes place by the action of the incident light alone, with-
out the aid of any developer, other than the organic matter
to which the double salt has been applied. It results from
the vibratory condition established in the salt by the
actinism, which, as it were, shakes free one of the mole-.
cules of chromic acid, and allows it to combine with the
organic matter. There is here no latent image properly so
called ; nevertheless in the case of black pigmented gelatine
the image is, owing to its blackness, invisible. But it may
always be rendered visible by immersing the picture, after
exposure, in cold water for an hour or so, when the picture
will be seen standing out in relief. The portions of the
gelatine, which have not been acted on by the light, swell
through imbibing the moisture, and that in exact proportion
to the degree in which they were protected from the light’s
actinism. ‘Those parts which have, by the aétion of the
light, been made to combine with the chromic acid, cease
to have the power of imbibing moisture and swelling under
its influence.

Some of the metals, more especially zinc, silver, and
magnesium, when used as electrodes, generate ethereal
waves lying far beyond the limits of the visible spectrum,
yet capable of exerting a powerful actinic action. Thus
an object might be photographed by means of actinic
waves wholly invisible to the eye. This circumstance tends
to establish the supposition already propounded, that the
vibrations set up by ac¢tinism must be very minute, and
such as are likely to take place between the ultimate of

304 Actimnism and Magnetism. [July,

silver and the ultimate of iodine, rather than such as might
be expected in the movements of the entire molecules of
iodide of silver.

It will be perceived that it is only the latent image in the
case of the iodised films, either in the Daguérreotype or
collodion processes, that requires for its explanation the

help of the assumption, that the ether consists of two —

perfectly elastic fluids intimately mingled together, yet
capable of partial temporary separation. Should this same
assumption be eventually found available for explaining
the duality observed in the phenomena of eletricity, para-
‘magnetism and diamagnetism, the evidence in favour of the
hypothesis will be greatly strengthened by the circum-
stance of its being thus found to render such aid in
explaining a Pesos so diverse from these as the
latent image.

The facts that metallic zinc, when thrown into a state of
heated vapour, generates in the ether waves which, though
wholly invisible, yet exert much actinism, and et alu-
minium, under similar circumstances, originates invisible
waves capable of exciting fluorescence, favour the idea that
the influence of the solar radiation on the magnetic needle
may also be due to waves which are in like manner in-
visible. Experiments have been several times made with
the view of showing that the violet and ultra violet waves
do affect the magnetic needle; but the results, probably
owing to the difficulties attending the experiment, have
not been decisive. It would not be easy, however, to
account for the known effect of solar radiation on magnets
—more especially the effect of solar spots—otherwise than by
supposing that there are special waves of some sort that
pass through the ether, and either excite or alter the mag-
netic condition. If such be the case, then will it be pro-
bable that, exa¢tly as all bodies which receive an accession
of temperature from the solar energy give it off again by
radiation, even so all magnetic bodies receiving an acces-
sion of magnetism from the solar energies give it off again
in a similar manner, propagating from themselves back
waves having a great rapidity of vibration —too great to
be appreciable by the optic nerve, but nevertheless capable
of exciting or maintaining either paramagnetism or dia-

magnetism in other bodies. Nor does it seem to be im- —

probable that, as in the case of fluorescence, in which there
is a change in the rate of vibration operated by the action
of the ponderable particles, there may be, in the case of the
magnet, something similar. Magnetic bodies may have

1873.! Actimsm and Magnetism. 305

their particles thrown into the state of magnetic or dualistic
vibration by ethereal waves, which in other bodies would
produce quite different effects, and may reciprocally pro-
duce in the ether back waves having the same dualistic
properties.

The supposition that the ether consists of two fluids
emight throw much light on the magnetic condition. For it
might be explained by supposing the fluids to become sepa-
rated from each other in the pores of magnetic bodies toa
much greater extent than in the case of other bodies—the
separation taking place lengthwise in the case of para-
magnetic bodies, and crosswise in the case of diamagnetic
bodies, so that in the former all the atoms having an atmo-
sphere of parargyrine are turned towards one end, and all
those having an atmosphere of pariodine are turned towards
the opposite end; whereas, in diamagnetic bodies, a similar
arrangement subsists laterally. Any waves having their
origin in ether, whose constituent fluids might be thus
separated, would have a dire¢ét tendency to become double-
sided—that is to say, in such a wave the particles displaced
towards the one side of the line of propagation might at
any given moment be all of parargyrine, while those dis-
placed towards the opposite side of the line of propagation
might at the same instant be all of pariodine. Nor does it
appear impossible that, in a similar manner, there might
be generated invisible magnetic waves, which should be
polarised in opposite planes—those whose vibrations are
performed in one plane affecting only the parargyrine:
while those whose vibrations are performed in the opposite
plane affect only the pariodine. The double-sidedness of
the waves, however, seems to be a more probable expla-
nation of dualism, as it subsists while passing through the
free. ether.

That the condition of dualism-is actually transmitted _
through that medium, the connection between the solar
spots and terrestrial magnetism seems to render it almost
necessary to conclude. Were it not for that connexion, it
‘might be enough to suppose that, in magnetic bodies, the
tendency to a separation of the two ethereal fluids is
favoured and augmented by a vibratory condition of the
particles of the magnet; while in the case of the silver
salts, the already existing partial separation of the two
fluids in the interval between the silver ultimate and the
other ultimate with which it is in combination, is neu-
tralised by the vibratory motion. In the latter case, the
_ vibrating ultimates are supposed to be very near each

306 Actinism and Magnetism. (July,

other, and by their oscillations mechanically to mix the
two fluids. But in the case of a magnet, the vibrating
particles are farther apart, and the effect of the vibration
seems to be to drive away the intervening parargyrine
from one of the kinds of atoms of which the ultimate of
iron consists, and the pariodine from another set of those
atoms—so promoting the separation of the fluids.

The permanent condition of magnetism does not appear
to be capable of explanation, except on the supposition that
every such magnet has the power to convert invisible
ethereal waves into magnetic waves. There is even in the
dark a constant interchange of radiation between magnets
and all other surrounding bodies. Now if magnetic, like
fluorescent bodies, have power to alter the rate and cha-
racter of vibrations communicated to their particles, it is
not difficult to imagine, that what comes to the magnet as
radiant heat, or light, or a€tinism, may in part at least be
given off again as radiant magnetism with its concomitant
dualism, and that what in other bodies serves only to main-
tain their temperature at a pitch corresponding to that of all
surrounding bodies, serves in the case of a magnet partly to
maintain its magnetism at a certain rate of tension.

Magnetism is quite as much an energy as temperature;
nor does it appear more possible for a magnet to maintain
its magnetism without a continuous fresh supply of motive
energy, than for a body to maintain its temperature without
a like supply. Moreover, as the motive energy of tem-
perature is undoubtedly capable of being converted into the
motive energy of magnetism, and wice versé, it seems no
more than reasonable to suppose this conversion to be in
continual progress in the pores of a permanent magnet.
Thus it appears unnecessary to look farther for the needful
supply of motive energy which maintains permanent mag-
netism, than primarily to the ethereal waves transmitted
from the sun, and secondarily to the continuous radiation
emanating from all surrounding bodies. Doubtless a por-
tion of this energy goes to maintain the temperature of the
magnet; but it must be borne in mind that this tem-
perature is nothing else than a certain amount of vibratory
motion in the particles; nor does it appear improbable that
such a vibratory condition cannot subsist, without tending
to uphold the magnetic state, where it has been already
developed. Such a degree of cold as would reduce this
vibratory condition to a very low point would no doubt
destroy, or at least suspend, the magnetism of a permanent
magnet.

eV ee ee ee ee

1873.] Magneto-Electric Illumination. 307

III. MAGNETO-ELECTRIC ILLUMINATION.
By WILLIAM CROOKES, F.R.S., &c.

NPAHE progress made in electric illumination during its
advance towards perfection has been several times
recorded in the pages of this journal. In our first

number, published nearly ten years ago, Dr. J. H. Gladstone
gave a history of the early difficulties attending the intro-
duction of the magneto-electric machine as a light-generator
for lighthouse illumination. Two years subsequently, the
present writer described Wilde’s magneto-electric machine,
and, after a further lapse of years, during which time no
very important improvement in the industrial application of
magneto-electricity has been recorded, another step in
advance has been made which calls for detailed notice.

The chief difficulties in the employment of magneto-eleCtric
currents for industrial purposes have been their almost
instantaneous character and the rapid alternation in their
direction. The instrumental means necessary to seize hold
of these rapidly alternating waves, and convert them into
a more or less continuous stream of force flowing in one
direction, are necessarily of a delicate character, and are
easily put out of adjustment. This is easily understood
when it is remembered that in the machine first tried by
Mr. Holmes the rubbing surfaces were worn away in ten or
twenty minutes. The Berlioz machine required for its
maximum of intensity 350 or 400 revolutions per minute,
and the direction of the current is then reversed nearly
6000 times per minute; here, however, the alternate
currents are not brought into one.* In the machine made
by Mr. Wilde for the Commissioners of Northern Light-
houses, the first armature is made to revolve about 2500
times a minute, generating 5000 waves of electricity.
These alternate currents are converted into an intermittent
current moving in one direction only by means of a com-
mutator. The second armature revolves 1800 times a
minute, generating 3600 alternately opposed waves of
electric force, which are picked up and sent in one direction
by a commutator, as in the former case.T

It is evident that when a good friction conta¢t is to be
kept between pieces of metal moving at these enormous
velocities, the wear and tear is very great. For a long time,

* Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. i., p. 73. January, 1864.
+ Ibid., vol. iii., p. 504. October, 1866.

308 Magneto-Electric Illumination. [July,

however, it was thought that these difficulties were inherent
to the magneto-electric machine, until ele¢tricians found,
first, that the almost instantaneous flash of the current
could be .considerably lengthened out, and then that the
successive waves generated could be so produced as to
flow in the same instead of in opposite directions.

These important desiderata are supplied in a magneto-
electric machine of a novel form, invented by M. Gramme.

The principle is not difficult to understand. Take a jong |

bar of soft iron, E, E’, Fig. 1, round which is coiled an insu-
lated copper wire ; to this bar, forming an electro-magnet,
let a permanent magnet, s N, be presented, the south pole
being nearest to the iron bar. Now move the permanent
magnet in the direction of the arrow parallel with itself,
with a uniform velocity, and always maintaining the same
distance from the bar. The south pole of the permanent
magnet will produce a north magnetic pole in the portion of
the iron bar nearest to it; and the gradual displacement of
this pole from one end to the other of the iron bar, caused
by the motion of the magnet, will induce in the surrounding
wire an electric current which may be rendered evident by
the galvanometer, G. This current will not be instan-
taneous: it will continue to flow during the whole time the
magnet is moving between the two ends, E E’, of the iron
bar, and its time of duration may therefore be varied at
pleasure.

This experiment shows that it may be possible, by proper
arrangements, to realise a machine which will furnish a
continuous current of electricity for as long as may be
desired. We have only to imagine the electro-magnet,
instead of being the straight bar shown in Fig. 1, bent
into a circular form as at E, E’, BE”, E’”, Fig. 2.

Submit this annular Mice aiehce simultaneously to the
influence of the two poles of the permanent horse-shoe
magnet, N S, and at the same time imagine it to revolve
on its axis in the direction shown by the arrows.

The south pole, s, of the horse-shoe magnet will produce
in that portion of the ring, E, which is near it an electric
current in a particular direction, as may be inferred from
what we have said respecting the straight bar, Fig. 1. But
the north pole, N, of the magnet will likewise produce in
the part of the ring which is in its neighbourhood, B”, an
electric current flowing in the opposite direction; and it is
easily conceived that in the two portions of the ring, E’ and
E”’, which are in what may be called the mean position,
there is no current at all. If, therefore, we wish to collect

1873.] Magneto-Electric Illumination. 309

the two contrary currents produced simultaneously in the
Wire surrounding the electro-magnet, we have only to
connect the wires at the mean position to two conductors
by friction contacts, F F’, when the current can be carried
away to a galvanometer, G, and rendered sensible.

Fic. I.

TT
Mi I/II iI) TI
HT HI |

HL
HH) HH}
Hii / TTL |

Hii

s

N

The principle of the arrangement being thus understood,
the construction of the machine itself will be readily in-
‘ telligible.

It consists of a permanent horse-shoe magnet, S, 0, N,
Fig. 3, between the poles of which revolves an ele¢tro-
magnet. This electro-magnet consists of a ring of soft
iron, round which is wound an insulated conducting wire,
presenting no solution of continuity. It may be conceived
as being an ordinary straight electro-magnet bent round in

Fic. 2.

——

ly
L;
DW

i)
\ it Ml)

a circle, and the two ends of the conducting wire soldered
together to establish continuity.

In Figs. 4 and 7 the electro-magnet is represented at A in
seCtion, whilst in Figs. 3 and 5 it is shown at A with the
covering wire on it. It revolves round its axis on an axle to
which movement is communicated either by means of

VOL. III. (N.S.) es

310 Magneto-Electric Illumination. [July,

belting or with toothed gearing, shown in Figs. 3 and 4,
worked by a handle, m.

The current is generated and collected in the following
way :—The wire surrounding the ele¢tro-magnet is, as we
have said, continuous, but it is disposed in 40 sections or
elements, each consisting, say, of 100 turns. The outer
end of the coil of one section forms the commencement of
the first coil of the next section, and so on. The whole of
the wire is therefore divided into 40 equal seCtions, being,
however, continuous throughout.

To understand better how an uninterrupted current is
produced, let us imagine a line to be drawn equatorially, or
perpendicular to the lines of force between the poles of the
horseshoe magnet, and dividing the ring armature into two
parts; suppose likewise that to the two ends of one of the
40 coils two wires are soldered, the other ends of which
are attached to a galvanometer. Now let the ring be

intermittently revolved in one dire¢tion, so as to give to
the said coil a succession of movements of about Io degrees,
stopping each time to permit the galvanometer needle to
resume its normal position. It will then be seen that the
whole time the coil 1s above the equatorial line the galva-
nometer needle will be urged in the same direction, and the
currents may be called positive. But as soon as the said
coil crosses the equatorial position, the currents generated
in it will be xegative, and in the opposite direétion to what
they were at the other half of the circle. This expe-
riment shows that a reversal of the direction of move-
ment carries with it a reversal of the direction of the
current.

From this insight into what is produced in one of the
sections, the general phenomena produced by the whole
circle of coils are easily understood. The 20 sections
which are on one side of the equatorial position are the
source of positive currents; these may be of unequal in-
tensity among themselves, but for a uniform velocity of
rotation their sum is evidently constant, for as one coil
crosses the equatorial line from north to south an opposite
one comes up from south to north to take its place. On
the other hand, the 20 sections which are on the other side
of the equatorial line are the seat of negative currents, the
sum of whose intensities is likewise constant, and equal to
that of the positive currents.

Thus the revolving armature presents two groups of coils,
generating two equal but opposite streams of electric force.
The wire being unbroken the currents neutralise each other,

1873.] Magneto-Electric Illumination. 311

and there is no circulation. The result may be likened
to what would be produced by taking two batteries, each
of 20 cells, and connecting them in opposition by joining
similar. poles.

The problem now is to pick up these dormant currents
and utilise their force. Its solution is apparent from the
comparison we have just made. To collect the electric
current from two batteries which are connected together in
opposition, it is only necessary to fasten conducting wires
to the two points of contact of similar poles, when the whole
force of the batteries will flow along these wires. They
were hitherto opposed, they now flow together, quantity-
wise. .M. Gramme, in the second portion of his invention,
has adopted this artifice in an ingenious manner.

The various sections of the continuous electro-magnet are
connected with radial pieces of copper shown at R in Figs.
3, 4, and 7, insulated one from the other, but coming very
close. The termination of one coil of wire and the com-
mencement of the adjacent coil are soldered to the same
radial connector, of which therefore there are as many as
_ there are coils. These radial connectors, on approaching
the centre, are bent at right angles, as shown at R, Figs. 4
and 7, and pass through to the other side, where their ends
form an inner concentric circle, being still insulated one
from the other.

Two friction pieces F (Figs 4, 5, and 6) consisting of
discs of copper, are pressed by means of springs shown
at vy (Figs. 5 and 6) against the circle formed by the
extremities of the condu¢ting radii Rr, at two points which
are accurately in the equatorial line; that is to say, at the
place where the equal and opposed currents generated in
the upper and lower halves of the ring neutralise each
other. Consequently the currents are collected and flow
together along conducting wires, which are fastened to the
friction pieces F.

The perfect continuity of the current so obtained, is
secured by causing the friction pieces F to touch simul-
taneously several of the radial conductors R; consequently
the metallic circuit is never broken.

The effeéts produced by these machines vary with the
rapidity of rotation. Experience shows that the ele¢ctro-
motive force is sensibly in proportion to the velocity; but it
is probable that this force tends towards a limit, correspond-
ing to a particular velocity, beyond which the electromotive
force would remain constant, or even diminish. Moreover,
the electromotive force is greater in proportion to the

312 Magneto-Electric Illumination. Lpuly;-—

number of coils encircling the iron ring, but the relation
between these two quantities has not yet been determined.
The theoretical resistance of the machine should be one-
fourth of the whole resistance of the wire wound round the
ring armature; but the actual resistance is not so great,
since each fri¢tion-disc always touches several radii, R, and
the resistance of the coils thus embraced by the friction-
disc has to be subtracted from the resistance of the
circuit.
_ The possibility of augmenting the strength of the current
by increasing the dimensions of the machine is too obvious
to need more than a passing allusion. The effetts may
also be increased by connecting together several such
machines, as galvanic piles are connected, either for intensity
or quantity. The quality of the current likewise differs
according to the kind of wire surrounding the armature, a
short thick wire producing effects of quantity, and a long
thin wire, of intensity. Itis also easy to see that two horse-
shoe magnets, instead of one, may be made to act on one
ring armature; that is to say, it may be actuated by
four poles instead of two, or even by a greater number ;
always having a frition-disc between each pair of poles.
Moreover, the permanent horse-shoe magnet may be re-
placed by ele¢tro-magnets, which can be excited by a por-
tion of the current derived from the machine itself, accord-
ing to the now well-known method. At the beginning of
rotation the residual magnetism of these ele¢tro-magnets
will induce a feeble current in the ring; one half of this
passes round the ele¢tro-magnets, the four poles of which
- react on the armature. Of the four friétion pieces, two
carry half the current to excite the electro-magnets, and the
machine rapidly attains the maximum effeét. From con-
ducting wires attached to the other two friction pieces a
powerful current is available.

A machine of this kind, containing two horse-shoe electro-
magnets, one for exciting and the other for the exterior
current, and having round each pole 7 kilos. of copper wire
3m.m. ‘diameter, when worked by hand, decomposes water,
and fuses 26 centims. of iron wire g-1oths m.m. in dia-
meter. However slowly the armature is rotated, the needle
of a large galvanometer having the wire only once round is
deflected, and the effects increase in intensity as the
velocity of rotation increases, up to a maximum of 700 or
800 turns a minute, a velocity which is easily obtained when
steam is employed.

Such a machine, giving an absolutely continuous current

1873.|

Magneto-Electric Illunuination.

Eee

WALZ

313

314 Magneto-Electric Illumination. [July,

of electric force by the mere turning of a wheel, is of
value outside the physical laboratory. It is available—
(1) for medical purposes ; (2) for telegraphy ; (3) for ele¢tro-
plating, gilding, &c.; (4) for military purposes, signalling,
explosions, &c.; (5) for chemical decompositions; and (6)
for electric illumination.

A large machine, which has lately been exhibited in
London, driven by a 24-horse-power engine, produced a
light equal to 8000 candles; a copper wire about 14 m.m.
in thickness, suspended between the poles, became instantly
red-hot with a revolution of little over 300 in a minute.
Larger machines are being made that will probably give a
light equal to 25,000 candles.

This machine has lately been examined by the French
Société d’ Encouragement, and in accordance with the recom-
mendation of the reporter, Count du Moncel, a prize of
3000 francs has been awarded for it to M. Gramme; whilst
the manager of the ‘‘ Alliance Company,” M. Joseph Van
Malderen, who superintended its manufa¢ture, has had
awarded to hima gold medal. In his report, Count du
Moncel says that a machine 1°25 metre in height, 0°8 metre
long, and the same in width, driven by a 4-horse engine,
gave a light equal to goo carcel lamps. It also heated to’
redness two juxta-posed copper wires 12 metres long and
o°7 m.m. diameter, and fused an iron wire 2°5 metres long
and 1°3 m.m. thick.

The constancy of direction of the ele¢tric current gene-
rated by this machine is, however, not of so great an im-
portance for the electric light as for other purposes for
which it may be used. Indeed, the electric light is by many
electricians thought to be superior when produced by a
magneto-electric machine of the old form without any com-
mutator. The alternate reversal of the currents of ele¢tricity
produces no flickering or irregularity in the arc of light, as
they occur far too quickly to be appreciated by the eye,
whilst the rapid reversal of the direction causes the carbons
to wear away with great regularity, thus enabling the point
of light to be kept more easily in the focus.

For the ele¢tro-deposition of metals—copper, silver, &c.,
constancy of direction of current is indispensable, and here
the experiments show a marked superiority of the Gramme
machine over other magneto-eleCtric machines.

In the galvanoplastic works of M. Christofle, of Paris,
where experiments have been going on for more than a year,
it is found that the best machine hitherto known, when moved

with a velocity of 2400 revolutions per minute, only deposits .

1873.] Magneto-Electric Illumination. 315

170 grammes of silver per hour; whilst a smaller Gramme
machine moved with a velocity of 300 revolutions per
minute deposits 200 grammes of silver per hour; the tem-
perature of the annular armature not exceeding 50° C., with
a velocity of 275 revolutions, no elevation of temperature is
experienced. It will be easily comprehended how strongly
this result, obtained with a speed of rotation eight times
less than hitherto required, speaks in favour of M. Gramme’s
invention. Usually at M. Christofle’s the circuits are
arranged to deposit 600 grammes of silver per hour, and the
manager of the factory finds that the deposition with this
machine takes place with a regularity and constancy which
leaves nothing to be desired, and which cannot be obtained
by using any other source of ele¢tricity.

Recently, the electric light generated by a Gramme
machine has been exhibited on the Victoria Tower of the
Houses of Parliament. The machine is placed in the
vaults of the House of Commons, near to the boilers, and
is worked by a small engine, which was already there, and
was convenient for the purpose. From the machine two
copper wires, half an inch diameter, are led along the
vaults to the base of the clock tower, and thence upwards
to the signalling point, a total length of nearly goo feet,
being about three times the distance that an electric
current has ever before been conducted for a similar
purpose. The signalling apparatus is placed in a lantern
5 feet high, 4 feet wide, and having a semi-circular glazed
front, which projects from the lantern of the belfry on the
north side of the tower, or that overlooking the Victoria
Embankment. It consists—first, of a fixed table, in which
is inserted a flat brass ring 16 inches diameter and 1 inch
broad, which serves as a roller path for the apparatus
carrying the lamp and reflector; next, there is a circular
revolving table, having bearings on the roller path, and
which is moved around a central pivot projecting from the
fixed table, being actuated by a worm wheel and screw.
By means of this arrangement the light can be dire¢ted
horizontally from side to side through an arc of 180. It
could, of course, be made to sweep the whole of the horizon,
but the position of the lantern with regard to the clock
tower is such as to enable the light to be seen through the
range of a semi-circle only. Upon the revolving table, and
hinged to it at the front is the elevating table, which has a
screw adjustment to the rear by which the light can be
raised or depressed, being capable of vertical training
through an arc of 25. On the elevator is placed the lamp

316 Magneto-Electric Illumination. (July,

table, upon which again is a sliding platform, on which the
lamps themselves stand. There are two lamps, which are
in use alternately, the carbon points lasting but four hours,
while the House frequently sits for ten.

The copper conductors terminate at the fixed part of the
machine, and the method of carrying the current from them
to the lamps is very ingenious, the moving parts of the
apparatus forming in themselves conductors. The negative
condué¢tor is placed in metallic conta¢t with one hinge of
the elevator table through the centre pin on which the table
revolves, and the positive conductor with the other hinge by
means of the brass roller path. The currents from those
points are conducted to the lamp table, and thence through
the traversing platform to the lamps, metallic contact being
obtained throughout the whole circuit by means of flat
springs moving over flat surfaces. The changing of the
lamps is effected, without any appreciable break of con-
tinuity in the light, by means of the traversing platform on
which they stand, and which has a sliding motion from side
to side. When the carbon points in one lamp are nearly
consumed, the traverser is quickly shifted from right to left,
Or vice versd, aS may be necessary. The break of contact is
but momentary, and only exists during the time required to
move the traverser rapidly through a space of six inches.
The light will not become extinct during that period, as
there is not sufficient time to allow the incandescence of
the carbon to entirely subside. The springs under the lamp
thrown out of use are by this a¢tion removed from the
metal plate in the lamp table, and the springs under the
fresh lamp are brought into contact, and the light is at once
produced anew.

The intensifying apparatus at present in use is a holo-
phole lent by Messrs. Chance, and through which the rays
are sent in parallel lines. It is 21 inches in diameter, and
is composed of lenses, surrounded by annular prisms, the
centre part refracting the rays and the outer rings reflecting
them. Should the electric light be adopted, a special lens
will be constructed, by means of which the rays will be
diffused through an arc of 180°, instead of being sent in one
direction only. The cost of this electric light is at present
estimated at rod. per hour.

It may be of interest if we consider some matters of scien-
tific interest in connection with this machine. In the first
place, it possesses an enormous advantage over the voltaic
battery in the absolute constancy of the current so long as the
velocity of rotation is uniform. In an experiment carried

ii.

1873.] Magneto-Electric Illumination. 317

on for eight hours with one of the first machines con-
structed, the deviation of the needle of a galvanometer was
absolutely invariable. Again, a voltaic battery is a compli-
cated piece of apparatus; for each element consists of four
separate solid pieces (the outer cell, the porous cell, the
positive and the negative element) and two liquids, whilst
in most experiments a considerable number of batteries is
required. From this multiplicity of parts a voltaic battery
is subject to many accidental derangements, which are
likely to weaken if not destroy its power. With the
magneto-ele¢tric machine there is no complication. All
the parts are solidly connected together, and no special care
is required.

It must also be remembered that a powerful voltaic
battery costs almost as much when it is at rest as when in
action. The magneto-electric machine, on the contrary,
costs nothing when it is not producing an external current.
This may be understood in two senses. It is, of course,
evident that when no current is required the rotation of the
machine may be stopped; but it is a remarkable fact that,
even when rotation of the armature is still going on, no
mechanical force is expended except that.necessary to over-
come friction, provided the exterior current does not flow.
To understand this, let us examine a little more closely into
the working of the machine. In the first place, suppose
the machine to be in rapid movement, and furnishing a
current in an exterior circuit, it will be observed that the
armature does not get hot; from this it may be concluded
that all the mechanical force transmitted to the machine is
converted into electricity, since none is changed to heat.
In the next place, the machine continuing to revolve with
the same speed, suppose the exterior circuit to be broken;
still the machine does not rise in temperature, showing that
in this case there is neither produ¢tion of heat nor elec-
tricity, and consequently no waste of mechanical force.
From the way in which the currents in the armature are
generated, when there is no exterior circuit along which
they can flow, they neutralise one another, and keep in such
perfect equilibrium that there is absolutely no circulation,
and consequently no heating.

If the Gramme machine is set in motion by a force just
sufficient to turn it*with a definite velocity when the
exterior current is flowing, and if the outer circuit is
suddenly broken, the machine is seen to acquire an in-
creasing velocity, showing that the mechanical force applied
to it, being no longer capable of going off as electricity,

VOL. III. (N.S.) ah

318 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. [July,

spends itself then in augmenting the velocity of the moving
parts of the machine.

On the other hand, if the machine is kept at a certain
speed of revolution whilst the outer circuit is broken, and
the circuit is then suddenly closed, the speed instantly
diminishes, showing that a portion of the force turning the
machine changes into electricity.

These experiments show that, whether the machine be
active or passive, there exists always a state of equilibrium
between the expenditure of mechanical force and the
production of electricity.

LV:, THE MINERAL. KICHES).OP Tie
PHILIPPINES.

By W. W. Woop, Hong Kong.
ee has always prided herself on being a ‘‘ nacion
at

minera’”’—a mining nation—and there are few coun-
tries in which so great a variety and abundance of
mineral wealth is found as in the Peninsula, where many of
the mines have been worked from very remote times. Not-
withstanding the mining colleges and administrations, and
in spite of many modern inventions for saving time and
abridging labour, much of the gear used in the Spanish
mines is to this day of a very primitive description, and the
produce of the ores less than that obtained by the adoption
of modern machinery and improvements in smelting. This
being the case in the mother country, it is not difficult to
imagine that in a remote colony like the Philippines, and
one in which as yet little has been done towards exploring
the country from a mining point of view, the devices for the
extraction, &c., of ores are of a still more simple and in-
effective kind. In addition to this, a very misplaced eco-
nomy, or perhaps want of means, has prevented several
mining adventures, undertaken in various parts of the
Archipelago, from resulting favourably for the projectors.
The interior of the great islands of Mindoro and Mindanao
are but little known, but from their extent and variety of
surface are probably rich in minerals; but geological sur-
veys are extremely difficult, owing to the extent and im-
penetrable nature of the forests which cover the greater

1873.] Mineral Riches of the Philippines. 319

part of them. Whatever reports may have been made by
the Spanish mining engineers (of which corps a certain
number are stationed in the Philippines), with one or two
exceptions, they have not been published, and are buried,
with other similar documents, in the archives, and practi-
cally inaccessible.

The mining operations of the natives are conducted in
the simplest and most imperfect manner, and the natural
consequence is that the product is of inferior quality, and
the ore not fully reduced. It is so difficult to persuade this
indolent and perversely ignorant people of the advantage of
adopting any modern improvement, that in the manufacture
of one of the greatest products of the country—sugar—it is
only within a very few years that Indians rich enough tv
afford proper machinery for crushing the cane and boiling
the juice have been induced to adopt the iron mills and
proper boilers. In what are called the mines here (witha
very few exceptions) the processes are precisely the same as
they were before the arrival of Europeans in the colony.
The theory of the native that what was done in the time of
his grandfather is good enough for him at the present day,
is too firmly rooted to be abolished. In addition to this,
the greater part of the mining adventurers here are of a
class which, having little or no means beyond their hands
and a few of the rudest implements, prefer the half-idle and
half-gambling life of a gold-seeker to the more solid results
of constant and welli-directed labour in other directions.
Great ignorance is the constant source of disappointment.
The most common minerals are mistaken for valuable ores,
and time after time it has been the disagreeable duty of the
writer to disabuse enthusiastic speculators who in the
common iron pyrites thought they had discovered a vein of
gold, or in the brilliant arsenical pyrites a deposit of platina.
Nor is it easy to convince these people of their mistakes, for,
being a very suspicious race, and generally unscrupulous,
they fancy others are trying to circumvent them, and ap-
propriate their so-called discoveries, as many of them would
do to others if opportunity offered.

Gold, being very generally disseminated through the
Archipelago, has naturally, from its value, and the com-
parative ease with which it is reduced from the ore, been
the principal object of search in the Philippines. Silver
(argentiferous galena) is rare, but there are innumerable
points at which gold may be found; the greater part of the
metal being that of ‘‘ lavaderos,” or washings of rivers and

small streams. In such situations it is found in minute

320 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. > Ely,

scales, generally in the sand. In the province of South
Camarines there is a gold-bearing quartz which, even with
the imperfect appliances of the Indians, has produced good

results ; but as their operations are confined to sinking pits

which soon fill with water, which they are unable to get
rid of, the works are on avery small scale. Some yéars
since a Spanish Company—the Golden Anchor—projected
a tunnel into their hill of quartz, with a view to drainage,
but after expending some 20,000 dollars (a very inadequate
sum) the project was abandoned, and the money wasted. The
impatience of the shareholders induced them to give up the
speculation I think prematurely. With the modern crush-
ing machines it is not improbable that the Camarines gold-
quartz would yield handsomely, especially if proper means
were taken to drain the mines, in order that they might be
worked at all seasons of the year. A curious crystallised
variety of native gold is brought from Misamis and Cugayan,
in Mindanao, but the gold from that quarter is said gene-
rally to be of an inferior quality to that found in Luzon.
Small pipitas are also brought thence, though persons who
discover mines are compelled, in case they wish to work
them, to ‘‘denounce” them, as it is termed in Spanish
mining phraseology, to the InspeCtor of Mines, who grants
a privilege which is forfeited in case the works are not com-
menced within a specified period. I have never heard of any
of large size being found.

One of the obstacles to progress is the enormous over-
legislation in all departments of the state. Innumerable
regulations restrict almost every kind of enterprise, and
many of the laws are allowed to become a dead-letter for
years, when they are suddenly revived, to the dismay of
those who have proceeded in the supposition that their
operation was really suspended. This is one of the causes
why mines have languished in the Philippines. A permis-
sion to work can almost always be obtained, but the process
is very frequently tedious, and to a mere Indian who has

made a discovery, it is a somewhat formidable affair to _

obtain permission to profit by it before some unscrupulous
person has taken advantage of it. The consequence is that
all the gold produced in the Archipelago is the result of
small washings in the rivers, or a pit sunk in the rock,
which is soon filled by water, and then abandoned. ‘The
washing process is perfectly simple, the auriferous sand
being scooped up, and washed in a peculiar kind of basket
made of bamboo. ‘The gold produced from ore is generally
sent to market melted and cast in a shell, or any simple

1873.] Mineral Riches of the Philippines. 321

mould. Much of this fused metal abounds in sulphur, which
the natives are said to mix with it, and it thus becomes ex-
ceedingly brittle or short, breaking up when rolled. The
Manila mint very properly refuses this sulphurous gold,
which is sent to China, and purified there by a tedious pro-
cess. The gold dust is generally free from adulteration, but
since the introdu¢tion of galvanic gilding the greatest care
is now necessary in purchasing.

- Gold is common in many parts in the Philippines, and
there is scarcely a stream in which it is not found in greater
or less quantity. I have seen a gold-seeker at work in one
of the numerous branches of the river which intersect the
suburbs of Manila. The metal was washed out of the
sand in minute spangles.

Gold is also collected by the various tribes of independent
savages which still inhabit the centres of the larger islands,
and occasionally curious ear-pendantsare obtained from them,
made to represent deer and other wild animals. No reliable
statistics of the total production of gold in the Philippines
can be had, as there are no means of ascertaining how
much of the quantity found is used in the islands for jewelry.
and ornaments, while a good deal of that which comes
to market is carried away by Chinese, who say nothing
about it.

In order to supply the demand for the new gold coinage,
it has been necessary, after exhausting an immense amount
of Mexican and South American doubloons (the former gold
currency here) to import large quantities of this metal from
China, California, &c.

Gold has occasionally been found accumulated in certain
parts of mountain streams in considerable quantities. An
old friend of mine who was for some years governor of one
of the southern provinces related to me the history of a
rich find of this kind. Three Indians, professed gold-seekers,
went into partnership for the purpose of exploring the upper
part of a river in which they were in the habit of washing
for gold. One, the uncle, furnished the supplies for the ex-
pedition, and his two nephews were his associates. ‘They
found in a deep hole where the stream fell from a height, a
large quantity of gold dust, washed down by the river, and
which from its gravity had settled in this spot. On their
return a quarrel ensued as to how it was to be divided—the
uncle claiming the largest share, as having provided the
means. A lawsuit was the consequence, and meanwhile
the treasure was deposited with the Governor, who assured
me that the metal was of the finest touch. Subsequent

B22 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. [July,

search about the same locality by others resulted in dis-
appointment, no similar deposit being found.

In the gold-mining quartz which I have seen, the metal is
either disseminated throughout the gangue in small specks,
or is found in the form of thin sheets about the thickness of
paper, and this is laboriously picked out from the crushed
mineral with infinite labour, as the process of amalgamation
is beyond the means of the native gold-miners. ‘The gold
found in the Philippines is generally bought up by Chinese
or Mestizo dealers.

I am not aware of the existence of any silver mines in
_ the Philippines. Some years ago a very rich deposit of
argentiferous galena was discovered in the Island of Luzon.
The ore was said also to contain a notable quantity of gold,
but the affair was kept very secret. An assay having been
made in Madrid, a company was formed there, and the
principal shareholders were said to be Queen Christina and
the Duke of Rianzures. The ore was shipped quietly to
Spain, no attempt at reduction being made here, and after
some time the enterprise was abandoned, as the vein became
exhausted. There is no doubt that the ore was very rich,
and as a regular miner was sent out to direct the work, it is
probable that the mine was well worked out before it was
closed.

Platina is said to have been discovered in the mountains
of San Mateo, to the north-east of Manila, a great many
years ago, but the story, which is the following, appears to
be very doubtful. Some Indians showed to the curate of
one of the villages of the district some grains of what was
said to be a hard white metal, samples of which were re-
ported to have been declared true platina by the Mexican
Administration of Mines, to which they were sent. The
padre naturally desired to visit the locality whence they
came, but the natives always excused themselves, as they
dreaded being forced to work the mine. After a great deal
of threatening and persuasion, they at length consented to
lead the padre to the spot, on condition that he permitted
them to blindfold him. He was accordingly taken in a
hammock to the place, and rapidly returned to his village.
The next morning his guides disappeared, and never again
made their appearance. No similar discovery has since
been made.

The most important mining operation in the Philippines
is that of Mancayan, where a very rich deposit of antimonial
or grey copper has been discovered, and worked for some
time by a company, few of the original shareholders of

1873.] Mineral Riches of the Philippines. — 323

which have now any interest in it, the usual impatience for
grand results having caused most of them to sell out. A
great deal of money has been spent in this undertaking,
and it is now only beginning to yield a favourable return.
The great objection to the mine is that it is situated at a
considerable distance from the coast, from which it is
separated by a very rugged mountain chain, intersected by
deep gullies or barrancos, making transport both difficult
and expensive. ‘The works are conducted scientifically
under experienced engineers, and the metal produced is of
good quality. An immense number of obstacles have pre-
sented themselves in the course of the work, but which
patience and skill have in a great measure overcome, but
the great difficulty of the road to the coast is insurmount-
able, except at an expense which it would not be prudent
to incur. The ingots of copper are carried down by natives
on their backs, and the stores, &c., for the mine reach it by
the same conveyance. The indomitable courage and per-
severance of the original projector, and present head of the
enterprise, have alone prevented its being abandoned long
since. Ina more favourable situation there is little doubt
that the copper mine of Mancayan would be a most pros-
perous concern. The ore is generally massive, but some
very beautiful crystallised specimens have been brought to
Manila. Long before Europeans began to work there, the
savages of the interior smelted this rich ore in their rude
way to form pots and kettles, which appear to have been
beaten out of masses of the pure metal. These are now
becoming rare, and are considered great curiosities in
Manila.

Great hopes were at one time entertained of larger profits
from copper found in the Island of Masbate, but this, like
so many other attempts made here, resulted in failure.
The ore, which in many cases consisted of almost pure
native copper in nodules and irregular masses, was found at
a trifling depth, disseminated in the soil, but I believe never
in sufficient quantity together to make it a paying specu-
lation. This probably was partly caused by the want of
mining experience, and a disinclination to risk expenses
except for a certainty. A good deal of money has been
wasted in the Philippines on mining speculations under-
taken without experience, and carried on without the
knowledge necessary to success. One of these days we
shall very likely hear that great mineral riches have been
discovered, and are worked successfully, for there can be
but little doubt, from what is already known, that such

<

324 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. [July,

must exist; but if this does take place, our friends, the
Spaniards, must change their present system of parsimony
in their operations, or perhaps the result may be brought
about by foreign energy, and the introduction of foreign
capital. Mines in Spain are now worked profitably by
foreign companies which a but poor results to the
Spaniards themselves.

No lead mines have yet been worked in these islands with
the exception of that of argentiferous galena already alluded
to under the notices of silver, though extremely rich samples
of ore have been sent to Manila for examination from both
the Island of Cebu and the province of Camarines north.
Not having visited the localities in which the specimens
were found, I cannot say how far it would be worth while
to work them. In the neighbourhood of Labo, in North
Camarines, and not far from the point where galena has
been discovered, is a deposit (said to be now nearly ex-
hausted) of that rare mineral the chromate of lead, which
hitherto has been brought almost exclusively from Siberia
and Brazil. Soon after its discovery, a great number of
most magnificently crystallised specimens were obtained
from an excavation made by a Spaniard, who is said to have
gone to the expense of having it filled up again, in order
to be the sole possessor of these fine minerals. In this he was
disappointed, however, as much more of the chromate was
obtained, though not in such large or such perfect specimens.
The crystallisation variety is accompanied by a much larger
quantity of an earthy and massive kind. The natives have

destroyed quantities of the crystals by pounding them to.

powder, to be used as sand for drying writing, and make
use of the galena in thesame way. I have had a large
bottle filled with small crystals of chromate picked from
the gangue and intended for the above purpose.

Iron appears to be abundant, and the ore very rich at
what are called the mines of Augat, in the Province of
Balacan. Some attempts have been made at work in the
European style, but from various causes this enterprise has
failed like so many others. ‘The iron is now obtained from
sample pits, dug by the natives, who reduce it in the most
primitive of furnaces. The chief use to which the metal is

applied is in castings for the ploughs of the» country, which ©

are very rude and ineffective implements. From Augat
have been received some good specimens of magnetic iron
(native loadstone), and some of the samples of ore are of
the richest description.

In former days, iron was procured in the mountains of

1873.! Mineral Riches of the Philippines. 325

San Ysidro, near Manila, and Government had an esta-
blishment there or near it, for the manufacture of cannon
balls, &c., all of which have long been abandoned. It is
said that many years ago a private individual (or company)
projected works upon a large scale at this point, and
machinery was imported from Europe. This also failed
from the almost inaccessible nature of the locality, and the
writer was assured by a friend that when.he was a young
man he had seen on the mountain road large pieces of iron
castings, shafts, &c., which had been there left in despair
by the owners, who found it impossible to get them to the
mine over mountains and barrancos entirely destitute of
anything in the shape of a road beyond a mere footpath.

The history of a deposit of metallic mercury in one of the
southern provinces of the Island of Luzon is enveloped in a
certain mystery. The only intelligible account which I
have been able to obtain, and which reached me with a fine
sample of quicksilver, is this :—At a point on the sea shore
there is a high bank of clay, and below this clay a stratum
of magnetic iron sand. By making cavities in this sand the
pure mercury is found filtered into them, and when a pit is
sunk through the clay into the sand, after a few hoursa
quantity of the perfeCtly pure metal is colleéted. No traces
of any ore have been found, most probably from the fact
that no one competent has taken the trouble to investigate
the matter. It was said, I know not with what. truth, that
Government discouraged any further researches, fearing
that the discovery and production of mercury in the Philip-
pines might have a disadvantageous effe¢t upon the mines
of Almaden in Spain. One of the mining engineers assured
me that the pure metal was found in the way described.
This is certainly a very singular affair, as deposits of quick-
silver, though occasionally occurring (as in the mines of
Istria), are much less common than cinnabar, from which
the greater part. of mercury in commerce is derived. A
story was reported that many years ago a vessel was
wrecked on the coast, having a quantity of quicksilver on
board, but this would seem a very lame explanation. I
have particularly inquired whether anything resembling the
soft shale in which globules of mercury are visible was
found in this neighbourhood, but have not been able to
ascertain more than what I have already related.

Coal is found in several localities in the Philippines, but
the only mines which have been regularly worked are on
the Island of Cebu—private enterprises which have cost
much more than they-have yielded. The great obstacle to

MOL... 11.’ (N-S.) 2U

326 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. [July, .

these undertakings, as well as to large agricultural esta-
blishments, is the difficulty almost always experienced in
getting labourers. Chinese have been tried, but with very
indifferent success, as the contract coolies generally become
worthless, idle, and dissipated; while the natives have a
strong aversion to anything like continued labour, excepting
where they are proprietors. A native will work pretty hard
for a week to gain enough to enable him to be idle fora
fortnight. They require constant watching and urging, and
never do anything thoroughly unless obliged to do so by un-
wearied superintendence. In addition to this there is the
greatest dislike to mines and subterranean work, though
well remunerated.

The quality of the coal hitherto obtained is not very good.
As it contains pyrites it is very liable to spontaneous com-
bustion, and in one of the mines the escape of inflammable
gas has already caused some accidents, which have in-
creased the prejudice of the natives against this kind of
labour. ‘The two principal mines in Cebu are situated ina
range of mountains, which runs longitudinally through the
middle of the island, and are about five miles from the
coast. One of the principal expenses has been the for-
mation and maintenance of roads, which suffer a good deal
during the rainy season.

The Cebu coals have been found excellent in Hong Kong
for the production of gas, though of inferior quality for
steamer use.

Coal is by no means confined to the localities of the two
above-mentioned mines, but is seen cropping out at various
points of the mountain range. The distance to the coast is
an inconvenience, and from the nature of the country,
transport can only be made in carts drawn by the
buffalo, a very slow mode of conveyance. Work has ceased
in one of the Cebu coal mines, and it has been offered for
sale: and the other is worked imperfectly, and on a small
scale.

Perhaps as the shafts are deepened veins of better coal
may be found, but a great deal of capital and machinery
would be necessary, and all things considered it would bea
very bold enterprise to attempt; though from the increase
of steam vessels in the Archipelago within a few years past,
there is no doubt that large supplies of good coal would
find ready sale, that used here at present coming either from
England or Australia, and costing proportionately high.
Spanish capital is not likely to be employed here in mines ;
and until greater security is offered by Government, and

_ i=” w-

1873.] Mineral Riches of the Philippines. 327

labour is more readily and constantly to be had, there is
little hope that foreign speculators will be tempted to
adventure such large sums as are indispensable to the
successful working of mines.*

Lignite occurs also in several places, and a good deal of
disappointment has been suffered by persons who fancied
that in the deposits of this mineral in favourable situations
they had fallen upon a true coal.

The only available building stone in Manila and its
vicinity is a species of volcanic tufa, which composes large
quarries, from which the whole city has been built. In
breaking large masses of this stone, which when fresh
quarried is very soft, fossil wood is frequently found im-
bedded in it, as well as branches of trees which have not
become silicified, and occasionally fragments of charcoal.

In Cebu and some of the southern islands the coral reefs
are resorted to for building materials as well as for lime.
Limestone is found only in a few localities, but is much
used for the latter purpose.

Some very pretty marbles are quarried in the island of
Romblon, and at various other points handsome varieties
are found which are now worked in Manila for church fonts,
*‘ sepulchral tablets,” and ornamental purposes.

Good samples of gypsum (which are accompanied by the
anhydrous variety) are found in the Province of Butangas,
and large quantities of a fine kaolin are produced by
washing the débris of certain decomposed rocks which are
common in many places. The only use to which this
valuable material is applied is for the preparation of a fine
whitewash for interiors. A cold spring near Bay affords
splendid specimens of a siliceous deposit, which invests
twigs, leaves, &c., which fall into the water. At Tibi, in
Albay, the thermal springs also deposit silex, and some
of the specimens brought thence are very remarkable.
The water of these springs is hot enough to cook an egg
in a few minutes. On the lake of Bay are others which,
however, do not leave any notable deposit.

In the foregoing account of the mineral productions of
the Philippine group, I have avoided as much as possible
any attempt at geological description of the localities, from
the fact that I have visited some of them only and in too

* The jealous feeling which so long excluded foreign enterprise from Spain
and her colonies, and the indifference which prevented the Spaniards them-
selves from profiting by the riches within their grasp, is beginning to give
way at last. How disgusting it must be to them to recollect that when

masters of California they thought it good for nothing but a pasture for
cattle.

328 Mineral Riches of the Philippines. [July,

hurried a manner to enable me to furnish reliable par-
ticulars. As I have already remarked, geological examina-
tions are difficult, from the deep forests which cover the
interior. At the Cebu coal mines, which are situated in a
valley between two ranges of hills, into the second of which
the shafts are driven, I observed in the cuttings made
along the shoulders of the hills several old sea-beachers,
one above the other, at an elevation of some 500 feet above
the level of the sea, composed chiefly of rotted masses of
coral, some of them very large; and close to the coal the
indurated clay filled with casts of fossil shells, most of
them bivalve and very difficult to determine.

The matrix of the Mancayan copper is, I believe, a
porphyritic rock, but cannot speak with certainty.

At one point in Cebu is noticed some masses of grey
marble with white veins, blasted from the side of the hill in
making the road to the mine, so handsome that, were the
distance from the coast less, it would be profitable to
quarry it for sale at Manila.

No general geological survey has ever been made by the
Spaniards, and nearly, if not all the discoveries of minerals
in the islands, have been made by the natives in their
search for the precious metals.

Considerable quantities of impure sulphur are brought
to Manila from the island of Samar, where it is dug and
fused in large blocks. It is said that much more might
be had were the demand for it larger.

The bottom of the crater of the volcano of Zual, in the
province of Batangas, about 40 miles from the capital,
would also furnish a good deal of sulphur, which is con-
densed from two or three fumaroles, almost constantly
ejecting sulphurous vapour, in which the north-east mon-
soon condenses upon the leeward side of the crater, giving
the ledges of the rocks the appearance of being covered
with snow.

I am not aware that antimony, which is so abundant
in the neighbouring island of Borneo, has ever been dis-
covered in the Philippines, nor have any deposits of tin
been found. Zinc, as blende, accompanies the galena, and
in the north, near Mancayan, there are quantities of iron
pyrites, which are brought to the mines by the semi-wild
natives of the district to be used in the smelting operations.
In Mindanao, near Surigao, I have found very fine arsenical
pyrites most beautifully crystallised.

There can be little doubt that much has yet to be dis-
covered in the way of valuable minerals in these islands,

1873.] Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 329

but under the present system there is little encouragement
to invest money in mining operations.

With regard to mineral springs but little is known.
Streams strongly impregnated with iron derived from de-
composing rocks are common, and a strong sulphur spring
exists near Irlajala.

V. NOTES ON RECENT CHANGES IN BRITISH
ARTILLERY MATERIEL.

By CapTAIN S. P. OLIVER, Royal Artillery, F.R.G.S.

HE following notes embrace the more important results
of the investigations and experiments carried on by
various permanent and special committees in con-

nection with the department of the Director-General of
Ordnance in continuation of those last noticed in this
journal in No. XXXIV., April, 1872. :

The reader will observe the steady progress in our know-
ledge of explosives, an improvement in their manufacture
and in the construction of our heavy ordnance and its
adjuncts for obtaining increased accuracy, together with
various nice mechanical contrivances for rapidity of tra-
versing, elevating, and general working of the modern
ponderous weapons.

I. The investigations of the special committee on gun-
cotton and lithofra¢teur first claim attention, on the score of
the vast importance of the results obtained, which cannot
fail to have a great effect on our future war matériel.

This committee was first appointed in September, 1871,
for the purpose of considering and reporting upon the
general question of the manufacture, storage, and use of
gun-cotton and lithofracteur, and was composed as
follows :—

President—Colonel C. W. Younghusband, R.A.

Members—Colonel T. L. J. Gallwey, R.E.; Colonel
meow. Milward, ©... k.A.; -Lieut.-Col. C. B.. Nugent, ,
Bee. Capen E.Pield, K.N-:. G.. P. Bidder, Esq, Ci.
Dr. W. Odling, F.R.S.; and H. Bauerman, Esq.

Secretary—Captain W. H. Noble, R.A.

The.following are the leading points which the Committee
are required to investigate :—

330 Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. (July,

1. Whether the employment of gun-cotton is attended
with such uncertainty or peril as should induce the
department to relinquish its manufacture, and its use
for those military purposes for which it has hitherto
been considered peculiarly valuable.

. Whether its manufacture, in all its various stages, is a
dangerous process, and one that should not be
carried on near an inhabited neighbourhood, and
whether additional precautions to those now in force
seem necessary.

3. Whether the storage of gun-cotton, either wet or dry,
is necessarily attended with danger i in Magazines, on
shore, or on board of ship, under any or all conditions
of temperature.

4. Whether, either in a pure or impure state, it is liable
to spontaneous combustion, and, if so, whether such
combustion would result in explosion or in mere
ignition.

5. The nature of buildings best suited for the storage of
gun-cotton.

The committee will, however, report upon any points in
addition to those above enumerated which may arise in the
course of their investigation, and to which they may con-
sider it desirable to draw attention.

The question of safety, for transport and storage, of the
substance called “‘lithofra€teur,” is also to be investigated
by the committee.

The committee, after a careful review of. the documents
in their possession, and of the evidence of officers and
others respecting the use and application of compressed
gun-cotton, principally as regards its employment for
military purposes, consider that its use is not only un-
attended by either uncertainty or peril, but that the material
as an explosive agent is effective, certain, safe, portable,
and easy in employment. They therefore feel that they are
warranted in the expression of a strong opinion of its great
value for military engineering purposes generally, and for
submarine mining.

As regards storage no extended experience has been
gained by the officers who have used it at Chatham and
elsewhere, but within the limits of twelve months no change
has been observed.

The evidence respecting the stability of a material which
has been in practical use during a comparatively short
period, is necessarily meagre, time forming an essential
element in determining upon this important quality.

N

1873.] Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 331

The committee find that considerable quantities have
been sent during the past two or three years to hot and
damp climates, and have undergone voyages to Australia
and India without, so far as they can learn, any accident
whatever. They have also learnt that some gun-cotton
which was supplied by the Stowmarket Company in the
summer of 1870, and kept in a magazine on the Thames,
was subsequently sent to Calcutta, where it has been stored
for some months. A report recently received from Colonel
Kennard states that the gun-cotton shows no indication of
any change.

The reports published in Austria furnish very satisfactory
evidence respecting the stability of gun-cotton, and a con-
sideration of them, together with the other evidence
adduced, has satisfied the committee that no hesitation
need be felt in continuing the employment of compressed
gun-cotton through any fear of undiscovered unstable
qualities.

They have examined a considerable number of specimens
of gun-cotton, some of them purposely left impure, that
have been stored at Woolwich for several years past (several
specimens for periods as long as nine years) under varying
conditions of exposure to light, heat, and change of tem-
perature. Their present unaltered state furnishes fully
confirmatory testimony that under at least all ordinary
circumstances gun-cotton may be regarded as a stable
Inaterial.. .*

The experiments on stability of gun-cotton, extending
over a long period, refer to the material in the form of rope
or skeins, that is gun-cotton in the loose state, as distin-
guished from the substance compressed into blocks, or discs
from pulp, on Mr. Abel’s system. But as it has been satis-
factorily proved to the committee that gun-cotton produced
from the long staple cotton cannot be so perfectly purified
as pulped gun-cotton, it follows that all the evidence in
favour of the stability of gun-cotton in the loose state applies
with much greater force to compressed gun-cotton, in the
purification of which the pulping process has been applied.

As regards manufacture, the committee have made them-
selves acquainted with the nature of the several processes
constituting Mr. Abel’s system up to the stage in which gun-
cotton is compressed into discs and ready for use.

In all these processes the material, from the moment of
its conversion into gun-cotton and up to the drying stage, is
in a wet state, and at the final stage of leaving the press
contains from 15 to 20 per cent of water, It is throughout

332 Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. [July, —

every stage perfectly uninflammable, and the committee are
therefore satisfied that no danger can possibly result from
its manufacture (with the exception of drying) in any locality,
whether in or near a town.

The operation of drying, as followed at Stowmarket,
seems to be open to some objections, but the committee
apprehend that no difficulty will be experienced in a safe
and simple method being devised, which may be easily
applicable to any locality, and feel no hesitation in record-
ing their opinion that there is no reason why the War
Department should relinquish the manufacture of com-
pressed gun-cotton.

Mr. Abel, chemist to the War Department, describes the
results of some experiments he has made with certain
modifications of gun-cotton by incorporating the pulp with
an oxidising agent. The results appear to point to great
improvements that may be effected in manufacture, attended
with considerable increase of efficiency, and may be sum-
marised as follows :—

1. There is no difficulty in incorporating with gun-cotton
pulp, nitrate of potash, nitrate of soda, or chlorate of pot-
ash, in such proportions as will get the full amount of work
out of the carbon in the cotton-wool; and in afterwards
pressing the mixed substances into masses, as easily as
ordinary compressed gun-cotton.

2. Discs made with any of these mixtures are hard and
compact, and less liable to split than discs of pure gun-
cotton.

3. They can be coated with a waterproofing composition,
and can then be used for blasting in wet holes.

4. They are less ignitable by flame than pure gun-cotton
discs, and when ignited burn more slowly.

5. When exploded by detonation, the products of com-
bustion furnish little or no carbonic oxide, the presence of
which renders the use of ordinary compressed gun-cotton
objectionable in military mines.

6. Gun-cotton, mixed as described, may be kept wet like
ordinary gun-cotton ; and in the dry state the mixed mate-
rial seems to resist the action of continued exposure to high
temperature for a far longer period. It would, therefore, be
more stable, and the objections to storing dry gun-cotton in
any climate might be removed.

7. The cost, weight for weight, of the mixed gun-cotton
is much less than the ordinary material ; and the production
can be increased without any additional plant.

Special Committee, 8/4/72, consider that the above

1873.} Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 333

results are so important, and their realisation will acquire
so high a value as bearing upon the employment of gun-
cotton for military purposes, that they think the subject
should be at once fully taken up.

Recommend that Mr. Abel be authorised to proceed with
his experiments, and to prepare for trial samples of the
mixed substances as above described.

The principal points which the committee think deserving
of investigation are :—

1. Whether, when saltpetre is incorporated with gun-
cotton pulp, the mixture can be compressed into discs
which possess advantages over discs of pure gun-cotton
in being harder, less liable to flake, less inflammable, more
stable, and not less efficient.

2. The exact proportion of saltpetre which must be incor-
porated with gun-cotton pulp to develope the same
amount of explosive force as pure gun-cotton, weight
for weight.

3. An investigation into this and other properties of gun-
cotton incorporated with nitrate of soda and chlorate
of potash.

4. The cost of each of these modifications of gun-cotton,
compared with ordinary gun-cotton; and their relative
rate of production.

5. The special military uses for which each of them seems
particularly suitable.

An important improvement in the manufacture of gun-
cotton has been suggested by Mr. Abel, and the expectations
he had formed have since been fully confirmed. The
improvement consists in the addition of a proportion of |
ammonia to the gun-cotton at, or soon after, the com-
mencement of the washing process; the effect of which is,
not only to neutralise any free acid that may be left in the
beaten-up pulp, but to act as a powerful solvent in removing
the resinous and other organic matters locked up in the
fibres of the cotton, the presence of which materially inter-
feres with the stability of the finished produc.

The importance of this step in manufacture may be judged
of by the fact that, whereas the poaching or washing ope-
ration has hitherto required the use of warm water, and has
had to be continued for a period of szxty hours as a minimum,
but extending sometimes to fen or even fourteen days before
complete removal of these substances and consequent puri-
fication is obtained, the ammoniacal washing completes the
operation with cold water in about twenty-four hours.

This new development effected in the manufacture of

NOL. TIT. '(N:S.) 2s

334 Recent Changes in British Artillery Materiel. [ July,

pulped and compressed gun-cotton will result in a consider-
able saving of time and labour and in the employment ofa
less extensive plant. .

On the 25th April, 1872, two Martello towers betwéen
Hastings and Winchelsea were destroyed by the Royal
Engineer committee with gunpowder and gun-cotton in
order to compare their effect in hasty demolitions. Both
demolitions were considered perfeCtly successful, and showed
that the proportion of four to one in the weights of gun-
powder and gun-cotton to produce the same effect was
practically correct. On the results of this experiment the
committee arrive at the following conclusions :—

1. As gun-cotton is not materially, if at all, injured by
being kept in a damp state, and as the operation of drying
can be easily carried out, it is unnecessary to store it in the
dry state, and the committee think it should not be stored
dry in larger quantities than are required for the current
wants of the service. _Apparatus for drying should be
established at all stations where dry gun-cotton is required
for use.

2. The present service pattern-box is objectionable for
packing dry gun-cotton; its strength is an element of
danger, in the event of the accidental ignition of a store of
gun-cotton packed in such boxes; and it is unnecessarily
strong for transport.

3. In a store of any construction, the ignition of large _
quantities of dry gun-cotton packed in strong boxes will be
followed by violent explosion ; but in lightly-made boxes, or
in boxes designed specially to facilitate the escape of the
heated gas before it has reached the exploding point, and in
magazines lightly constructed, ignition will probably not be
followed by an explosion; but the Committee are of opinion
that the experiments recorded do not afford a sufficient
guarantee that ignition will not be followed by explosion if
the quantity, however stored, be very large, or the building
be exceptionally strong.

4. Taking these points into consideration, the committee
think that dry gun-cotton, wherever stored, and in what-
ever quantity, should be treated as an explosive, and that
the precautions now observed with explosives generally, as
regards locality and description of building, should also
apply to gun-cotton.

5. Gun-cotton in the wet state being perfectly uninflam-
mable, no special regulations are necessary for its trans-
port; in the case of dry gun-cotton, which under ordinary
conditions is non-explosive, but readily inflammable, the

1873.] Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 335

committee are of opinion that it may be safely moved under
the regulations which may govern the transport of gun-
powder.

6. The evidence obtained by the committee tends to show
that pure gun-cotton is a stable material, but experience on
this point is limited. They think it, therefore, preferable at
present to follow the more prudent course of excluding it
from magazines containing gunpowder; although they con-
sider that gun-cotton may be stored, when convenient to do
SO, In magazines built for gunpowder.

It should, however, be understood that when circum-
stances absolutely require it, such as when a second safe
store is not available, dry gun-cotton may be temporarily
placed in a magazine with gunpowder.

7. The recommendations of the committee in their pre-
liminary report, with respect to wet gun-cotton, require no
amendment.

Since the above conclusions were arrived at by the special
committee, the discovery has been made that compressed
gun-cotton can be exploded when wet by means of deto-
nation; this discovery has been fully confirmed by the
results of some experiments lately carried out at Weston-
super-Mare: and it is not improbable that moist gun-
cotton will be utilised for bursting charges of shells in
future. :

On the 4th April some further trials were made near
' Eastbourne to determine the liability or otherwise of stores
‘of wet gun-cotton to explosion from simple inflammation.
Accordingly, two magazines were prepared at Pevensey, in
each of which one ton of Abel’s compressed gun-cotton
discs was placed, containing 30 per cent of moisture. In
one the gun-cotton discs were packed in 80 regulation
boxes with their lids screwed down, and in the second the
discs of gun-cotton were removed from their boxes and
placed naked in a large wooden tank.

On the application of fire to the magazines, smoke and
flame issued in considerable volumes and in successive
bursts as the boxes caught fire, and after two hours anda
half of intense conflagration the fire died away without any
explosion, the whole of the gun-cotton having been totally
consumed, and the interiors of the magazines glowed like
furnaces. The result of this crucial experiment was most
satisfactory.

The enormous importance of these experiments, as esta-
blishing the immunity from explosion of moist gun-cotton
in compressed discs in certain quantities cannot be overrated,

336 Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. ([July,

and the further report of the committee, which has
not yet been published, will be looked forward to with
interest.

It fs to be hoped that the Government will not overlook
the valuable properties of dynamite for mining purposes,
not only on account of the additional work done by this
explosive in comparison with gun-cotton, but because the
produéts of its combustion are less injurious to the health
of the miners who use it.

On the other hand, from the following abstract of the
report on the lithofracteur, this substance is found too
defective to be introduced into the service at present.

‘‘The committee are of opinion that the substance pro-
vided for their experiments, under the name of lithofracteur,
has imperfectly fulfilled the absolutely necessary property
of retaining its proportion of nitro-glycerine, under circum-
stances which might be met with during ordinary transport
or storage.

‘* Nitro-glycerine readily exuded from a proportion of the
cartridges of the lthofra¢teur subjected to trial, after a
comparatively short exposure to a temperature not exceed-
ing 100° F.; and although such a temperature may not
in an English climate be sustained for any length of time,
either during a railway journey or in a magazine, it must
be borne in mind that the nitro-glycerine once exuded may
not be re-absorbed, but that fresh exudation would probably
take place on each fresh application of heat, and that this
tendency to leakage might be facilitated by the shaking
inseparable from railway transit.

‘““The capacity of lithofracteur for retaining nitro-glycerine
is very seriously interfered with by its becoming wetted.
The nitro-glycerine is readily expelled from a lithofraCteur
cartridge immersed in water. The readiness with which
the lithofraéteur parts with its nitro-glycerine, under the
influence of water, is dependent probably on the presence of
nitrate of soda as one of its constituents, a substance
exceedingly soluble in water; and in the event of a box of
cartridges getting wet, water would replace part of the
nitro-glycerine, which would thus collect as a liquid form at
the bottom of the box.

‘‘’The committee regret they cannot make a more favour-
able report upon a substance which may possess many
valuable properties for industrial purposes, but they regard
the tendency of some of the lithofracteur submitted to them
to part with its nitro-glycerine, under conditions that can
only be regarded as ordinary, as a defect too serious to be

1873.] Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 337

ignored. They hope the manufacturers may succeed in
overcoming the difficulties thus indicated, and enable this
explosive, so useful for many purposes, to be admitted with-
out restriction.

‘The committee have no hesitation in recording their
opinion that a safe and unobjectionable nitro-glycerine com-
pound, possessing valuable explosive properties for many
useful purposes, and fully meeting all the requirements of
quarry owners, can be manufactured, transported, and stored
in this country.”

With regard to powder, it has been found that the very
heavy charges of pebble powder, although they may not
give the same pressures as the former charges of rifle large
grain, still really do much more real damage to the guns,
and will render the necessity of ve-venting and indeed of re-
tubing the guns much more frequent.

II. The last experiment with regard to the constant
variations in the strength of gunpowder has led to a re-
consideration of the lately-existing proof regulations (one
and a quarter times highest service charge) for heavy guns.
It is found necessary, in consequence of the unsatisfactory
discrepancies in amount of pressure produced by a com-
paratively small increase in the charge, that proof charges
should be larger than service ones, in order to ascertain
whether the gun possesses superabundant strength to resist
the effects of powder which may be more than ordinarily
violent; and therefore the proof -of guns should be con-
ducted upon the same general principles as heretofore, viz.,
by using the service projectile and a charge somewhat in
excess of the service one, but the amount of excess need
not be so great as of old, that the gun may not be subjected
to severe local pressures or strains which might permanently
weaken or otherwise injure the structure of the gun under
proof. The proof charge of the 12-inch gun of 35 tons”
will, therefore, now be as follows :—First round 110 lbs.,
and second round 115 lbs. of pebble powder; the projectile
of service weight being used in each case. Experiments
are now being carried out to determine the proportionate
increase of proof over service charge for 8, 9, Io, 11, and
12-inch (25 tons) guns. It may here be noticed that the
learned Professor Bashforth is disposed to question the
very discordant results obtained by the committee as to the
measurements of the variation of powder-pressure, as regis-
tered by the crusher-gauges and the chronoscopes of Schultze
and Noble, on whose results little reliance is to be placed in
consequence of their records being received on the surfaces

338 Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. [July,

of cylinders, which are subject to more or less vibration
from toothed wheels being used to drive them. He suggests
that the law of propelling pressure could best be ascertained
by means of the proposed breech-loading gun of Captain
Morgan, R.A., described and figured in No. XXXII. of the
** Quarterly Journal of Science,” OCtober, 1871.

III. In consequence of the accidental bursting of five
cast-iron smooth-bore 68-pounders and one 24-pounder gun
at Madras, the special committee have made experiments
with the view of testing the action and ascertaining the
general nature of Indian-made gunpowders; and the results
prove these powders to possess exceptionally violent pro-
perties, due principally to the highly inflammable and
readily oxidisable character of the charcoal used in manu-
facture, which in future is to be modified. The following
analysis of the charcoals, both Indian and English, will
show that the Indian charcoal is not dissimilar to that used
in the Spanish Government powder, which has long been
known as brutal in its action and differs greatly in com-
position from that used at Waltham Abbey and by the
English makers. The analysis of the charcoal, as well as
that separated from the powders, furnished the following
results, the figures quoted being the mean of two deter-
minations ;—

Indian Charcoal from Charcoal from

Charcoal. Madras powder. Ishapore powder.
WS ATBOi) jeu) al a ae 78°70 76°63
Iydtogen .\+. 3°52 3°06 3°28
Oxygen, Ree rs, 26es be 13°56 17°68
FASSEE AL es eee 4°68 2°41

The following are the results of the analysis of average
samples of English dogwood, willow, and alder charcoal as
used at Waltham Abbey, and of Spanish charcoal :—

Dogwood. Willow. Alder. Spanish.

Carbo. ss - 44 483780 84°41 87°00 70°29

Hydrogen is.) ye 1h Bes 3°24 2°98 BOs

Oxyeeny Ges: We 3 aa ae 10°71 8°78 14°87

AST ue ewes 2 i age 1°64 152A: 5°53
- The dogwood charcoal is decidedly more inflammable
than that obtained from alder, and even more so than
willow charcoal, as measured by the proportions of hydrogen
and oxygen contained in each; yet, though it is the most
readily oxidisable charcoal made in England, being exclu-
sively used in the manufacture of small arm powder, it
cannot be compared in this respect with any of the samples
from India. ;

1873.] Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. 339

IV. Colonel Erskine’s committee has finished its labours,
and it is satisfactory to find that they have observed
throughout their investigations a marked superiority in
wheels constructed in the Royal Carriage Department in
regard to quality of material and workmanship over those
made elsewhere.

‘The committee : Pee their inquiry under two dis-
tinct heads, viz.

1. WHEELS.

Experiments were made with eleven different patterns of

wheels, consisting of—

The service wood, with Madras nave.

Messrs. Perkins and Son.

Messrs. Sterne and Co.

. The Phantom Wheel Company.

Messrs. M‘Neill and Brothers.

Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co.

Messrs. Brown, Marshall, and Co.

. Superintendent of Machinery, Royal Arsenal.
Colonel Clerk, R.A.

Royal Carriage Department composite wheel.
. Messrs. Holmes and Brothers.

The only wheels which passed through the trial of
travelling the prescribed distance of 1500 miles over
macadamised roads, rough country, and paved roads, were
those marked A., B., F., K

After the close of the experiments the committee pro-
ceeded to ascertain the relative degrees in which these four
patterns possessed the properties, enumerated below, of a
thoroughly efficient wheel for transport service, viz. :—

1. Strength and endurance to withstand the strains and

wear to which it is liable on service.

2. Non-liability to rapid deterioration through climatic

exposure in the field.

3. Capability of being easily and quickly repaired in the

field.

4. Lightness.

5. Power to resist the injurious effects of long storage.

It was found that the four patterns stood in order of
merit as follows :—K., F.,

The distin¢tive features as “regards material of the wheel
thus proved to be the best, being iron for the felloes, tire,
and nave, and oak for the spokes.

The committee give without hesitation their opinion that
iron may be advantageously used for making naves, felloes,

ZA TO MEO OW >

[July,

340

Recent Changes in British Artillery Matércel.

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341

Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel.

1873.)

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342 Recent Changes in British Artillery Matériel. {July,

and tires, but cannot be substituted for oak as a material
for spokes.

2. CARRIAGE FRAMES AND BODIES.

In this instance the committee are led to the opinion that
it would not be expedient to make any changes in the
materials which have heretofore been used in the construc-
tion of carriage frames and bodies beyond the following ;—

I. Oak to be used universally for frames instead of ash,
on account of its greater durability in store.

2. Iron angle plates to be used at the joints of all frames ©

extending each way to a distance of from seven to
twelve inches.

3. One side of all futchells and the back of splinter-bars
to be faced with iron plates.

The wheel marked K, with certain modifications, is
strongly recommended for adoption into the service for use
with transport carriages; but the Director of Artillery does
not consider that the necessity for a new pattern wheel has
been established, and consequently the service pattern
remains unaltered.

The table on page 340 shows the wheels experimented
upon.

V. The table on page 341, showing the velocities and ranges
of the English as compared to some of the continental
field guns, is satisfactory. In these days of improved small
arms, it is essential that our field artillery should possess
long ranging powerful weapons, and in this respect it
appears we are in advance of the continental armies at
present. .

It has been asserted that our gunnery declined during the
last few years of the old French war because the enemy
seldom came out of port to face it, and alarmists have not
been found wanting who see in our long-continued ina¢tivity
of peace our gunnery in danger of deterioration. It needs
only a visit to Shoeburyness to convince the most sceptical
that there is no fear of our artillery failing through desue-
tude ; but there is one danger which ought to kept in view,
and that is, our stock of powder is limited. Whenwe have
to buy Belgian powder in time of peace, where are we to
obtain a sufficient quantity in actual warfare? We needa
second establishment as large as Waltham Abbey in the
northern or midland counties.

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 343

wi. THe LIM Ts OF OUR ‘COAL’ SUPPLY.
POP ind uke the actual consumption of coal for

home use in Great Britain at Iro millions of tons

per annum, a rise of eight shillings per ton to con-
sumers is equivalent to a tax of 44 millions per annum.
These are the figures taken by Sir William Armstrong in
his address at Newcastle last February. As the recent
~ abnormal rise in the value of coal has amounted to more
than this, consumers have been paying at some periods
above a million per week as premium on fuel, even after
making fair deduction for the rise of price necessarily due
to the diminishing value of gold.

Are we, the consumers of coal, to write off all this as a
dead loss, or have we gained any immediate or prospective
advantage that may be deducted from the bad side of the
account? I suspect that we shall gain sufficient to ulti-
mately balance the loss, and, even after that, to leave some-
thing on the profit side.

The abundance of our fuel has engendered a shameful
wastefulness that is curiously blind and inconsistent. Asa
typical example of this inconsistency, I may mention a
characteristic incident. A party of young people were
sitting at supper in the house of a colliery manager.
Among them was the vicar of the parish, a very jovial and
genial man, but most earnest withal in his vocation. Jokes
and banterings were freely flung across the table, and no
one enjoyed the fun more heartily than the vicar; but pre-
sently one unwary youth threw a fragment of bread-crust at
his opposite neighbour, and thus provoked retaliation. The
countenance of the vicar suddenly changed, and in stern
clerical tones he rebuked the wickedness of thus wasting
the bounties of the Almighty. A general silence followed,
and a general sense of guilt prevailed among the revellers.
At the same time, and in the same room, a blazing fire, in
an ill-constru¢cted open fire-place, was glaring reproachfully
at all the guests, but no one heeded the immeasurably
greater and utterly irreparable waste that was there pro-
ceeding. To every unit of heat that was fully utilised in
warming the room, there were eight or nine passing up the
chimney to waste their energies upon the senseless clouds
and boundless outer atmosphere. A large proportion of the
vicar’s parishioners are colliers, in whose cottages huge
fires blaze most wastefully all day, and are left to burn
all night to save the trouble of re-lighting. The vicar

344 Limits of our Coal Supply... [July,, -

diligently visits these cottages, and freely admonishes where
he deems it necessary; yet he sees in this general waste_of
coal no corresponding sinfulness to that of wasting bread.
Why is he so blind in one direction, while his moral vision
is so microscopic in the other? Why are nearly all English-.
men and Englishwomen as inconsistent as the vicar in this
respect ?

There are doubtless several combining reasons for this,
but I suspect that the principal one is the profound impres-
sion that we have inherited from the experience and tradi-
tions of the horrors of bread-famine. A score of proverbs
express the important practical truth that we rarely appre-
ciate any of our customary blessings until we have tasted
the misery of losing them. Englishmen have tasted the
consequences of approximate exhaustion of the national
grain store, but have never been near to the exhaustion of
the national supply of coal. |

I therefore maintain most seriously that we need a severe
coal famine, and if all the colliers of the United Kingdom
were to combine for a simultaneous winter strike of about
three or six months’ duration, they might justly be regarded
as unconscious patriotic martyrs, like soldiers slain upon a
battle-field. The evils of such a thorough famine would be
very sharp, and proportionally beneficent, but only tem-
porary ; there would not be time enough for manufacturing
rivals to sink pits, and at once ereét competing iron-works ;
but the whole world would partake of our calamity, and the
attention of all mankind would be aroused to the sinfulness
of wasting coal. Six months of compulsory wood and peat
fuel, with total stoppage of iron supplies, would convince ’
the people of these islands that waste of coal is even more
sinful than waste of bread,—would lead us to reflect on the
fact that our stock of coal is a definite and limited quantity
that was placed in its present store-house long before ©
human beings came upon the earth; that every ton of coal
that is wasted is lost for ever, and cannot be replaced by
any human effort, while bread is a produét of human in-
dustry, and zis waste may be replaced by additional human
labour; that the sin of bread-wasting does admit of agri-
cultural atonement, while there is no form of practical
repentance that can positively and directly replace a hundred-
weight of wasted coal.

Nothing short of the practical and impressive lesson of
bitter want is likely to drive from our households that
wretched fetish of British adoration, the open ‘‘ English-
man’s fireside.” Reason seems powerless against the

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 345

superstition of this form of fire-worship. Tell one of the
idolators that his household god is wasteful and extra-
vagant, that five-sixths of the heat from his coal goes up
the chimney, and he replies, ‘‘ I don’t care if it does; I can
afford to pay for it. I like to see the fire, and have the
right to waste what is my own.” Tell him that healthful
ventilation is impossible while the lower part of a room
opens widely into. a heated shaft, that forces currents of
cold air through door and window leakages, which unite to
form a perpetual chilblain stratum on the floor, and leaves
all above the mantel-piece comparatively stagnant. Tell
him that no such things as ‘‘draughts” should exist in a
properly warmed and ventilated house, and that even witha
thermometer at zero outside; every part of a well ordered
apartment should be equally habitable, instead of merely a
semi-circle about the hearth of the fire-worshipper; and he
shuts his ears, locks up his understanding, because his
grandfather and grandmother believed that the open-
mouthed chimney was the one and only true English means
of ventilation.

But suppose we were to say, ‘‘ You love a cheerful blaze,
can afford to pay for it, and therefore care not how much
coal you waste in obtaining it. We also love a cheerful
blaze, but have a great aversion to coal-smoke and tarry
vapours; and we find that we can make a beautiful fire,
quite inoffensive even in the middle of the room, provided
we feed it with stale quartern loaves. We know that such
fuel is expensive, but can afford to pay for it, and choose to
do so.” Would he not be shocked at the sight of the
blazing loaves, if this extravagance were carried out ?

This popular inconsistency of disregarding the waste of a
valuable and necessary commodity, of which the supply is
limited and, absolutely unrenewable, while we have such
proper horror of wilfully wasting another similar commodity
which can be annually replaced as long as man remains in
living contact with the earth, will gradually pass away when
rational attention is dire¢ted to the subject. If the recent
very mild suggestion of a coal-famine does something
towards placing coal on a similar pedestal of popular
veneration to that which is held by the “‘ staff of life,” the
million a week that it has cost the coal consumer will have
been profitably invested.

Many who were formerly deaf to the exhortations of fuel
economists are now beginning to listen. ‘‘ Forty shillings
per ton” has aéted like an incantation upon the spirit of
Count Rumford. After an oblivion of more than 80 years,

3460 =: Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

his practical lessons have again sprung up among us.
Some are already inquiring how he managed to roast
112 lbs. of beef at the Foundling Hospital with 22 lbs. of
coal, and to use the residual heat for cooking the potatoes, and
why it is that with all our boasted progress we do not now,
in the latter third of the nineteenth century, repeat that
which he did in the eighteenth.

The fact that the consumption of coal in London during
the first four months of 1873 has, in spite of increasing
population, amounted to 49,707 tons less than the corre-
sponding period of 1872, shows that some feeble attempts
have been made to economise the domestic consumption of
fuel. One very useful result of the recent scarcity of coal
has been the awakening of a considerable amount of general
interest in the work of stock-taking, a tedious process which
improvident people are too apt to shirk, but which is quite
indispensable to sound business proceedings either of indi-
viduals or nations.

There are many discrepancies in the estimates that have
been made of the total available quantity of British coal.
The speculative nature of some of the data renders this
inevitable, but all authorities appear to agree on one point,
viz., that the amount of our supplies will not be determined
by the actual total quantity of coal under our feet, but by
the possibilities of reaching it. This is doubtless correct,
but how will these possibilities be limited, and what is
the extent or range of the limit? On both these points
I venture to disagree with the eminent men who have
so ably discussed this question. First, as regards the
nature of the limit or barrier that will stop our further
progress in coal-getting. This is generally stated to be the
depth of the seams. The Royal Commissioners of 1870
base their tables of the quantity of available coal in the
visible and concealed coal-fields upon the assumption that
4000 feet is the limit of possible working. ‘This limit is the
same that was taken by Mr. Hull ten years earlier. Mr.
Hull, in the last edition of ‘‘ The Coal Fields of Great
Britain,” p. 326, referring to Professor Ramsey’s estimate,
says, ‘‘ These estimates are drawn up for depths down to
4000 feet below the surface, and even beyond this limit;
but with this latter quantity it is scarcely necessary that we
should concern ourselves.” I shall presently show reasons
for believing that the time may ultimately arrive when we
shall concern ourselves with this deep coal, and actually get
it; while, on the other hand, that remote epoch will be pre-
’ ceded by another period of pra¢tical approximate exhaustion

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 347

of British coal supply, which is likely to arrive long before
we reach a working depth of 4000 feet.

The Royal Commissioners estimate that within the limits
of 4000 feet we have hundreds of square miles of attainable
coal capable of yielding, after deducting 40 per cent. for
loss in getting, &c., 146,480 millions of tons; or, if we take
this with Mr. Hull’s deduction of one-twentieth for seams
under two feet in thickness, there remains 139,000 millions
of tons, which, at present rate of consumption, would last
about 1200 years. But the rate of consumption is annually
increasing, not merely on account of increasing population,
but also from the fa¢t that mechanical inventions are per-
petually superseding hand labour, and the source of power
in such cases is usually derived from coal. ‘This considera-
tion induced Professor Jevons, in 1865, to estimate that
between 1861 and 1871 the consumption would increase
from 83,500,000 tons to 118,000,000 tons. Mr. Hunt’s
official return for 1871 shows that this estimate was a close
approximation to the truth, the actual total for 1871 having
been 117,352,028 tons. At this rate of an arithmetical in-
crease of three and a half tons per annum, 139,000 millions
of tons would last but 250 years. Mr. Hull, taking the
actual increase at three millions of tons per annum, extends
it to 276 years. Hitherto the annual increase has followed
a geometrical rather than arithmetical progress, and those
who anticipate a continuance of this allow us a much
shorter lease of our coal treasures. Mr. Price Williams
maintains that the increase will proceed in a diminishing
ratio like that of the increase of population ; and upon this
basis he has calculated that the annual consumption will
amount to 274 millions of tons a hundred years hence, and
the whole available stock of coal will last about 360 years.

The latest returns show, for 1872, an output of
123,546,758 tons, which, compared with 1871, gives a rate
of increase of more than double the estimate of Mr. Hull,
and indicate that prices have not yet risen sufficiently to
check the geometrical rate of increase. Mr. Hull very justly
points out the omission in those estimates which do not
“take into account the diminishing ratio at which coal
must be consumed when it becomes scarcer and more ex-
pensive ;” but, on the other hand, he omits the opposite
influence of increasing prices on production, which has been
strikingly illustrated by the extraordinary number of new
coal-mining enterprises that have been launched during the
last six months. If we continue as we are now proceeding,
a practical and permanent coal famine will be upon us within

348 : Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

the lifetime of many ‘of the present generation. _By such a
famine, I do not mean an actual exhaustion of our coal
seams (which will never be effected), but such a scarcity and
rise of prices as shall annihilate the most voracious of our
coal-consuming industries, those which depend upon
abundance of cheap coal, such as the manufacture of pig-
iron, &c.

The ac¢tion of increasing prices has been but lightly
considered hitherto, though its importance is paramount
in determining the limits of our coal supply; I even
venture so far as to affirm that it is not the depth of the
coal seams, not the increasing temperature nor pressure as
we proceed downwards, nor even thinness of seam, that will
practically determine the limits of British coal-getting, but
simply the price per ton at the pit’s mouth.

In proof of this, I may appeal to actual practice.
Mr. Hull and others have estimated the working limit
of thinness at two feet, and agree in regarding thinner
seams than this as unattainable. This is unquestionably
correct so long as the getting is effected in the usual
manner. A collier cannot lie down and hew a much thinner
seam than this, if he works as colliers work at present.
But the lead and copper miners succeed in working far
thinner lodes, even down to the thickness of a few inches,
and the gold-digger crushes the hardest component of the
earth’s crust to obtain barely visible grains of the precious
metal. This extension of effort is entirely determined by
market value. At a sufficiently high price the two feet
limit of coal-getting would vanish, and the collier would
work after the manner of the lead-miner.

We may safely apply the same reasoning to the limits of
depth. The 4000 feet limit of the Royal Commissioners is
at present unattainable, simply because the immediately
prospective price of coal would not cover the cost of such
deep sinking and working: but as prices go up, pits will go
down, deeper and deeper still.

The obstacles which are assumed to determine the 4000
feet limit are increasing density due to greater pressure, and
the elevation of temperature which proceeds as we go down-
wards. The first of these difficulties has, I suspect, been
very much overstated, if not altogether misunderstood ;
though it is but fair to add that Mr. Hull, who most promi-
nently dwells upon it, does so with all just and philosophic
caution. He says that ‘“‘ it is impossible to speak with cer-
tainty of the effect of the accumulative weight of 3000 or
4000 feet of strata on mining operations. In all probability

for

a

1873.] ~ Limits of our Coal Supply. 349

one effect would be to increase the density of the coal itself,
and of its accompanying strata, so as to increase the diffi-
culty of excavating,” and he concludes by stating that “‘ In the
face of these two obstacles—temperature and pressure, ever
increasing with the depth—I have considered it utopian to
include in calculations having reference to coal supply any
quantity, however considerable, which lies at a greater
depth than 4000 feet. Beyond that depth, I do not believe
that it will be found practicable to penetrate. Nature rises
up, and presents insurmountable barriers.”’*

On one point I differ entirely from Mr. Hull, viz., the con-
clusion that the increased ‘‘ density of the coal itself and of
its accompanying strata” will offer any serious obstacle.
On the contrary, there is good reason to believe that such
density is one of the essential conditions for working deep
coal. Even at present depths of working, density and
hardness of the accompanying strata is one of the most im-
portant conditions of easy and cheap coal-getting. With a

ense roof and floor the collier works vigorously and fear-
lessly ; and he escapes the serious cost of timbering.
Those who have never been underground, and only read
of colliery disasters, commonly regard the fire-damp and
choke-damp as the collier’s most deadly enemies, but the
collier himself has quite as much dread of a rotten roof as
of either of these; he knows by sad experience how much —
bruising, and maiming, and crushing of human limbs are
due to the friability of the rock above his head. Mr. Hull
quotes the case of the Dunkinfield colliery, where, at
a depth of about 2500 feet, the pressure is ‘‘so resistless
as to crush in circular arches of brick four feet thick,” and
to snap a cast-iron pillar in twain; but he does not give
any account of the density of the accompanying strata
at the place of these occurrences. I suspect that it was
simply a want of density that allowed the superincumbent
pressure to do such mischief. The circular arches of brick
four feet thick were but poor substitutes for a roof of solid
rock of 40 or 400 feet in thickness; an arch cut in sucha
rock would be all key-stone: and I may safely venture to
affirm that if, in the deep sinkings of the future, we do
encounter the increased density which Mr. Hull anticipates,
this will be altogether advantageous. I fear, however, that
it will not be so, that the chief difficulty of deep coal mining
will arise from occasional ‘‘running in” due to deficient
density, and that this difficulty will occur in about the same

* The Coal Fields of Great Britain, pp. 447 and 448.
MOUs ii.-(NeSy 22

“—

B50 oo Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

proportion of cases as at present, but will operate more
seriously at the greater depths.

A very interesting subject for investigation is hereby sug-
gested. Do rocks of given composition and formation
increase in density as they dip downwards, and if so, does
this increase of density follow any law by which we may
determine whether their power of resisting superincumbent

pressure increases in any approach to the ratio of the

increasing pressure to which they are naturally subjected ?
If the increasing density and power of resistance reaches
or exceeds this ratio, deep mining has nothing to fear from
pressure. If they fall short of it, the difficulties arising
from pressure may be serious. Friability, viscosity, and
power of resisting a crushing strain must be considered in
reference to this question.

Mr. Hull has collected a considerable amount of data
bearing upon the rate of increase of temperature with
depth. His conclusions give a greater rate of increase than
is generally stated by geologists; but for the present argu-
ment I will accept, without prejudice, as the lawyers say,
his basis of a range of 1° F. for 60 feet. According to this,
the rocks will reach gg°6’, a little above blood-heat, at 3000
feet, and 116°3° at the supposed limit of 4000 feet. It is
assumed by Mr. Hull, by the Commissioners, and most
other authorities, that this rock temperature of 116° will
limit the possibilities of coal-mining. At the average
prices of the last three years, or the prospective prices
of the next three years, this temperature may be, like
difficulties of the thin seams, an insurmountable barrier;
but I contend that at higher prices we may work coal
at this, and even far higher, rock temperatures; that
it matters not how high the thermometer rises as we
descend, we shall still go lower and still get coal so long
as prices rise with the mercury. Given this condition,
and I have no doubt that coal may be worked where the
rock temperature shall reach or even exceed 212°. I do not
say that we shall actually work coal at such depths; but if
we do not, the reason will be, not that the thermometer is
too high, but that prices are too low: in other words, value,
not temperature, will determine the working limits.

Mr. Leifchild, in the last number of the ‘‘ Edinburgh
Review,’ in discussing this question, tells us that “‘thenormal
heat of our blood is 98°, and fever heat commences at 100°,and
the extreme limit of fever heat may be taken at 112. Dr.
Thudicum, a physieian who has specially investigated this
subject, has concluded from experiments on his own body at

-

—_—— Pee SP | ee

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 351

high temperatures, that at a heat of 140° no work whatever
could be carried on, and that at a temperature of from 130°
to 140° only a very small amount of labour, and that at
short periods, was practicable; and further, that human
labour daily and at ordinary periods, is limited by 100° of
temperature, as a fixed point, and then the air must be dry,
for in moist air he did not think men could endure ordinary
labour at a temperature exceeding go.”

It may be presumptuous on my part to dispute the conclu-
sions of a physician on such a subject, but I do so never-
theless, especially as the data required are simple practical
facts such as are better obtained by furnace-working than
by sick-room experience.

During the hottest days of the summer of 1868, I was
engaged in making some experiments in the re-heating
furnaces at Sir John Brown and Co.’s works, Sheffield,
and carried a thermometer about with me which I sus-
pended in various places where the men were working.
At the place where I was chiefly engaged (a corner
between two sets of furnaces), the thermometer, sus-
pended in a position where it was not affected by direct
radiations from the open furnaces, stood at 120° while
the furnace doors were shut. The vadiant heat to which
the men themselves were exposed while making their
greatest efforts in placing and removing the piles was far
higher than this, but I cannot state it, not having placed
the thermometer in the position of the men. In one of the
Bessemer pits the thermometer reached 140°, and men
worked there at a kind of labour demanding great muscular
effort. It is true that during this same week the puddlers
were compelled to leave their work; but the tremendous
amount of concentrated exertion demanded of the puddler
in front of a furnace, which, during the time of removing
the balls, radiates a degree of heat quite sufficient to roast
a Sitloin of beef if placed in the position of the puddler’s
hands, is beyond comparison with that which would be
demanded of a collier working even at a depth giving
a theoretical rock temperature of 212°, and aided by the
coal-cutting and other machinery that sufficiently high
prices would readily command. In some of the operations
of glass-making, the ordinary summer working temperature
is considerably above 100°, and the radiant heat to which
the workmen are subjected far exceeds 212°.. This is the case
during a “‘ pot setting,” and in the ordinary work of flashing
crown glass.

As regards the mere endurance of a high temperature, the

352 Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

well-known experiments of Blagden, Sir Joseph Banks, and
others have shown that the human body can endure for
short periods a temperature of 260° F., and upwards. My
own experience of furnace-work, and of Turkish baths,
quite satisfies me that I could do a fair day’s work of six or
eight hours in a temperature of 130 F., provided I were
free from the encumbrances of clothing, and had access to
abundance of tepid water. This in a still atmosphere, but
with a moving current of dry air capable of promoting
vigorous evaporation from the skin, I suspeé& that the tem-
perature might be ten or fifteen degrees higher. I enjoy
ordinary walking exercise in a well-ventilated Turkish bath
at 150, and can endure it at 180.

In order to obtain further information on this point, I
have written to Mr. Tyndall, the proprietor of the Turkish
baths at Newington Butts. He is an archite@t, who has-had
considerable experience in the employment of workmen and
in the construction of Turkish baths and other hot air
chambers. He says: ‘‘Shampooers work in my establish-
ment from four to five hours at a time 7m a moist atmosphere
at a temperature ranging from 105 to 110. I have myself
worked twenty hours out of twenty-four in one day in a tem-
perature over 110. Once for one half hour I shampooed in
185°. At the enamel works, in Pimlico, belonging to Mr.
Mackenzie, men work daily in a heat of over 300°. The
moment a man working in a 110 heat begins to drink
alcohol, his tongue gets parched, and he is obliged to
continue drinking while at work, and the brain gets so
excited that he cannot do half the amount. I painted
my skylights, taking me about four hours, at a temperature
of about 145°; also the hottest room skylights, which took
me one hour, coming out at intervals for a cooler, at a tem-
perature of 180°. I may add in conclusion, that a man can
work well in a moist temperature of 110° if he perspires
ireely.”

The following, by a writer whose testimony may be safely
accepted, is extracted from an account of ordinary passenger
ships of the Red Sea, in the ‘‘ Illustrated News,” of No-
vember 9g, 1872: ‘‘ The temperature in the stoke-hole was
145°. The floor of this warm region is close to the ship’s
keel, so it is very far below. There are twelve boilers, six
on each side, each with a blazing furnace, which has to be
opened at regular intervals to put in new coals, or to
be poked up with long iron rods. This is the duty of _
the poor wretches who are doomed to this work. It is hard
to believe that human beings could be got to labour under

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 353

such conditions, yet such persons are to be found. The
work of stoking or feeding the fires is usually done by Arabs,
while the work of bringing the coal from the bunkers
is done by sidi-wallahs or negroes. At times some of the
more intelligent of these ave promoted to the stoking. ‘The
negroes who do this kind of work come from Zanzibar.
They are generally short men, with strong limbs, round
bullet heads, and the very best of good nature in their dis-
positions. Some of them will work half an hour in sucha
place as the stoke-hole without a drop of perspiration
on their dark skins. Others, particularly the Arabs, when
it is so hot as it often is in the Red Sea have to be carried
up in a fainting condition, and are restored to animation by
dashing buckets of water over them as they lie on deck.”

It must be remembered that the theoretical temperature
of 126° at 4000 feet, the 133° at 5000 feet, or: the 150° at
6000 feet, are the temperatures of the undisturbed rock ;
that this rock is a bad conductor of heat, whose surface
may be considerably cooled by radiation and conveétion ;
and therefore we are by no means to regard the rock tempe-
rature as that of the air of the roads and workings of the
deep coal pits of the future. It is true that the Royal Com-
missioners have collected many fa¢ts showing that the
actual difference between the face of the rocks.of certain
pits and the air passing through them is but small;
but these data are not directly applicable to the question
under consideration for the three following reasons :—

First... The comparisons are made between the tempera-
ture of the air and the actual temperature of the opened and
already-cooled strata, while the question to be solved is the
difference between the theoretical temperature of the un-
opened earth depths and that of the air in roads and work-
ings to be opened through them.

Second. The cooling effect of ventilation must (as the
Commissioners themselves state) increase in a ratio which
** somewhat exceeds the ratio of the difference between the
temperature of the air and that of the surrounding surface
with which it is in contact.” Thus, the lower we proceed
the more and more effectively cooling must a given amount
of ventilation become.

The third, and by far the most important, reason is, that
in the deep mining of the future, special means will be
devised and applied to the purpose of lowering the tempera-
ture of the workings, that as the descending efforts of the
collier increase with ascending value of the coal, a new
problem will be offered for solution, and the method of

354 Limits of our Coal Supply. (July,

working coal will be altered accordingly. In the cases
quoted by the Commissioners, the few degrees of cooling
were effected by a system of ventilation that was devised to
meet the requirements of respiration, and not for the
purpose of cooling the mine.

{t would be very presumptuous for any one in 1873 to say
how this special cooling will actually be effected, but I will
nevertheless venture to indicate one or two principles which
may be applied to the solution of the problem. First of all,
it must be noted that very deep mines are usually dry;. and
there is good reason to believe that, before reaching the
Commissioners’ limit of 4000 feet, dry mining would be the
common, and at and below 4000 feet the universal, case.
At present we usually obtain coal from water-bearing strata,
and all our arrangements are governed by this very serious
contingency. With water removed, the whole system of
coal-mining may be revolutionised, and thus the aspect of this
problem of cooling the workings would become totally changed.

Those who are acquainted with the present practice of
mining are aware that when an estate is taken, and about to
be worked for coal, the first question to be decided is
the dip of the measures, in order that the sinking may
be made ‘‘on the deep” of the whole range. The pits
are not sunk at that part of the range where, at first sight,
the coal appears the most accessible, but, on the contrary,
at the deepest part. It is then carried on to some depth
below the coal seam which is to be worked in order to form
a ‘“‘sumpf” or receptacle, from which the water may be
wound or pumped. The necessity for this in water-bearing
strata is obvious enough. If the collier began at the
shallowest portion of his range, and attempted to proceed
downwards, he would be ‘‘ drowned out” unless he worked
as a coal-diver rather than a coal-miner. By sinking in the
deep he works upwards, away from the water, which all
drains down to the sumpf.

The modern practice is to sink ‘‘a pair of pits,” both on
the deep, and within a short distance of each other. The
object of the second is ventilation. By contrivances, which
I need not here detail, the air is made to descend one of the
pits, ‘‘ the downcast shaft,” then to traverse the roads and
workings wherein ventilation is required, and return by a
reverse route to the ‘‘ upcast shaft,’ by which it ascends to
the surface.

Thus it will be seen that, whenever the temperature of
the roads and workings exceeds that of the outer atmo-
sphere, the air currents have to be forced to travel through

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 355

the mine in a direction contrary to their natural course.
The cooler air of the downcast shaft has to climb the in-
clined roads, and then after attaining its maximum tem-
perature in the fresh workings must descend the roads till it
reaches the upcast shaft. The cool air must rise and the
warmer air descend.

What, then, would be the course of the mining engineer
when all the existing difficulties presented by water-bearing
strata should be removed, and their place taken by a
new and totally different obstacle, viz., high temperature ?
Obviously to reverse the present mode of working—to
sink on the upper part of the range and drive downwards.
In such a system of working the ventilation of the pit will
be most powerfully aided, or altogether effected, by natural
atmospheric currents. An upcast once determined by
artificial means, it will thereafter proceed spontaneously, as
the cold air of the downcast shaft will travel by a descend-
ing road to the workings, and then after becoming heated
will simply obey the superior pressure of the heavy column
behind, and proceed by an upward road to the upcast shaft.
As the impelling force of the air current will be the differ-
ence between the weight of the cool column of air in the
downcast shaft and roads and the warm column in the upcast,
the available force of natural ventilation and cooling will
increase just as demanded, 7.e., it will increase with the
depth of the workings and the heat of the rocks. A mining
engineer who knows what is actually done with present
arrangements, will see at once that with the above-stated
advantages a gale of wind or even a hurricane might be
directed through any partictular roads or long-wall work-
ings that were once opened. Let us suppose the depth to
be 5000 feet, the rock temperature at starting 133°, and
that of the outer air 60°, we should have a torrent of air 73°
cooler than the rocks rushing furiously downwards, then
past the face of the heated strata, and absorbing its heat to
such an extent that the upcast shaft would pour forth a
perpetual blast of hot air like a gigantic furnace chimney.

But this is not all; the heat and dryness of these deep work-
ings of the future places at our disposal another and vastly
more efficient cooling agency than even that of a hurricane of
dry-air ventilation. In the first part of the sinking of the deep
shafts the usual water-bearing strata would be encountered,
and the ordinary means of “‘ tubbing”’ or “‘ coffering”’ would
probably be adopted for temporary convenience during
sinking. Doorways, however, would be left in the tubbing
at suitable places for tapping at pleasure the wettest and

356 Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

most porous of the strata. Streams of cold water could
thus be poured down the sides of the shaft, which, on
reaching the bottom would flow by a downhill road into the
workings. The stream of air rushing by the same route
and becoming heated in its course would powerfully assist
the evaporation of the water. The deeper and hotter the
pit, the more powerful would be these cooling agencies.

As the specific heat of water is about five times that of
the coal-measure rocks, or the coal itself, every degree of
heat communicated to each pound of water would abstract
one degree from five pounds of rock. But in the conversion
of water at 60 into vapour at say 100°, the amount of heat
absorbed is equivalent to that required to raise the same
weight of water about 1000’, and thus the effective cooling
power on the rock would be equivalent to 5000’.

The workings once opened (I assume as a matter of course
that by this time pillar-and-stall working will be entirely
abandoned for long-wall or something better), there would
be no difficulty in thus pouring streams of water and
torrents of air through the workings during the night, or at
any suitable time preparatory to the operations of the
miner, who long before the era of such deep workings will
be merely the director of coal cutting and _ loading
machinery.

Given a sufficiently high price for coal at the pit’s mouth

to pay wages and supply the necessary fixed capital, I see
no insuperable difficulty, so far as mere temperature is
concerned, in working coal at double the depth of the Royal
Commissioners’ limit of possibility. At such a depth of
Sooo feet the theoretical rock-temperature is 183°.
_ By the means above indicated, I have no doubt that this
could be reduced to an azv temperature below I10°,—that
at which Mr. Tyndall’s shampooers ordinarily work. © Of
course the newly-exposed face of the coal would have
its initial temperature of 183°; but this is a trivial
heat compared to the red-hot radiant surfaces to which
puddlers, shinglers, glassmakers, &c., are commonly exposed.
Divested of the incumbrance of clothing, with the whole
surface of the skin continuously fanned by a powerful
stream of air—which, during working hours need be but
partly saturated with vapour—a sturdy midland or north-
countryman would work merrily enough at short hours and
high wages, even though the newly-exposed face of the
coal reached 212°; for we must remember that this new
coal-face would only correspond to the incomparably hotter
furnace-doors and. fires of the steam-ship stoke holes.

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 357

The high temperature at 8000 or even 10,000 feet
would present a really serious difficulty during the first
opening of communication between the two pits. A spurt
of brave effort would here be necessary, and if anybody
doubts whether Englishmen could be found to make
the effort, let him witness a “‘ pot-setting”’ at a glass-house.
Negro labour might be obtained if required, but my expe-
rience among English workmen leads me to believe that
they will never allow negroes or any others to beat them
at home in any kind of work, where the wages paid are
proportionate to the effort demanded.

If I am right in the above estimates of working possi-
bilities, our coal resources may be increased by about forty
thousand millions of tons beyond the estimate of the Com-
missioners. To obtain such an additional quantity will
certainly be worth an effort, and unless we suffer a far worse
calamity than the loss of all our minerals, viz.,a deterioration
of British energy, the effort will assuredly be made.

I have said repeatedly that it is not physical difficulties,
but market value, that will determine the limits of our coal
mining. ‘This, like all other values, is of course determined
by the relation between demand and supply. Fuel being
one of the absolute necessaries of life, the: demand for it
must continue so long as the conditions of human existence .
remain as at present, and the outer limits of the possible
value of coal will be determined by that of the next cheapest
kind of fuel which is capable of superseding it.

We begin by working the best and most accessible seams, °
and while those remain abundant the average value of coal will
be determined by the cost of producing it under these easy
conditions. Directly these most accessible seams cease to
supply the whole demand, the market value rises until it
becomes sufficient to cover the cost of working the less
accessible ; and now the average value will be regulated not
by the cost of working what remains of the first or easy
mines, but by that of working the most difficult that must
be worked in order to meet the demand. This is a simple
case falling under the well-established economic law, that
the natural or cost value of any commodity is determined
by the cost value of the most costly portion of it. Thus,
the only condition under which we can proceed to sink
deeper and deeper, is a demand of sufficient energy to keep
pace with the continually increasing cost of produ¢tion.
This condition can only be fulfilled when there is no com-
peting source of cheaper production which is adequate to
supply the demand.

pwisies LE. (N-S.)° 3A

358 Limits of our Coal Supply. [July,

The question then resolves itself to this. Is any source
of supply likely to intervene that will prevent the value of
coal from rising sufficiently to cover the cost of working the
coal seams of 4000 feet and greater depth? Without enter-
ing upon the question of peat and wood fuel, both of which
will for some uses undoubtedly come into competition with
British coal as it rises in value, I believe that there are
sound reasons for concluding that our London fire-places,
and those of other towns situated on the sea coast and the
banks of navigable rivers, will be supplied with transatlantic
coal long before we reach the Commissioners’ limit of 4000
feet. The highest prices of last winter, if steadily main-
tained, would be sufficient to bring about this important
change. Temporary upward jerks of the price of coal has
very little immediate effect upon supply, as the surveying,
conveying, boring, sinking, and fully opening of a new coal
estate is a work of some years.

The Royal Commissioners estimate that the North-
American coal-fields contain an untouched coal area equal
to 70 times the whole of ours. Further investigation is
likely to increase rather than diminish this estimate. An
important portion of this vast source of supply is well
situated for shipment, and may be easily worked at little
cost. Hitherto, the American coal-fields have been greatly
neglected, partly on account of the temptations to agri-
cultural occupation which is afforded by the vast area of the
American continent, and partly by the barbarous barriers of
American politics. Large quantities of capital which, under
the social operation of the laws of natural selection, would
have been devoted to the unfolding of the vast mineral
resources of the United States, are still wastefully invested
in the maintenance of protectively nursed and _ sickly
imitations of English manufa¢tures. When the political
civilisation of the United States becomes sufficiently
advanced to establish a national free-trade policy, this per-
verted capital will flow into its natural channels, and the
citizens of the States will be supplied with the more highly
elaborated industrial products at a cheaper rate than at
present, by obtaining them in exchange for their super-
abundant raw material from those European countries
where population is overflowing the raw material supplies.
When this time arrives, and it may come with the
characteristic suddenness of American changes, the question
of American versus English coal in the English markets will
reduce itself to one of horizontal versus vertical difficulties.
If at some future period the average depth of the Newcastle

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 359

coal pits becomes 3000 feet greater than those of the pits
near the coast of the Atlantic or American lakes, and if the
horizontal difficulties of 3000 miles of distance are less
than the vertical difficulties of 3000 feet of depth, then coals
will be carried from America to Newcastle. They will
reach London and the towns on the South Coast be-
fore this, that is, when the vertical difficulties at New-
castle plus those of horizontal traction from Newéastle to
the south, exceed those of eastward traction across the
Atlantic.

As the cost of carriage increases in a far smaller ratio
than the open ocean distance, there is good reason for con-
cluding that the day when London houses will be warmed
by American coal is not very far distant. We, in England,
who have outgrown the pernicious folly of ‘‘ protecting
native industry,” will heartily welcome so desirable a con-
summation. It will render unnecessary any further inquiry.
into the existence of London “coal rings’’ or combinations
for restricted output among colliers or their employers. If
any morbid impediments to the free action of the coal trade
do exist, the stimulating and purgative influence of foreiga
competition will rapidly restore the trade to a healthy
condition.

The effect of such introduction of American coal will not
be to perpetually lock up our deep coal nor even to stop our
gradual progress towards it. We shall merely proceed
downwards at a much slower rate, for in America, as with
ourselves, the easily accessible coal will be first worked,
and as that becomes exhausted, the deeper, more remote,
thinner, and inferior will only remain to be worked at con-
tinually increasing cost. When both our own and foreign
coal cost more than peat, or wood, or other fuel, then and
therefore will coal become quite inaccessible to us, and this
will probably be the case long before we are stopped by the
physical obstacles of depth, density, or high temperature.

As this rise of value must of necessity be gradual, and the
superseding of British by foreign coal, as well as the final
disuse of coal, will gradually converge from the circum-
ference towards the centres of supply, from places distant
from coal pits to those close around them, we shall have
ample warning and opportunity for preparing for the social
changes that the loss of the raw material will enforce.

The above-quoted writer, in the “‘ Edinburgh Review,”
expresses in strong and unqualified terms an idea that is very
prevalent in England and abroad: he says that ‘‘ The course of
manufacturing supremacy of wealth and of power is

360 Limits of our Coal Supply. (July, .

directed by coal. That wonderful mineral, of the pos-
session of which Englishmen have thought so little, but
wasted so much, is the modern realisation of the philo-
sopher’s stone. This chemical result of primeval vegetation
has been the means by its abundance of raising this country
to an unprecedented height of prosperity, and its deficiency
might have the effect of lowering it to slow decline.”

* * “ Tt raises up one people and casts down another; it
makes railways on land and paths on the sea. It founds
cities, it rules nations, it changes the course of empires.”

The fallacy of these customary attributions of social
potency to mere mineral matter is amply shown by facts
that are previously stated by the reviewer himself. He tells
us that ‘‘the coal fields of China extend over an area of
400,000 square miles; and a good geologist, Baron Von
Richthofen, has reported that he himself has found a coal-
field in the province of Hunau covering an area of 21,700
square miles, which is nearly double our British coal area
of 12,000 square miles. In the province of Shansi, the
Baron discovered nearly 30,000 square miles of coal with
unrivalled facilities for mining. But all these vast coal
fields, capable of supplying the whole world for some
thousands of years to come, are lying unworked.”

If ‘‘the course of manufacturing supremacy of wealth
and of power” were directed by coal, then China, which
possesses 33°3 times more of-this dire€tive force than Great
Britain, and had had so early a start in life, should be the
supreme summit of the industrial world. If this solid
hydrocarbon ‘‘raises up one people and casts down
another,” the Chinaman should be raised thirty-three times
and three-tenths higher than the Englishman ; if it ‘‘ makes
railways on land and paths on the sea,” the Chinese
railways should be 33°3 times longer than ours, and the
tonnage of their mercantile marine 33°3 times greater.

Every addition to our knowledge of the mineral resources
of other parts of the world carries us nearer and nearer to
the conclusion that the old idea of the superlative abundance
of the natural mineral resources of England is a delusion.
We are gradually discovering that, with the one exception
of tin-stone, we have but little if any more than an average
supply of useful ores and mineral fuel. It is a curious fact,
and one upon which we may profitably ponder, that the
poorest and the worst iron ores that have ever been com-
mercially reduced, are those of South Staffordshire and the
Cleveland district, and these are the two greatest iron-
making centres of the world. ‘There are no ores of copper,

1873.! Limits of our Coal Supply. 361

zinc, tin, nickel, or silver in the neighbourhood of Birming-
ham, nor any golden sands upon the banks of the Rea, yet
this town is the hardware metropolis of the world, the
fatherland of gilding and plating, and is rapidly becoming
supreme in the highest art of gold and silver work.

These, and a multitude of other analogous fa¢ts, abun-
dantly refute the idea that the native minerals, the natural
fertility, the navigable rivers, or the convenient seaports,
determine the industrial and commercial supremacy of
nations. The moral forces exerted by ‘the individual
human molecules are the true components which determine
the resulting force and direction of national progress. It is
the industry and skill of our workmen, the self-denial, the
enterprise, and organising ability of our capitalists, that has
brought our coal so precociously to the surface and re-
directed for human advantage the buried energies of ancient
sunbeams, while the fossil fuel of other lands has remained
inert.

The foreigner who would see a sample of the source of
British prosperity must not seek for it in a geological
museum or among our subterranean rocks; let him rather
stand on the Surrey side of London Bridge from 8 to
IO a.m. and contemplate the march of one of the battalions
of our metropolitan industrial army, as it pours forth in
unceasing stream from the railway stations towards the
city. An analysis of the moral forces which produce the
earnest faces and rapid steps of these rank and file and
officers of commerce will reveal the true elements of British
greatness, rather than any laboratory dissection of our coal
or ironstone.

Fuel and steam-power have been urgently required by all
mankind. Englishmen supplied these wants. Their urgency
Was primary and they were first supplied, even though the
bowels of the earth had to be penetrated in order to obtain
them. In the present exceptional and precocious degree of
exhaustion of our coal treasures, we have the effect not the
cause of British industrial success.

If in a ruder age our greater industrial energy enabled us
to take the lead in supplying the ruder demands of our
fellow-creatures, why should not a higher culture of those
same abundant energies qualify us to maintain our position,
and enable us to minister to the more refined and elaborate
wants of a higher civilisation? There are other necessary
occupations quite as desirable as coal-digging, furnace-
feeding, and cotton-spinning. »

The approaching exhaustion of our coal supplies should

362 Limits of our Coal Supply. (July,

therefore serve us as a warning for preparation. Britain
will be forced to retire from the coal-trade, and should
accordingly prepare her sons for higher branches of business,
—for those in which scientific knowledge and artistic train-
ing will replace mere muscular strength and mechanical
skill. We have attained our present material prosperity
- mainly by our excellence in the use of steam power; let us
ever struggle for supremacy in the practical application of
brain-power.

We have time and opportunity for this. The exhaustion
of our coal supplies will go on at a continually retarding
pace—we shall always be approaching the end, but shall
never absolutely reach it, as every step of approximation
will diminish the rate of approach; lke the everlasting
process of reaching a given point by continually halving our
distance from it.

First of all we shall cease to export coal, then we shall
throw up the most voracious of our coal-consuming in-
dustries, such as the reduction of iron ore in the blast-
furnace; then copper smelting and the manufacture of
malleable iron and steel from the pig, and so on progres-
sively. If we keep in view the natural course and order
of such progress, and intelligently prepare for it, the loss
of our coal need not in the smallest degree retard the pro-
gress of our national prosperity.

If, however, we act upon the belief that the advancement
of a nation depends upon the mere accidents of physical
advantages, if we fold our arms and wait for Providence to
supply us with a physical substitute for coal, we shall
become Chinamen, minus the unworked coal of China.

If our educational efforts are conducted after the Chinese
model; if we stultify the vigour and freshness of young
brains by the weary, dull, and useless cramming of words
and phrases ; if we poison and pervert the growing intellect of
British youth by feeding it upon the decayed carcases of dead
languages and on effete and musty literature, our progress
will be proportionally Chinaward ; but if we shake off that
monkish inheritance which leads so many of us blindly to
believe that the business of education is to produce scholars
rather than men, and direct our educational efforts towards
the requirements of the future rather than by the traditions
of the past, we need have no fear that Great Britain will
decline with the exhaustion of her coal fields.

The teaching and training in schools and colleges must
be directly and designedly preparatory to those of the work-
shop, the warehouse, and the office ; for if our progress is

1873.] Limits of our Coal Supply. 363

to be worthy of our beginning, the moral and intellectual
dignity of industry must be formally acknowledged and syste-
matically sustained and advanced. Hitherto, we have been
the first and the foremost in utilising the fossil forces which
the miner has unearthed; hereafter we must in like manner
avail ourselves of the living forces the philosopher has re-
vealed.. Science must become as familiar among all classes of
Englishmen as their household fuel. The youth of England
must be trained to observe, generalise, and investigate the
phenomena and forces of the world outside themselves ; and
also those moral forces within themselves, upon the right or
wrong government of which the success or failure, the
happiness or misery of their lives will depend.

With such teaching and training the future generations
of England will make the best and most economical use
of their coal while it lasts, and will still advance in
material and moral prosperity in spite of its progressive
exhaustion.

VII. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF GENERA AND
SPECIES IN GEOLOGICAL TIME.*

By J. We Mawson, LL: D., PRS: PGS.

Principal of McGill University, President of the Natural
History Society of Montreal.

NPASHERE can be no doubt that the theory of evolution,
more especially that phase of it which is advocated
by Darwin, has greatly extended its influence, espe-

cially among young English and American naturalists,

within the few past years. We now constantly see reference
made to these theories, as if they were established principles,
applicable without question to the explanation of observed
facts, while classifications notoriously based on these
views, and in themselves untrue to nature, have gained cur-
rency in popular articles and even in text-books. In this
way young people are being trained to be evolutionists
without being aware of it, and will come to regard nature
wholly through this medium. So strong is this tendency,
more especially in England, that there is reason to fear that
natural history will be prostituted to the service of a shallow
philosophy, and that our old Baconian mode of viewing

* Forming portions of the President’s Annual Address.

364. The Evolution Theory. 4 AREER

nature will be quite reversed, so that instead of studying
facts in order to arrive at general principles, we shall return
to the medizval plan of setting up dogmas based on
authority only, or on metaphysical considerations of the
most flimsy character, and forcibly twisting nature into con-
formity with their requirements. Thus ‘‘advanced” views
in science lend themselves to the destruction of science, and
to a return to semi-barbarism.

In these circumstances, the only resource of the true
naturalist is an appeal to the careful study of groups of
animals and plants in their succession in geological time.
I have myself endeavoured to apply this test in my recent
report on the Devonian and Silurian flora of Canada, and
have shown that the*succession of Devonian and Carbon-
iferous plants does not seem explicable on the theory of
derivation. Still more recently, in a memoir on the Post-
pliocene Deposits of Canada, now in course of publication in
the ‘‘ Canadian Naturalist,” I have by a close and detailed
comparison of the numerous species of shells found embedded
in our clays and gravels, with those living in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and on the coasts of Labrador and Greenland,
shown, that it is impossible to suppose that any changes of
the nature of evolution were in progress; but, on the con-
trary, that all these species have remained the same, even
in their varietal changes, from the Post-pliocene period until
now. ‘Thus the inference is that these species must have
been introduced in some abrupt manner, and that their
variations have been within narrow limits and not progres-
sive. This is the more remarkable, since great changes of
level and of climate have occurred, and many species have
been obliged to change their geographical distribution, but
have not been forced to vary more widely than in the Post-
pliocene period itself.

Facts of this kind will attract little attention in compari-
son with the bold and attractive speculations of men who
can launch their opinions from the vantage ground of Lon-
don journals; but their gradual accumulation must some
day sweep away the fabric of evolution, and restore our
English science to the domain of common sense and sound
induction. Fortunately, also, there are workers in this field
beyond the limits of the English-speaking world. As an
eminent example we may refer to Joachim Barrande, the
illustrious palzontologist of Bohemia, and the greatest
authority on the wonderful fauna of his own primordial
rocks. In his recent memoir on those ancient and curious
crustaceans, the Trilobites, published in advance of the

1873.] The Evolution Theory. 365

supplement to vol. i. of the Silurian system of Bohemia, he
deals a most damaging blow at the theory of evolution,
showing conclusively that no such progressive development
is reconcileable with the facts presented by the primordial
fauna. The Trilobites are very well adapted to such an
investigation. They constitute a well marked group of
animals trenchantly separated from all others. They extend
through the whole enormous length of the Palzeozoic period,
and are represented by numerous genera and species. They
ceased altogether at an early period of the earth’s geological
history, so that their account with nature has been closed,
and we are in acondition to sum it upand strike the balance
of profit and loss. Barrande, in an elaborate essay of 282
pages, brings to bear on the history of these creatures his
whole vast stores of information in a manner most con-
clusive in its refutation of theories of progressive develop-
ment.

It would be impossible here to give an adequate summary
of his facts and reasoning. A mere example must suffice.
In the earlier part of the memoir he takes up the modifica-
tions of the head, the thorax, and the pygidium or tail piece
of the Trilobites in geological time, showing that numerous
and remarkable as these modifications are, in structure, in
form, and in ornamentation, no law of development can be
traced in them. For example, in the number of segments
or joints of the thorax, we find some Trilobites with only
one to four segments, others with as many as fourteen to
twenty-six, while a great many species have medium or
intervening numbers. Now in the early primordial fauna
the prevalent Trilobites are at thé extremes, some with very
few segments, as Agnostus, others with very many, as Para-
doxides. The genera with the medium segments are more
characteristic of the later faunas. There is thus no progres-
sion. If the evolutionist holds that the few-jointed forms
are embryonic, or more like to the young of the others, then
on his theory they should have precedence, but they are
contemporary with forms having the greatest number of
joints, and Barrande shows that these last cannot be held to
be less perfect than those with the medium numbers. Fur-
ther, as Barrande well shows, on the principle of survival
of the fittest, the species with the medium number of joints
are best fitted for the struggle of existence. But in that
case the primordial Trilobites made a great mistake in pass-
ing at once from the few to the many segmented stage, or
vice versa, and omitting the really profitable condition which
lay between. In subsequent times they were thus obliged

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3B

366 The Evolution Theory. [July,

to undergo a retrograde evolution, in order to repair the error
caused by the want of foresight or precipitation of their
earlier days. But, like other cases of late repentance, theirs
seems not to have quite repaired the evils incurred; for it
was after they had fully attained the golden mean that they
failed in the struggle, and finally became extinct. ‘‘ Thus
the infallibility which these theories attribute to all the acts
of matter organising itself is gravely compromised,” and
this attribute would appear not to reside in the trilobed tail
any more than according to some in the triple crown.

In the same manner, the paleontologist of Bohemia
passes in review all the parts of the Trilobites, the succes-
sion of their species and genera in time, the parallel between
them and the Cephalopods, and the relations of all this to
the primordial fauna generally. Everywhere he meets with
the same result; namely, that the appearance of new forms
is sudden and unaccountable, and that there is no indication
of a regular progression by derivation. He closes with the
following somewhat satirical comparison, of which I give a
free translation :—‘‘In the case of the planet Neptune, it
appears that the theory of astronomy was wonderfully borne
out by the actual facts as observed. This theory, therefore,
is in harmony with the reality. On the contrary, we have
seen that observation flatly contradicts all the indications
of the theories of derivation with reference to the composi-
tion and first phases of the primordial fauna. In truth,
the special study of each of the zoological elements of that
fauna has shown that the anticipations of the theory are in
complete discordance with the observed faéts. These dis-
cordances are so complete and so marked that it almost
seems as if they had been contrived on purpose to contradict
all that these theories teach of the first appearance and
primitive evolution of the forms of animal life.”

This testimony is the more valuable, inasmuch as the
annulose animals generally, and the Trilobites in particular,
have recently been a favourite field for the speculations of
our English evolutionists. The usual argumentum ad igno-
vantiam deduced from the imperfe¢tion of the geological
record, will not avail against the facts cited by Barrande,
unless it could be proved that we know the Trilobites only
in the last stages of their decadence and that they existed
as long before the Primordial as this is before the Permian.
Even this supposition, extravagant as it appears, would by
no means remove all the difficulties.

:
|

—

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 367

Vill... THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.*

By WILLIAM E. A. Axon, M.R.S.L., F.S.5.

WN UNIVERSAL language has been the dream of many
aoe

minds. It has been a subject of frequent aspiration,

hope, and despair. That the civilised earth should
speak one common dialect is indeed a ‘‘ consummation
devoutly to be wished.” The number of languages in
existence at the present moment is unknown, but, as Pro-
fessor Miiller has said, they cannot be less than goo.
Adelung has estimated the number of known dialects at 3664,
of which 937 belong to Asia, 587 to Europe, 276 to Africa,
and 1624 to America. Balbi has enumerated 860 languages,
forming about 5000 dialects. Of these languages 53 belong
to Europe, 752 to Asia, p15 to Africa, 422 ‘to Aimcticas ‘and
117 to Oceania. There can be no doubt that this estimate
very greatly underrates in every particular the number of
existing methods of speech.

If we contemplate the amazing variety of this Babel of
sounds, the first sentiment is one of wonder at the sanguine
hopefulness of those who expect to see this chaos reduced
to order and symmetry. Some, dismayed perhaps by the
great number of dialects, have thought it impossible that
any one language should ever conquer all its opponents, and
remain in undisputed possession of the field, and have
therefore sought for a method by which the same symbol
should represent one idea and many sounds. That sucha
scheme is absolutely impossible would be too much to say,
for a plan of this kind is already apphed in the case of
numerals. The figure I is called by the Italian wno, by the
Welshman wn, by the German em; but to all three it
conveys the idea of unity. The Frenchman’s quatre-vingt-
douwze is very unlike in sound to the English ninety-two, but
the figures 92 represent them both.t The construction of
an artificial philosophical language, if not beyond the
bounds of possibility, is too far from the realms of the prac-
tical to need more than passing mention, and the chances

* A considerable portion of this paper was originally delivered as a
Presidential Address, April, 3rd, 1873, before the Manchester Ecle¢tic
Society.

+ By a false analogy Wachter, who saw that ten figures were sufficient for
all calculations, was led to suppose that all writing might be managed by an
alphabet of ten letters, and this is what he proposed :—

|

368 The Future of the English Language. [July,

of its adoption even when created would be of the very
smallest.*

A few centuries ago, the learned were really in possession
of a universal language. Learning, confined then to acom-
paratively small number of individuals, was all consigned
to the Latin language. In the street the scholar spoke his
mother-tongue, but in the study and in the leCture-room
Latin alone was heard. He wooed his sweetheart in Eng-
lish or in German, as the case might be; but he wooed the
muses in the words which had served Virgil and Cicero.
Many circumstances contributed to this result. Latin was
the language of the church, and the literary class was for a
long period, to a very large extent, made up of the priestly
caste. It was not that all priests were literate, the reverse
being, unhappily, often the case; but outside the clerical
professions there was no place for the activity and learning
of the student. And the most ignorant members of the
priesthood would have at least some knowledge of the Latin
tongue. Latin was the common universal language of the
literati of Europe up to the period of the Renaissance. The
Reformation shattered the unity of the western church, and
led to the use in various countries of vernacular liturgies
and translations of the Bible. The successive development

Genus. Figura. Potestas.
Vocal C) a, € 4, 0, U.
Guttur . oO k, ¢, ch,.q, 2, Be
Lingual Phe i.
Lingual Ps a:
‘Lingual a> | r.
Dental . mi S.
Labial . 3 b, q.
Labial . N m.

es Labial . — f, ph, v, w.
Nasal A n.

Supposing a language existed containing only ten sounds, they might be
amply sufficient for the expression of ideas, since it has been estimated that
they would form 3,628,800 combinations.—Koops on Paper. 2nd. ed., 1801,
pp. 28 and 32.

* Bishop Wilkins’s ‘‘ Real Character” is hardly known now, except from Pro-
fessor Miller’s masterly analysis of it, in his ‘Science of Language” (vol. ii.,
Pp. 47). It was based upon a classification of the attributes of the subjects of
knowledge. An idea of Wilkins’s, founded on the analogy of the scientific
symbols used in the European languages, has been developed into a system of
ideographs by De Mas (Ibid., p. 48).

ee eee ee eS ee

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 369

of the rich popular literature of Italy, Spain, France, and
our own country still further weakened it. Yet we see that,
so late as the time of the English commonwealth, it was
necessary to write in Latin for a European audience.
Milton, when pleading for a free press in that republic, used
‘eloquent and earnest English words; but when he had
to defend the commonwealth against its foreign assailants,
he used the Latin tongue. ah eee attacked the English
nation before the literary tribunal of Europe, and both plea
and reply are in the language of the courts. A little earlier
we have a still more striking instance in the case of Lord
Bacon, all of whose most important writings were written
in Latin. Fancy Darwin or Huxley thinking it necessary
to their fame, and to the propagation of their theories, to
write in any language but their own. When Newton’s
grand discoveries were made, they were recorded, not
in English, but in Latin. Yet, when Bacon disdained to
issue in English his views on the method of philosophy, it
had received the plays of Shakespeare and the authorised
version of the Scriptures, and in Newton’s time it had
been ennobled and dignified by the mighty music of Milton’s
verse.

Latin retained its hold upon the physical sciences long
after it had ceased to be used to any great extent in any
other field of literature. Even in this field it has now lost
its position. There are very few works of any great scien-
tific importance which have been issued in Latin during the
past century. At present, of the writers on science, each
one uses his own language, and leaves the propagation
of his views to the mercy of translators, or the linguistic
acquirements of his fellow-scholars. At no date were these
probably greater than at present. The knowledge of lan-
guages has become a very common accomplishment; but,
after all, the acquirement of foreign idioms is a difficult
thing, and there must always be in every language a sort of
holy of holies, into which the feet of the Gentile can never
enter.* It is also obvious that the study necessary to

* A recent writer gives his own linguistic experiences :—‘‘As a boy, we
were taught Greek and Latin, such an amount as enabled us to read a Greek
testament with the use occasionally of a lexicon, and to read freely Ovid and
Virgil. But our future career was selected to be one in which Greek and
Latin were not subjects for examination, but French and German ‘ paid well ;’
consequently, four years were devoted to the study of these two languages,—
at the end of which time we found ourselves in South Africa, where the only
‘languages of any practical use were Dutch and Caffre. To Dutch and Caffre,
consequently, we turned our attention; and, after rather more than a year’s
study, we were able to converse imperfectly in both these. But again were we
on the point of finding these later labours useless, for there was every prospect

370 The Future of the English Language. (July,

master merely the most important of the living languages
must detract considerably from the amount of time which
can be applied to the enlarging of the bounds of science.
Let us disabuse ourselves of the vulgar notion that the man
of science is a sort of lucky guesser, who arrives at conclu-
sions by process of conjuring. Let us remember that he
must be first of all an instructed man, well acquainted with
what has already been done, and what is actually being
done. De Morgan speaks very emphatically on this point:
““New knowledge, when to any purpose, must come by
contemplation of old knowledge, in every matter which
concerns thought ; mechanical contrivance sometimes, not
very often, escapes this rule. All the men who are now
called discoverers, in every matter ruled by thought, have
been men versed in the minds of their predecessors, and
learned in what had been done before them. I may cite,
among those who have wrought strongly upon opinion or
practice in science, Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Euclid,
Archimedes, Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Francis Bacon,
Ramus, Tycho Brahé, Galileo, Napier, Descartes, Liebnitz,
Newton, Locke. I have taken none but names known out
of their fields of work, and all were learned as well as
Sagacious.’’**

But at no previous period was there such a general diffu-
sion of scientific investigation. The problems which engage
the attention of the physicists of London and Berlin are
also being eagerly scrutinised by those of Florence, Boston,
Melbourne, and Cracow. That men should at the same
time be accomplished linguists and profound scientists, is
more than can be reasonably expected. There can, then, be

of our services being transferred to India; and we heard, from good authority,
that we were not likely to get on there unless we could speak Hindustani, and
perhaps understood Sanscrit or Persian. Here, then, were Greek, Latin,
French, German, Dutch, Caffire, Hindustani, Persian, Sanscrit, all to be
learned, in order that one’s own thoughts and wishes should be made intelligible
to another person. In our judgment, this is not only a mistake, but it isa
mistake which is remediable, and which is a slur upon the common-sense and
civilisation of the world.” After pointing out that in music there is but one
language, he suggests that ‘‘a committee of the scientific men of all nations
should be formed, which should decide on a language that shall be termed the
universal language. Let us suppose that German be found to be the most ex-
pressive and complete of existing languages, and the one decided upon as the
universal tongue. We commence our education, not with a superficial know-
ledge of several languages, but with a thorough knowledge of German only.
All other nations adopt the same course; and we know that wherever civilisa-
tion has spread, wherever missionaries have resided and taught, we who speak
this universal language shall be at once intelligible, and able to communicate
our thoughts readily.”—Chambers’s Fournal, January, 1872.
* Budget of Paradoxes, 1872, p. 4.

ey e-? ao

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 371

no doubt that this diversity of languages is an evil for
science, since it puts serious difficulties in the way of
the highest scientific culture, which consists, to use Dr.
Matthew Arnold’s phrase, in ‘‘ acquainting ourselves with
‘the best that has been known and said in the world”’ on the
particular object of our study.

The advantage to commerce of a common language is
so obvious that it needs only to be named in order to
be appreciated. Is there any modern language which has
any chance of becoming the general medium of civilised
intercourse, both in speech and in writing? At one time
the French language appeared likely to succeed to the
heritage of the Latin. It was the language of diplomacy
and of society; its affinity to Latin made it easy of acyui-
sition to the Teutonic races who had learned Latin in their
schools ; and to the people of South Europe it was already
three parts known from its analogies with their own ver-
naculars.* That day has passed. If any language ever
becomes dominant, it is very unlikely that it will be French.
France is no coloniser. She is great, but her boundaries
are limited. Her home population decreases; her emigrants,
instead of founding new Frances, are absorbed in the new
Englands which are dotted over the globe.

The German is no’more a national coloniser than the
Frenchman. He increases much faster, but beyond the
boundaries of the Fatherland the language makes small
progress. The race goes to strengthen the American stock,
but the language has no root in the American soil.

The best way to estimate the relative chances of various
languages will be to ascertain the number of individuals |
who speak each of them. The statistics of language have
not received a very large amount of attention, but the
number of wide-extended languages is not very great. In
this case we may Safely leave out of consideration the
languages which are not of European origin. The oriental
tongues are not aggressive nor numerically strong enough to
be factors in the problem. The materials for a rigidly
accurate census of languages do not exist, but an approxi-
mately correct solution can be formed :—

PORTUGUESE.
En POreue dian. 1.55. soma +1 53980,000
pei aie yet 4S 2.” 5. £O.000,000

13,980,000

* There was a time when the Academy of Berlin published its transaGions
n French.

a72 The Future of the English Language. [July,

ITALIAN.
in 'lialy' i.) 2". 2 eee
yy CAME Ss Ae 540,985

5. Switzetiend).--Ge. coe. 186,000

27,524,238
Italy has a certain commercial currency in the Mediter-
ranean, but has not taken root.

FRENCH.
in Pagnce, . = 3 Ma wee ee a ee
55 SCID. a) eS ie oy ee ee
s Switzerland . . ; eat OD care 638,000

France has very few colonies. If all their
populations spoke French, it would only

add 3,631,000 persons. A million is a fair i
Ceenme. ~. <a Jee eae re
40,188,000

RUSSIAN.

It has been said that there are 24 languages spoken in
the Russian Empire, but the prevailing one is the Russ,
and the number of those who speak it is reckoned at
51,370,000.

“ SPANISH.
Spain, including the Canary and Balearic Isles. 16,301,000
South America. If we give Spanish all ri | |
South American States except Brazil,} 27,408,082
there will be... 6 es as ee ee
43,709,082

GERMAN.

German Empire 2) 6) 0s So - 458
Assstria fi >. de Rood, et ee eee
Belgumits. or 4) Se. Ee ee
WePssia, (5 os eee hd ree 985,000
Fanland » A (a) ae ee eee I,000
Switzerland oc. jah a 2a ee

55,789,000
De Candolle has estimated the German-speaking peoples
at 62,000,000, which appears too high a figure.*

* These figures are chiefly taken from the “‘Almanach de Gotha ” for 1873,
the conjectural estimates of the number of foreign-speaking people in each
country being omitted. There may be fifty thousand Germans in Great Britain,
and one thousand of them in Greece, but it is a matter of conje@ure which
does not affe@ the question we have in view. .

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 373

ENGLISH.

English is spoken by 40,000,000 in the United States, by
50,000 in the republic of Liberia, by 31,000,000 British
subjects in Europe, by 5,000,000 in America, by 2,000,000
in Australia, and by at least 1,000,000 more scattered over
the various British dependencies in Asia and Africa, giving
a grand total of .79,050,000.

From this it will be evident that English i is at present the
most widely spread of the languages of civilisation. But
there is another point of importance which has been well
put by M. de Candolle. Nations vary greatly as to the
relative quickness with which they double themselves. He
has worked out the problem, and has calculated the number
of persons who will speak these languages in a century from
now. Let us apply his method to figures of population,
which sometimes vary from the estimates he has made, and
see what will be the probable number of persons speaking
the most important of the European languages at the end
of the twentieth century.*

In England the population doubles itself in every 56
years ; in the New World the Anglo-Saxons double in every
25 years. The Dutch double in 106 years; the Turks in
555 years; the Italians in 135 years; the Swedes in
g2 years; the Russians in 100 years; the Spaniards in 112
years ; their South-American descendants in 273 years.
This last was Humboldt’s computation, and has been
adopted here, although it may be doubted if this rate of
increase has not been considerably checked by the chronic
anarchy to which they are subject.t The North German
people double in from 50 to 60 years, and the South Germans
in 167 years, say I00 years as a mean for the entire race.
The French populations take about 140 years in which to
double.tf

* M. de Candolle’s work (‘Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis
deux Siécles, suivie d’autres Etudes,” par ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE, Géneve,
1873), is one of great interest, alike from the subject-matters with which
it deals and from the charm of style and treatment. In the essay with which
we are more immediately concerned (‘‘Avantage pour les Sciences d’une
Langue Dominante et laquelle des Langues Modernes sera nécessairement
Dominante au XXme Siécle”’), he estimates that in 1970 there will be
860 million English-speaking persons to 124 million German, and 693 million
French-speaking persons.

+ These estimates are derived from the following sources :—‘‘ Universal
Language,” by WILLIAM WHITE, p. 3; Bath, 1850. DE CANDOLLE: Hist.
des Sciences. Encyclopedia Brit., art. ‘‘ Population.” Statistical Journal,
vol. xxxili.

t The following appears in the “ Lancet,” of May 3rd, 1873 :—‘‘M. Lagneau
has placed before the Academy of Medicine of Paris a paper, from which it
appears that the discouraging features presented by the quinquennial census

Reer It. N.S.) 3C

374 The Future of the English Language. July,

We may estimate on this basis that in the year 2000 the
most important languages will be spoken by the number of
persons as under :-—

REAUAAM 7 fo) ae he hk he Lee eee 53:370,000
PeewCH. 9... - ore ele Ree eee 72,571,000
RgSSIAN 2. i... swe Sep teegectal dane 130,479,800
[GREMAN =. & «4° oe. cea 157,480,000
SPANISH—
Bucape,«b)i > ie eels 36,938,338
S.. America 4m .54 44-4 9 468,347

505,286,242
ENGLISH—
Hasope: 5 {<..s<e bes Saas
United States and non-)
European British i 1,658,440,000
pendencies . . -
7 1,837,286,153

From this it is tolerably clear that English is the language
of the future. No other European tongue can compete with
it, for no other race has the same wide field for extension.
The emigrants who crowd to the West, be they Latin,
Teutonic, or Scandinavian, become most surely and cer-
tainly Americanised. For a time they may endeavour to
retain the language of their fatherland, but the attempt is
hopeless. ‘“‘In America,” says Sir Charles Dilke, “ the
peoples of the world are being fused together, but they are
run into an English mould; Alfred’s laws and Chaucer’s
tongue are theirs, whether they would or no.” In South

which preceded the year 1866 are worse in the census of 1872. For the six
years preceding 1872, the population has again decreased by 366,935 inhabi-
tants—i.e., 16 individuals upon every 10,000 (the 1,597,238 inhabitants lost
with Alsace and Lorraine being deducted). In order to see the extent of the
decrease, it should be remembered that the former census gave an annual
increase of 38 per 10,000, so that the actual decrease is 54 per 10,000.
M. Lagneau shows that this thinning of the population is owing to the com-
parative small number of births, military service and the anxiety of parents to
prevent a great division of property being at the root of the evil. The author
points out that, if this system continues, France in half a century could raise
an army only one-fourth superior in number to the present, as the population
would have increased only one-fourth; whilst in the same half-century, the
number of inhabitants having doubled in England, Russia, and Germany,
these countries could raise armies double the number of the present. He
hopes, however, that a change will come over France, and that sufficient work
and occupation will be found for the more numerous children of each family.
He cites where the mortality is the same as in France, viz., 228 per 10,000,
but where the births are 354, being one-third higher than in France; the
annual increase, 126 per 10,000, three times higher than French increase, and

where the population is doubled in 55 years, which doubling would in France
take 183 years to effeé.”

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 375

America Spanish is the common language, and in Brazil
10,000,000 persons use the Portuguese; but neither of these
have any propagandist power, and they will not improbably
disappear before the more energetic English speech. The
German-speaking peoples have no colonies or dependencies ;
those of France are unimportant; whilst those of Great
Britain are scattered over every part of the globe. The
British Empire covers nearly a third of the earth’s surface,
and British subjects are nearly a fourth of the population of
the world. The native races of India, numbering 190,000,000
human beings, are governed by a mere handful of English-
men; and it would be no new thing in the world’s history if
these subject races were to learn and adopt the language of
their conquerors. That our language and literature are ex-
tensively cultivated by the educated natives already we
know; but how long it may take before scholastic agencies
reach the great mass of the people it is hard to say.

The widespread territorial influence of the British Empire
must inevitably aid in extending the boundaries of the lan-
guage, and another element of equal importance is the
extent of our commercial intercourse with other nations,
owing to the restless energy of our people, who are to be found
wherever dash and endurance are needed. ‘The adoption of
the English language by the immense population of Japan
has been seriously considered by the governors of that
nation.

Such, then, is the position of the English language at
the present day. It is spoken by a larger number of persons
than any other civilised language, and those who speak it
* have proved themselves to be the most energetic, enter-
prising, and successful of modern races. The English race
has fuller opportunities for further extension and develop-
ment than any other. It is therefore of importance to
ascertain if this language which has these external advan-
tages possesses also the internal qualities necessary for the
common language of civilisation. The civilisation and
science of to-day are due mainly to the Latin and Teutonic
races. The Sclavonic nations may have a great part to play
in the future, but so far, their influence upon the literature
and learning of the world has not been great. That
language which is to be dominant must,’as De Candolle has
already said, have sufficient of Latin and German forms
and words to show a genuine affinity with both those
families of speech. Beyond this, it should be clear, simple,
and brief.

A glance at the history of our language will show how

376 The Future of the English Language. [July,

well it answers the first condition. To the strength of the
Teutonic dialects it adds the clearness of the Latin, anda
brevity that is all its own. A mixed language, it has com-
bined the best elements of each. It is the language of men
of business, to whom time is of importance, and who
cannot afford to waste the stuff of which life is made, by
roundabout phrases and ambiguous sentences. The object
of those who have formed the English language might have
been to see in how few words an idea could be conveyed.
There is a dire¢tness of purpose about our most ordinary
forms of expression. The question asked is not how can
this thought be clothed in the most beautiful and appro-.
priate diction, but how can it be rapidly and unmistakably
expressed? It goes to the root of the matter, allows of no
beating about the bush, but is exact, curt, pointed, and
straightforward. . English is not so long-winded as either
French or German. De Candolle tells us that, in families
where they have an equal acquaintance with French and
with German, the former is always more used; and where
English and French are spoken, the preference is given
to English. German families, he says, settling in English
or French countries quickly cease to use their own language,
whilst Frenchmen and Englishmen settling in German
countries are on the contrary very tenacious of their
mother-tongue. It is possible to give another interpretation
to these facts; but it seems not unnatural that those
having choice of two roads should sele& the shortest and
directest of them.

The English tongue has been the subject of many
eulogies. Those which come from foreigners may at least
claim sincerity and freedom from that national vanity which
might induce an Englishman to over-estimate its beauty
and importance. Jacob Grimm has said that ‘‘ the English
language possesses a power of expression such as was
never, perhaps, attained by any human tongue. Its alto-
gether intellectual and singularly happy foundation, and
government, and development, has arisen from a surprising
alliance between the two noblest languages of antiquity—
the German and the Romanesque—the relations of which
to each other is well known to be such that the former
supplies the material foundation, and the latter the abstract
notions. Yes; truly the English language may with good
reason call itself a universal language, and seems chosen,
like the English people, to rule in future times in a still
greater degree in all corners of the earth. In richness,
sound reason, and flexibility, no modern tongue can be

-

1873.) | The Future of the English Language. 377

compared with it,—not even the German, which must shake
off many a weakness before it can enter the lists with the
English.’’*

The great defect of our language is its absurd orthography.
This is the stumbling-block which prevents the ready acqui-
sition of the spoken language by foreigners, and hinders the
majority of our own people from acquiring an intelligent
acquaintance with the riches of our literature. M. de
Candolle ‘was surprised to see that intelligent English
children learned to read with great difficulty. He found
the reason to be that each letter has many sounds, or that
each sound is written in many different ways. ‘‘ They are
obliged to learn word by word. It is a matter of memory,
almost entirely destitute of rule.” The great defect of our
language in the eyes of this critic, who is certainly not an
adverse one, ‘‘is an orthography entirely irregular, so absurd
that it requires more than a year for children to learn to read
init.” More than a year! The hindrance which it causes
to elementary education is much greater than this.

Mr. Russell Martineau, in a report to the Philological
Society, says :—‘‘ How spelling can be taught at all in ele-
mentary schools is a constant wonder to me. There is not
a single rule which a teacher can lay down which has not
almost as many exceptions as examples. Thus—‘ Final e
lengthens the preceding vowel, as in make, bite;’ but then,
what of love, glove, tongue? ‘G before e or 7 is sounded
like 7, as in gentle, gin;’ but gig, gild, get protest. ‘Gh
after aw and ow is sounded like f, as laugh, cough, rough;’
but what of haughty, plough, bough? And, worst of all,
what can the teacher make of the double vowels ea in each,
bread, great; az in hail, against; au in fault, haunch,
laugh ; ow in sound, wound, soul; ow in blow, trowel; ew
in yew, shew; ¢ in receive, reign; ze in field, tie, friend ?
Or, approaching the subject from the other side, the follow-
ing vowel sounds have a plurality of modes of expression,
between which the luckless pupil has to choose :—

mia aah! Eat ays Cd.

Be coe te smd eee Ed. Cl, lez

A inayat ere Meeehrs! te. CL Cob. ek:

Been ee ts WIS: eR,

Pia. aiveewe « O; OC, OU, OW, EW) O02:
ie LENGe Caw ais kt Ws We CW.
OF 5, Pouda’s' re 2) OU; OW.

Gi TAM ees, ick 5 Pax, Ag Aly QWs

* Quoted by Mr. Pitman, in his ‘‘ Manual of Phonography,” 1873, page 4.

378 The Future of the English Language. [July,

‘“Iam not speaking too strongly in saying that our want
of systematic orthography has reduced the advantage of
alphabetic writing toa minimum, and makes correét spelling
virtually impossible.”

‘Jt is the universal testimony of teachers,’’ remarks Mr.
E. Jones, B.A., Head Master of the Hibernian Schools,
Liverpool, ‘‘ that the irregularity of our spelling is a serious
obstruction to education. The bulk of the children pass
through the government schools without having acquired the
ability to read with ease and intelligence, or to spell with
accuracy, although these subjects, with arithmetic, occupy
most of the time in these schools. It takes from six to
seven years to learn the arts of reading and spelling with a
fair degree of intelligence, and to many minds the difficulties
of orthography are insurmountable. The report of the Bir-
mingham Education Aid Society shows that, after a careful
examination of a large number of youths of both sexes, be-
tween the ages of thirteen and twenty, employed in the
factories in that town, only four and a half per cent were
able to read a simple sentence from an ordinary school book
with intelligence and accuracy. What hopes can be enter-
tained of the improvement of the remaining ninety-five and
a half per cent? Education is regarded by statesmen and
philanthropists as the lever by which the people are to be
elevated, but education, up to the point of reading and writing
io any useful purpose, under present circumstances, 1s not attained
by the great bulk of the population.”” Mr. J. S. Mill remarks;
‘Tt is truly a frightful consideration that the annual number
of pupils who pass the highest grade in the schools aided by
Government, namely, who leave the schools able to read a
newspaper with understanding, is less than the number of
teachers, including pupil teachers, employed in the schools!
There is no doubt that a simplification of English ortho-
graphy would facilitate considerably the task of learning to
read.”

If we advance to a higher social grade, the same evil
influence manifests itself. Out of i972 failures in the
Civil Service examinations, 1866 candidates were in
spelling; that is, eighteen out of every nineteen who
failed failed in spelling. Dr. Morell, who states this fac,
continues, ‘‘It is certain that the ear is no guide in the
spelling of English, rather the reverse ; and that it is almost
necessary to form a personal acquaintance with each indi-
vidual word.” :

As another example of reading made hard, let us take an
American instance :—From the ‘‘ Twenty-second Annual

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 379

Report of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools of
the City of Washington,” we learn that in June, 1866,
a spelling match was held, at which there were seven pupils
selected by the teachers as the best spellers from each of the
eleven intermediate schools. A gold medal had been offered
by one of the trustees as a prize for the best speller. The
words given out are as follows, with the number of scholars,
out of a total of 77, who spelled them incorre¢tly :—

tambourine . 31 indispensable. 40 _ bilious. . .46 pamphlet. . 3
complacent .24 susceptible .14 niche . .'.36 labyrinth . . 42
motry. <2 BE Vvionette . . 44 , cédilla s -. 528. ferrule... 1.13
Warloloid . + 562 ‘inveigh. «. . 6 ‘horologe : .47~ facilé . . . 46
caterpillar.’ . 25 pleurisy . . 20 exorbitant..-.3r. medicine . 214.
peysioiopy| . 16 gauge... 5/20 § ellipsé .. .. 20», flageolet, . ..128
Piero. « . 2 pallet. 2) o 7- hierarchy. «20, 2ephyr +... 60
est A) sc TG) malate... 2. ro 4 periphery." .50". ‘Tigid) <4) eae
Weeds) « /\ 29 palettes.) iy48))/ milisia). 2). .72@ lacquer.::):)/ 5123
omelet... . 27. stumilows. . 53.) dahlias... «30° ;vidtuals «3578
Billiards . . 5 aeronaut . ‘49 Separate . . 14 ) surcingle » .. 35
shoul. |. -: 39° ‘pafoxysm. +. 32, miniature. . 29° purctilious . 33
irresistible. . 31 daguerreotype 34

These words were taken from the spelling-books used in
the schools. The following are amusing illustrations of the
modes of spelling some of the words :—

vereloid errenaut skurrelous
variloid erenote squerulous
veryaloid airanaut scurulous
veraloid eranoch scournless
valeloid arenaught scirilous
veri O Lord erenolt scuroleus
fariloid erroenort scurrus
variloyd eronaut skireles
bareloyd aregnout scurels
barierloid ereunaut skirrellous
barryaloid airinought schourals
marioloyd earonaut scurolous

arenarch schurrulous

aranult

erynort

arinought

arroneut

A second trial was found necessary, when the medal was
awarded to Hattie E. Gove, eleven years of age, of the
First Distaict.

** These facts,” says the Report, ‘‘ are presented to show
the importance of greater attention being given to this
branch of education, so that such a report may never again
be presented.” Whatasatire is this on our system of spelling !

The state of the case has been well put in the double
statement that no Englishman can tell with certainty how
to pronounce any word which is presented to him in the
ordinary orthography, unless he has heard it uttered by

380 The Future of the English Language. [July,

others, and no Englishman can tell with certainty how
to spell a word with which he is not already familiar in its
printed form. In both cases he may guwess, and his guess
will sometimes be right and sometimes be wrong; but
in neither case can he attain certainty. The anomalies of
English are so great and manifold that it is difficult
to exhibit them in a brief compass.

The object of all alphabetic writing is the representation
of spoken sounds. For this purpose it is essential that we
should have a symbol for each sound, and that that symbol
should be used with regularity and consistency. An
analysis of the spoken sounds of our language shows that
we have thirty-eight distinct sounds, and for the repre-
sentation of these we have 26 letters, 3 of them mere
duplicates. This has led to the device of using two or more
letters to indicate a single sound. Had this been done with
uniformity all would have been well, but unfortunately no
system has been followed. Thus, an examination of 3000
monosyllables showed 145 different methods of indicating
the twelve vowel sounds existing in the language. Again,
every letter in the alphabet except 7 is mute in some words.
Why should we take the useless trouble of writing 0 in the
word lamb, seeing that the sound bis never heard in it?
If we take the entire range of English vowels, we shall find

that there are 110 combinations of our imperfect symbols,
and that they have 353 meanings. Taking the consonants
in the same way, there are 119 combinations having 251
meanings. ‘There are forty ways of representing the vowel
sound heard in the word eel; there are nineteen ways of |
writing k,s,and ~; there are 26 ways of expressing the
vowel heard in zsle, and there are 37 expedients for showing
the vowel in 7t.* Of the many sounds which are hidden
under the same symbol, most of us have had ample expe-
rience. The difficulties of knowing what sounds to attach
to the symbols are equally great

As a Frenchman once found when he tried to explain
His complaint, for the spelling so bothered his brain
That he said to the doctor, ‘I’ve got a bad cow;”
When the doctor could only reply by a bow.

Again he attempted, “‘ I’ve got a bad coo;”

But the do&tor was dumb. Seeing that would not do,

He bethought him again, “ l’ve got a bad co;”
And he thought that the doctor was terribly slow.

* For a thorough exposition of the thousandfold anomalies of English or-
thography, we may refer to ‘‘A Plea for Phonetic Spelling,” by ALEXANDER JOHN
Exuis, B.A. 2nd.ed.; 1848. In this work, all the objections which have been
raised against a reformed system of spelling are not only anticipated, but
refuted with a clearness and fulness which leaves nothing to be desired. :

1873.! The Future of the English Language. 381

But he tried it once more, “ I’ve got a bad cuff;”’

The doctor lost patience and said in a huff,

‘Tf thus you go on I must take myself off.”

‘* That’s it,” cried the Frenchman, ‘I have got a bad cough.”

Now it must be recollected that each of these methods of

pronouncing the word cough is san¢tioned by the usage in
other cases. The analogies of English spelling will justify
any absurdity. Take this sentence as an example: ‘‘Igh
bat ai nyou kought frachm mhy taighlor too-deig.’’*

Igh = as in nigh,
bat = bought ae als

al i} 5) (plac,
nyou = new 2 VOU:
kowsht = coat »» though,
imac «—= 160m ie . Macue,
mhy = my ee eye,
taighlor = tailor 5, straight,
to = to ce hOO,
deig = day ee nereme

-Let common sense decide. If it is reasonable to repre-
sent the vowel J by the combination Igh in one case, it is
reasonable to do so in all. It would only weary to repeat
instances of the absurdities of our spelling. They meet us at
every turn. If candidates for employment in the Civil Service,
who have in most cases been carefully prepared for the ordeal,
fail to learn how to spell, what must be the condition of
those to whom hard fortune has denied the chance of any
large amount of education? How many in the working-
classes there must be to whom reading in place of being a
solace for the hours of relaxation, and a pleasant method of
acquiring knowledge and wisdom, is a thing avoided from
the difficulties which beset it.t

This hindrance to the cause of national education, and to
the progress of our language abroad having been dwelt upon
at some length, it only remains to point out the remedy.
Various schemes have from time to time been put forth,
but the only one to which attention need now be directed is

that advocated by Mr. Isaac Pitman, of Bath. Mr. Pitman,

as all the world knows, is the inventor of a very beautiful

* Phonetic Journal, xxx., 426.

+ Every one must at times have received letters which show how hopeless
is the task of the teachers of elementary schools. I transcribe the body ofa
letter from a young woman, relating to a fellow-servant :—I ham very soory I
connot come to see yu as I ham soo Bessey But I can say that the gril his
cleane honest and industers as A tow year good charactar from her last place
she his 202 years of age [a startling assertion! The meaning of course is
20+2=22] good temperd and stady. |

VOL. III. (N.S.) : 3D

[July,

system of shorthand. _ Unlike all other stenographies,
Phonography is based upon a philosophical analysis of the
sounds in the English language, and this analysis has been
made the basis of a new Phonetic English Alphabet, in
which each sound is indicated by one letter, and each letter
is attached to one sound only. In the construétion of this
alphabet, Mr. Isaac Pitman and Mr. A. J. Ellis, F.R.S.—a
man of profound scholarship—were joint-workers.

Since 1843 various modifications have been made in this
alphabet, sometimes of doubtful expediency, but always with
the single object in view of making it as perfect as possible.

The sanguine expectations of its promoters have not been
realised. Mr. Ellis, indeed, appears to have given up all hope
of seeing a practical phonetic alphabet adopted, and now pro-
poses a system of digraphs in place of fresh letters, for use
concurrently with the old system. This system is much more
complicated and cumbersome than the Phonetic alphabet,
though infinitely preferable to the present want of system.

Mr. Ellis’s Glossic is a new concurrent system of spelling,
intended to remedy the defe¢ts, without interfering with the
use, of existing English orthography.

Key to English Glossic.

Read the large capital letters always in the senses they
have in the following words, which are all in the usual
spelling except the three underlined, meant for foot, then,
rouge.

382 The Future of the English Language.

BEET BAIT BAA cAUL COAL cOOL

KNIT NET GNAT NOT NUT FUOT
HEIGHT FOIL FOUL FEW De sae
YEA Way WHey Hay

PEA Bee Tort Doe CHest Jest Keep GAPE

Fig’ Vir « THinw .DHEN SEAL

ZEAL RUSH ROUZHE
Lay May Nay siING
Mark emphasis by (:) before a word.

EAR R’InG EARR’ING

R is vocal when no vowel follows, and

modifies the preceding vowel, form-
ing diphthongs, as in PEER, PAIR,
BOAR, BOOR, HERB. -

Use R for R’, and RR for RR’, when
a vowel follows, except in elemen-
tary books, where 7’ is retained.

Separate th, dh, sh, zh, ng by a
hyphen (-) when necessary.

Read a stress on the first syllable
when not otherwise directed.

Mark stress by (:) after a long vowel
or é7, oi, ou, eu, and after the first
consonant following a short vowel.

Pronounce el, em, en, er, ej, a, ob-
scurely, after the stress syllable.
When three or more letters come to-
gether of which the two first may
form a digraph, read them as such.

Letters retain their usual names, and
alphabetical arrangement.

Words in customary or NOMIC spel-
ling occurring among GLOSSIC,
and conversely, should be underlined
with a wavy line , and printed
with spaist leterz, or else ina

different type.

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 383

Spesimen ov Ingglish Glosik.

OBJEKTS.

Too fasil'itait Lerning too Reed.

Too maik Lerning too Spell unnes‘eseri.

Too asim‘ilait Reeding and Reiting too Heerring and
Speeking.

Too maik dhi Risee*vd Proanunsiai‘shen ov Ingglish
akses‘ibl too aul Reederz, Proavin'shel and Foren.

MEENZ.

Leev dhi Ould Speling untuch't.

Introadeu’s along’ seid ov dhi Oald Speling a Neu
Aurthog'rafi, konsis‘ting ov dhi Oald Leterz euzd in-
vai'rriabli in dhair best noan sensez.

Emploi dhi New Speling in Skoolz too Teech Reeding in
boath Aurthog’rafiz.

Alou’ eni Reiter too reit in dhi Neu Speling oanl on aul
okai‘zhenz, withhou't loozing kaast, proavei‘ded hee
euzez a Risee*vd Proanunsiai’shen; dhat is—

Aknol-ej dhi Neu Speling konkur-entli widh du Oald.

Mr. Melville Bell’s is probably the most philosophical
system yet invented for the representation of vocal sounds,
but its chances of adoption as the vehicle of English are too
remote to need more than passing allusion.

Various other schemes, more or less thorough, have been
devised for remedying the defects of English orthography,
but none of them have attained the same importance as
Mr. Pitman’s proposals. The immense circulation of his
shorthand has had the effect of familiarising the public
mind with the theory-of phonetic analysis and _ repre-
sentation. Fora generation he has spread information on
the subje@t, and gathered round him a band of devoted
adherents and disciples. His system is now the only
system of phonetic English which has any chance of
success. There is a yearly-increasing literature printed in
it, and it may be hoped that the present national feeling in
favour of education will aid its promoters against the present
education-hindering system.

It may appear a sweeping change to alter the form and
aspect of the language, but the change is by no means so
violent as it seems. Changes in spelling are constantly
taking place, but they are alterations which come about by
hazard and without system.

If other nations have succeeded in reforming their ortho-
graphy, and we know this to be the case with the Dutch

OE a ee ae ee
aw,

(July,

The Future of the English Language.

384

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req ne re eee wee es ss Ss se es ae a esse

Luke 6. 20-45.

20 Andhi lifted sp hiz jz on hiz disjpelz, and sed, Blesed bi yi pwr
for yr’z iz de kindom ov God.

21 Blesed ar yi dat hsyger nou: for yi fal bifild. Blesed ar yi
dat wip nou: for yi fal lsf.

22 Blesed ar yi, when men fal het y, and when de fal separet y
from der ksmpani, and fal repreg y, and kast out yr nem az ivil, for
de Ssn ov man’z sek.

23 Rejois yi in dat de, and lip for joi: for, behold, yr reword iz
gret in heven: for in de ljk maner did der fsderz sntu de profets.

24 Bst wo sntu y dat ar rig! for yi hav resivd yr konselefon.

25 We sniu y dat ar ful! for yi fal hsynger. Wo sntu y dat Isf
nou! for yi fal mern and wip.

26 We sntu y, when ol men fal spik wel ov y! for so did der fr-
derz tu de fols profets.

27 Bst jse sntu y whig hir, Lsv yr enemiz, dw gud tu dem whic
het y,

28 Bles dem dat ksrs y, and pre for (tem whig despjtfuli yz y.

29 And sntu him dat smjtet di on de wsn gik ofer also de wéer ;
and him dat teket awe dj klok forbid not tu tek dj ket also.

30 Giv tu everi man dat asket ov_di; and ov him dat teket awe
dj gudz ask dem not agen.

31 And az yi wud dat men fud dw tu y, dw yiolse tu dem likwjz.

32 For if yi lsv dem whig lsv y, whot tank hay yi? for sinerz alse
Isv doz dat lsv dem.

33 And if yi dw gud tu dem whig dw gud tu y, whot dank hav yi?
for sinerz also dw iven de sem.

34 Andif yi lend tu dem ov hum yi hep tu resiv, whot dank hay
yi? for sinerz alse lend tu sinerz, tu resiv az m¥c agen.

35 Bst lsv yi yr enemiz, and dw gud, and lend, hepiy for nxdiy
agen; and yr reword fal bi gret, and y. fal bi de gildren ov de Hjest :
for hiiz kjnd sntu de sndankful and tu de avil.

36 Bi ya derfor mersiful, az yr fsder also iz mersiful.

37 Jsj not,and yi fal not bijsjd: kondem not, and yi fal not bi
kondemd: forgiv, and yi fal bi forgiven :

38 Giv, and it fal bi given sntuy; gud mezur, prest doun, and
Jeken tugeder, and rsnin over, fal men giv intu yr buizom. For wid
de sem mezur dat yi mit widol it fal bi megurd tu y agen.

39 And hi spek a parabel sntu dem, Kan de bljnd lid de blind ? fal
de not bet fal intu de dig?

40 de disjpel iz not absv hiz master: bst everiwsn dat iz perfekt
Jal bi az hiz master.

41 And whj beholdest dou de mot dat iz in 4j brsder’z j, best
persivest not de bim dat iz in djn on j?

42 Eder hou kanst dou se tu dj brsder, Brsder, let mi pul out de
mot dat iz in djnj, when dou djself beholdest not de bim dat iz in
d@jn on j? dou hipokrit, kast out ferst de bim out ov djn on j, and
den falt dou si klirli tu pul out de mot dat iz in dj brsder’z j.

43 For a gud tri briged not fort korspt frut; njder dst a korspt
tri brig fort gud frwt.

44, For everi tri iz nen bj hiz on frwt. For ov ¢ornz men dw not
gader figz, nor ov a brambel buf gader de greps.

45 A gud man out ov de gud tregur oy hiz hart brined fort dat
whig iz gud; and an ivil man out ov de vil tregur ov hiz hart brinet
fers dét whig iz ivil; for ov de absndans ov de hart hiz mout spiket-

Ad

i

<P IOI OI LIVI I VI IOI VI INI IOI OOD LL PRP PPLLPOOOLOLOL_OLOFI_I_LFIEIOEIIFI_I™II II EI OO
~~ X .

A VIEW OF THE PHONETIC ALPHABET, ; |
> ) Luke 6. 20-45,
¢ IN VARIOUS STYLES OF WRITING AND PRINTING. \ 20 And hi lifted sp hiz jz on hiz disjpelz, and sed, Blesed bi yi pwr
) for yr’z iz de kindom ov God.
CONSONANTS. VOWELS. 21 Blesed ar yi dat hsnger nou: for yd fal bi fild. Blesed ar yi
dat wip nou: for yi fal lef.
ae a : ’ Short. : : se Short- 22 Blesed ar yi, when men fal het y, and when de fal separet y
{Baap Roman. | Old English.| Italic. Script. ode Name. || Bramples| Roman. | Old English.| Italic. Script. hand, | Name. ( from deriieamnpantiend fal reprog y, and kast out yr nem az ivil, for
a aia 2 de Syn ov man’z sek.
peep P p 13 p P p P ps Aa yy a Aa La | at 23 Rejois yi in dat de, and lip for joi: for, beheld, yr reword iz
5 gret in heven: for in de ljk maner did der fsderz sntu de profets.
4B Bb 5th} b Bb G4 As A 1 IBE BT BE all 24 Bst wo sntu y dat ar rig! for yi hav resivd yr konselefon.
| 25 Wo sntu y dat ar ful! for yi fal hsyger. Wo sntu y dat Isf
4 acid f- E g nou! for yi fal morn and wiip.
t WE | Pog Ee/| €e e e et y I
tight T © t 26 We sntu y, when ol men fal spik wel ov y! for se did der fe-

deed

church

Dd

derz tu de fols profets.

27 Bstjse sntu y whig hir, Lsv yr enemiz, dw gud tu dem whi¢
het y,

28 Bles tem dat ksrs y, and pre for (tem whig despjtfuli yz y.

re
: : : : (a : : 29 And sntu him dat smjted di on de wsn gik ofer olse de xéer ;
ieee |) | 7 7 Gi phy | ba | Fa | it feo and him dat teket awe 4j klok forbid not tu tek dj ket alse.
a 30 Giv tu everi man dat asket ov_di; and ov him dat teket awe
cake | KK AR h Kk) ZA Oo Wy au Oo O oa | oy dj gudz ask dem not agen.
i 31 And az yi wud dat men Jud dw tu y, dw yiolse tu dem likwjz.
G Ig G@ SE Oo a Q Oo0| Wa | BN 32 For if yi lsv dem whig lsv y, whot dank hay yi? for sinerz alse
Isv doz dat lsv dem.
Fr i A f ew | BS S Se] F « -| ut 33 And if yi dw gud tu dem whig dw gud tu y, whot dank hay yi ?
for sinerz @lso dw iven de sem.
Vv Qy ws Oo (ia) xt 0 0 @D e -| oh 34 Andif ya lend tu dem ov hum y.i hop tu resiv, whot dank hay
yi? for sinerz olso lend tu sinerz, tu resiv az msg agen.
Rd Zz Uu U u WU « fofey 35 Bost lsv ya yr enemiz, and dw gud, and lend, hepin for nxdi
= yuu & ply i)
agen; and yr reword Jal bi gret, and y. fal bi de gildren oy de Hjest :
Gl || JA oe Ww) am! Ww Wu | 36 for hi iz kjnd sntu de sntaykful and tu de vil.
hl 36 Bi yi derfor mersiful, az yr fsder olso iz mersiful.
Ss MOG DIPHTHONGS 37 Jxsj not,and yi fal not bijsjd: kondem not, and yi fal not bi
: ci kondemd: forgiv, and y.i Jal bi forgiven:
ZB : t+ 4 , : . 38 Giv, and it fal bi given sntuy; gud ‘megur, prest doun, and
Z2z| 02 HE 1 + T a 2 e # | eae Jeken tugeder, and rsniy over, fal men giv intu yr buzom, For wid
: de sem megur dat yi mit widol it fal bi mezurd tu y agen.
h 3 NA 3 UW ag:
A A J |i Wome | TL Hw) ALM | y) Sei al | yon 39 And hi spek a parabel satu dem, Kan de blind lid de blind? fal
Y ey h de not bot fol intu de dig?
« SM aes Jo The diphthongs in “ay (yes), boy, boil, now, noun,” are 40 de disjpel iz not absv hiz master: bst everiwsn dat iz perfekt
; written by the single letters that represent their elements, thus: fal bi az hiz master.
Mm) 46m) ~ | em . E| : :| | 41 And whj beholdest dou de mot dat iz in 4j brsder’z j, bet
at 01 Ou a persivest not de bim dat iz in djn on j{?P
Nn| #Ma| olen The Phonetic Alphabet consists of 38 letters, namely, the 23 useful 42 fder hou kanst dou se tu dj brsder, Breder, let mi pul out de
letters of the common alphabet (e, g, and « being rejected,) and 15 mot dat iz in djn jf, when dou djself beholdest not de bam dat iz in
: new ones. The vowels a, e, i, 0, u have invariably their short sounds, x 1 Lb ‘ i ‘ 4
we | ms as In pat, pet, pit, pot, put. All the other old letters have their usual djn onj? dou hipokrit, kast out ferst de bim out ov djn on j, and
signification, den falt dou si klirli tu pul out de mot dat iz in dj brsder’z j.
el SPECIMEN OF PHONETIC PRINTING. 43 For a gud tri briged not ford korspt fruit; njder dst a korspt

= Bj Ge Fenetik Alfabet eni person, eld or ysy,
me bi tot tu rid, bet in fenetik and in ordinari
buks, in dri msnts,—ai, ofen in twenti ourz’ in-

aitch afin for de difyzon ov nolej!

ON A NA NA NADA NL OS

tri brin fort gud frwt.

44, For everi tri iz nen bj hiz on frwt. For ov tornz men dw not
gater figz, nor ov a brambel buf gader de greps.

45 A gud man outov de gud trezur ov hiz hart brined fort dét

way |]
| Strskfon,—a task whig iz rerli akomplift in dri whig iz gud; and an ivil man out ov de Jivil tregur ov hiz hart brinet

yea |} Yirz ov toil bj de old alfabet. Whot fséer or tiger fort dét whig iz ivil; for ov de abendans ov de hart hiz mouf spiket-
| wil not hel dis gret bmn tu edykefon P—dis pouer-

ed tier ; z
; aye | suse salariick ke

i.

ae
re
=

ag

~ Y

‘te ses

+

5 the aoe aa ion

RerSeR pee he

1873.] The Future of the English Language. 385

and the Spanish, surely we may hope for success also in the
same undertaking.* And when that day comes on which
we have swept away what Max Miiller has well called ‘‘ our
corrupt and effete orthography,” we shall have destroyed
the last and only barrier which prevents English from being
the language of the world.t

Surely that is a future so great and glorious that we need
not hesitate at any trouble which will hasten the day. We
have already achieved much. The flowers that first grew
beside the Avon, now bloom alike on the banks of the
sacred Ganges, and by the margin of the broad Mississippi.
The lays of merry England are heard alike in the fair
Derbyshire dales and on the plains of the Far West. The
thoughts of our great thinkers, the songs of our poets are
no longer bounded by the narrow seas that hem in our
island home. ‘They fly to every point of the compass, and

* One of the first undertakings of the Real Academia Espanola was to
reform the Spanish spelling, to make it uniform in principle and easy in
practice. The first of the rules laid down was, that ‘‘the pronunciation of a
word should be the sole and universal rule for its orthography, when it is
sufficient to determine the various letters.” The result is that ‘the ortho-
graphy of Spanish at the present day leaves little for the phonetician to
desire, as it suffices to determine the pronunciation of every word with ease
and certainty.” Dutch spelling was re-modelled by Professor Siegenbeek, and
since 1806 it has been required by the Government that all public documents
should be written by his system. Polish, Bohemian, and Magyar have modern
alphabets, and are constructed on strictly phonetic principles.—ELLIs,
“Plea,” pp, 59, 60;...

+ The literature of spelling-reform is already extensive. The following
represent the most important proposals :—

‘‘ A Plea for Phonetic Spelling; or, the Necessity of Orthographic Reform.”’
By ALEXANDER JOHN ELLis, B.A. Second edition. London, 1848. 8vo.

‘“*The Essentials of Phonetics, containing the theory of a universal
alphabet, together with its practical application as an ethnical alphabet to the
reduction of all languages written or unwritten, to one uniform system of
writing.” By ALEXANDER JOHN ELLIS, B.A. London, 1848. 8vo. This is
printed in the ‘“‘ Phonetic Alphabet” of 1847.

“On Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere
and Chaucer, containing an investigation of the correspondence of writing
with speech in England from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, pre-
ceded by a systematic notation of all spoken sounds by means of the ordinary
printing types.” By ALEXANDER J. Evuis, F.R.S.,F.S.A. 1869-71. Parts 1 to 3.

‘“©A Defence of Phonetic Spelling, drawn from a history of the English
alphabet and orthography, with a remedy for their defects.” By R.G. Laruam,
M.A., M.D., F.R.S. Bath, 1872. 8vo.

‘‘ The Universal Language,” an argument for the reformed orthography, as
a means of aiding the universal diffusion of the English language. By
WILLIAM WhuiTE, Bath. 1I2mo., pp. 16.

Mr. Isaac Pitman has for thirty years printed a Phonetic Journal, which
has now become a repository of nearly everything of importance that has been
issued on the subje@. He has also issued numerous tracts in advocacy of his
proposals.

** Visible Speech the Science of Universal Alphabetics,”’ or self-interpreting
physiological alphabetics for the writing of all languages in one alphabet. By
ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL. London, 1867. bi

386 Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. {July,

find everywhere audiences not few but fit. In the Australian
sheep-walk, amid the tropical glories of Jamaican scenery,
in the glowing valleys of the Polynesian islands, east, west,
north, or south, we find the restless energetic Englishman.
It is not a thing to be lightly thought of, this wide extension
of our English tongue.

Our language is a beautiful casket, shining with gold and
glittering with gems, and enclosing still more precious,
still more costly jewels. Wherever the Englishman goes
he carries with him the energy, the love of order,
the purity of home-life, the independence, the freedom of
thought, of speech, of action, which have made England
not only great and prosperous, but the ‘‘ august mother of
free nations.” The language is the best test of national
capacity. It expresses not only the exact extent of the
nation’s knowledge, but also its spiritual condition and moral
aspirations. Apart from all national vanity, we may rejoice
that Shakspere’s language is going forth to the ends of the
earth. It bears with it the science of Newton and the
politics of Adam Smith. It bears with all that is purest
and best in the teachings of the ancient world. It bears
with it countless memories of heroic deeds. It bears with
it those aspirations after Liberty and Right which are the
most precious possession of our race. May it go forward
conquering and to conquer, resistless in its power and
majesty, until it becomes a new bond of peace and brother-
hood amongst all the nations, until earth’s fertile valleys
shall glow with fruits and flowers, and ‘‘the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

iX. ‘THE SCIENTIPIC “ASPECT” OF “THe
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1873.

ACHE exhibitions at South Kensington, in their annual
occurrence, are losing much of their novelty, and are
assuming that business character which must be
essential to their wholesome effect upon the national in-
dustry. An Englishman in all he does is always very much
in earnest, and our exhibitions have been characterised
throughout by a determination not ‘‘to play at work.” In
‘“‘soing to the Exhibition” there is something indicative
of real work, very different to the idea that obtained with
the ‘‘World’s Show” of 1851. As a record of progress,

1873.] Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. 387

scientific, artistic, or commercial, our exhibitions have
thrived best, and not as a place of recreation. So that one
is not astonished at the serious, business-like aspect of the
now familiar galleries, which present, amongst their contents
perhaps not so much novelty, but certainly quite as much
interest as the exhibits of former years.

It is perhaps premature to speak of the effects of these
institutions upon the industrial classes, but doubtless many
of our readers will have remarked,—and nowhere is it more
apparent than at the exhibition itself,—the increased interest
and desire for information. It should be remembered that
the number of visitors attending the exhibition of the
present year represents very nearly the proportion who
attend for the purposes, not of recreation, but to satisfy the
desire to acquire knowledge. The novelty has long ago
morn oil. “the Jargeness' of the attendance is most
encouraging, and evinces a permanent and wide-established
wish to maintain our national commercial standard.

Another and not less important feature is the increased
value of our colonial exhibits, regarded from an artistic and
adaptable point of view. These exhibits have been follow-
ing a steady course of development, especially in inde-
pendence of character. And if we look upon our colonial
possessions as outposts in the English army of civilisation,
we shall derive much profitable pleasure from the contem-
plation of their improvement.

Considering the attractions of the Vienna Exhibition, the
portion of our exhibition absorbed by continental exhibitors
is most creditable to the industry and perseverance of our
authorities, for many very interesting works and processes
come from abroad.

The portion of the exhibition possessing the greatest
interest to the general scientific visitor is the machinery
departments and their adjuncts. And here there is this
year an exhibit of the highest order of merit,—the rearing
of the silkworm, and the processes of preparing, spinning,
and weaving silken fibre. Immediately outside the ma-
chinery department is a quiet, neat tent, containing, on
trays supported by a framework in the centre of the struc-
ture, many thousand silkworms. Here the development of
this wonderful and valuable insect is witnessed upon a com-
mercial scale, as exhibited by M. Alfred Roland, of Orbe,
Switzerland. Returning to the machinery department, we
stand in front of M. Jouffray’s (Rue Vimaine, Vienna) appa-
ratus for unwinding the cocoon of the silkworm. The
establishments in which the unwinding is carried on are

388 Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. [July,

termed “‘ filatures ;”’ and the machinery consists of ordinary
reels driven sometimes by a falling weight, or machinery of
a very crude order. Here, of course, steam is employed.
A table with a brass top contains shallow tinned-copper
boilers, about a foot in diameter, and nine inches in depth.
One of these boilers is heated by steam, and on the surface
of the water there float several score of cocoons. A whisk
of peculiar shape is immersed in the water by the operator,
and rapidly rotated; when withdrawn from the water there
are attached to the whisk several of the ends of the cocoons,
and these fibres are passed to the reel. A most important
part of the process consists in maintaining a constant
supply of fibre to this compound thread from the unattached
cocoons. The compound fibre passes over a circular glass
hook to a horizontal bobbin, upon which it is wound, motion
being imparted to the bobbin by a small wooden roller on
the bobbin-spindle. This ‘‘ winding” machine, as well
as the ‘‘cleaning,” ‘‘doubling,” and “‘ spinning” machines,
are exhibited by Messrs. Rushton, Sons, and Co., of
Macclesfield. The “‘cleaning” machine next takes up the
silk, and transfers it to anotherbobbin. During its passage,
the silk passes between two fixed parallel plates close
together. By this means any irregularity or knot in the
fibre is detected. In the doubling machine the fibres from
two or three bobbins are wound side by side, without
twisting, on to one bobbin.- A very neat contrivance is
employed to detect a break in any one of the fibres, and so
to prevent inequality in the thickness ‘of the silk. The
breaking it would be tiresome to detect by the eye, because
the filaments are so fine as to be difficultly visible. The
filament is passed through an eye in the end of a wire, and
supports this wire. Should the filament break, the wire
falls, and liberates a friction cam, which, pressing against
the bobbin, stops it. On the spinning machine the com-
pounded fibre from the doubling machine is twisted, and
this spinning is completed by a fifth machine, whence the
silk proceeding is commercially known as ‘‘tram” and
‘‘organzine,” according to the mode of its spinning.
‘‘Tram” is the term applied to the fibres with a minimum
of twist, and “‘ organzine”’ to those with a maximum twist.
The twists are about twenty to the inch of thread. The -
silk is now handed over to the dyer, who, in turn, when his
processes are complete, forwards it to the weaver. But
before the dyer takes the silk in hand, a piece of mechanism
known as the ‘“‘snail cam” is employed to arrange the silk
in hanks. A complete set of the interesting apparatus used

1873.] Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. 389

in the preparation of the fibre is also exhibited by Messrs.
W. Higginbottom, of Derby. Messrs. Greenwood and
Batley, of Leeds, exhibit a machine for the utilisation
of the waste silk of the foregoing processes, which is
effected by a similar process to that employed in cotton
manufacture, and described before in this journal. Messrs.
Warner, Sillett, and Ramm, of Newgate Street, and Messrs.
Norris and Co., of Wood Street, Cheapside, exhibit three
Jacquard looms, worked by manual labour, and the design
from which the cards that control the action of the machine
are prepared. The design is by Owen Jones, Esq., and is
divided into 5,587,200 small squares, the design to be placed
on the cards being selected from these squares. It is
impossible, however, to give an exhaustive account of these
pieces of superb mechanism; but we may select the
following from the excellent report prepared for the Society
of Arts by the Rev. Arthur Rigg, M.A. ‘It will be observed,”
he says, ‘“‘that at the top of these three looms there are a
number of cards in which holes are perforated. The holes
in each card represent some of the squares in the pattern

through which the needle of an embroiderer would pass,

assuming the design to be one for tapestry. To form the
design exhibited, there are connected 9312 cards in three
lines. These cards are laced together, and measure 1000
yards in length. The whole pack has to be turned over each
time that the design is completed inthe loom. Immediately
under the one top card in each line of cards there is a square
metal boxing, filled on all sides with small holes; in fac,
honeycombed, but with square instead of hexagonal cells.
These boxings are on axes, in one and the same straight
line, and by means of a catch, connected with a cord on
which the workman’s hand or foot can act, they may
be turned through one-fourth of the circumference by one
motion of the hand or foot. In so turning, the perforated
cards are drawn forward, each card covering one side of the
square boxing, except where the holes in the cards previously
alluded to are found. For this turning, the frame-work in
which these boxes rotate is caused to move on one side. If
the cards and the square boxings were taken away, there
would be seen a number of wires projecting horizontally
from a series of openings in a fixed metal framing. Each
of these wires is held forward by means of light coiled
springs at the back ends of them. If now the square
boxings with perforated cards over the back vertical side be
permitted to fall upon the projecting wires, a number of
them will be pressed back against the light springs, the
VOL. III. (N.S.) Bie

“

390 —- Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. {July,

remainder passing through the perforations in the cards and
entering the honeycombed box. Between the visible ends
and back springs each wire is bent round so as to form an
eye through which a vertical wire passes. These vertical
wires have hooks at the top and bottom. Cords, hereaifter
alluded to, are attached to the bottom hooks. The top
hooks of those wires, through eyes pressed back by the
cards, are thrown out of the general line; and thus, when a
narrow metal slip is raised by the hand or foot of the work-
man, those vertical wires only are raised which remain in
the normal line, and therefore those lower hooks only are
moved which form part of these wires. A number of cords
pass from the warp to these hooks; concealed by the
numerous threads of the warp are small delicate little glass
frames, each containing six very closely-formed eyes, placed
vertically over one another; to the top eye a cord from
a hook is attached—through the next four eyes four adjoin-
ing threads of the warp pass,—to the lower eye is fastened
a cord with a light leaden weight; thus the 29,088 of the
warp are passed { through these eyes. When, now, the wires
are raised to which cords are attached, four times that
number of threads are raised. But it may-be requisite that
only one or two of these four should have been raised. An
arrangement for this purpose ts made in hanging framings
of threads near the operator’s hands. These framings con-
stitute what is named “a harness ;” in them every thread in
the warp has an eye to itself, and therefore, by the action of
these eight tramings, one or more of the raised threads can
be depressed or raised higher. This ‘‘ harness” is not
required where, as in Messrs. Stevens’s (of pars loom,
each thread has a cord and eye to itself.”

Not the least important portion of the Exhibition are the
Food Processes, even if we exclude for the present Mr. Buck-
master’s School of Cookery, to which we will afterwards
refer. Though sweetmeats can scarcely be termed food, yet
they may be conveniently classed as an adjun¢t; and it will
be better, as following next in catalogue-order, to inspect the
machinery and processes employed in the manufaCture of
sugar confectionery exhibited by Messrs. F. Allen and by
Messrs. Hilland Jones. These machines consist essentially
of immense copper pans revolving eccentrically, which
contain the seeds or almonds to be sugared. Liquid sugar
is admitted to the seeds or almonds, and these kept con-
stantly rolling by the motion of the pans are soon covered
with a thin coat of sugar. Sugar is again added, until
a sufficiently thick coat is obtained. The resulting sugar-

1873.] Scéentific Aspect of the International Exhibition.. 391

almonds or carraway comfits are coloured, if required, by
the introduction of colouring matter into the pan during the
final coating. A description is given, although the process
is not yet shown (by Messrs. Hill and Jones), of the method
by which essences and liqueurs are confined within sugar
vessels :—Shallow trays, about fifteen inches wide, are filled
with starch flour. A ‘‘strike,” or levelling edge is drawn
over, and the surface thereby smoothed. On the under side
of a narrow board, about eighteen inches long and four
inches broad, are fastened a number of plaster-of-Paris
moulds, of the forms to be made. ‘These narrow boards are
laid on the starch flour again and again, until the surface is
indented with the designs. A pan of clarified sugar, at
such a temperature and consistency as the workman deems
suitable, is added to it and well stirred in the non-crystal-
lisable liquid. Each design is thus filled with a crystallisable
and non-crystallisable substance, and the manufacturer takes
advantage of a physical law, that under these conditions the
crystalline element squeezes into the interior the non-crys-
talline one. Mr. Rigg thinks this method of making con-
fectionery suggestive of the vesicular cavities coming under
the notice of the geologist and mineralogist in agates, &c.,
and he refers to Nicol’s paper, ‘‘On Fluid in Minerals,”
given in the “‘ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,” for r828-9.

Near at hand, Messrs. Tulloch and Co. exhibit some
cocoa-flaking machinery, the cocoa being forced between a
fixed edge and a rotating disc. Messrs. Tallerman show
their process of preserving meat by the immersion of the
cases containing the meat in chloride of calcium. Messrs.
Criscuolo, Kay, and Co. have a very interesting exhibit
illustrating the method of manufacturing maccaroni, in
which Semolina wheat is kneaded into a dry dough, the
_ dough being forced through a heated cylinder, and then
through apertures of the size the maccaroni is intended to
assume, whence it is taken to the drying-room. Another
apparatus for preparing cocoa is shown by the Compagnie
Francaise. Farther on is the machinery devised by Messrs.
Colman for separating pure mustard from the seed, and
a most noisy exhibit itis. The seed is first crushed between
steel rollers, and then ina stamping mill, whence it is trans-
ferred to a series of sieves shaken by mechanical means.
At the same time is shown the method of constructing the
canisters and the cases in which these are packed. Messrs.
Car and Cunningham exhibit a “‘ disintegrating flour mill,”
and Messrs. Batty the preparation of oranges for mar-
malade.

392 Scientific Aspect of the International Exhibition. (July,

The manufacture of aérated waters is always a matter of
interest, and the visitor will be well rewarded by a study of
the machines and methods exhibited by Messrs. Hayward,
Tyler, and Co., by Messrs. Barnet and Foster, and by Messrs.
Fleet and Co. ‘The chief difference in these methods is in
closing the bottles. By Messrs. Barnet and Foster the
bottle is closed with a marble pressed against an india-
rubber welt by the force of the gas, while Messrs. Hayward
and Co. employ a wooden plug to effect the same purpose.

We may class together the peculiar machinery employed
in working or crushing stone. First, in catalogued order,
there is an exhibit by the Diamond Rock Boring Company
of their drills for mining, quarrying, &c. The black hard
earbons are fixed in a collar at the end of a tube, and are
made to rotate on the face of the rock to be bored. Messrs.
H. R. Marsden exhibit a machine for crushing ores or
breaking stones, consisting in the application of corrugated
powerful jaws to this purpose. But by far the most unique
exhibit is the sand-blast of Messrs. Tilghman, which has
already been described in the pages of this journal. It will
not, however, be uncalled for to give again the principles of
this invention. The force employed is the abrading action
of minute particles of sand (impelled by a steam or air-blast)
when brought into contact with a hard, resisting surface, as
that of stone, glass, &c. By covering the portion of the
surface which it is desired should remain uncut with a
medium having but slight elasticity, as paper, india-rubber,
designs may be produced upon the surface, or cut entirely
through by continuing the action. The sand is admitted
from a hopper into an inner tube surrounded by a steam-jet,
the steam being supplied from 55 lbs. boiler pressure. In
five minutes three-sixteenths of an inch of marble were cut
away. In this process, by means of chromatised gelatine,
photographs may be taken and cut into glass.

We must pass by the silks and velvets, for our time is
running short, and there are still the surgical appliances to
be seen. These are arranged in the west theatre on the
balcony floor of the Royal Albert Hall, and include not only
the most modern improvements, but a historical collection
extending back to the time of Greek medicine. In this
room the instruments, where they are not self-explanatory,
need a special medical knowledge for the comprehension of
their detail; and, having stopped with the visitor during his
inspection of the Electric Cautery,—in which a platinum wire,
raised to red or white, heated by the galvanic current, is em-
ployed instead of a heated iron,—we may descend to the

—

1873.] Sczentific Aspect of the International Exhibition. 393

ground floor, and take our seat in Mr. Buckmaster’s Food
lecture-room. Here we may learn the mysteries of pre-
paring filletted soles and fennel sauce, or study domestic
economy by ascertaining how to utilise the bones of the sole
just placed upon the operating table. Mr. Buckmaster’s
little room is sadly disproportionate to his audience, while
to our thinking it forms by no means the least important
part of the Exhibition ; for, although the people whom his
discourse will benefit are not likely to hear him, the step is
the first in the right direction, and, if supplemented by
cheap or free le¢tures in various parts of the metropolis,
would be of incalculable good.

Such, briefly, are the salient points of this year’s efforts
on the part of the Commissioners, and we think the visitor
will find with us that these efforts have provided an excel-
lent illustration of the healthiness of this movement for
promoting the welfare of our national industries.

( 394 ) (July,

NOTICES OF BUG.

Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy. By A. Privar-
DeEscHANEL. ‘Translated and Edited, with Extensive Addi-
tions, by J. D. Everett, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S.E., Professor
of Natural Philosophy tn Queen’s College, Belfast. Part IV.
Sound and Light. London: Blackie and Son. 1872.

Tuis is the last part of Dr. Everett’s admirable handbook. The
arrangement, which we have previously noticed as methodical
in the highest degree, appears in no one of the three other
volumes so logical as in this. The comparison and contrast of
the vibrations of light and sound are calculated to afford mate-
rial assistance to the understanding of the phenomena presented
successively to the student, especially in the case of the difficult
problems of polarisation and interference. Under the head of
Acoustics there are considered the production and propagation
of sound, its numerical evaluation, modes of vibration, conso-
nance, dissonance, and resultant tones. Under Optics the sub-
divisions are propagation and reflection, refraction, lenses,
optical instruments, dispersion and spectra, colour, the wave
theory of light, and polarisation. The chapters on the wave
theory of light and the numerical evaluation of sound are parti-
cularly worthy the student’s attention; and he will find the
illustrations as clear, and as fine specimens of wood-engraving,
as in the former parts of the work.

A Manual of Recent and Existing Commerce. From the Year
1789 to 1872. By Joun Yeats, LL.D., &c. London:
Virtue and Co. 1872.

Dr. YEATS is already well known by his works on the technical
and natural history of commerce, the growth and vicissitudes of
commerce, &c. The title of the present work is sufficiently
self-explanatory. The history is inclusive, and, as far as may
be, exhaustive; it is rendered so by.the author’s terse style and
syllogistic method. The preface states the work to be a means
of preparation for the higher departments of commerce, or as
affording matter for reflection during intervals of repose ; that
it will assist an intelligent reader in arriving at sound conclusions
with regard to the credit of any single state, and aid him in a
study of the present or prospective position of our own country,
we fully agree. We have especially to draw attention to the
history and principles of banking as exemplified in the affairs of
the United States and of our own national bank. The particulars
of a bank-parlour inspire an ordinary person with considerable
awe; but on the perusal of such a work as this the transcen-
dental interest speedily gives place to a deeper respect for com-
mercial integrity and a right appreciation of the demerit of all

1873.] Notices of Books. 395

that tends to subvert a system of honourable economy, all the
reckless venture too often witnessed as the cause of monetary
panic. Dr. Yeats’s works would be an admirable adjunct to a
chair of Commercial Economy; and it is not Utopian to ex-
press the hope that at no far distant date colleges will prepare
universally for science, commerce, and the arts.

Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects. By H. HELMHOLTZ, Pro-
fessorof Physics inthe University of Berlin. Translated by E.
ATKINSON, Ph.D., F.C.S. London: Longmans and Co. 1873.

PRoFESSOR HELMHOLTZ has been known for a number of years
in the English scientific world as one of the foremost thinkers
of the age, and his admirable Memoirs have from time to time
appeared in the ‘‘ Transactions of the Royal Society,” and the
*‘ Philosophical Magazine.” This is, however, the first time
that any of his lectures have been brought within the grasp of
the well-informed non-scientific reader. But the book will also
be very acceptable to the purely scientific man, for it contains
several lectures not before published. Nothing, perhaps, strikes
us more in connection with our author than his varied and exact
knowledge ; as a pure physicist he takes a very high standing;
he has done much to develop the now dominant doctrine of the
Conservation of Energy; he has worked considerably in the
domain of thermo-dynamics; and his acoustic researches are
most remarkable and original. Again, he is a good physiologist
—indeed he was a military physician in the Prussian service,
before he was professor of physiology in the University of
Konigsberg, and he held a similar professorship in Heidelberg
before he was appointed to his present professorship of physics
in Berlin. Wherever points of contact have appeared between
pure physical actions and purely physiological actions, he has
endeavoured to trace the exact nature and course of the con-
current phenomena. His researches on the organs of sight and
hearing are of high merit, and receive the admiration alike of the
physicist and the physiologist. Add to all this the fact that Prof.
Helmholtz is a mathematician; and, most rare of all, that he
can clothe his profound generalisations, in whatever subject he
may discuss, in most lucid and elegant diction, and the reader has
foreshadowed before him what an intellectual feast he may ex-
pect from the work we are about to examine.

The lectures have been delivered at various times during six-
teen years; one, ‘‘On Goethe’s Scientific Researches,” so long
ago as the spring of 1853; another, ‘‘ On the Interaction of the
Watural Forees,” in 2654; and the latest, “On the Aim and
Progress of Physical Science,” in 1869. As to the purport of
the lectures, the author says:—‘‘ If I may claim that they have
any leading thought, it would be that I have endeavoured to
illustrate the essence and import of natural laws, and their re-
lation to the mental activity of man. ‘This seemsto me the chief

396 Notices of Books. [July,

interest and the chief need in lectures before a public whose
education has been mainly literary.”

We will now glance at the Lectures seriatim, premising that
the first and second have been translated by Mr. H. W. Eve, of
Wellington College ; the third by Mr. A. G. Ellis, whose papers
on musical subjects in the ‘‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society ”
some of our readers will remember; the fourth and seventh by
Dr. Atkinson, who is also editor of the series; the fifth by Dr.
Tyndall; and the eighth and last by Dr. Flight.

In the first lecture, which was delivered before the University
of Heidelberg in 1862, the author traces the connection between
the Natural Sciences and other branches of knowledge. He
commences by pointing out the extraordinary progress made
during the last century in all branches of Natural Science. So
long as its development was slight, we cannot wonder that it
was not recognised as an educational engine, or admitted as a
part of the university curriculum to take up a position side by
side with the more ancient subjects :—Theology, Jurisprudence,
Medicine. The astonishing activity of research has altered the
condition of things. The four elements of the ancients have be-
come sixty-four ; the six planets of 1781 have increased to seventy-
five ; the fifteen hundred stars of the 17th century have become
twenty thousand, the position of which in the heavens has been
accurately determined ; and so in other branches of sciences. Con-
“ sequently our universities recognise these subjects now far more
fully than ever before, and while in the 17th century they were
often represented by one or two professors, they are now taught
by seven or eight. The disruption between Moral Philosophy
and Physical Philosophy may be traced to Hegel rather than to
Kant, for the latter based his Cosmogony upon Newton’s law of
Universal Gravitation, while the former endeavoured to throw
into discredit both Newton himself and the whole body of ex-
isting Natural Philosophy. Then came an open feud: “the
philosophers accused the scientific men of narrowness; the
scientific men retorted that the philosopers were crazy. And so
it came about that men of science began to lay some stress on
the banishment of all philosophical influences from their work;
while some of them, including men of the greatest acuteness,
went so far as to condemn philosophy altogether, not merely as .
useless, but as mischievous dreaming.” With the Moral
Sciences it was the same; they almost ignored the existence of
physical science, and often denied it the very name. This
opposition, however, was not long maintained; as the Natural
Sciences increased in importance, they received more and more
general recognition from othersources. Yet when weremember the
points of dissonance between the Moral and the Natural Sciences
we must admit that a perfect assimilation can never be possible:
‘‘while the Moral Sciences deal directly with the nearest and dearest
interests of the human mind, and with the institutions it has

1873.] Notices of Books. 397

brought into being, the Natural Sciences are concerned with
dead, indifferent matter, obviously indispensable for the sake of
its practical utility, but apparently without any immediate bearing
on the cultivation of the intellect.” The author is afterwards
led to compare the Natural Sciences with the other branches of
learning as a means of culture. He distinguishes between the,
«‘ Experimental” Sciences and the ‘‘ Natural” Sciences; and
‘asserts the advantage of the former because ‘‘they can change
at pleasure the conditions under which a given result takes place,
and can thus confine themselves to a small number of charac-
teristic instances in order to discover the law.”’ He regards the
discovery of the law of gravitation as ‘“‘the most imposing
achievement that the logical powers of the human mind have
hitherto performed.”. The entire discourse indicates great
powers of generalisation. Such attempts to define and determine
the precise extent of syncretism which shall exist between diverse
sciences can only be made by master minds, which shall be ex-
cellently exact, and at the same time comprehensive, and such a
mind we have in Prof. Helmholtz.

The second lecture treats of the scientific researches of Goethe.
It was said of Sir Humphry Davy that if he had not been a
great natural philosopher he would have been a great poet. In
the case of Goethe, the poet eclipsed the natural philosopher ;
while the ‘‘ Egmont” and ‘‘ Wilhelm Meister,” ‘‘ Hermann and
Dorethea”’ and ‘‘ Faust”’ are always remembered in connection
with his name, few recognise the fact that he wrote a “ Beitrage
zur Optik” two years before ‘‘ Wilhelm Meister.’’ He also wrote
on botany and osteology. He introduced into science two im-
portant and fruitful ideas :—‘‘The first was the conception that
the differences in the anatomy of different animals are to be
looked upon as variations from a common phase or type, induced
by differences of habit, locality, and food.’’ The second was ‘‘the
existence of an analogy between the different parts of one and
the same organic being.” Goethe’s theory of colour is open to
much criticism, and violent controversies have raged about it.

The third lecture treats of a subject to which Prof. Helmholtz
has devoted considerable attention, and which has received at
his hands a notable development. It treats ‘‘ of the Physiolo-
gical Causes of Harmony in Music,” and was delivered in Bonn
during the winter of 1857. Since that time the celebrated
‘“Tonempfindungen ” has appeared, and we are glad to learn
that this work is now being translated by Mr. Alexander Ellis,
and that it will soon be published by Messrs. Longmans. In
the lecture on Harmony, the author investigates the ‘‘ foundation
of concord.” He gives us eminently scientific definitions of
musical tone, pitch, sound, and quality of tone. The formation,
progress, and interference of waves is admirably treated, and
the woodcuts relating to this subject are worthy of close study
(notably Fig. 2, p. 72). In concluding, the author remarks, ‘‘ For

MOL. T24N-S.) 3F

398 Notices of Books. (July,

the attainment of that higher beauty which appeals to the in-
tellect, harmony and disharmony are only means, although
essential and powerful means. In disharmony the auditory
nerves feel hurt by the beats of incompatible tones. It longs
for the pure efflux of the tonesinto harmony. It hastens towards
harmony for satisfaction and rest. Thus both harmony and
disharmony alternately urge and moderate the flow of tones,
while the mind sees in their immaterial motion an image of its
own perpetually streaming thoughts and moods.”

The fourth lecture treats of ‘‘ Ice and Glaciers,” and discusses
in some detail the various views of Tyndall and others in re-
gard to the formation of ice, the compression of snow into ice,
and regelation.

In the next lecture, which was delivered in K6nigsberg in
1854, the author discusses the “‘ Interaction of Natural Forces.”
In this we have an admirable account of the transmutation of the
various so-called physical forces, and of their relationship to
each other. The connection is clearly and cleverly traced, and
is illustrated very happily by examples. Some of us will re-
member that when in 1798 Rumford boiled water by friction, he
remarked that if fuel ever became scarce we could cook our food
by transforming mechanical action into heat, as he had then
done ; we did not, however, know before that ‘‘in some factories,
where a surplus of water power is at hand, this surplus is applied
to cause a strong iron plate to rotate rapidly upon another, so
that they become strongly heated by the friction. The heat so
obtained warms the room, and thus a stove without fuel is pro-
vided.’”’ In a town like Bristol, where the rise and fall of the
tide is considerable, the amount of heat which might thus be
obtained from mechanical sources would be considerable ; and if
water-mills to produce heat by friction were placed in the Rhone,
as it leaves the Lake of Geneva, all the poor of that city might
have their food cooked in a public kitchen, in which the heat
should be generated by purely mechanical means.

The sixth lecture is entitled ‘‘ The Recent Progress of the
Theory of Vision,” and is translated by Dr. Pye-Smith, of Guy’s
Hospital. The eye is discussed from a threefold point of view:
physical, physiological, and psychological; the latter treats of
the mental realisation of the changes which take place in the
optic nerve. In summarising the conclusions regarding the
perception of sight, the author remarks that ‘‘the correspondence
between the external world and the perceptions of sight rests,
either in whole or in part, upon the same foundation as all our
knowledge of the actual world—on experience, and on constant
verification of its accuracy by experiments which we perform
with every movement of our body. It follows, of course, that
we are only warranted in accepting the reality of this corres-
pondence so far as these means of verification extend, which is
really as far as for practical purposes we need.”

1873.] Notices of Books. 399

The seventh lecture is devoted to a subject which Prof.
Helmholtz has largely contributed to establish and develop—
the Conservation of Force. This law, which possesses a great
generality of application, although partially recognised by
Newton and Daniel Bernouilli, by Rumford, Davy, and others,
was first enunciated in its universality by Dr. Julius Mayer, in which
work he was ably supplemented by the admirable experimental
results obtained by our countryman Joule. The law asserts that
the ‘‘ quantity of force which can be brought into action in the
whole of Nature is unchangeable, and can neither be increased
nor diminished.’”’ The law has been so admirably illustrated
and discussed by Tyndall and others in this country, that we need
scarcely allude to the details of this lecture. We may mention,
however, in passing, the fertility of illustration which the author
possesses ; among other experiments we notice (Fig. 47, p. 345)
a means of producing fire by the simple friction of two pieces of
wood after the manner of the savages, but which we have in vain
tried to do even by the use of a turning lathe and two pieces
of wood differing considerably in hardness.

The eighth and last lecture, on ‘“‘ The Aim and Progress of
Physical Science,’ was delivered in Innsbriick in 1869. In
this the author enters into a discussion of various ideas which
have—some for a longer, some for a shorter time—been floating
auait on the contines’ of recognised “science. He pays .an *
elaborate tribute of admiration to the doctrines of Darwin, dis-
cusses various questions concerning life; and is led to remark
that ‘“‘the recent progress of physiology and medicine is pre-
eminently due to Germany.” Yet he is fain to admit that ‘‘both
in England and France we find excellent investigators, who are
capable of working with thorough energy in the proper sense of
the scientific methods; hitherto, however, they have almost
always had to bend to social or ecclesiastical prejudices, and
could only openly express their convictions at the expense of their
social influence and their usefulness.” This was written ten
years ago. We hope Prof. Helmholtz knows how much these
things have changed in England even during that short period.

' Here, then, we end our notice of a book, which even in its
translated form possesses, quite irrespective of the actual science
which it contains, a certain charm of style and diction seldom met
with in works of this nature, most seldom to be met with at the
hands of exact and profound thinkers. We find here our ardent
investigator, our original thinker, our profound mathematician,
introducing into the most complex subjects a grace of culture
and an elegance of expression which it is always satisfactory to
meet with, and which indicates the man of great general as well
as special knowledge. We find constant quotations from the
philosophical poets of Germany; Prof. Helmholtz evidently
adores ‘“‘ Faust,” is evidently pervaded by a spirit as full of
harmony as any of those great sonatas of “‘ the mightiest among
the heroes of harmony.”’ Beethoven.

400 Notices of Books. [July,

The Life of Alexander von Humboldt. Compiled in Commemo-
ration of the Centenary of his Birth, by J. LowEenpere,
RosBert AvE-LALLEMANT, and ALFRED Dove. Edited by
Prof. Kart Bruuns, Director of the Observatory of Leipzig.
Translated by JANE and CAROLINE LaAssELL. 2 vols. Long-
mans, Green, and Co. 1873.

Tuts work is divided into four parts: the first and second, by
Julius Lowenberg, treat of the youth and early manhood of
Humboldt, and of his travels in America and Asia; the third,
by Robert Avé-Lallemant, gives an account of his sojourn in
Paris from 1808 to 1826; and the fourth, by Alfred Dove,
describes the incidents of the meridian and decline of his life, a
time included between 1827 and 1859.

It is difficult in a review to give even a skeleton biography
of a man whose life was extraordinarily eventful. One does not
know where to begin or where to end. The man possessed a
mind of such fertility and such power of thought that he was
eminent in almost every subject that he handled, and the mighty
extent of his knowledge is altogether surprising. He was in
every respect an intellectual giant.

The difficulties of compilation have, in this instance, been
considerably increased by the singular modesty of Humboldt.
He was unwilling to furnish any letters or other documents
which could throw light upon his life and labours. In his will,
dated May roth, 1841, he writes—‘‘ I request that my dear rela-
tives and friends will endeavour to prevent the appearance of any
biographical notice of me, or laudatory article, in either the
Staatzeitung or other public journal over which they can exercise
any control. I have also drawn up a letter for transmission to
the Institute at Paris, requesting that the éloge usually delivered
upon the death of a foreign associate may be omitted in my
case.” Since the death of Humboldt several small memoirs have
appeared: this, however, is by far the most complete biography
of him which exists; the information has been drawn from
every available source, and these are numerous, for Humboldt
was a great correspondent. His letters are often of great
interest and value; among them are thirty addressed to
Gauss, thirty to Karsten, and no less than three hundred and.
thirty to Encke.

Alexander von Humboldt was the son of Major von Humboldt,
and was born on September 14th, §769; in which year also were
born Napoleon, Cuvier, Chateaubriand, Canning, and Wellington.
He was well educated at home by various tutors, and attended »
lectures on Philosophy and cognate subjects; he also studied
drawing, and the arts of etching and engraving on copper. He
was fond of collecting botanical and other specimens, and of
classifying them. It is strange that neither Alexander nor his
brother William had the smallest taste or liking for music; the

1873.] Notices of Books. 401

latter actually spoke of it as a ‘‘calamité sociale.” As a boy
Humboldt showed a great desire to travel in distant lands, and
books of travel were among his favourite literature. In 1787 he
matriculated at the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. The
scientific world was at this time commencing the period of tran-
sition which had originated in the great discoveries of Lavoisier,
Scheele, Priestley, Cavendish, and others. A good deal of false
science was readily received by the Academies: thus Semler
communicated to the Berlin Academy a means of producing
gold, by keeping a certain volatile salt in a warm and moist
condition for a sufficient length of time. Silberschlag had
recently delivered lectures on the sun before the Academy, in
which he asserted that—‘‘ The sun is really a kitchen-fire, and
the spots are clouds of smoke and great heaps of soot; conse-
quently where there is a kitchen-fire there must be meat to roast,
such as godless people,—Deists, Universalists, and Atheists,—
and the devil is the cook who turns the spit.” Many of Hum-
boldt’s earlier ideas on Physical Science were obtained by
attending the lectures of Marcus Herz, a Jewish physician, and
ardent disciple of Kant, who commenced the lectures in his 80th
year. Humboldt appears to have been very industrious while at
Frankfort. In 1789 he went to the University of Géttingen,
staying by the way at Helmstddt, to see Prof. Beireis and his
wonderful museum. He gives a curious account of the Pro-
fessor :—‘‘ At home he is always engaged in prosecuting disco-
veries, and just now, as Crell assures me, he spends sixteen
hours a-day in reading on various subjects. Besides the Euro-
pean languages, he speaks Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, as well
as some of the dialects of Northern India, and he read out to
me with facility, in German, some passages from a Japanese
book, yet many people venture to doubt whether he knows
Hebrew! He is, in short, a most extraordinary man, who, with
the most profound knowledge of Chemistry and Numismatics,
combines the charlatanry of the most cunning juggler. :
He tells me that he can make corn to grow, that he knows of a
tree that bears truffles, that he lives without sleep, and in con-
versation says every minute that ‘he has thought upon that
subject for six weeks together without eating or drinking.’”’

At this time the University of G6ttingen was a celebrated
centre of Science, and after Science it was renowned for its
teaching of Philology and of Political Economy. Many Germans
studied there, and the University has had considerable influence on
the development of German thought. The students numbered
812, 405 of whom studied jurisprudence, 210 theology, 104
medicine, and 93 philosophy. Among the students there were
two English princes, the Counts de Broglie and St. Simon, and
Count Metternich. Humboldt remained only a year at Géttin-
gen, leaving it in March, 1790. In after life he acknowledged
that he owed to the University the best part of his education.

402 Notices of Books. [July,

During the latter part of 1790 he travelled through England and
France, and appears to have made most careful memoranda of
everything that struck him in those countries. In the following
year he entered the School of Mines, at Freiberg, which had
been established in 1766, and was now enjoying considerable
reputation on account of Werner’s notoriety. He resided here
only eight months, and was then appointed ‘‘ Assessor cum voto
in the Administrative Department of Mines and Smelting
Works,” which appointment was offered him “‘ on account of the
' valuable knowledge, both theoretical and practical, possessed by
him in mathematics, physics, natural history, chemistry, tech-
nology, the arts of mining and smelting, and the general routine
of business.”

Space will not permit us to do more than allude to the ex-
tremely interesting chapter (p. 161, vol. i.), on the state of
society in Weimar and Jena, and the circle of cultivated men
into whose midst Humboldt was introduced. Here we find
anecdotes of Goethe and Schiller, and numerous extracts of
letters from Humboldt and others.

In 1799 Humboldt began his greater travels, and to ‘lay the
foundation for his great ‘‘Cosmos.”’ He visited Teneriffe, and then
went to South America. The celebrated expedition to the Ori-
noco was commenced in 1800; he afterwards visited, in suc-
cession, Cuba, Quito, Mexico, and the United States, returning
to Europe in August, 1804, after an absence of five years, during
which he had travelled 40,000 miles in South America alone.
The travels in Asiatic Russia were undertaken about twenty
years later, at the request of the Russian Government.

Humboldt resided in Paris from 1808 to 1826. He originally
went there on a diplomatic mission with Prince William of
Prussia. He arrived at a time when the First Empire was at
the height of its glory, and he entered at once into that brilliant
circle of men of genius which had congregated in the capital of
France. Here he published the results of his expedition to
America in twenty folio and ten quarto volumes, the price of an
unbound copy being £400. The work was not altogether a
success; in the first place, the extravagant price prevented it
from being generally purchased by scientific men; and in the
second place, the numerous plates, which had caused the book
to be so expensive, were not artistically good, and were quite
unworthy of the good artists which then existed. While in
Paris, Humboldt numbered among his friends at least two gene-
rations of scientific men; among them De Luc, Ingenhouz,
Delambre, Laplace, Pictet, Arago, Biot, Gay-Lussac, Thenard,
Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Milne-Edwards, Jussieu, Haiiy, Brongniart,
Guizot, and Elie de Beaumont: a few of these men still remain
active members of the Institute, while the very name of Four-
croy carries us back to the science of the last century. During
his eighteen years of residence in Paris Humboldt was very

ee” — a

1873.] Notices of Books. 403

industrious ; he frequently read papers before the Institute, and
published a number of valuable treatises on various subjects.
The remainder of his life, which is regarded as the most
important period of it, from 1827 to 1859, was passed in
Berlin.

The change of residence was made for various reasons, notably
because Humboldt was returning home, and felt that he could
there better build up his great work, the ‘‘ Cosmos ;”’ also because
the king desired his presence. Prof. Dove, who writes this con-.
cluding portion of the biography, gives an interesting comparison
of the Paris with the Berlin of forty years ago. The latter city
appears to have been far behind the former, both in size and in
everything else which tends to make a city great. The contrast
must at first have been painful to Humboldt: he ‘* comments in
a spirit of bitterness and well-aimed satire upon the propensity
of that ‘ audacious crew,’ as Goethe calls the Berlinese, to pull
down everything claiming distinction when the first ebullition of
enthusiasm has become exhausted.” Rahel used to say—‘ In
Berlin everything loses prestige, and is pulled down to the level
of mediocrity, if not degraded to insignificance: were His Holi-
ness himself to come to Berlin he would soon cease to be Pope,
and become something quite ordinary, perhaps a horse-breaker.”’
In fact, Humboldt had left a magnificent and wealthy city to
settle down in a city vastly inferior, in intellect, wealth, and
importance. However, he soon resumed his old activity, in spite
of duties at court, which must have been sufficiently irksome.
During the winter of 1827 and 1828 he gave a course of sixty-
one lectures on Physical Geography, The first four of these, in
which he gave a general description of Nature, appeared after-
wards, in an extended form, as the first volume of ‘‘ Cosmos.’’’
Other of the lectures formed the basis of succeeding volumes of
the ‘‘Cosmos.’”’ When the book was printed, some years later,
it was received with great enthusiasm, for it had been long ex-
pected, and it was known that Humboldt was the only man who
could give to the world such vast generalisations as the subject
demanded. ‘If it be true,” says Dove, ‘“that ‘man wanders
among the departed in the same form in which he leaves this
earth,’ then, at the name of Humboldt, the image of the author
of ‘“‘ Cosmos” would rise before the mind as that of a venerable
man, with head inclined and deeply-furrowed brow, bearing upon
his shoulders, after the manner of Atlas, the burden of the
universe—a strange creation, the full significance of which he
only could estimate, since he alone had proved it by experience.”

It is, we think, a matter of great regret that the translators’
have thought it wise to omit the third volume of this biography,
which contains an account of Humboldt’s scientific labours: the
catalogue of his various works (appended to the second volume)
has also been omitted. To many of us these will be felt ag
serious omissions. The work has been carefully translated, and

404 Notices of Books. (July,
contains a great fund of interesting matter, not alone directly
illustrating the life of Humboldt, but at that same time the cha-
racter of the society in which he moved, and the times. As
such it must be welcomed by all English readers of the
“Cosmos.”

Principles of Animal Mechanics. By the Rev. SamuEL HAuGu-
TON, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, M.D. Dubl.,
D.C.L. Oxon. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1873.
Pp. 495-

TuIs great work cannot receive from us the notice which it de-
serves ; the reviewer of it should be profoundly versed in the
higher mathematics, and should be withal a skilled and practised
anatomist. The Sciences of Geometry and Anatomy have not
been hitherto sufficiently cultivated together. The anatomist
who consults this work is staggered at the statement that atten-
tion is called to ‘‘the problem of the equilibrium of an elliptical
muscular dome,” and to the use made ‘of the hyperboloid of
one sheet, of Ptolemy’s Theorem, and of some curves of the
third order; and the geometer is puzzled by the difficulty of
mastering, ‘‘ inter alia,” the course and attachments of the mus-
cular fibres of the heart. There is no doubt, however, that the
union of these two branches of science has produced, and will
produce, results of the highest importance in relation to intel-
lectual progress. Not only is a method pointed out for the investi-
gation of some of the host of problems in Biology yet unsolved,
but a new light is cast upon the question of medical education
in the future. The University man need not cram his higher
mathematics with the idea that if hereafter he joins the profession
of medicine they must be forgotten to make way for anatomy
and physiology, but he may be assured that his knowledge will
serve him well in the special studies of his calling, and very
probably in the scientific examinations which in the future he
will have to pass. It will be a matter of surprise if Dr. Haugh-
ton’s work fail to place its mark upon the examination papers of
some universities. The Rev. Dr. Haughton is the Newton of
the Muscular System, and no cultivated anatomist of this or
future time can afford to pass by the study of his book.

The general argument of the work is to establish the validity
of the principle of ‘‘ least action in Nature ’’—the proposition
that in the muscular system of animals there is a perfect adapta-_
tion of means to ends. The conclusion is irresistible that such
adaptation is the result of design.

A large portion of the work is occupied by elaborate calcula-
tions of the statical and dynamical work done by man and by
animals. The number and kinds of animals examined by the
author are very great, and the labour of the investigation must
have been immense. Some of the results are of great practical

1873.] Notices of Books. 405

importance—such are the calculations of the work done by
muscles in rowing, climbing, and walking, by the human heart,
and by the uterus in parturition. It appears that the oarsman
who rows one knot in seven minutes performs a work the rate of
which, while it lasts, equals six times that of a hard-worked
labourer. The maximum hydrostatical force of the heart of man
is nearly the same as that of the horse; the resistance to the
circulation imposed by the capillaries varies much in different
classes of animals—in the horse this resistance is only half of
that which it is in the smaller animals. The daily work of both
ventricles of the human heart is calculated to be 124°208 foot-
tons ; the work done by the heart per ounce per minute is 20°576
foot-pounds, whilst the work of the muscles engaged by the
oarsman in a race is but 15°17 foot-pounds: in the one case the
effort is continuous, night and day; in the other, the strain is for
a short duration only. The greatest energy ever attained by a
locomotive equalled only one-eighth part of the energy of the
human heart. The calculation of the forces employed in partu-
rition establishes points of high importance. ‘If ever,” the
author says, ‘‘ there was a muscular system produced to effect a
specific object, the uterine muscle may be regarded as such.”
This muscle possesses a force of 3°4 lbs., intended to overcome
a maximum resistance of 3:1 lbs. The additional force of the
abdominal muscles so raises this figure that on an emergency
somewhat more than a quarter of a ton pressure can be brought
to bear. The author’s words rather discourage the use of chlo-
roform and other anesthetics in labour; but here his conclusions
are rather those of the abstract mathematician and physiologist
than of the practical obstetrician, who recognises a very wide
range, in various patients, of intensity of suffering and capacity
of endurance.

The portion of the work devoted to the consideration of mus-
cular types is also of very high interest. The calculations show
the superiority in force of the tiger above the lion; the strength
of the latter is about two-thirds of that of the former, and the
power of the lioness about one-half that of the tiger. The in-
vestigation concerning the Canidz embraces an elaborate exami-
nation of the celebrated greyhound, ‘‘ Master McGrath.” As
regards Man and the Quadrumana, some people will be glad to

- know that the difference between human kind and the gorilla is
ereater than the differences between the Quadrumana themselves.
We quite agree with the author in thinking that over haste has
been shown in generalising from purely anatomical data. ‘The
skilful artisan can produce from the same number of wheels and
pinions either a clock or a roasting-jack, fulfilling the very
different functions of marking time and of roasting meat. An
ignorant but intelligent savage, who was shown the interior of
these machines, would come to the conclusion. that they were
very like each other, simply because he would consider only their

VOL. Tn (N-.s:) 3G

406 Notices of Books. july,

superficial resemblances, and would be unable to appreciate the
purposes which the machines were intended to fulfil. In like
manner, anatomists, from observation of apparent resemblances
in the structure of organs, such as the brain (of the specific
action of whose parts little or nothing is known), have some-
times, rashly, inferred a greater degree of affinity between various
animals than there is any logical ground for admitting.” (P. 423.)

We are disposed to take exception to certain of the physiolo-
gical postulates expressed by the author. Speaking of the
transmission of centripetal and centrifugal impressions to and
from the encephalon, he says—‘ The time occupied by the sen-
sitive nerves in conveying the impression to the optic thalamus,
and by the motor nerve in re-conveying the order of the brain
from the corpus striatum, is different in different persons.” This
implies the belief that the optic thalamus is the centre for sen-
sation, and the corpus striatum the centre for motion. In face
of the observations of Louget, Brown-Séquard, and especially
of Vulpian, we consider that this view cannot now be held.
Sensation is experienced by animals from whom not only the
optic thalami but the whole of the cerebral lobes have been
removed. Again, an animal whose corpora striata have been
taken away is able to execute movements when irritated—move-
ments which are not merely reflex.

A few errors of typography and spelling may be corrected with
advantage in the next edition. A redundant letter frequently
forces itself into the word ‘‘ development,” and a sentence reads
that at night in London ‘the absence of thoroughfare in the
streets enables the cabmen to drive fats.”

The author says he brings his work to a close “ with some
regret,” as it has afforded him many pleasant hours of thought
and research. We hope that he has zot brought his great and
valuable researches to an end in the present work, but will con-
tinue to prosecute the task which, although he confesses it to be
a pleasure to himself, is none the less a lasting boon to Science.

Geometric Turning. By H. S. Savory. London: Longmans
and Co. 1873.
Mr. Savory has here given to the turner, amateur or professional,
a full description of a new geometric chuck invented by Mr.
Plant. And it is interesting to learn what may be done with the
instrument described in mechanical parlance as a “ chuck.”
Supposing the reader conversant with the beautiful curves pro-
duced in geometric turning (for their beauty, although relying
upon the greatest simplicity of order, is too complicate for
description), it maybe stated that if the chuck were arranged
for all its loops it would produce 93,312, and at 1oo revolutions
a minute would take fifteen hours to complete the pattern.

1873.] Notices of Books. 407

‘«*Such a combination, I suppose,” says Mr. Savory, ‘‘no one
has ever attempted ; the general amount of time taken in cutting
fiures being from a quarter of a minute to five minutes.” But
further than this, the reader may gather an idea of the possible
intricacy of the curves from the fact that a chuck could be con-
structed which, ‘if it made one revolution as the earth does in
twenty-four hours, might go on for thousands and perhaps mil-
lions of years before it travelled again the same path; it would
only be to make all the slides and radius self-acting, and the
time when they would recur to the same position would be incal-
culable.” Mr. Savory not only delights in the wonders of the
appliance, but what he has to tell of his own progress towards
perfection in its uses is rendered valuable by chronicle as well
of failure as of success.

The Noaic Deluge: Its Probable Physical Effects and Present
Fouzgemces.’. jay.the, Rev. ,9. lowecasy FsG.5:.. London:
Hodder and Stoughton. 1873.

Glimpses of the Future Life. With an Appendix on the Probable
Law of Increase of the Human Race. By Munco Ponron,
F.R.S.E. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1873.

Tue Bible and Science or Science and the Bible has, not very
recently perhaps, become a twofold object of investigation, and
the emblem of certain sections of the religious and scientific
community. Unfortunately, there is amongst writers on the
~ joint subject a too general feeling of confidence in their strength
and their comprehensiveness. Everyone feels that the subject
is of exceeding difficulty, yet so interesting that it would be almost
as difficult to maintain silence. Emphatically the relation of
Religion and Science is not a question which a man of ordinary
education is qualified to discuss. The intellect required is one
trained at the same time to the observation of particulars and to
the regard of generalities; and this without bias. Especially
the expounder should be a Hebrew, a Greek, and perhaps an
Oriental scholar. He, while an accurate and rigidly logical
reasoner, must be capable of appreciating, yet of disregarding,
the most delicate metaphor. Addtothis the requirement of a
knowledge of the natural sciences sufficient to rank the possessor
as a scientific man; and is there any cause for wonder that our
attempts at a conjoint judgment are so unsatisfactory ?

But there is another method by which results may be attained
more speedily; and it is that pursued by Mr. Lucas in his con-
sideration ‘‘ of the Noaic Deluge,” as well as by Mr. Ponton in
his ‘‘ Glimpses of the Future Life.” In the latter case we have a
scientific man, who traces the authority of names into the original
Hebrew, and who shows where science and logical argument
may be brought to interpret the Bible. Mr. Lucas, on the con-

408 Notices of Books. (July,

trary, finds that the Bible may, at least in its account of the
deluge, be taken as throwing some light upon certain geological
facts, while these facts may serve to confirm or corroborate
biblical testimony. ‘These views are undoubtedly those that will
afford most definite results. They are based ultimately on the
axiom that two truths cannot be more than apparently incom-
patible. And both our authors are men who have distinguished
themselves in the investigation ; Mr. Lucas is well known by his
work, ‘The Biblical Antiquity of Man;” Mr. Ponton as the
author of ‘‘ The Beginning, its When and its How,” noticed in
these pages. Mr. Lucas states that he feels conscious that no
difficulties besetting his own solution have been designedly
overlooked or evaded; and that no facts requisite to a just and
impartial view of the subject have been omitted or distorted.
Nothing, in short, has been assumed but the truth of Scripture
statement. -Now this is as it should be. The scientific layman
is as convinced of biblical truth as the biblical layman may be
of scientific truth ; obviously their only method of detecting error
on either side is by reductio ad absurdum. But it is an open
question as to which may be living in the glass-house, and it is
better to continue to work, as our authors do, on the axiom of the
negation of incompatibility of truths. Proceeding, then, on this
common track, Mr. Lucas considers the deluge miraculous in its
origin, and that it could not have been produced by any natural
force. That it happened is shown by the evidence of present
effect. That the ‘‘ breaking up of the waters,” the quiescént
stage and the recession have been attended by well marked,
although suppository, geological phenomena. Having conceded
that the date of the Deluge admits, even upon Scriptural authority,
of the utmost elasticity, it is possible that implements but not
bones might be found pertaining to the antediluvian period,
while the phenomena of ‘‘ inundation mud” might be shown to
be susceptible of explanation upon a diluvian theory. These
are the main points of the work; the reader should exhaust it
for himself.

With Mr. Ponton, in his ‘‘ Glimpses of the Future,” we are con-
fessedly more at home, for he brings forward scientific reasoning
in support of biblical statement. His treatment of Death and
Hades as abstract ideas, the interpretation of ‘‘ heavens” as
meaning atmosphere, are especially characteristic of this. author’s
liberal views. Passing, however, to the Appendix on the
probable law of increase of the human race, we find it there
said :—‘‘ The prevalence of law and order in all the proceedings
of the Infinite Mind that rules the universe renders it probable
that the multiplication of mankind on the earth may have been
regulated by some law which a careful investigation may possibly
discover.” Having assumed that the present races of mankind
have all sprung from the eight persons composing the family of
Noah, it appears that twenty-seven reduplications from those

1873.] Notices of Books. 409

eight individuals would, with a slight addition, amount to the
present population of the world. Considered that the limit to
the population per square mile of land should be that of France
(about 168), and that the thirtieth reduplication would bring up
this average density throughout the globe, Mr. Ponton supposes
that the limit reached, the number of the earth’s inhabitants
would thenceforward remain almost stationary. May, then, this
reduplication have been governed by some law? The reasoning
by which Mr. Ponton proceeds to trace out this law possesses
the deepest interest. The results are carefully tabulated, and
our readers will find the work well worthy of study.

Elements of Natural Philosophy. By Professors Sir W. THomson
and G. P. Tair. Part I. London: Macmillan and Co. 1873.

NatTuRAL Philosophy, as the good old English term runs, is too
often so taught as to place the power of correlation as distant
as possible. Indeed, the ordinary method works somewhat in
this manner. Professors Sir William Thomson and G. P. Tait
have chosen what appears certainly a more philosophic course ;
for, setting out with Newton’s definition that “mechanics is the
science of machines and the art of making them,” and that the
science which investigates the action of force is properly termed
dynamics, we are led to the consideration of force acting in two
ways (that is, so as to compel rest or prevent change of
motion, and so as to produce or to change motion), as in
Statics and Kinetics. It has been usual, in our text-books,
to deal first with the laws of statics or the balancing of forces;
but evidently the laws of kinetics (or rather of kinematics)
present more obvious points to the student than do the laws of
statics, which are necessarily subject to the limitation of
equilibrium.

Yet this we conceive not the most important phase of progress
exhibited in the treatment of the subject. Let the student have
acquired his knowledge, let him have commenced his course of
original research, there is still one higher step to be made, which,
if not gained, will render his results of small worth. We refer
to the means of becoming acquainted, by experiment, with the
material universe and the laws which regulate it. ‘In general,”
to quote our authors, ‘‘the actions which we see ever taking
place around us are complex, or due to the simultaneous action
of many causes. When, as in astronomy, we endeavour to
ascertain these causes by simply watching their effects, we
observe ; when, as in our laboratories, we interfere arbitrarily with
the causes or circumstances of a phenomenon, we are said to
experiment.” ‘To observation, for instances, we owe the data of
astronomical, meteorological, and geological science; to ex-
periment the deductions of spectrum analysis, electricity, and

410 Notices ‘of Books. [July,

the laws of falling bodies. ‘‘Mere observation of lightning
and its effects could never have led to the discovery of their re-
lation to the phenomena presented by rubbed amber. A modifi-
cation of the course of Nature, such as the bringing down of
atmospheric electricity into our laboratories, was necessary.
Without experiment we could never even have learned the ex-
istence of terrestrial magnetism.”

These are specimens of the exceedingly beautiful and unique
illustrations of our authors. But these again are surpassed by
the description of the laws by which the experimentalist should
be controlled in the deduction of results. In all cases, to quote
further, when a particular agent or cause is to be studied, ex-
periments should be arranged in such a way as to lead, if possible,
to results depending upon it alone. Or, if this cannot be done,
they should be arranged so as to increase the effects due to the
cause to be studied till these so far exceed the unavoidable con-
comitants, that the latter may be considered as only disturbing,
not essentially modifying, the effects of the principal agent.
Thus, in order to find the nature of the action of a galvanic
current upon a magnetised needle, we may adopt either of these
methods. For instance, we may neutralise the disturbing
effects of the earth’s magnetism on the needle by properly placing
a magnetised bar in its neighbourhood. This is an instance of
the first method. Or by increasing the strength of the current,
or by coiling the wire many times about the needle, multiply the
effects of the current so that those of the earth’s magnetism
may be negligible in comparison. In some cases, however, the
latter mode of procedure is utterly deceptive—as, for instance,
in the use of multiplying condensers for the detection of very
small electromotive forces. In this case the friction between
the parts of the condenser often produces more electricity than
that which is to be measured, so that the true results cannot be
deduced. We thus see that it is uncertain which of these
methods may be preferable in any particular case; and, indeed,
in discovery, he is the most likely to succeed who, not allowing
himself to be disheartened by the non-success of one form of ex-
periment, carefully varies his methods, and thus interrogates in
every conceivable manner the subject of his investigations. A
most important remark, due to Herschel, regards what are
called residual phenomena. When, in an experiment, all known
causes being allowed for, there remain certain unexplained effects
(excessively slight it may be), these must be carefully investi-
gated, and every conceivable variation of arrangement of
apparatus, &c. tried; until, if possible, we manage so to
exaggerate the residual phenomenon as to be able to detect its
cause. It is here, perhaps, that in the present state of science
we may most reasonably look for extensions of our knowledge ;
at all events we are warranted by the recent history of Natural
Philosophy in so doing. Thus, to take only a very few instances,

1873.] Notices of Books. 4II

to say nothing of the discovery of electricity and magnetism by
the ancients, the peculiar smell observed in a room in which an
electrical machine is kept in action, was long ago observed, but
called the ‘‘ smell of electricity,” and thus left unexplained.
The sagacity of Schénbein led to the discovery that this is due
to the formation of ozone.

We cannot for want of space follow our authors through the
consideration of the principle of repetition in experiment, agree-
ment, and difference, the use of mathematical theories, and the
evaluation of error by the method of least squares, all contained
in one valuable chapter of a still more valuable volume. We .
have fulfilled our duty in presenting it to the notice of the
teacher, the taught, and the reading public: to the teacher,
because he will find in that which will silence the cry “there is
no good text-book of Natural Philosphy;”’ to the student, because
it shows how he should be taught or teach himself; to the
reading public, because it will give a clear idea of the beauty
and exactitude of the logical method in science.

Science Primers: Physical Geography. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE,
LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Scotland,
and Murchison Professor of Geology.and Mineralogy in the
University of Edinburgh. London: Macmillan and Co. 1873.

Tuis little work will be found of incalculable value to the ele-
mentary student. It will be alike interesting to the general
reader, as giving a pleasing description of the phenomena of air,
earth, and water. The author asks us to follow him in a country
ramble, and read the book of Nature unfolded to us, to learn
the relationship of the air we breathe and the earth upon which
we live, and to watch with attentive eyes the changes which are
continually taking place around us. The details are explained in
a simple and comprehensive manner, and throughout the book a
desire is evinced to impart knowledge which will be of practical
value. It is illustrated by several woodcuts.

Physical Geography. By Wiutiiam HuaGues, Professor of
Geography in King’s College, London, Author of “* A Manual
of Geography,” &c. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
1873.

Tuis is a useful little school-book. It treats of the Earth’s

natural aspects, phenomena, and productions, in a simple and

interesting manner. In the present day increased attention is
given to the study of these natural phenomena, and this book
will prove of material assistance to the elementary student.

Teachers will do well to recommend it to their pupils.

412 Notices of Books. (July,

On Coal at Home and Abroad, with Relation to Consumption,
Demand, and Supply. By J. R. Leircuitp, M.A.

Tuts is a re-publication of three articles contributed to the
‘‘ Edinburgh Review,” with an Appendix supplying information
on the subject up to the latest date. The chief merit of this
work is, that the large amount of statistical and general informa-
tion which it affords on its subject is thus brought forward to the
time of publication. The first essay, on ‘‘Consumption and
Cost of Coal,” is from the last April number of the ‘* Edinburgh
Review.” Some of Mr. Leifchild’s conclusions are discussed in
our article on ‘The Limits of our Coal Supply.” The next
paper, ‘ On the Coal- Fields of North America and Great Britain,”
contains a large amount of valuable statistical and geological
information ; and the same praise is due to the third essay, on
‘« Fatal Accidents in Coal-Mines,” and to the Appendix. Many
of the facts here stated are but little known to general, or even
to scientific, readers that have not lived in black-country districts.
For example, during ten years, the deaths from fire-damp explo-
sions—commonly regarded as the most fatal of the dangers of
coal-mining—were only about one-fifth of the total fatal acci-
dents. Those from the falls of the roof and coal—of which we
commonly hear so little—reached to about two-fifths. Shaft acci-
dents less than one-fifth, and miscellaneous causes and above-
ground rather more than one-fifth. We cannot venture upon
any further reference to the closely-packed yet readably-connected
facts of this small volume, which we strongly recommend to the
perusal of all who are interested in the subject.

1873.] : ( 413 )

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

MINING.

From the evidence recently given by the several coal inspectors before
Mr. Mundella’s committee for inquiring into the present state of our coal
trade, under the presidency of Mr. Ayrton, we are enabled to glean figures
which represent the actual production of coal in Great Britain during the year
1872. The following statistics, showing the output of last year, are of much
interest for comparison with the returns of the previous year :—

Tons.

South Durham.. ial Cxwee ew. -E2s905,00C
Northumberland and Durham dee end ee DSeaoo, OGG
ERSAPREE I oho Soe 6:1 tw en lw be vote! abet Megie\ RASS OOOO
Derbyshire si idle rdialn «nstgn 9 LOO, O00
Lancashire and North Wales. ta as) heygO4.250
North Staffordshire and Worcestershire <a, ie F27; BOO
South Staffordshire... ... .» 10,550,000
Gloucestershire and Somersetshire a wae 4) Zx0O0,000
BERD MNCLOSR aM el pe me sa ae, a) EO, Laas 28

SEORABGY cl) al cas) gina ae Gun whe Can. |. kee tOs,00G

Totat 4. 45 123,386,755

These figures show that, so far from the rise in prices and the disturbed
state of the labour market having diminished the production of coal in 1872—
as might fairly have been supposed—we actually raised during that year
several millions of tons more coal than in 1871.

The progress of some trial-sinkings for coal, in the neighbourhood of
Cannock Chase, deserves to be chronicled for the scientific interest attaching
to these explorations, and the light which they promise to throw upon the
relations between the coal-fields of Staffordshire and Shropshire. At Fairoak,
a little north-west of Cannock Chase, a boring has proved the existence of
coal-measures beneath the Bunter conglomerates, without the intervention of
any Permian rocks. At Huntington, due west of Cannock Chase, a hole is
being put down with a diamond-mounted borer, but, at the time we write,
coal has not been reached.

The well known trial-sinking at Sandwell Park Colliery is progressing
favourably. A second seam of coal has been reached at a depth of 232
yards. This seam is about 11 inches in thickness, and rests on a true fire-
clay floor.

In the South of England, the Sub-Wealden boring continues to make way,
though not so rapidly as might be wished. A fine bed of gypsum, between 50
and 60 feet thick, has been passed through, and promises to become of much
economic value. The specimens which we have seen show that the mineral
is a beautifully white fine-grained gypsum, which might evidently be worked
with great profit. The bed occurs in the Poundsford series, formerly classed
with the lower beds of the Weald, but now believed to be of Purbeck age.

An admirable geological description of the coal-bearing oolites of Brora, in
Sutherlandshire, will be found in Mr. J. W. Judd’s memoir “ On the Secondary
Rocks of Eastern Scotland, published in the May number of the “ Journal of
the Geological Society of London.” It is these oolitic coals that have lately
attracted so much attention; the Duke of Sutherland having, with cha-
racteristic energy, authorised a thorough exploration of the old Brora mines,
with the view of again testing their coal-producing capabilities.

A new safety-lamp, constructed on an ingenious principle, has been patented
by Mr. Landau. The air required for combustion is contained in a chamber

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3H

414 Progress in Science. (July,

in the lamp itself, so that it is completely independent of the external atmo-
sphere. A chamber of a capacity of not more than 36 cubic inches, is found
sufficiently large to contain a supply of air for twelve hours’ use. The pro-
ducts of combustion are carried off and condensed by a bent or coiled tube
fixed at the top of the lamp. The patentee recommends that the air should
be compressed at the mouth of the pit, and that the condensation pipes should
be carried to the top of the shaft so as to avoid the retention of hot gases and
vapours in the mine.

A form of rock-drill, known as the Power Jumper, has been patented by
Messrs. Brydon, Davidson, and Warrington. This drill is said to be re-
commended by its simplicity, lightness, and small size; and may be worked
with a pressure of steam or compressed air of only 30 or 40 lbs. to the square
inch.

Mr. Henry S. Poole, the new Inspector of Mines for Nova Scotia, has pre-
sented to the Commissioner of Public Works and Mines an excellent report
on ‘* Mining in the Province.” This report gives a very encouraging account
of the present position of coal-mining.

An account of the mineral resources of India by so competent a geologist,
and one so well acquainted with the country, as Mr. W. T. Blanford, neces-
sarily commands attention. Mr. Blanford’s paper, recently read before the
Society of Arts, does not, however, give a very brilliant view of the mineral
wealth of our Indian possessions. The ores of copper, lead, and silver, and
the deposits containing gold and diamonds, are really of but small value.
Tin-ore, on the contrary, occurs in valuable deposits in the Tenasserim pro-
vinces, and salt-mines of great importance are worked in the Punjab. Coal is
abundant within a certain area, but the quality is inferior. The deposits
of iron ore, however, are, according to Mr. Blanford, destined to be the
chief source of India’s mineral wealth in the future: these ores, though
hitherto but little worked, are extremely plentiful, and in some cases are of
very high quality.

Aa recent meeting of the South Midland Institute of Mining Engineers, at
Wolverhampton, a paper on “ Colliery Winding Engines’ was read by Mr.
S. Watkins. After discussing the most important requirements of a colliery
engine, he advocated the use of the direc&t-aGting horizontal engine, with link-
motion and reversing excentrics for valve-gearing

Among the papers read at a recent meeting of the South Wales Institute of
Mining Engineers, we may mention one, by Mr. J. Snape, on the ‘“ Use of
Compressed Air Underground for Winding and Pumping.”

The Rev. H. Sandford has communicated to the South Staffordshire and
East Worcestershire Institute of Mining Engineers a paper on ‘ Mines’
Schools in Germany,” in which he describes the method of instruction pursued
in the schools at Saarbriick and Siegen, and compares it with the education
given in this country.

METALLURGY.

During the past quarter the Iron and Steel Institute has held its Annual
General Meeting. Mr. Bessemer, the retiring President, has been succeeded
by Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, who took occasion, in his presidential address, to
lay before the Institute a masterly review of the present position of the iron
and steel manufa@ures of this country. It is pleasing to remark that Mr.
Bessemer has liberally placed in the hands of the Council a sum of money for
the purpose of founding a gold medal to be awarded annually for the pro-
motion of metallurgical science, either by original research or by literary
work.

Among the communications presented to the Institute at this meeting, we
may call especial attention to Dr. C. W. Siemens’s paper on the ‘‘ Manufacture
of Iron and Steel by the Dire& Process.” The iron and steel produced by
this dire@ process are said to be of very high quality, and this in spite of the
presence of prejudicial ingredients in the raw materials.

1873.] Miveralogy. 415

At the same meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, Mr. T. R. Crampton
read a paper on the ‘‘ Combustion of Powdered Fuel in Revolving Furnaces,
and its application to Heating and Puddling Furnaces.”

The conditions under which highly silicated pig-iron is produced in the
blast-furnace have been studied by M. Samson Jordan, who has lately com-
municated the results of his researches to the French Academy of Sciences.
His observations were made at the Heerdt Iron-works, near Dusseldorf. He
concludes that the furnace should be worked slowly at a high temperature,
and that the charge should be rich in silica and alumina.

Although scheme after scheme has been proposed for the utilisation of
blast-furnace slags, which are so terrible a burden to the ironmaster, it, cannot
be said that any of these schemes have hitherto been entirely successful.
Mr. Wood, of the Tees Iron-works, at Middlesbro’, has, however, recently
invented a machine for crushing blast-furnace slag, until it is reduced to the
consistency of sand. Mixed with 8 or ro per cent of quicklime, this sand
when compressed is said to make excellent concrete bricks, which can be used
for building without requiring to be burnt. Moreover, it is suggested that the
slag-sand may be advantageously used as a manure.

Bricks of slag are also now made by Mr. Woodward, of Darlington. He
merely runs the cinder from the furnaces into moulds, and then subjects the
bricks to a process of annealing.

It is worth recording that the fusion of platinum in a furnace of powerful
draught has been effected by M. Violette. Fifty grammes of platinum, partly
in fragments and partly in the state of sponge, were placed in a Hessian
crucible lined with plumbago, and subjected for one hour to the heat of the
furnace. A perfeély-fused button of platinum, of the same weight as that of
the metal introduced, was found at the bottom of the crucible.

In consequence of the great advance in the price of nickel, a correspondent
of “‘ The Times,’’ pretty generally known to be Dr. Percy, has called attention
to the fact that a substitute for nickel-silver has long been known, though not
manufactured. By substituting manganese for nickel, the writer found that
an alloy might be obtained, having all the characters of German silver; but
though this alloy was known more than twenty years ago its manufacture has
hitherto, for commercial reasons, been suppressed. The present price of
nickel—consequent upon the great demand for this metal for purposes of
coinage, as well as for nickel-silver and for ele@tro nickel-plating—may lead
e the manufacture of this manganese alloy in the place of ordinary German
silver.

As the contemplated reform in the German coinage is expected to absorb an
enormous quantity of nickel within the next two years, it is worth noting that
some authorities have suggested that other metals, instead of nickel-alloys,
might advantageously be used for the new coins. Dr. Clemens Winkler
strongly advocates the employment of pure aluminium for small pieces, and
points to the properties of this metal as precisely those which adapt it in an
eminent degree for the purposes of coinage.

MINERALOGY,

Every student of mineralogy is familiar with the fine icositetrahedral, or
24-faced, crystals of Leucite, which occur embedded in the lavas of Vesuvius,
and were formerly called ‘white garnets.” These crystals are always
regarded as characteristic forms of the cubic system—so chara¢teristic, indeed,
that the icositetrahedron has been called, in Haidinger’s nomenclature, the
Leucitoid. Prof. Vom Rath, of Bonn, has, however, been led to study these
crystals in a new light, and the results of this study show that the mineral
must be transferred from the cubic to the pyramidal system.* By observing
the direction of certain striz on the trapezoidal faces of some of these crystals,
he found that they were not mere superficial markings, but were really the

* LEONHARLT and GEINITz’s “‘ Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, U.S.W..,” 1873, Heft II.,
page 113.

a

416 Progress in Science. [July,

edges of twin lamelle. He has since shown that the common icositetrahedron
of leucite is really a combination of the 16 faces of the ditetragonal oda-
-hedron with the 8 faces of the primitive o@ahedron—four of these being above

and four below the faces of the ditetragonal pyramid. Leucite is thus brought
within the group of these minerals so charaeristic of Vesuvius, which
crystallise in the pyramidal system—a group which includes zircon, hum-
boldtilite, meionite, vesuvian, and sarcolite.

It has long been known that diamonds of some size occur in the gold fields
of California, and Prof. B. Silliman had suggested that they might be found in
the heavy sands from the sluices of the hydraulic washings. This suggestion
has lately been verified.* A parcel of sand, taken from the tailings in one of
the sluices of the Spring Valley Mining Claim, Cherokee, has been subjected
to a searching microscopic examination by Prof. Silliman. This examination
has shown that the sands abound in beautiful colourless crystals of zircon,
associated with crystals of topaz, fragments of quartz, and granules of chromite
and titanic iron ore. But in addition to these minerals, there are a few small
masses of a very highly refractive substance, believed from its chemical and
physical characters to be true diamond.

Bauxite—the mineral which has long been employed in the manufacture of
aluminium—is_used by Dr. C. W. Siemens for lining the rotary furnaces in
which he produces iron and steel dire&t from the ore. According to Mr. Riley,
large supplies of this mineral are likely to be yielded by the deposits of
aluminous iron ores in the north-east of Ireland.

Some time ago we had occasion to mention the discovery of some new
minerals containing uranium at the Weisser Hirsch Mine, near Schneeber, in
Saxony. Dr. Clemens Winkler has published, in a recent number of the
‘* Journal fiir Praktische Chemie,” the results of his analyses of these minerals.

Some confusion has arisen between the two species amblygonite and monte-
brasite, but the distin@tion has been clearly established by Des Cloiseaux. In
1862,a mineral was found at Hebron, in Maine, U.S., and referred to the species
amblygonite ; in 1870 a mineral was found at Montebras, in France, and named
Montebrasite. Now it has since turned out that the original mineral from Monte-
bras is merely amblygonite, but a second species has been found in this locality
to which the name of Montebrasite has been transferred ; and it is now proved
that the so-called amblygonite from Hebron is really this true Montebrasite.
The matter therefore stands thus: two minerals are found at Montebras—one
called montebrasite and the other amblygonite; the former is also found at
Hebron in the United States, and the latter occurs also at Penig, in Saxony.
Montebrasite contains lithia but no soda, and also contains a notable pro-
portion of water; amblygonite contains both soda and lithia, but no water.

Axinite is one of those doubly-oblique minerals whose crystalline forms, so
difficult to the student, have been carefully worked out by several crystallo-
graphers. Herr Hessenberg has lately examined the axinite from Botallack,
in Cornwall, and has discovered two forms new to this species. His paper is
well worth thoughtful reading, for the sake of his sensible remarks on the use
and abuse of crystallographic symbols.

Some observations on the celestine, or sulphate of strontia, of Ridersdorf,
and of Mokattam near Cairo, have been published by Herr Arzruni. He has
also analysed specimens of celestine from several typical localities with the
view of observing the effect of isomorphous replacements on the crystalline
form of the species.

The new species Pucherite—a vanadate of bismuth, from Schneeberg, in
Saxony—has formed the subje@ of a careful crystallographic study by Herr
Websky. It appears that the forms of pucherite admit of comparison with
those of brookite.

Fluor-spar must be reckoned among those crystallised compounds, which,
though abundant enough in nature, have not hitherto been artificially prepared

* Chemical News,” May and, 1873, p. 212.

1873.] Engineering. | 417

by the chemist. It is therefore worth noting that quite recently Messrs. T.
Scheerer and,E. Drechsel have succeeded in obtaining crystallised fluoride of
calcium.*

We are glad to observe that the excellent series of crystallographic ‘ nets,”
constructed and published some years ago by Mr. J. B. Jordan, has been
lately reproduced at a low price by Mr. Murby, of Bouverie Street. No better
means can be recommended to the student of crystallography, in mastering
the elements of this confessedly difficult subje@, than the construétion of a
set of pasteboard models from nets or outlines such as are furnished in these
sheets. ;

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Water-Lifting Apparatus. — Prall’s water-lifting apparatus, designed for
raising water into the tender tanks of locomotives, may be considered as an
offshoot from the Westinghouse air-break, and by its use the necessity of
providing pumping machinery at stations may in a great measure be obviated.
The nature of this apparatus may be thus briefly explained :—At or near the
bottom of a well is placed a closed box, with a valve on its under side, by
means of which it is kept full by the pressure of the water in the well. From
the top of this box are two pipes rising up above the ground; at the
upper end of the one pipe, which extends to near the bottom of the box, is a
branch for conveying water to the tender; whilst the other, which merely
enters the box at its upper side, is fitted at the other end with a branch,
which, by means of a length of flexible tubing and a union-joint, can be put
in communication with a pipe on the locomotive connected to the compressed
air-reservoir of the break. - This connection being made, the engine-driver can
merely, by turning a cock, allow the compressed air to flow from the reservoir
to the submerged tank, when it will, by pressing on the surface of the water
in the latter, force this water up the rising main, and enable it to be discharged
into the tender tank. Ona sufficient supply of water having been raised, the
cock is shut, the joint with the air-cylinder disconnected, and the compressed
air from the submerged tank escaping allows the bottom valve to open, and
the tank becomes again charged ready for another operation.

Retaining Walls.—In a paper read before the American Society of En-
gineers, by Mr. Casimir Constable, it was stated that a retaining wall is stable
when the amount of its weight about the point of rotation exceeds the
amount of a certain triangular prism of material back of the wall, about
the same point—the intersection of the line of rupture of the wall, and the
resultant thrust of the prism. Many formule and tables for retaining walls
are presented for use, without a factor of safety, since walls proportioned
therewith—well built and carefully back-filled—have been permanent. Expe-
riments made on a small scale, in which the theoretic conditions were more
nearly fulfilled than in practice, show that such walls are stable, and point out
the reason why. The problem having been thus solved, a fator of safety may -
be introduced in the formule, which will allow for shocks, irregular workman-
ship, and uncertain material. The problem was then considered under these
several heads :—the angle of rupture, the height of the prism of rupture, and
the direction and point of application of the pressure of the prism. It was
shown that the prism of greatest pressure is given by the plane which bisects
the angle of repose, and that—

P=iw,h? tan? i 4
2

in which P = the horizontal force which sustains the prism, w the weight per
cubic foot, h the height, and z the angle of the prism.

Pneumatic Foundations.—A paper on this subje& was read before the Ame-
rican Society of Civil Engineers, at New York, on the rgth of February last,
by General W. Sovy Smith. From that paper it appears that the first two
bridges on pneumatic pile foundations, erected in the United States, were—

* “ Journal fur Praktische Chemie,” 1873, No. 2, p. 63.

418 Progress in Science. [July,

one over the Santee River, on the North-Eastern Railroad, built in 1855; and
the other over the Great Pedee River, on the Wilmington, Columbia, and
Augusta Railroad, built in 1857. The air-lock used in sinking these piles was
invented by Alexander Holstrom. It was a cast-iron cylinder, 6 feet in
diameter and 4 feet high, closed at top and bottom by cast-iron plates, through
which were man-holes, opening downward for entrance, and bull’s-eyes of
glass for light. Two goose-neck pipes passed through the sides and bottom—
one for introduction of air, and the other for the discharge of water, when it
would not escape through the material underneath the pile. A windlass was.
attached for raising the earth within the pile, all of which was removed by
hand. There were four air-pumps set in a single frame. Construction of the
pneumatic pile piers for a bridge over the Savannah River, on the Charlestown
and Savannah Railroad was begun in the fall of 1859. The air-lock used was
6 feet instead of 4 feet high, and the cylinders were of wrought- instead of
cast-iron. In order to overcome certain defects which made themselves appa-
rent, an air-lock was made of less diameter than the pile, so that an annular
space was left between the two, in the plate covering the top of the latter, into
which bull’s-eyes were introduced. Through the side of the air-lock was a
pipe or trap, inclined at an angle to discharge readily any material put into it,
and arranged for closing at either end; the outer end being closed, the trap
was filled with material, the inner end was then closed, the compressed air
thus cut off from the air-lock liberated, and the outer end opened, when the
material would pass out. By reversing the process the trap was made ready
to receive material again. By this means nearly twice as much work was
doné€ in the same time as with the Holstrom air-lock. It was soon found that
the sandy material through which these piles were sunk could be raised by the
escaping compressed air through a discharge-pipe, and delivered outside in a
continuous stream; for this the mouth of a flexible tube, fitted to the lower
end of a fixed pipe, was thrust into the wet sand, and moved from place to
place as the material disappeared. The ratio of work done to that with the
whole air-lock, which before was as 28 to 10, now became as 28 to I.

The Rigi Railway.—On the 29th of April last Dr. William Pole, F.R.S.,
read a paper, before the Institution of Civil Engineers, on the Rigi Railway.
The objec of this railway is to convey passengers to the top of the Rigi, there
being no carriage-road thither, the only means of ascent having hitherto been
either by walking or by horses, or by chaises d parteurs. The summit of this
mountain is 4500 feet above the plain, and an unusually steep gradient of
about I in 4 was necessary. The line commences at Vitznau, on the Lake of
Lucerne, and is about 4 miles long. The works are mostly formed by cutting
and benching on the rocky slope of the mountain; there is one short tunnel,
and but one iron bridge over aravine. The gauge is 4 feet 84 inches, and the
rails are of the Vignoles shape, weighing 34 lbs. tothe yard. The ascent is
made by means of a rack and pinion arrangement, similar to that proposed
and constructed by Mr. Blenkinsop in 1811. The rack is placed midway be-
tween the rails, and is formed of two wrought-iron cheek-plates, having
wrought-iron teeth inserted between them and rivetted on each side. The
pitch of the teeth is nearly 4 inches. The locomotive weighs about 12 tons,
and is supported on four wheels. The boiler is vertical, and its axis is inclined
to the base line, so as to be nearly upright when running on the steep gradient.
The crank-shaft is worked by gearing on the main axle, on which the cog-
wheel is placed. The speed on the incline does not exceed 3 or 4 miles per ©
hour, either up or down: the danger of getting off the rails is met by clips
fastened to the vehicles, which pass under the rack bar, and would, if the
wheels should run off, prevent the carriages from getting away. Clip-brakes
are provided which embrace drums on the cogged wheel-axles, so that when
these clips are tightened the cogs are held fast in the rack, and thus support
the weight of the vehicle, preventing it from running down the incline.

Dynamometers.—A paper has recently been read, before the Franklin Insti-
tute, on the Francis Dynamometer, by Mr. Samuel Webber. The principle of
the dynamometer is that of obtaining the “ horse-power,” on weight moved
1 foot per second, by suspending that weight to the end of a steelyard, which,

7

1873.] Light. 419

were it not thus confined, would be free to rotate, and which would describe a
circle of which its length is the radius. The first shaft, passed directly
through the axis of the Steelyard, has fast on it, at one end, the driven pulley
and a bevel gear, which forms one side of a compound or box gear. The
bevel on the opposite side and the delivering gear are fast on a sleeve or
collar, which is caused to revolve in an opposite dire@tion to the shaft by the
two intermediate bevels, which complete the compound, and which, being
driven by the first gear, rotate freely around the steelyard, when no power is
being transmitted, with the exception of such action as is due to the friction
of the shaft and gears, which friction is ascertained and deducted in making a
test of power. The weight used on the original machine was 1 lb., and the
length of the steelyard such as to move the weight at its extremity 10 feet in
one revolution, or 1000 feet in 100 revolutions ; therefore 1 lb. moved 1000 feet
represented rooo lbs. moved 1 foot. In the improved instrument the steelyard
is made the base of calculation, and is graduated in inches and tenths, each
inch representing 100 lbs. Starting at 64 inches from the centre to clear the
frame, the graduation is carried out 20 inches or to 2000 lbs., and the weight
obtained as follows :—The extreme length is now 26} inches, thus being the
radius of a circle of 53 inches diameter, or 166°504 inches circumference.
This is 13°8753 feet described in one revolution, and the weight, to correspond
to 1 lb. moved ro feet, is found to be 0°7207 lb. Now this weight is only one-
half of that required, for on the steelyard the action is that of supporting a
weight supported at one end, and the weight is therefore doubled, making it
1°4414 lbs., or 1 lb. 7, ozs. to represent 1000 lbs. raised 1 foot in a second.
The poise or slide weight is obtained by a different calculation, as it is to
represent 100 lbs. for every inch it is moved, and as acircle of 1 inch radius
is 6°2832 in circumference, Ioo times that circle is 628°32 inches, or 52°36 feet ;
and the weight to correspond with 1 1b. moved 100 feet, or 100 lbs. moved
1 foot, is found to be 19098 lbs., which, being doubled as before, gives 3°8197
Ibs., or 3 lbs. 13,3; ozs. nearly for the movable weight. A worm gear on the
second shaft drives the clock by a pinion of 100 teeth, and at every Ioo revo-
lutions rings a bell. The practical operation of the dynamometer is this :-—
Having carefully levelled it and secured it to the floor in the proper line of
motion, a belt is brought from the driving pulley on the shaft to the first
pulley on the dynamometer, and one led from the second pulley on the dyna-
mometer to the main pulley of the machine to be weighed, and the whole put
in motion. The action of the bevel gears immediately raises the steelyard,
which is then weighted till it remains motionless in a horizontal position.
This weight is noted, and also the number of seconds consumed in making
too revolutions. The belt leading to the machine is then thrown off, and the
weight required to balance the dynamometer in motion also noted and deducted
from the total weight. The weight thus obtained is divided by the number of
seconds consumed, and the result is the number of pounds raised 1 foot in
E second.

LIGHT.

Mr. Charles Horner has contributed a paper to the ‘‘ Chemical News”’
on the ‘Spectra of some Cobalt Compounds in Blowpipe Chemistry.” A
spectroscope of low dispersive power is essential for seeing distin@ly the
bands due to these compounds; and since the accurate position of the
absorption-bands had to be determined, the author had recourse to the
micro-spectroscope, which enabled him to measure them with precision,
although a small hand speroscope, like Mr. Browning’s ‘‘ Miniature’”’ in-
strument, is very convenient, especially for examining the spectra of hot
beads. Mr. Sorby’s interference-plate was used as a scale of reference,
whilst Mr. Browning’s bright point micrometer served as an indicator.
When cobalt oxide is added to boric acid, and strongly fused for two or
three minutes in the inner flame, using gas as a source of heat, the cold bead
possesses a dull blue colour, and is almost opaque. However, by using a
powerful light it gives a spectrum of three very faint bands, nearly i in the
same position as shown in Fig. 2; if, now, 1 per cent of sodium carbonate be

an
x =

420 Progress in Science. ; [July,

taken up, and the bead treated as before, when cold, the colour is a murky
reddish purple, and the spe&rum no longer giving the band in the red, but two
obscure absorption-bands, very close together, and a slight shading at F, as

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

Fic.

shown in Fig. 1. Upon adding 4 per cent of soda the bead becomes quite
clear and paler, showing the same speGtrum, but while hot showing the band a,
as in Fig. 2. A further addition of 10 per cent of sodium carbonate causes

1873.] Light. 421

the bead to remain a dark purple when cold, and exhibiting the complete
spectrum of Fig. 2. When 25 per cent has been added a blue bead results,
and the spectrum in Fig. 2 changes; the band marked £ is perceptibly lowered,
overlapping D, as in Fig. 3, but the band y remains as in Fig. 2. If 5 per cent
more is taken up, the three absorption-bands are like those drawn in Fig. 3,
which represents cobalt dissolved in borax. The bead is now very dark, and
requires pressing, whilst hot, between the points of the forceps, to render it
sufficiently diaphanous. In these experiments it is necessary the amount of
cobalt should be known when added to the weighed boric acid bead, since the
determination of the alkali is affected by the quantity of oxide present;
e.g., if enough cobalt has not been dissolved, it may require 174 per cent
of sodium carbonate to render the band visible in the red of Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 represents the spectrum of a salt of magnesia when moistened
with a solution of cobalt. Fig. 5 is the spectrum of the indigo-blue com-
pound of calcium oxide when treated with cobalt. Fig. 6 is the interesting
spectrum of the bright blue compound of alumina. The beautiful green
compound of oxide of zinc, which is occasionally used as a pigment,
and known as Rinman’s green, gives the spectrum pourtrayed in Fig. 7.
When a thin soda bead is formed with a mere fragment of boric acid, and
fused along with a little cobalt, in the outer flame, the bead while hot is
of a deep orange-brown colour, turning nearly black and opaque on cooling,
but before becoming quite cold rapidly crystallises and turns green. By
transmitted light the whole of the blue is cut off and part of the red,
while a narrow band is visible at the yellow end of the green. If the
bead, however, be submitted to the action of the inner flame, it turns a
pale blue while hot, and crystallises on cooling to a pale pink by trans-
mitted light, assumes a lavender tint by reflected light. This unique
spectrum of the pink bead is depi@ed in Fig. 8; and Fig. g represents
the flame spectrum of boric acid, consisting of four bright bands.

Mr. George J. Warner, F.C.S, calls attention to the peculiarly sensitive
character of Wallace’s gas-burner. It consists of a hemispherical chamber,
into which the gas is introduced through a cone fixed horizontally at a tangent,
the position of the jet with regard to the cone being so adjusted that the
quantity of air inje@ed by the velocity of the gas at all ordinary pressures is
always the proportion required for its perfe& combustion. The upper part of
the interior of the chamber is lined with wire gauze, and from it issue one
or more tubes, at which the gasis burned. At ordinary pressures the flame is
of the colour of a Bunsen burner, but with a central cone, clearly defined, of
pure green, whether it be turned high or low. But if the gas be reduced
below the ordinary pressure on the main, the flame becomes white-tipped, and
there is no longer perfe& combustion, as in a defective Bunsen. We then find
that the flame is sensitive to sound, to all sound in fad, but to high notes
particularly.

Microscopy.—Mr. H. C. Sorby has obtained from Aphides an orange-
coloured fluid, which he names aphidirholeine, giving a very remarkable

spectrum. A narrow band in the orange, having the D line in its centre,
another close to the upper edge of the first band of nitrate of didymium, a
third a little above E, the general absorption towards the blue commences
about midway between b and F, and becomes stronger near the fifth band of
nitrate of didymium. The band in the orange is a singular and unexpected
phenomenon in a fluid of the same colour.

VOL. II. (N.-S.) 31

422 ~ Progress in Science. [July,

Mr. E. Ray Lankester describes the spe&trum of Stentorin, the: colouring
matter of Stentor cerulius.* It has two bands, the stronger in the red on the
lower side of the C line; its centre is nearer the blue than the red band of
fresh chlorophyll. The second band in the green lies somewhat to the blue
side of the lower band of fresh blood. Light which has been passed through
the thickness of only a single Stentor (which cannot be more than a few
thousandths of an inch) is sufficiently affected to show the bands quite
sharply. This affords an instance of the value of the micro-spectroscope in
cases where only a small amount of coloured material is procurable.

In a paper on a new species of Callidina, read before the Royal Microscopical
Society,t Mr. H. Davis, F.R.M.S, gives the result of his experiments on the
desiccation of this and other rotifers. He has, in common with Pouchet and
other observers, arrived at the conclusion that rotifers when completely dried
do not revive upon being placed in water. Those which have recovered, and
some have done so after gradually heating to 200° F. in an oven, and
being kept for a week under an exhausted receiver with sulphuric acid, have
been protected, according to Mr. Davis’s observations, by a gelatinous secre-
tion which dries over them into a hard thin shell, and effectually secures them
from the most complete desiccation the chemist can effe@. That such a coating
is an effectual protection was demonstrated by the production at the meeting
of some grapes coated with gelatine, which had been with sulphuric acid in
an exhausted receiver for seven days and nights, and were still perfe@ly fresh
and juicy, while some from the same bunch put by in a cupboard without pro-
tection were shrivelled and mouldy.

The lens ruled in squares{ by Mr. Ackland for the purpose of making
drawings of obje@s under the microscope has, upon trial, proved successful,
the definition being very little affected by it. The markings of the scale of
Lefidocyrtus curvicollis (‘‘the test Podura”) were very well seen under an
eighth of Powell and Lealand’s new make, magnifying with the eye-piece
employed about 800 diameters, scarcely any mischief was done excepting the
production of a little colour, the ‘‘! markings” were clear enough to permit of
a good drawing being made.. Aconvenient size for the squares is 0°05 inch.
The drawings are made on ruled paper, several sizes of which, under the name
of ‘* sectional paper,”’ are manufactured by Messrs. Letts. Although originally
intended for the use of architects, for enlarging and reducing it will be found
equally available for microscopical purposes.

The well-known large microscope stand of Mr. Thomas Ross has been
remodelled and improved by Mr. F. H. Wenham. The base consists of a single
casting, the claws of which are well spread, and give a very firm support to
the movable portions of the instrument. The chief variation from the
former construction consists in the adoption of the “‘ ¥ackson Model,” so
strongly advocated by Dr. Carpenter,§ and respecting the rigidity of which
there cannot be the least doubt. This is so adapted as not to interfere with
the elaborate stage mechanism, which works as freely as in the old form. The
‘* dove-tail groove” in the limb is supplemented in its aGiion by a broad flange
on the bar carrying the body, which works in close conta& with a corre-
sponding plate on the limb, and prevents any chance of a rocking motion
taking place. The fine adjustment, as will be seen by the woodcut, is placed
in an extremely convenient position, and can easily be reached from either
side without the hand being removed from the milled head working the rack
motion. The stage and sub-stage arrangements are the same as those in the
older form, and need no especial mention. The stand, as now improved, is to
be particularly recommended for its great strength and consequent capability
of standing hard wear, a quality of considerable importance to the working
microscopist. The stiffness of its framing will also recommend it to those
who are compelled to carry on high power observations in unquiet situations

Quart. Journ. Micros. Soc., April, 1873, p. 140.
Month. Micros. Journ., vol. ix., p. 201.

Quart. Journ. Science, p. 277.

Monthly Micros. Journ., vol. iii., p. 183.

bh mh oN

1873.] Light. 423

and to whom the tremor of the old model was very annoying. The old
pattern has been kept in favour solely by the great care taken in its construc-
tion by our leading makers, the slightest defect in workmanship being in this
form very apparent, and causing a fatal amount of unsteadiness. It affords a
remarkable instance of constructive skill overcoming in a great degree the

ed
———
HS=?™

————

Ba —S=S=—"—=-

defects of an originally faulty design. That this form should have been ulti-
mately adopted by the late Andrew Ross is very remarkable, as his older
microscopes, as well as those of Mr. Powell, had the body supported by a con-
siderable portion of its length upon a rigid limb.*

Dr. J. G. Richardson communicates to the ‘“ Philadelphia Medical Times”
some account of the properties of acetate of potash in temporarily preserving
tissues during transmission forexamination. The process has been principally

* Penny Cyclopedia, vol. xv., p. 187; article ‘‘ Microscope,” by ANDREW Ross. A fine
specimen of Powell’s old constru€tion is in the colle@tion of instruments of the Royal
Microscopical Society.

424 Progress in Science. | [July,

applied to urinary deposits and other pathological specimens. The former,
placed in small bottles, arrived in perfe&tly good condition after a journey of a
week in hot weather. Fragments of tumours and other diseased tissues were
soaked in a saturated solution for forty-eight hours, until thoroughly imbued
with the fluid. They were then pressed, to remove superfluous moisture, and
tied up in thin sheet india-rubber or oil silk, and so transmitted by post.

HEAT.

An experiment lately made by Mr. Spence, of Manchester, seems to prove
that under certain conditions the diamond is combustible at a much lower
temperature than has been hitherto supposed. A South African diamond of
the size of a small pea, coated with refraGtory clay, was placed in a crucible
with a mixture of soda and hydrate of lime, and then heated in a muffle for
three days and three nights. On opening the mass, it was found that the
diamond had entirely disappeared, although the heat had never exceeded a
cherry-red.

At a recent meeting of the Helvetic Academy of Sciences M. Dufour gave
the principal results of an experimental inquiry into the vaniations of temper-
ature which occur in diffusion of gases separated by a porous partition. He
had studied, among other cases, those of hydrogen and air, of air and car-
bonic acid; and he distinguishes in these researches between diffusion at
constant pressure and diffusion with varying pressure. A porous vessel con-
taining the gas with slower diffusion (air or carbonic acid), and having a very
sensitive thermometer applied to its inner surface, was placed in a larger and
cloth-covered vessel, in which the other gas (hydrogen or air) was made to
circulate. A glass tube through the stopper of the porous vessel communi-
cated in some cases with the open air (constant pressure), and in others with
a manometer. The thermometer was observed with a cathetometer. It ap-
pears that with constant pressure there is always elevation of temperature on
the side of the entering diffusion, and lowering of temperature on the
side where the diffusing gas issues from the partition. M. Dufour believes
that this change of temperature is not produced throughout the whole gaseous
mass, but only at the surface of the porous partition. He points out that at
the side of entrance there is condensation, compression, and hence develop-
ment of heat; while at the other, on the contrary, there is expansion of the
gas, and so absorption of heat. With varying pressure the phenomenon is
more complicated. The indications of the thermometer are shown by the
annexed curve, in which the abscisse are the times and the ordinates the
temperatures.

IJ

GEOLOGY.

Stratigraphical Geology.—Dr. Dawson has alluded in a recent number of
the ‘‘Canadian Naturalist”? to the discussion which has reopened on the
terms Cambrian and Silurian, and which originated in a difference of opinion
between Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Sedgwick. He agrees
with Dr. Sterry Hunt that the Silurian system consists of two groups,
which should have distin@ names, and that the term Silurian should

1873.] Geology. 425

be restricted to the Upper Silurian of Sir Roderick, whilst the term Siluro-
Cambrian might be applied to the Lower Silurian rocks.

Capt. F. W. Hutton has communicated to the Geological Society asummary
of the Tertiary formations of New Zealand, classifying them as follows :—

Pleistocene.
Newer Pliocene, or Whanganui group.
Older Pliocene, or Lignite group.
. Upper, or Arvatere group.
jen chinmae hones or Kanieri Bone.
{ Upper, or Hawke’s Bay group.
| Lower, or Waitewata group.
{ Upper, or Ototara group.
| Lower, or Brown Coal group.

Pliocene. |

Oligocene.
Eocene.

Professor Hitchcock gives in the ‘‘Geological Magazine” a notice of the
precise areas occupied by workable beds of coal in the United States, and he
estimates the total to amount to 230,659 acres. This refers only to the coal
of Carboniferous age, and excludes other beds of commercial value, which
occur in the Triassic strata of Virginia, and in the Cretaceous rocks of the
territories west of the Missouri River, in California, Alaska, &c.

Glacial Geology.—Mr. J. F. Campbell, the well-known author of ‘‘ Frost and
Fire,’’ recently communicated to the Geological Society of London a memoir
on the glaciation of Ireland. He stated that almost the entire surface of the

country consists of glaciated rocks more or less weathered. The polished
surfaces are covered in low grounds with drift—unstratified boulder clay being
next to the rock, and above it sands and gravels and peat-bogs. The probable
dimensions of the ice-engines which work on the surface of Ireland were shown
by comparison of glaciers in Iceland, Norway, and elsewhere, with the Irish
marks, which indicate ice of equal size. Horizontal grooves at 2000 feet
above the sea were instanced as proving ice more than 2000 feet thick, which
moved over Ireland into the Atlantic in a south-westerly direction. It was
shown that the ice at its maximum probably extended from the Polar Basin to
Cape Clear. Mr. Campbell concluded that the later denudation of Ireland
was due to glacial and marine action, and that rivers and sub-aérial denudation
have done little to obliterate the tool-marks of ice and the sea since the end
of the last of a series of Glacial periods.

Origin of Lakes.—The glacial origin of rock-basins occupied by lakes, first
promulgated by Professor Ramsay, has received the attention and corroboration
of several American geologists. The theory was, however, combated by the
Duke of Argyll in his recent Presidential address to the Geological Society of
London, wherein he discussed the phenomena of denudation, referring
especially to the influence of subterranean and other movements of the crust
of the earth upon the denudation of its surface, and disputing the greatness of
the denuding effects of glacial action.

The Rev. T. G. Bonney has likewise discussed the theory of the erosion of
lake-basins by glaciers, testing it by the Lakes of Salzkammergut, in the
North-Eastern Alps. He considered a far more probable explanation to be,
that the greater lake-basins were parts of ordinary valleys, excavated by rain
and rivers, the beds of which had undergone disturbances after the valley had
assumed approximately its present contour. He showed that the lakes were
in most cases maintained at their present level by drift; and that, while in
a region so subject to slight disturbances as the Alps positive evidence for
his theory would be almost impossible to obtain, no lake offered any against it,
and one, the Konigsee, was very favourable to it.

Signor Gastaldi, however, in describing the valley of the Lanzo and other
Alpine valleys, pointed to the occurrence of large cirques at heights between
5000 and 10,000 feet. He noticed the various rocks in which these cirques
were cut, and expressed his opinion that they are the beds formerly occupied by
glaciers, the power of which to excavate even compatatively hard rocks, such
as felspathic, amphibolite- and chlorite-schists, he considered to be proved.

426 Progress in Science. [July,

Agricultural Geology and Geological Maps.—The relation between Agricul-
ture and Geology is a significant fa, and has been brought prominently into*
notice in the description.of many parts of Great Britain, in the “ Journal of
the Royal Agricultural Society,” and in the “ Bath and West of England
Agricultural Society.” Mr. Topley, F.G.S., has communicated to the “first-
mentioned Society a paper on the ‘“ Comparative Agriculture of England and
Wales,” in which he gives a table showing the percentage of each crop to the
total acreage of each county, and then traces out the relations of geological
structure and contour to Agriculture. Classifying the English counties ac-
cording to their leading features, he remarks that the western part of the
country contains the largest portion of high land, and that this higher western
land is occupied by the older geological formations. The greatest rain-fall is
over this area, and, speaking generally, over other distri€ts the fall is in pro-
portion to the height of the ground. Summer temperature is of great
importance; this is highest over the eastern central distri@. Considered
agriculturally, the western counties are characterised by their large acreage of
grazing land, whilst in the eastern there is a high percentage of corn land.
There is thus a general coincidence between geological structure, contour,
climate, and agricultural products. These four classes are stated by Mr.
Topley to be of importance in the order here given; each is controlled by the
one that precedes it. Agriculture depends mainly on climate, climate mainly
on contour, and contour mainly on geological structure.

Agriculture is of course closely related to Geology, in regard to soils, which
depend so much upon the underlying rocks ; but whilst such extensive systems
of draining and manuring are now carried on, the character of the crops is not
so dependent upon the natural soil as it used to be. Nevertheless, maps
showing the superficial deposits, the gravels, drift clays, and loams, will be of
great service to the agriculturist, and it can be little estimated—when glancing
at our ordinary geological maps, where these deposits are omitted—what a
vast difference their insertion makes. The publication of maps showing the
superficial deposits has been commenced by the Geological Survey, in parts of
Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, and Essex, included in their
Sheets Nos. 1 to 7. These drifts or superficial deposits comprise the Boulder
clay, and various gravels and brick-earths of different ages, also the clay-with-
flints of the chalk districts.

Mr. Topley has given a sketch of the Agricultural Geology of the Weald in
the last volume of the “ Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society.” His
paper is accompanied by a coloured map showing the geology of the tra& and
the prevailing soils. :

One of the recently-published maps of the Geological Survey of England is
Sheet 64, which includes the county of Rutland and parts of Leicester- and
Northampton-shires, and displays, in its geological structure, the Lias, the
Lower and Middle Oolitic rocks, and a portion of the Fenland. This area has
been surveyed by Mr. J. W. Judd, F.G.S., and until he gave his attention to
the elucidation of the Lower Oolitic rocks of this much-neglected country
much confusion existed about their classification. The conclusions at which
he has arrived have been confirmed by Mr. Sharp, whose papers were referred
to in our last report of Geological Progress.

Geological Diagrams.—Two Tables of British Strata, by Mr. H. W. Bris-
tow, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, have
lately been published. The one is a classificatory table, showing the subdivi-
sion of the rocks and their local modifications: it contains also an account of
the geological distribution of the different groups of life, by Mr. R. Etheridge,
F.R.S. The other table is a coloured one, showing the relative thickness of
the different geological systems, formations, and the minor subdivisions—a
feature of great importance in a lecture- or school-diagram.

Mr. Topley, F.G.S., and Mr. J. B. Jordan have been constructing a series of
geological models of England and Wales, on the scale of 4 miles to 1 inch
horizontal, and 20c0 feet to 1 inch vertical. There will be eighteen blocks,
each about 25 inches by 17 inches in size, and they will show clearly the phy-
sical features and the geology of the country, which will be of great service

1873.] Chemical Science. 427

in illustrating the connection between the two,—also for military, engineering,
and sanitary purposes they will be no doubt exceedingly useful.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

With regret we record the death of two distinguished chemists—Drs. Liebig
-and Bence Jones. Justus Liebig was born in the small German town of
Darmstadt, on May 133, 1803, and educated in Bonn and Erlangen. He was
originally intended for a pharmaceutist, but having found the means of
visiting Paris, and passing some time in the laboratories of the great French
chemists who flourished in the year 1823, and, having achieved a success as a
chemist, he was at once enrolled by Humboldt in the ranks of the German
professoriat, being in 1826 nominated Professor in Ordinary in the University
of Giessen, after having for the two preceding years held office as
Extraordinary Professor in the same University. Liebig left Giessen in the
year 1852, and went to Munich, where he became Professor of Chemistry in
the University and President of the Academy of Sciences. In 1845 he had
been created a Baron. He died at Munich on the 18th of April. Ata
meeting of the German Chemical Society, held in Berlin, on April 28th, it was
resolved to erect a statue in honour of Liebig, and to invite his pupils, friends,
and chemists of all nations to contribute towards the funds necessary for that
objet. Drs. Warren de la Rue, Frankland, Gilbert, Odling, Stenhouse, and
Williamson are members of the Committee, and communications and sub-
scriptions may be sent to Dr. Hugo Miller, rr0, Bunhill Row, E.C. The
distinguished secretary of the Royal Institution, Dr. H. Bence Jones, died on
the 2oth of the same month after a long, and latterly, severe illness. His
treatise on the early history of the Royal Institution, and his valuable
biography of Faraday, are amongst the latest of his works. A movement
which was set on foot to get up a testimonial to Dr. Jones, will, in agreement
with his own wishes, take the form of a bust to be placed in the Royal Insti-
tution.

Curious results followed some of the experiments made_upon charred papers
and documents, and the examination of books in safes which proved worthless
in the great fire at Boston. It was found that what paper makers call poor
paper, paper considerably “ clayed,” stood the test best. Parchment paper,
used for bonds and legal documents, shrivelled up exceedingly, and the print
blistered so that it could be read when writing was illegible. So it was with
the engraved work on notes. The gilding on the account books burned and
charred showed out as bright and as clear as when the books were new, which
brings up the question if to introduce gilt-edged account books would not be
well, on the ground that the gilt would stay the passage of fire to the pages
within. Books crammed into a safe so that it was difficult to get them out,
suffered considerably less than those that were set in loosely, and in some
cases came out from safes, in which everything else was worthless, so far
preserved that the figures on their pages could be deciphered. With charred
papers, which could not be made transparent by any light whatever used,
it was found, after the employment of vitriol, oxalic acid, chalk, glycerine, and
other things, that anything that moistened them to a certain stage—to which
it was delicate work to get and not to pass—made the lines, words, and figures
legible through a magnifying glass. It has been the almost universal experi-
ence that lead pencil marks show out all right where ink marks cannot be dis-
tinguished. The success of the use of photography has already been noted.

Mr. Elihu Thompson has made the observation that tin-foil, if wrapped
about a few crystals of chlorate of potassa, can be made to detonate loudly
upon being struck smartly with a hammer upon an anvil, or in a mortar; the
phenomenon being precisely analogous to the well-known experiment of
triturating sulphur and the chlorate.

In order to ascertain whether ground coffee has been mixed with either
roasted corn or amylaceous substances generally, it is only necessary to treat

i ye at Se Rae oe ee ee a ee Ne
q : P fe os ( prea

= *

428 Progress in Science. [July, 1873.

the powder, first with dilute caustic potassa, and, after filtration and addition
of a large quantity of pure water, a solution of iodine is added, whereby the
starch is detected.

TECHNOLOGY.

The Boston “Journal of Chemistry” gives the following interesting account
of the way in which the natives of East India clean silver articles :—Cut some
juicy lemons in slices; with these rub any large silver or plated article
briskly, and leave it hidden by the slices in a pan for a few hours. For delicate
jewellery, the Indians cut a large lime nearly in half, and insert the orna-
ment; they then close up the halves tightly, and put it away for a few hours.
The articles are then to be removed, rinsed in two or three waters, and con-
signed to a saucepan of nearly boiling soapsuds, well stirred about, taken out,
again brushed, rinsed, and finally dried on a metal plate over hot water,
finishing the process by a little rub of wash-leather (if smooth work). For
very old neglected or corroded silver, dip the article, with a slow stirring motion,
in a rather weak solution of cyanide of potassium; but this process requires
care and practice, as it is by dissolving off the dirty silver you obtain the
effe&. Green tamarind pods (oxalate of potash) are greater detergents of gold
and silver articles than lemons, and are much more employed by the artisan
for removal of oxides and fire-marks.

According to P. Rast so-called German silver may be applied to soldering
steel to iron and iron to copper. Borax should be used as a flux, and the
German silver granulated as is done for hard brass solder.

Iron may be gilded by first applying sodium amalgam to the iron, which is
thereby readily coated with mercury. Next a concentrated solution of chloride
of gold is applied to the mercurially coated surface; and lastly, the object is
strongly heated, either in a muffle or in the flame of an enameller’s lamp.

Common mercurial ointment has been found remarkably efficacious in pre-
venting the formation of rust upon articles of iron and steel, such as gun-
barrels.

eee

*,.* The article in No. xxxviii. of the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of Science”’ on
* Atmospheric Life Germs ’’ was written by Mr. W. N. HarTLey, of King’s
College, whose name was inadvertently omitted.

THE QUARTERLY

PR NAL OF “SCIENCE

OCTOBER, 1873.

I WHAT DETERMINES MOLECULAR
MOTION ?—
THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF NATURE.

SAN the whole phenomena of nature be explained in
~y terms of matter, motion, and force? Yes, say the
materialists ; and the number of men of science who
agree in this view is not only large, but is increasing daily,
whilst a doctrine which would scarcely have been tolerated
some years ago is now openly maintained by some of the
leaders of scientific opinion. A year ago, Mr. James Croll,
of the Geological Survey of Scotland, published some argu-
ments which arrange the problem in an entirely new light;
and we are indebted to the courtesy of the author fora
private copy of his paper, which was first published in the
** Philosophical Magazine,” and from which we condense
the following arguments. ©

Hitherto, the chief enquiry has been to ascertain the
laws which govern the motions of the molecules of matter,
but this is not the grand and fundamental problem. It can
be subdivided into—(1.) What produces the change—causes
motion ? and (2.) What determines or directs it : :

The answer to the first question is Force, but the second
question—not only the more difficult of the two, but also
by far the more important—has been lost sight of or con-
fused with the first. Physicists have devoted almost exclu-
sive attention to the study of the force which takes the path
of light, heat, eletricity, &c., and upon what does its exer-
tion depend, whilst a vastly more important problem,
‘‘ What is it that causes the force to act in the particular
manner in which it does act?” In other words, ‘‘ What
determines the paths along which it acts?” The great
question is, not what gives existence to the motion, but what -
determines its direction.

Arguing in this manner, Mr. Croll is led to the proposition
that—The production of motion and the determination of motion
ave absolutely and essentially different.

VOL. 111.) (N.8:) 3K

430 Molecular Motion. [October,

In physics we have been accustomed to attribute every
thing to force; force, at least, has always been regarded as
the all-important element. This, however, is a mistake;
for, as we shall see, far more depends upon the determination
of force than upon its existence, and therefore, unless force be
determined by force, the most important element in physical
causation 1s a something different from force.

Motion is not only produced, but it is produced in a par-
ticular manner and under particular conditions or determi-
nations in regard to time and space and other circumstances.
In other words, not only must something produce the
motion, but something must determine it also. The causing
of, or giving mere existence to the motion, Mr. Croll has
called the production of the motion. The causing of it to
happen in the particular manner in which it does, rather
than in some other manner, he calls the determination of the
motion. It must be evident to every one who will consider
the matter that these two things are radically distinct.
And they are not only radically distinét, but must be sepa-
rately accounted for. To account for the mere existence of
motion does not account for its happening in one way rather
than in some other. It is quite true that the one cannot be
produced without the other; we cannot determine motion
unless there is motion to be determined ; we cannot deter-
mine that which has got no existence; neither, on the other
hand, can we produce motion without at the same time
giving it some particular determination in regard to time,
place, or other circumstance. But, although the one cannot
be produced without the other, yet they are the result of
different agencies; and to assign a sufficient cause for the
one does not in the least degree satisfy the mind as to the
presence of the other. To account for the motion of a ball
does not account for why it moves, say, east rather than
west, or in any other possible dire¢tion. A force, it is true,
cannot act without at the same time acting in some parti-
cular way, nor move a body without moving it in some par-
ticular direction ; but to account for the one does not satisfy
the mind in regard to the other. The explosion of the
powder within a gun is a sufficient cause for the motion of
the ball, but the explosion of the powder is not to the mind
a sufficient cause why the ball moves east rather than west,
or in any other dire¢tion.

The grand and fundamental question then is, What is it
that determines or directs the action of the forces concerned
in the production of molecular change? The question
therefore regards not Law but Cause, unless we use the

1873.| Molecular Motion. 431

term law in an improper sense. Law in physics is not an
agent or force, it is simply the process or mode of operation
—not the force, but the path along which the force acts.

A prodigious number of physical phenomena are perceived
to follow as necessary consequences from Newton’s grand
law, that bodies tend toward each other with a force vary-
ing inversely as the square of the distance and directly as
the mass of the bodies. But we should reach a higher
unity and obtain a deeper insight into nature did we know
not merely the empirical fact that bodies do so, but the
Sause why they do so. It is this which incites in the
rational physicist the desire to find out the cause of gravity,

But be all this as it may, whether it be Cause or Law,
that is the thing which we are really in search of, every
one will admit that the problem of deepest interest is, what
causes the molecules and particles of living nature to
arrange themselves into organic forms? ‘The problem is
not what moves the particles, but what determines or directs
the motion—or, in other words, what is the cause of the
determination of motion ?

What, then, determines molecular motion in organic
nature? What determines and directs the action of the
forces concerned in the production of specific forms in the
inorganic and organic world? Is ita Force? This leads
us to Mr. Croll’s second proposition, viz.—The action of a force
cannot be determined by a force, nor can motion be determined by
motion.

That the action of a force cannot be determined by the
action of a force is demonstrable thus. If the action of a
force is determined by an act, then this determining act
must itself have been determined by a preceding act; and
this preceding act by another, and so on in like manner to
infinity. This is evident; for if the act which determines
the action of the force exist at all, it must exist in time and
space, and must have a determinate existence in reference
to time and space, and if so, something must have given it
that determinate relation. If it be replied that it was a
prior act which determined this determining act, then that
prior act in order to give the determining act the proper
determination must itself have been already properly deter-
mined ; and the question again recurs, what gave this prior
act the proper determination? If the determination was
given by an act still prior, that a¢ét must itself have been
properly determined ; and if so, then there must have been
another act preceding which gave it the proper determina-
tion, and so in the like manner to infinity. The reason of

PEt ee Molecular Motion. (October,

all this is perfectly obvious. When we account for the
determination of an act by assigning an act, we account for
it by means of a something which requires itself to be
accounted for in a similar manner.

Hence, be the cause of the determination whatever it
may, it cannot possibly be an act or exertion of force.

In a similar manner we can prove that motion cannot be
determined by motion. Motion will produce motion, but
motion cannot determine motion. A ball A in motion will
produce motion in a ball B, but the motion of the ball A will
not determine the motion of the ball B, either in regard to
direction or to the times of its happening. The particular
direction taken by the ball B is not due to the motion of A,
but to the particular direction in which A is moving at the
moment in which it produced motion in B; so that the
direction taken by B must be referred not to the motion of
A, but to that something, whatever it may be, which causes
A to move in the particular direction in which it moves.
In other words, the determinate direCtion taken by B is not
due to the motion of A, but to the direction of the motion of
A. In like manner it can be proved that the direction
taken by A is not due to the motion of some other body
(say C), but to the direction of that moving body C.

In a similar way we can prove that the particular time at
which B begins to move is not due to the motion of the
striking body A, but to the particular tume at which the body
A strikes B.

The vague and indefinite idea that the arrangement of
the molecules of matter into crystalline and organic forms
is due to the action of forces, appears to be implied in such
terms in common use as “‘struétural forces,’ ‘‘ formative
forces,” ‘‘ crystal-building force,” &c. It is supposed that if
our mental .powers were enlarged or strengthened so that
we could perceive every thing connected with the forces
operating in nature, we should then be able to explain the
process by which the organic forms of nature are built up.
This, however, is evidently a mistake. Though our ac-
quaintance with the forces of nature were absolutely perfec,
the question as to how particles or molecules arrange them-
selves into organic forms would probably still remain as
deep a mystery as ever, unless we knew something more
than force.

The mystery is not what are the forces which move the
particles, but what is it that guides and directs the a¢tion of
the forces so that they move each particle in the particular
manner and direction required. Force gives motion to the

1873.] Molecular Motion. 433

particles ; but we are not concerned about the cause of the
motion, but about what dzrects that motion.

When a molecule is to be moved, there is an infinite
number of dire€tions in which force may be conceived to
move it. But out of the infinite number of different paths,
what is it that directs the force to select the right path ?

Is it asserted that force is self-directing ?. This is simply
getting into contusion again. What conceivable idea can
be attached to a self-dire¢ting force? Is force a something
which not only acts but determines for itself how and when
it shall act? In what conceivable way can force direct its
own path? A molecule has to be moved into its proper
place in an organic form ; a force gives motion to the mole-
cule; but out of the infinite number of possible directions
in which the molecule may be moved the force moves it in
the right direction. What is that something which thus
guides the force? The force guides itself, it is replied. Be
it so; but in what way does the force direct or guide itself ?
What is the nature of that something in virtue of which
the force direéts its actions? Is it supposed that that
something belonging to the force which thus guides and
directs its action is itself a force? Does the force direct
itself by means of a force? if so, then we are back to our
old absurdity of a force determining a force. And if this
directing something is not a force, what is it? But if this
something is not a force, it follows that there is something
else to be known than mere force before we can penetrate
the mystery of nature.

The simple truth is, in attempting to account for the
determination of motion by referring it to a force, we are
attempting an absolute impossibility. The production of
motion and the determination of motion are two things
absolutely different in their essential nature. Force pro-
duces motion ; but it is as impossible that force can deter-
mine motion as that two can be equal to three, or that
a thing can be and not be at the same time. The necessity
is as absolute in the one case as in the other.

If any one imagines that he can conceive motion as being
directed or determined by a force, he will find, on subjecting
his thoughts to a proper analysis, that the determination is
not due to the force which he imagines, but is due to the
divection in which his imagined force exerts itself. The
determination results not from his imagined force, but from
the way in which his force acts.

As the distinction between the production of motion and
its determination, or between the production of an act and

434 Molecular Motion. [October,

its determination, is absolute, it must hold equally true in
the mental world.as in the physical. For example, it is.
just as impossible to conceive the will being determined by
an act, as to conceive the motion of the cannon-ball being
determined by the explosion of the powder. It is difficult
to say whether in physics or in metaphysics the distin¢tion
is of most importance.

What is the cause of determination? What is that
something which determines the energies of the universe
and guides the motion of the material particles? This is
the all-important question, whether as regards life-theories,
theism, or evolution.

To a large extent the discussions and awerety of opinion
which at present prevail in reference to the mystery of lite
and the distinétion between the organic and the inorganic
world take their rise from confusion of ideas regarding the
difference between the cause of motion and the cause of the
determination of motion. The various theories may be
divided into two classes,—the advocates of the one class
maintaining that all the phenomena of life, all the changes
which take place in organic nature, are the result of purely
chemical and physical agencies; while the other party
maintain that there must be something more than the ordi-
- nary chemical and physical forces at work—in short, that
life and organic nature imply the action of a force altogether
different from those which belong to the domain of chemistry
and physics, and to which the name of ‘‘ vital force” has
been applied.

Evidently the vital energies of the plant and animal are
derived from the chemical affinities of the food and nutri-
ment which they receive. Vital force is chemical force
transformed. The same remark holds true of the mecha-
nical and other physical energies of the body. The energy
by which the arm is raised or by which the heart beats
is derived from the food. Animal heat is derived from
chemical combination.

So far as all this is concerned, the advocates of the
physical theory of life are evidently correct. But are they
warranted in affirming, as they do, that all the energies
of plants and animals are either chemical or physical ?
Whether such an affirmation be correct depends entirely on
the idea which may be attached to the terms chemical and
physical.

When the advocates of the physical theory of life affirm
that every energy in organic nature is either chemical or
physical, they certainly do not mean to include under the

1873.] Molecular Motion. 435

term physical every form of energy which does not, like
chemistry, deal with the elementary substances; for if this
were their meaning, it would simply be a truism to say that
all energy is either chemical or physical. By physical
energy they undoubtedly mean the ordinary and known
forms of energy manifested in the inorganic world, to which
we give the various specific names of attraction, repulsion,
light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and so forth. But here
we now approach the real question at issue, viz., are these
forms of energy along with chemical energy sufficient to
account for the phenomena of life and organic nature ?

Chemistry and physics are insufficient, because they do
not account for the oljective idea im nature.

Whatever may be one’s opinions regarding the doctrine
of final causes and the evidence of design in nature, all
must admit the existence of the objective idea in nature.
We see everywhere not only exquisite order and arrange-
ment in the structure of plants and animals, but a unity of
plan pervading the whole. We see, in endless complexity,
beauty, and simplicity, the most perfect adaptation of means
to ends. The advocates of the physical theory are at least
bound to show how it is probable that this exquisite arrange-
ment and unity of plan could have been produced by means
of chemical and physical zgencies.

Natural selection never can explain the objective idea in
nature unless we suppose the selection to be made according
to a design or plan. Mr. Darwin has developed a new and
most important idea; but his theory can never, from its
very nature, explain the mystery of the organic world.
There must be a determining cause in the background of all
natural selection working out the objective idea. This I
trust will be rendered more evident when we come to con-
sider determination of motion in relation to final causes.

Mr. Croll now considers the explanation of molecular
motion in regard to the form of objects.

The objects of nature, as we have seen, are built up
molecule by molecule, and are thus the products of mole-
cular motion. Energy is that which moves or transports
the molecules in the building-up process; but it is not the
mere transport of the molecules, as has been repeatedly
shown, which gives to the object produced its form. The
form assumed is due, not to the motion of the molecules,
but to the determination of that motion—to the way in
which the motions are guided and adjusted in relation to
one another. It is not the energy which conveys the bricks
that accounts for the form of the house, but that which

436 Molecular M otion. (October,

cuides and directs the energy. So far as the form of the
house is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether
the bricks are conveyed on the backs of labourers or trans-
ported by a steam-crane. In like manner, in accounting
for organic forms, we must exhibit not the mere energy
which moves the molecules, but that which directs and
guides the energy.

But it has.been already proved that energy cannot be
determined by energy : consequently that which determines
energy is not itself an energy. Therefore the thing which
we are in search of, which accounts for the order and
arrangement prevailing in the molecular movements in
nature, is a something not of the nature of a force or an
energy.

The question now to be considered is, Can this marvellous
adjustment of molecular motions be explained by any thing
which is found within the domains of chemistry and physics?
The advocates of the physical theory must afford us some
explanation of the cause of the determination of molecular
motion derived from physics and chemistry, if their theory
in reality rests upon a true foundation.

Energy, chemical and physical, accounts for molecular
motions in organic nature; but how is it to account for the
determination of those motions? If the determinations of
molecular motion are to be attributed to these energies, it
must be to their modes of operation—the way in which the
energies are exerted—and not to the mere exertion itself.
Suppose that the determinations of molecular motion could
be accounted for from the known modes of the operation of
physical energies. The ultimate problem would then be,
What is it that determines those modes of operation? In
other words, the problem would resolve itself into this, viz.,
What is the cause of the determination of physical energies?
What is it that dire¢ts the operation of those energies?

Molecular physics has made great advance of late years ;
but it has not made much advance in that particular direc-
tion which can be of service in explaining how molecular
motion in organic nature is determined. It is thought,
however, by the advocates of the physical school that
although at present we are unable to explain how organic
nature can be built up by the play of the ordinary chemical
and physical forces, yet at some future day, when we shall
have come to know far more of molecular physics than we
do at present, then we may be able to explain the mystery.
This is the cherished hope of modern evolutionists, and
of the advocates of the physical theory of life. But it isa

i i i eee

1873.] New Facts concerning the Diamond. 437

mental delusion, a dream which will never be realised. : A
little consideration might satisfy any one that chemistry and
physics will never explain the mystery of nature.

It must be obvious that nothing which can be determined
by the comparative anatomist, no biological researches, no
microscopic investigations, no considerations regarding
natural selection or the survival of the fittest, can solve the
great problem of nature; for it lies in the background of all
such investigations. The problem is molecular. From the
hugest plant and animal on the globe down to the smallest
organic speck visible under the microscope, all have been
built up molecule by molecule; and the problem is, to
explain this molecular process. If one plant or animal
differs from another, or the parent from the child, it is
because in the building-up process the determinations of
molecular motion were different in the two cases; and the
true and fundamental ground of the difference must be
sought for in the cause of the determination of molecular
motion. Here in this region the doctrine of natural selec-
tion and the struggle for existence can afford no more light
on the matter than the fortuitous concourse of atoms and

_the atomical philosophy of the ancients.

ie Mext part ot. Mr. Croll’s paper, the publication
of which has been unavoidably delayed, will consist of
an examination of the arguments which have been advanced
by evolutionists in support of their fundamental hypothesis,
“that the whole world, living and not living, is the result
of the mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the
forces possessed by the molecules of which the primitive

~ nebulosity of the universe was composed.”

Ii; “SOME NEW FACTS CONCERNING THE
DIAMOND.

2% HILST our knowledge of the modes of formation
of other gems is so rapidly advancing that the
time does not seem to be very distant when the

chemist in his laboratory will be able to produce them
artificially—if not in large, at all events in microscopic
crystals,—the origin and mode of formation of the diamond
is shrouded in. ‘apparently inexplicable mystery. It is
VOL..1Ur. (N.S.) Ema o

438 New Facts concerning the Diamond. [October,

even undecided whether the diamond is of igneous or vege-
table origin, whether its nature is mineral or organic: some
diamonds appear to have been soft, as they are superficially
impressed by sand and crystals; others contain crystals of
other minerals, germs of plants, and fragments of vege-
tation. Professor Goppert has a diamond containing den-
drites, such as occurs on minerals of aqueous origin; and
there is at Berlin a diamond which contains bodies resem-
bling Protococcus pluvialis, and another containing green
corpuscles linked together closely, resembling Polinoglea
macrococca. Sir John Herschel quotes the case of a Bahia
diamond, mentioned by Harting, which contained well-
formed filaments of iron pyrites. Messrs. Sorby and Baker
have shown that the diamond may contain cavities entirely
or partially filled with a liquid, probably condensed carbonic
acid, and that the black specks in diamonds are really
crystals which are sometimes surrounded by contraction
cracks, a black cross appearing under polarised light. Sir
David Brewster has likewise pointed out that the diamond
possesses strata of different refractive powers. M. Damour
states that diamonds sometimes contain spangles of gold in
their cavities.

The latest researches published relative to the diamond,
namely, those of M. Schrotter and M. G. Rose have
furnished results which in some respects correspond neither
with each other nor with the facts already known to science.
M. E. H. von Baumhauer has instituted some experi-
ments on the subject, special attention being paid to the
different states in which the diamond occurs in nature.
This talented experimentalist having courteously placed a
copy of his research at our disposal, we are enabled to give
the most important of his results in these pages. In the
first place it was proposed to ascertain the density of the
diamond in each of its natural states, afterwards to study its
behaviour at high temperatures in the presence of various
gases, and lastly to attempt the decision of a point as yet
unsettled, namely, the possibility of its transformation by
means of heat, into graphite or amorphous carbon. The
materials necessary for experimentally pursuing these in-
quiries were furnished by the liberality of M. Alexander
Daniels, the talented manager of the diamond-cutting esta-
blishment at Amsterdam, belonging to M. Martin Coster, of
Paris.

The condition of a more or less perfect crystal, trans-
parent and colourless, or nearly so, is by no means the only
one under which the diamond is found, although for some

1873.) New Facts concerning the Diamond. 439

time it was only known and sought for in that form. At
present, equal attention is paid to irregular fragments of a
blackish or greyish colour, occasionally of considerable size,
also yielded by the washings of diamandiferous sand, which
formerly passed unregarded. These fragments are now
carefully collected, and have acquired some considerable
value in commerce, where they are known under the name
of carbonado or carbon. ‘Their aspect is generally that of a
rounded mass (although they are sometimes angular)
blackish in colour, and presenting a shiny surface as if
polished by rubbing. When split, however, their appear-
ance is dull, relieved here and there by a brilliant speck,
numerous pores of unequal dimensions being perceptible
with a lens. The colour of the split surface varies, being
sometimes greyish and sometimes violet. Upon heating in
water, considerable evolution of gaseous bubbles ensues; it
is therefore necessary, when ascertaining their specific
gravity, to boil the fragments for some time in water, to
liberate as much as possible the air contained in their pores.
Upon treatment with aqua regia the solution was found to
contain a considerable quantity of iron and a small portion
of lime, but no traces of either sulphuric acid or alumina
were to be found. Combustion in oxygen produced a small
quantity of ash from 0°24 to 2 per cent, according to Rivot.
It is to be hoped that carbonado may be subjected at some
future time to a more minute examination.

Although quite unadapted to ornamental purposes, owing
to its appearance, which is totally dissimilar to that of the
diamond, carbonado cannot be considered as constituting an
essentially different condition. Upon examining large
quantities of carbonado and of diamonds, it is often difficult
to decide whether certain specimens should be placed in the
category of carbonado, which presents no appearance of
crystalline structure when seen by the naked eye, or in that
of dark diamonds of incomplete and irregular crystallisation.
An examination of these numerous varieties has made it
evident that between carbonado of a simply micro-crystalline
texture, and the diamond regularly crystallised in dia-
phanous o¢tahedrons, there exists an uninterrupted series
of intermediate conditions. The true diamond will cleave
in a direCtion parallel with the facets of the octahedrons,
while pure fine-grained carbonado possesses no such quality,
which may nevertheless be found in various degrees
amongst the intermediate varieties. It is a remarkable
fact that carbonado, which in Brazil, and especially in
Bahia, always accompanies the diamond, in fragments

440 New Facts concerning the Diamond. _Oétober,

whose weight sometimes amounts to several decagrammes,
has not yet been discovered at the Cape of Good Hope,
although the attention of the diamond seekers has been
especially direéted towards this apparently worthless sub-
stance ; it may be therefore inferred that it does not exist
in the diamandiferous alluvium of that locality. An
examination of two small black fragments, sent from the
Cape as supposed carbonado, showed that they contained no
carbonado whatever, but consisted almost entirely of hydrated
oxide of iron. .

In addition to carbonado and to the ordinary diamond,
there exists another variety, distinguished by lapidaries
under the name of boart. The appearance of this is usually
spheroidal, translucid—but not transparent—and colourless,
or of a greyish tint: it cannot be converted into o¢tahe-
drons by cleavage, and, moreover, it is much harder than the
crystallised diamond, yielding, however, in this respect to
carbonado. On account of their greater hardness, carbonado
and boart are employed almost entirely in the composition
of the powder used in diamond cutting, such powder being
greatly preferred by the lapidaries to that formerly in use,
which was obtained from well crystallised diamond.

It was thought that crystalline boron, which for some
years has been obtainable by artificial means, would equal
or even surpass the diamond with respect to its hardness,
and might therefore be applicable to the working of
diamonds, but the question remains an open one; the high
price of the substance in question being opposed to its
employment.

As regards the density of the diamond, many data
exist, which, however, show many discrepancies. The
number 3°5295 was observed by Thompson, at a tem-
perature which is not indicated; M. Halphen found the
density of the celebrated diamond, known as the “ Star of
the South,” to be 3°529 at 15° C. M. Schrauf, operating
upon the Florentine diamond belonging to the crown of
Austria, obtained the number 3°5143, as a mean of two
experiments whose results corresponded but little, and after
correction for the weight of air, water at 4° C. being taken
asunity. A series of experiments were made by M. Schrotter
upon different diamonds, among which were always several
which were at the same time coloured, and imperfectly
transparent, and others which were traversed by fissures.
After making the necessary corre¢tions for the weight of the
air, the average density of the diamond was found by this
gentleman, when compared with that of water at 4°C., to be

3°51432.

1873.] New Facts concerning the Diamond. A441

Profiting by the facilities offered by M. Daniels, a series
of experiments upon density were effected by M. von Baum-
hauer with all precautions required by this operation.

The water used in the weighing was boiled and cooled in
vacuum, the temperature of the water and also that of the
air being noted. During the weighing of the diamond in
the air upon the pan of the balance, the platinum boat,
which was to receive the diamond for its subsequent weigh-
ing in water, was suspended to a human hair and already
plunged into the liquid, so that the determination of its
absolute weight and that of the loss in water should be
made under the same conditions, and consequently with the
same degree of accuracy. The pressure of the air having
varied only between 759 and 761 m.m. during these
experiments, it was considered unnecessary to correct for
variation of the barometer, such correction exercising no
influence upon the result, since the exactitude of this mode
of weighing in which there is friction of the hair against
the water attains at least the demi-milligramme.

The subjoined table (see page 442) contains the result of
these experiments; in the last column will be found the
calculated densities D, obtained by adding to the numbers
of the last column but one, the corrections arising from one
of the weighings having taken place in water at the tem-
perature f and not in water at 4°C., and from the other
weighing having been effected in the air at temperature f,
and not in a vacuum.

This calculation was performed according to the known
formula :—
Lea Me ed ty ab
er pe RY 700s x6i)
where a = 0'00129337 grm., is the weight of a cubic centi-
metre of air at o° C.,and 760 m.m. of barometric pressure, and
8=0'00367 the coefficient of dilatation of the air; no cor-
rection having been made for the height of the barometer,

LN. I was taken.
760

On comparing the corrected densities in oe table, it will
be perceived that the purest diamonds possess the highest

specific gravity.

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[October,

New Facts concerning the Diamond.

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1873.] New Facts concerning the Diamond. 443

To take the average of such results, which in the author’s
opinion is not permissible, the corrected density of the
diamond, as compared with water at 4° C., would be
NERS) i) 2 hand .

The omission of Nos. 6 and 7 is intentional, those dia-
monds being permeated with fissures, possibly containing
air, which would alter their specific gravity.

It is considered that the density 3°51432, declared by M.
Schrotter to be the lowest of his results, is too small; for,
amongst the diamonds which he examined, some had
blemishes or fissures, whilst in those which were without
defect he also obtained much higher numbers ; for instance,
3°51869 in a perfectly colourless diamond, 3°51947 in one
of pale violet colour. Judging from all known results, M.
von Baumhauer believes the density of a pure diamond
should not be much less than 3°52.

The figures contained in the Table also show that the
density of boart, or the globular diamond, seldom exceeds
3°50, whilst carbonado possesses a considerably lower
specific gravity, being probably a porous diamond, a con-
clusion confirmed, moreover, by examination with a lens.
The higher density found in Nos. 16 and 17 prove that
these specimens are not carbonado, but some intermediate
variety between that and the true diamond.

When shielded from contact with the air, the diamond
may be exposed to the highest temperature of our furnaces
without undergoing alteration, at least in the case of the
colourless diamond; of coloured diamonds more will be
said hereafter. The experiment by which this fact is
generally demonstrated is conducted as follows: the dia-
mond is placed in a small Hessian crucible and covered
with closely compressed magnesia; this is introduced into
another crucible which is completely filled up with well
pressed graphite, and then the whole is subjected for a long
time to the strongest heat obtainable in a porcelain furnace.
This experiment was successively repeated by Morren,
Schrotter, and others, who ascertained that, notwithstanding
the excessive heat to which the diamond was subjected, it
underwent no change either in shape or quality ; Schrotter,
however, remarked that the surface became slightly dull.
Similar experiments were made at Berlin by the late
Gustav Rose, with the co-operation of Dr. Siemens. A
crystal of diamond, enclosed in a piece of dense coke and
placed in a plumbago crucible packed with charcoal powder,
was heated for half an hour in one of Siemens’s regenerative
furnaces to the temperature at which cast-iron melts without

444 New Facts concerning the Diamond. [OCtober,

undergoing any change whatever. Another diamond, a_
cut (rose) diamond, which was enclosed in a crucible as
before and heated for ten minutes in the furnace to a tem-
perature at which wrought-iron melts, retained its form and
the smoothness of its facets, but became quite black and
opaque and exhibited a strong metallic lustre. The black
portion formed a distinét layer of the thickness of a hair
covering the unaltered substance within. These results
confirm those of Schrotter, and appear to justify the view
that diamond, though it undergoes no change when exposed
to the greatest heat of a porcelain furnace or that at which
cast-iron melts, is slowly converted at .the temperature of
molten wrought-iron into graphite.

G. Rose states that some of the specimens of diamond
in the Berlin Collection appear quite black by reflected,
though translucent by transmitted, light, and that this black
substance lying in the little irregularities of the surface is
found by its behaviour in fused nitre to be graphite. The
relative ease with which graphite and diamond burn was
determined by exposing them to the same temperature for
the same time, when the following amounts of the three
specimens mentioned below were consumed :—

Poltated sraphite =) 5.0.2 2 ey ay er Celts
Diamond (7 4R 8 bo OL see ere rf
Granular massive graphite . . 100°00 5

The method employed by M. von Baumhauer on
examining the action of heat upon the diamond was as
follows :—

After previous weighing, the diamond was placed in a
small platinum crucible of an elongated and narrow form,
similar to those recommended by Mr. J. Lawrence Smith
for the decomposition of silicates by chloride of calcium.
To enable the operator to observe what took place in the
interior of the crucible, it was placed in an inclined position
and closed by a thin plate of mica; an opening was pierced
in this plate, through which passed a small thin tube of
platinum, soldered at the other end to a glass tube connected
with an apparatus which supplied hydrogen dried over
sulphuric acid and chloride of calcium. By this means the
diamond is surrounded by an atmosphere of dry hydrogen
during the experiment. The crucible is heated to whiteness
over a gas flame, intensified by a current of air. It was
ascertained that. the diamond, after exposure for fifteen
Minutes to a temperature in which it became invisible (that
is, where the platinum and the diamond could no longer be

1873.] New Facts concerning the Diamond. 445

distinguished from each other, from their mutual brilliancy),
lost nothing of its weight after cooling, and retained all its
transparency and brilliance of surface. The experiment
was several times repeated upon colourless diamonds, or
those of a pale yellow tint, but always with the same result ;
in an atmosphere free from chemical action upon it, the
diamond may be subjected to a white heat for a considerable
time without undergoing any change. 3

In a superb cut diamond weighing between 6 and 7 carats,
the brilliancy of the stone was decidedly increased after the
operation. The loss of brilliancy observed by M. Schrotter is
a proof, in M. Baumhauer’s opinion, that notwithstanding the
precautions employed, the diamond had come in contact with
the oxygen of the air, or else that at so elevated a tem-
perature a reducing action had been effected upon the
magnesia by the diamond, which had then been superficially
burnt by the oxygen of that earth.

A diamond which presented to the naked eye an appear-
ance of dirty green, was treated in a similar manner;
examination with a lens showed that the colour did not
extend to the entire stone, but was confined to small por-
tions, which formed small green clouds in the centre of the
mass. After heating to a white-heat in hydrogen, the
brilliancy of surface remained as before; the transparency
was rather increased than diminished, but the green hue
was transformed into pale yellow. Another small diamond,
of so dark a green as to approach black, and almost opaque,
assumed a violet hue, retaining, however, its brilliancy and
becoming much more translucid. A small cubic diamond
of light green colour preserved its brilliancy and trans-
parency intact, but lost its colour completely: no difference
in its weight before and after the operation could be per-
ceived. Brown diamonds lose most of their colour when
heated to whiteness in hydrogen; they generally assume a
greyish tint, in all cases the shade is much lighter, and on
examination with a lens they appear limpid, with black
spots. Diamonds of a yellow tint, such as Cape diamonds
almost invariably are, scarcely lose any portion of their
natural colour.

Since the last Exhibition at Paris in 1867, opportunity
has been afforded of examining a very remarkable diamond
belonging to M. Coster. Although almost colourless, upon
being heated out of contact with the air (in a magnesia
bath) it assumed a deep rose colour, which it retained for
some days when kept in the dark; when exposed to the
light, however, particularly that of the sun, the colour

VOL,.: 11Es (N.S.) 3M

446 New Facts concerning the Diamond. [October,

rapidly disappeared, but could be restored by again heating
it. On examining a rose-coloured diamond, expected by M..
Coster to acquire a deeper tint upon exposure to heat, it
was found, on the contrary, that the effect of the operation
was to deprive it of colour, which it afterwards gradually
regained. Several experiments were made by von Baumhauer,
‘in concert with M. Daniels, upon grey diamonds, in the
hope that the effect of heat would, by removing the colour,
add to their value; but unfortunately the desired result was
not achieved, as the diamonds presented after treatment the
same greyish aspect as before. :

Very different effects are obtained when, instead of heat-
ing the diamond in an atmosphere of hydrogen, it is heated
in contact with the air. It is unnecessary to employa
white-heat, or to subject the diamond to it for so long a
time, in order to render it dull, and consequently opaque ;
this being the result of positive combustion, which is proved
‘by its loss of weight after the operation. This combustion
is, however, quite superficial, as shown by M. Daniels, who
found that when re-polished, the diamond recovered com-
pletely its transparency and its water; it was, moreover,
remarked by M.G. Rose that if the diamond which had
become dull was moistened with essence of turpentine, it
reassumed its transparency, and retained it as long as its
surface continued moist.

The diamond may also be heated in an atmosphere of
oxygen, by introducing a current of that gas into the
crucible through the small platinum tube before mentioned ;
in this case the stone attains a vivid state of incandescence,
and burns with a dazzling flame long before the platinum
crucible has attained a reddish-white heat. In most cases,
after the lamp has been withdrawn and the crucible is no
longer red-hot, the diamond continues to burn for some
time, and presents an appearance of vivid light upon a dark
ground. When the diamond is very small combustion may
“even continue until it is entirely consumed, and it is then
seen to dart a more vivid flame at the last moment, like a
burning match, the instant previous to extinction. When
the stone is of considerable size, the heat produced by com-
bustion is insufficient to maintain it after the removal of the
lamp, and it ceases in a few moments notwithstanding the
oxygen which continues to flow into the crucible.

Although this last experiment has been repeated several
times by these experimentalists, no other result has been
observed than tranquil combustion of the diamond; such
phenomena as turning black, transformation into coke,

1873.1 New Facts concerning the Diamond. 447

change of the state of aggregation, bubbling up, melting or
softening, rounding of corners and angles, were in no case
presented to our notice. Once only in experimenting upon
an opaque greyish diamond, a few sparks were emitted, but
these were evidently due to the presence of some foreign
elements incorporated with the whole. Neither did the
diamonds burst or split, save in one case, where such was
foreseen by M. Daniels: a stone, evidently composed of two
diamonds joined together, upon the first application of heat
broke with considerable violence into two fragments, each
constituting a decided crystal.

It has been asked if the combustion of the diamond in
oxygen or atmospheric air is accompanied by flame. M. G.
Rose denies this completely, but his mode of operation,
namely, by heating the diamond upon a cupel in the muffle
of a reverberatory furnace, and drawing it out from time to
time for examination, or by heating a thin piece of diamond
upon platinum foil in the flame of a blowpipe, was not
well calculated to settle the question. On the contrary, by
the above method, all that took place in the crucible could
be distinctly seen through the sheet of mica, and thus ample
evidence was obtained that the diamond, while in a state of
combustion is surrounded by a small flame, the exterior
envelope of which is a violet-blue, similar to that produced
by oxide of carbon in a state of combustion. ‘This is
especially the case when the diamond is rather large, when
the lamp has been withdrawn and the platinum has ceased
to glow: the diamond is then seen upon the black ground
of the crucible, brilliant with vivid white light, and sur-
rounded by a zone or aureole somewhat less bright, its
exterior edge being a blue-violet colour.

Some highly interesting microscopic observations relative
to the dull surface of diamonds which have undergone
partial combustion have been communicated by M.G. Rose;
he has discovered on them regular triangular markings
that resemble those occurring in abundance on the fine
crystals from the Vaal River, and recall the faces formed
on planes of crystals, soluble in acid, by the slow and im-
perfect etching action of such a reagent; as, for example,
the action of hydrogen chloride on calcite. Like them,
these depressions on the diamond bear an exact relation to
the crystalline form, and are determined by certain definite
faces, their sides being parallel to the edges of the oCtahedral
faces of the crystal. Measurement with the goniometer
shows them to belong to the icositetrahedron, the faces of
which have not been met with on diamond. These

448 New Facts concerning the Diamond. (October,

symmetrically shaped pits can easily be seen by heating a
thin plate of boart in a blowpipe flame and examining
it under the microscope.. By prolonged heating several
small triangular pits will often merge into one large one.
A crystal of diamond, even when so reduced in size by
oxidation as to be only visible with difficulty, continues to
exhibit sharp edges and angles. A dodecahedron with very
rounded faces but smooth and brilliant surface also exhibited
the triangular pits often very distinctly ; moreover, it hada
brown colour, which was not destroyed by heat, and must,
therefore, be of a totally different nature from that of the
topaz or smoky quartz.

Several experimentalists, M. Jacquelain amongst others,
affirm that at an extremely high temperature, such as is
attainable at the focus of a large burning-glass, or between
the charcoal points of a powerful galvanic battery, such as
Ioo elements of Bunsen, the diamond softens, that it
passes into an allotropic state, is changed into true coke,
capable of employment as an excellent condué¢tor of elec-
tricity, and diminishes greatly in density, as much as from
3°336 to 2°6778. It has also been stated, that upon watch-
ing through smoked glass the combustion of a diamond
under the focus of a burning glass, it was seen to melt, and
even to undergo a kind of ebullition.

M. Schrotter informs us that the R. T. cabinet of mine-
ralogy, at Vienna, contains a diamond which was placed
under the focus of a burning glass in 1751, by Francis I.,
the husband of Maria Theresa, and allowed to burn for
some time, and that after this partial combustion the
diamond, a very limpid well-cut stone, became black both
externally and internally.

Clarke, having burnt a diamond in the flame of oxy-
hydrogen gas, relates that it first become opaque, like ivory,
then the angles of the o€tahedron were rounded, the surface
was covered with bubbles, and there remained a globe of
metallic brilliancy, which finally disappeared entirely. Silli-
man, upon burning a diamond upon magnesia, found it turn
black and burst, and Murray and Macquer also speak of the
diamond turning black under combustion.

Messrs. Rose and Siemens heated the diamond between
the two charcoal points of a large magneto-ele¢ctric machine,
the poles being enclosed in a glass cylinder from which air
was excluded. During two separate experiments, upon the
charcoal becoming incandescent, the diamond exploded into
numerous. fragments, all of which were black; examination
showing, however, that the colouring was wholly superficial,

-

1873.] New Facts concerning the Diamond. 449

and that the interior had undergone no alteration: the
blackened fragments could be used for writing on paper.
From these experiments, and also from the one described
above in which the surface of the diamond had turned black
after exposure in a crucible of charcoal to heat capable of
melting wrought-iron, the conclusion drawn by M. Rose is,
that under the influence of excessively high temperatures,
the diamond, although preserving its shape, begins to
change into graphite, and would probably do so entirely if
the heat were sufficiently strong and prolonged for the
requisite period.

Opportunity for a repetition of these experiments, not
having occurred to M. von Baumhauer, he has not given an
Opinion upon the behaviour of diamonds at extremely high
temperatures; it may, however, be remarked that the
blackening which occurs when the diamond is placed in the
voltaic arc, may result from transmission of carbonaceous
particles from the charcoal poles to the surface of the
diamond, which would retain them without the occurrence
of any radical alteration. During the employment of the
burning-glass, the support upon which the diamond was
held might possibly contain matter, which on coming in con-
taét with the carbon of the diamond at so high a temperatue
might give rise to reductive phenomena conducive to the for-
mation ofthe black coating. Something of the kind was observed
by M. Schrotter, in an experiment in which the diamond was
placed in a crucible in the centre of a mass of strongly
compressed magnesia, and moreover folded in a thin sheet
of platinum, and then exposed to excessive heat in a por-
celain oven. After cooling, the diamond was found to be
divested of its platinum cover, which had melted into a
globule and adhered to one of its facets. The exterior of
the diamond had turned black, whilst its interior was per-
meated with black dendritic striz, giving rise to the sup-
position that a combination of carbon and platina had
occurred.

Without having employed the extreme heat attainable in
the arc of a powerful galvanic battery, or at the focus of
a burning-glass of large dimensions, M. von Baumhauer
has, nevertheless, more than once heated diamonds in the
oxyhydrogen flame (that is to say, to a temperature capable
of melting platinum*) in which the stone emitted a brilliant
light, and lost weight rapidly; after the experiment the

* When the points of the platinum which held the diamond were touched
by the flame, not only did they melt, but upon examination through smoked
glass the platinum was seen to be in decided ebullition.

450 New Facts concerning the Diamond. [Otober,

diamond of course appeared dull, but not the least appear-
ance of blackening was observed, either on the surface or in
the interior. Neither was it remarked by M. Jacquelain,
when operating with a flame produced by a mixture of
oxygen and hydrogen in proportions necessary to form water,
or by one composed of a mixture of oxygen and oxide of
carbon. ‘The experiment was interrupted several times to
examine the diamond, which nowhere presented either
brown spots or blackening.

M. Jacquelain considers that perhaps the surfaces of the
diamond have been blackened, and that this has disappeared
again owing to contact with carbonic acid, and aqueous
vapour ata high temperature; in fact, from the considerable
friction resulting from the gaseous mixture escaping from a
receiver under strong pressure. However that may be, this
experiment proves incontestably that the flame resulting
from a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen in the same proportion
as in water, is incapable of softening the diamond, and
that the perralaidadd of this explosive mixture is ay from
producing the energetic effect of 100 elements of Bunsen.
M. von Baumhauer considers that the transformation of the
diamond into coke or graphite by means of heat is still to
be doubted; nor should it be admitted, until it is quite
certain that blackening is not the result of chemical action
produced by foreign matter, or by the transmission of car-
bonaceous particles from the charcoal poles to the surface
of the diamond.

To ascertain whether the diamond would be capable, at -
white heat, of decomposing water, and burning by means of
the oxygen contained in it, there was passed over a rough
limpid diamond, and also over a cut diamond, a current of
superheated steam, in a platinum tube exposed to the heat of
a flame of gas urged by a current of air. Although the
operation was continued for ten minutes, the diamond was
quite brilliant after cooling, and had lost nothing of its
weight ; proving, that at this temperature at least the dia-
mond suffers no change in an atmosphere of superheated
steam.

It is otherwise, however, when the diamond is kept for
some time in an atmosphere of dry carbonic acid. A rough
stone, weighing 0°1515 grm., was subjected to a white heat
for ten minutes in a crucible closed with mica, supplied
with dry carbonic acid already flowing, some time before
the application of heat; when cooled, the surface of the
diamond was dull and its weight decreased by o-0015 grm.
This experiment was repeated with a cut diamond weighing |

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 451

o'6095 grm.: when withdrawn from the crucible it had
become quite dull, with the exception of two facets which
had preserved their brilliancy, but were tinged with iri-
descent colours; the carbonic acid current had exerted
upon them a comparative cooling action; the stone had
lost about 2 milligrammes. This proves that the
diamond is capable at a white heat of decomposing car-
bonic acid, and of combining with its oxygen, but the
action is very slow. This decomposition had already been
perceived by M. Jacquelain, although his mode of operation
was uncertain in his results. A receiver was employed with
two openings, and filled with carbonic acid; one opening
communicated with a tube, at whose extremity the oxy-
hydrogen gas was burnt; through the other was introduced
the diamond supported on a piece of pipe-clay. In this
experiment the diamond was consumed rapidly, but espe-
cially by the oxygen of the oxyhydrogen mixture, no trace
of blackening being perceptible.

it. ON COMPARATIVE, VEGETABLE
CHROMATOLOGY.

By He. C. SoRBY, FVR-S., &e.

apes an article on the various tints of autumnal foliage,
published in this journal for January, 1871,* I
described a number of the leading kinds of colouring
matters found in the higher classes of plants. Since then
I have studied them far more thoroughly; so that what
I said must be looked upon as a mere commencement of a
subject which has now become so extensive, and includes
special modifications of so many branches of science, that
it appears desirable to give some single name to the whole.
It is for this reason that I have called it chromatology. In
this former paper my chief obje¢t was to describe the cause
of the production of the various tints of leaves when they
fade. This is mainly the result of chemical changes taking
place when the leaves are dying or dead, which correspond
very closely with what can be imitated artificially by acting
with various reagents on the dead materials extracted from
the living plants. On the contrary, my object now is to

* New Series, vol. i., p. 64.

452 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [OCtober,

describe the different coloured substances formed by the
constructive energy of living plants, or changes that take
place in them whilst they are still portions of living
organisms, which changes can be imitated very imperfectly,
and I shall only incidentally notice alterations which occur
after the plants are dead.

When first I commenced the study of the colouring
matters, I was very well contented to confine my attention.
to those which occur in relatively large quantity in flowers
and green leaves, or give striking and well-marked spe¢tra.
On extending my researches to fungi, lichens, and alge, I
soon found that the more abundant substances were very
different in different classes of plants; and on making more
careful comparisons, I found that some of the colouring
matters which occur in a relatively large quantity in one
class are often not really absent from others, but occur in
relatively small amount. This led me to discover that the
coloured solutions obtained from green leaves are even more
complex than had been supposed, and that, independent of
those soluble in water, they contain normally no less than
six or seven coloured substances, perfectly well distinguished
by their optical and chemical characters. Having deter-
mined the chief coloured constituents of the leading classes
of plants, I drew up a rough table, showing their distribu-
tion through the great groups of the vegetable kingdom, and
saw at once that there was such a striking connexion
between the general organisation of plants and the character
of the colouring matters contained in them, that it was
desirable to explore the question as completely as possible.
This inquiry would have been very difficult, if not impos-
sible, if I had not been able to contrive fresh means for
separating or otherwise recognising the different constituents
of complex mixtures.

Many of the most important coloured substances met
with in plants are insoluble in water, but soluble in
bisulphide of carbon and in alcohol, but the relative facility
with which they. are dissolved by these two reagents differs
very much. When dissolved in spirits of wine of the usual
strength, and the solution agitated with excess of bisulphide
of carbon, the whole of some of them is carried down in
the bisulphide, whereas the whole of some other substances
is left in the alcohol if it be strong, but more and more is
carried down in the bisulphide when the alcohol is more and
' more diluted with water. The result is that some substances
can be separated perfectly, and others only partially; but by
agitating the solution in spirit with excess of bisulphide,

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatolog ra 453

separating the alcoholic solution, and repeating the process
over and over again, with the addition of a little water each
time, a comparison of the spectra of the different portions
thus fractionally separated will often suffice to show whether
the original coloured solution was or was not a mixture, and
the extremes are sometimes different substances, in a more
or less pure state. Of course if the original had not been a
mixture, such a difference would not occur, unless some
decomposition took place, which could easily be detected.
There are, however, cases where different substances cannot
be separated in a satisfactory manner by such means, and
it would be almost impossible to study comparative vege-
table chromatology successfully, if light could not be made
use of asa reagent. On exposing to the direct rays of the
sun solutions of different colouring matters in bisulphide of
carbon or other solvent, some are rapidly decolourised,
usually, but not always, without the intermediate produc-
tion of any new coloured substance, whilst others fade very
slowly, some being changed by one kind of light, and some
by others. This decomposition usually depends upon the
presence of both air and light, and does not occur in the
dark when air is present, or in tubes quite free from air
when exposed to the sun. The result of this difference in
the behaviour of different substances is that, though they
cannot in some cases be separated by chemical means, one
may be entirely destroyed by exposure to the open sun, or to
particular rays which pass through coloured glasses, whilst
sufficient of the other remains unchanged to show its
characteristic properties in a satisfactory manner. Bycom-
bining the above-described method of fractional separation
with this kind of photo-chemical analysis, it is often easy to
unravel very complicated mixtures; and I do not think that
anyone who had not tried this system of investigation
would be prepared to find how much may be effected
by such simple means. By adopting these several methods,
it is not only possible to detect a comparatively small
quantity of the more important constituents in complex
mixtures, but also to determine their relative amount in
different cases. This kind of comparative quantitative
analysis is of very great value in the present subject. It
does not consist in ascertaining the relative weight of the
different colouring matters in any one specimen, like the
ordinary sort of quantitative analysis, but in determining
the relative quantity of each colouring matter in two or
more different specimens. In those cases where the con-
stituents can be more or less perfectly separated, the
WOL. Tits (N.S.} 3N

454 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [O@tober,

- relative quantity of each kind can be easily determined by
having the solutions in two tubes of equal diameter, and
diluting one or both until the depth of colour is the same,
or still better, until the spectra exactly correspond when
compared side by side. The relative amount of each is then
known by measuring the length of the columns of solution
in the tubes. It is also often easy to ascertain the relative
amount of more than one constituent in similar solutions ;
for the absorption-bands of one may first be made equal,
and then those of another, measuring the relative volumes
when the solution of each colouring matter is thus found to
be of equal strength. For the future I intend to try to
carry out this sort of analysis by means of standard solu-
tions, sealed up in tubes free from air; and, if they remain
permanent, the relative composition of mixed solutions
could be determined without actually comparing them
together, which would make it possible to ascertain the
changes that take place in plants at different seasons of the
year, and to otherwise develope the subject to a far greater
extent than heretofore. I have also lately adopted another
method, which makes it to some extent possible to dispense
with such comparisons. I endeavour to determine the
relative proportion of the various coloured constituents in
terms of the amount of light absorbed by each. When this
is in nearly the same part of the spectrum, the comparison
can be made with considerable accuracy; but when it is in
very different parts, only approximately, but yet in such a
manner as to yield far better results than any other method.

In applying these principles, of course there are many
questions of detail, depending on particular circumstances ;
and what I have now described must be looked upon merely
as such a general account of the methods I have adopted as
seemed to me desirable, since otherwise the possibility of
determining some of the facts might have appeared doubtful.
I now, therefore, proceed to the consideration of the subject
more immediately claiming attention.

Comparative vegetable chromatology may be divided into
two principal parts, viz., that in which we compare leaves
or fronds of the same kind of plant growing ‘in different
conditions, in order to learn the effects due to external
influences, and that in which we compare different plants
growing in similar conditions, in order to learn the effects
due to internal organisation. Some of the effects of a dif-
ference in the amount of light are well known. When-it is
almost absent, the leaves are yellow and pale, owing to
chlorophyll and some other colouring matters not being

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 455

properly developed; but I have found by careful com-
parative quantitative analysis that, when plants are exposed
to more light than is requisite for their healthy growth,
the amount of chlorophyll and other colouring matters is
diminished sometimes to even one-third of the maximum
quantity. I have also found that, when a leaf is partially
covered up and screened from the light, the amount of
chlorophyll increases in the shaded part. In the case of a
leaf of Aucuba japonica, chosen for the experiment because
it is much influenced by light, the increase was no less than
at the rate of two percent per diem. Chlorophyll separated
from the leaves is rapidly decomposed by light, and it could
scarcely be supposed that a similar change would not to
some extent occur in the living plants. In fact the power
with which it then resists such a change seems to require
special explanation. The general connexion of all the facts
I have observed leads me to conclude that some, if not all,
the coloured constituents of growing leaves, like the
constituents of the bodies of animals, are in a constant
state of transformation, new being formed and the old
destroyed, the apparently uniform composition being due
simply to the establishment of an equilibrium, which
remains nearly the same when the conditions are the same,
but is very soon changed when they are altered. ‘This sup-
position explains in a satisfactory manner many fa¢ts which
would otherwise be unintelligible, and probably one result is
that the endochrome* is thus constantly maintained in a
young and vigorous condition. According to this view of
the subject we may suppose that, in the above-named case,
when the amount of chlorophyll apparently increased at the
rate of two per cent per diem, the relative increase was
due, not to more being developed when the light was
excluded, but to more being decomposed in a corresponding
portion of leaf left exposed to the sun. The equilibrium of
the constituents was thus partially changed from that found
in leaves when growing much exposed to the sun to that of
leaves growing in the shade.

On comparing the relative amount of the other con-
stituents of various plants, when more or less exposed to
the sun, I have found that equal weights of the leaves or
fronds contain almost the same amount of those colouring
matters which are the least changed by the action of light,
and that the relative quantity of the others in those leaves

* I think it would be found very convenient to adopt this term as the name
for all kinds of simple or complex coloured substances found in the cells of
plants.

456 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. —_[October,

exposed to the sun, decreases in the same order as they are
more and more rapidly decomposed by the action of light,
and in proportion as the leaves or fronds are exposed to more
and more light. There is thus established a sort of equi-
librium, varying with these different conditions, and easily
explained, if we suppose that the different coloured sub-
stances are being constantly formed by the internal con-
structive energy of the plant, and constantly decomposed
in varying proportion by the destructive action of the oxygen
of the atmosphere, intensified by the influence of light.
There are, however, well-marked exceptions to this rule,
which require us to suppose that the constructive force
varies qualitatively as well as quantitatively, when it is
much reduced by the absence of light or other causes, so
that some of the different compounds are formed in very
different proportions. The development of fructification.
also sometimes produces a certain amount of alteration, as
though the colouring matter formed in the organs of re-
production were abstracted from the fronds. In the case of
- the lichen Peltigera canina, when it grows ina very damp
and shady situation, there is a greater relative deficiency of
certain colouring matters, which I have named lchno-
xanthine and orange lichnoxanthine, than seems likely to be
due to the decomposing action of light on the other con-
stituents of the specimens more exposed to the sun, and
the relative amount is again decreased by much more ex-
posure. Onthe whole it appears more probable that the
deficiency is mainly due to their imperfect development
when there is too little or too much light for, the,
healthy growth of the plant, and this fact is of much in-
terest, when we know they are the characteristic colouring
matters of the fructification, and that it is imperfectly, or
not at all, developed in very exposed or in very shady |
situations, perhaps because these requisite substances are
not formed in sufficient quantity. I have also found that
there is a most remarkable alteration in the relative amount
of the different coloured substances characteristic of
Oscillatoria, when the light is very feeble, evidently due to
the weak constructive energy, as will be more fully considered
in the sequel.

Having thus learned what is the character and the extent
of the changes produced by varying conditions on the
colouring matters found in the same, or in closely allied,
species of plants, we are in a better position to understand
the variations corresponding to the difference in the general
organisation of different classes, and to distinguish~ and

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 457

eliminate the effects due to special conditions. The facts
described above clearly show that, if we wish to ascertain
what changes depend on a difference in organisation, it
is necessary to compare normal specimens of each class,
growing as nearly as possible in similar circumstances ;
though, at the same time, it is very desirable to determine
what is the effect of different conditions.

In studying comparative vegetable chromatology, it is re-
quisite to distinguish between fundamental and accidental
colouring matters. There is the same sort of difference in
the case of animals. The hemoglobin of the blood, and
the colouring matters in the bile are, as is well known, of
such great physiological importance, that they are essential
to the healthy life of the higher classes of animals, whereas
the colouring matters in the hair or feathers are of only
very indirect utility. Inasimilar manner the higher classes
of plants cannot permanently grow without the colouring
matters belonging to the chlorophyll and xanthophyll groups,
whilst the various red and blue substances belonging to the
erythrophyll group may be present or absent without
materially interfering with the growth of the plant, and are
either of no use, or only very indirectly advantageous, as for
example, in attracting to the flowers the insects instrumental
in causing fertilisation. At present it is impossible to
decide whether certain kinds of colouring matters are or
are not essential to the growth of particular plants, or
whether they may not be necessary for some classes, and
present in others like those organs of animals which, though
requisite for some classes, are only rudimentary and of no
use to others. Some, also, may be only constant produé¢ts.
The whole subject is, indeed, only in its infancy ; many funda-
mental questions remain to be decided, and for the present
we must be content with having obtained a clue to a kind of
research which promises to throw a new light on such
inquiries.

It is very common to find that accidental colouring
matters are much more conspicuous than some that are
probably of great importance. Thus, for example, the
crimson-coloured substance which is developed in the leaves
of certain varieties of the beech, is so very conspicuous,
and disguises the other colouring matters so much, that
perhaps few persons would imagine that the normal amount
of chlorophyll is present, and yet this is easily proved by
comparing the spectrum of a very red leaf, growing where
much exposed to the sun, with that of a green leaf, growing
in a very shady place on the same tree, the absorption-band

ey aoe ae
‘ sd | ~ -

458 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [Otober,

of the chlorophyll being almost equal. This red colouring
matter is probably a product of the decomposition of
chlorophyll, due to the action of light, when the leaves are
in a peculiar low state of vitality. The result of such a
predominating influence of what may be called accidental
substances is that mere colouring is often of very little
general significance, even in distinguishing closely allied
species. This is, however, quite intelligible, since com-
paratively small special differences in the constitution of the
individual plants may suffice to alter the character of the
accidental colouring matters, especially in organs like the
petals, which are not essential for the life of the individual
plant. In fact, by artificially lowering the constructive
energy, by screening flowers from the light, I have succeeded
in producing as much change as would have corresponded
to well-marked varieties, if both had been exposed to the
light. When, however, careful qualitative and comparative
quantitative analysis are compared, which appears to me to
be the only correct way of studying the subject, it becomes
quite apparent that there is a very interesting conneCtion
between the distribution of the fundamental colouring
matters and the general organisation of plants. In pro-
ceeding from the lowest to the highest classes there is an
unmistakable advancement from a type corresponding in
certain particulars with that of some of the lowest animals
to that of the highest classes of plants, as though certain
colouring matters were more characteristic of, and perhaps
indeed essential for, the healthy growth of the most perfect
and specialised types of vegetable life. There are also re-
markable examples of the changes in the colouring of par-
ticular plants, according as they grow in strong light or in
~ such very shady situations that the vitality is very low, and
on comparing the qualitative and quantitative differences it
may be seen that in several important particulars they
correspond with the differences met with in higher or
lower classes, the effect of the comparative absence of light
being to lower, and the effect of the presence of extra light ~
being to raise the type. The most striking instance of this
so far met with is in the case of Osctllatoria ; for when they
grow where the light is so feeble that they can only just keep
alive, the type of their colouring approximates to that of
olive Alge, whereas, when they grow exposed to much air
and light, the type approximates very closely to that of such
lichens as Peltigera canina.

In order to show the kind of evidence on which such
conclusions are based, and also to illustrate what I mean by

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 459

comparative quantitative analyses, I subjoin the following
table. It would have been of very little use to have com-
pared equal weights of different plants, since the amount
of endochrome is so very different, and it is the variation in
its composition that is of chief interest. It was therefore
necessary to assume some one constituent equal in all cases,
and the only one suitable for this purpose was the blue
chlorophyll. This, then, was taken at Ioo in all the
specimens, and the relative amount of the other constituents
calculated accordingly, 100 being taken as the maximum
quantity for each kind of colouring matter. By adopting
this plan, of course the amount of some of the constituents
is made to appear as though it were increased by greater
exposure to light, in the same order as they are less and less
decomposed by its action; but in reality the amount is
diminished in the opposite order, as would be made apparent
by assuming as equal the constituent least changed by light,
or by taking an equal weight of the different specimens of
each separate kind of plant.

= 3 : = g

of 3 ee ca Ss oe

= 2 oe aS = Gem

—= 2 5) as ao a Ses

m5 = ae BS * a6

= xe) 3 Og S Ha

GS Ss * 3 = od

Fucus grown in the shade 100 go fo) 3 vig | II

i = sun 100 100 fo) 3% 100 14
Oscillatori@ under water

in a very shady place } = t3 e ; st 6

Oscillatorieg in more light 100 19 36 3 55 Io
Oscillatorig in and on

water, exposed to the} 100 trace 67 25 II fr)
Ses eae’ es Nee
Oscillatorie on a damp

wall quite open to the} 100 trace 100 77 25 23
sun and air.. =:
Peltigera in a medium

amount of light.. 5 "ate 47 32 ? 32
Peltigera exposed ,to

pea eas: 100 trace 54 100 fo) 100

On comparing the relative quantities of the different
substances, it will be seen that, as before named, very great
changes are due to the difference in the amount of light,
some of which may be referred to its direct decomposing
action, and others to its indirect influence on the con-
structive energy of the plant. The most important
general fact, however, is that, when the Oscillatorie grow
in a very feeble light, the phycoxanthine and orange xantho-
phyll almost or quite disappear, whilst the amount of fuco-
xanthine increases, so that the general relation of the
colouring matters approaches that of the Fucus; whereas,

. Ve al Te hf.
om ass
5 al “a
“-
Ss é
f

460 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [October,

when they grow in bright light, the amount of fucoxanthine
is much decreased, and that of the lichnoxanthine con-
siderably increased, whilst the phycoxanthine and orange
xanthophyll are developed to a remarkable extent, so that
the general type approaches that of such lichens as Peltigera.

There is also a well-marked tendency to approximate to
a lower type of colouring in the case of those permanent
varieties of plants which have very yellow leaves, on account
of the amount of chlorophyll being abnormally small. The
green leaves of the higher classes of plants contain two
different kinds of chlorophyll, which give quite different
spectra, and differ in various other important particulars.
These I have named blue chlorophyll and yellow chlorophyll,
from the difference in their general colour. Now the small
quantity of chlorophyll which exists in the above-named
leaves contains only about one-third the relative amount
of the yellow chlorophyll, which corresponds to what is met
with in leaves abnormally yellow from being grown almost
in the dark, as if both were due to low constru¢tive energy,
one natural to the variety, and the other produced artificially.
Both differ greatly from green leaves which have turned yellow
by fading, forthese contain double the normal relative amount
of yellow chlorophyll, which is not so readily formed, but,
when-it has been formed, is not so readily decomposed as
blue chorophyll. This reduétion in the relative quantity of
yellow chlorophyll causes leaves abnormally yellow, owing
to low constructive energy, to approach to the type of red
Algae, in which this energy is so low that blue chlorophyll
is developed alone, and yellow chlorophyll is quite absent.
If further research should prove the existence of other
examples of this kind of fact, and establish it as a
general law that when the healthy development of the higher
classes of plants is arrested the type of colouring ap-
proaches to that of lower classes, it will be very instructive
in conne¢tion with the theory of evolution, and analogous
to what is so common in the general structure of animals,
in which when their development is arrested it often
approximates more or less to that of those of lower orga-
nisation. It would also indicate that in some way or other
the constructive energy of the lowest classes of plants is
lower in the scale than that of the highest, but it does not
follow that plants with this higher type of constructive
energy could live in more variable and adverse conditions
than those with a lower type.

It would be impossible to select a better example of the
manner in which different groups of plants are related, and

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 461

also distinguished by their colouring matters, than the leading
divisions of marine Alga, viz., the olive, the red, and the
green. These very seldom contain accidental colouring
matters, and the result is that the general colour is such a
good indication of the kind and relative proportion of the
fundamental colouring matters that it has been generally
recognised as a valuable means for arranging Alg@ into the
above-named three divisions, though the true relations and
differences were unknown. The total number of the funda-
mental substances is about twelve, and for a description of
their distinguishing characters I refer to my paper, recently
published in the ‘‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society ’”’
(vol. xxi., p. 442).

Now these various substances are distributed very dif-
ferently through the different groups, so as to connect and
yet distinguish them in a very definite manner. I have not
been- able to make accurate quantitative analyses, and,
besides that, there is a considerable variation in the relative
quantity of some of the constituents of the red group, and
therefore it is only possible to give a general tabular view,
by expressing the relative amount of the various substances
by means of the following signs :—

A relatively large quantity ©... 0.° 6 x
ek of moderate ,, :
of a small 3 Oe Ly a Sg

Olive Red Green
Group. Group. Group.

Biae chlorophyll: si. .5 0. te " se

MNellow-chlorophyll -. ...«.. Ee
Chlorofucine . oa Pas 7 .
Orange xanthophyll . Nan, uae he ot. ae ae
haere y cos) | Oa one: . ee ws
Yellow xanthophyll . of:
PoeoxnnenMe: hfe tk a a .
Lichnoxanthines . coe °
PAIEVC VAN chta H\5, feo oe Aa ae
Pink phycocyan oe atiya eth se
hed phycocrythtine ..._- st

On inspecting this table it will be perceived that the olive
Alge@ are characterised by the large amount of chlorofucine
and fucoxanthine, and by the total absence of yellow chloro-
phyll, of xanthophyll, and of yellow xanthophyll. The red
Alge@ are especially distinguished by the colouring-matters of
the phycocyan and phycoerythrine groups, but also differ
from the olive in containing xanthophyll and only a little
chlorofucine and fucoxanthine. The green Alg@ are charac-

VOL. III. (N.S.) 20.6

462 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [O&ober,

terised by the presence of yellow chlorophyll and yellow
xanthophyll, as well as by the absence of chlorofucine, .
fucoxanthine, and the substances specially characteristic of
the red group. Blue chlorophyll and orange xanthophyll
are common to all, and it is probable that no class of plants
except fungi is ever quite free from both of them. It will
also be seen that the red group is intermediate between the
olive and the green, and independent of the colouring
matters specially characteristic of the red, it differs from
each of the other groups far less than they do from one
another, and, besides this, there are still closer connecting
links, not shown in the table.

My endeavour has been to extend such a method of com-
parison to all the leading classes of plants and some of the
lower classes of animals, and to ascertain the order in
which they should be arranged, so as in like manner to have
the most gradual and unbroken passage from one to the
other. Comparing these various groups of Alge with other
classes of plants, and with such low classes of animals as
Actinig, I found that the whole of the colouring matters
present in the green Alg@ are those most characteristic of
all the higher plants, the only difference being that in
certain circumstances these latter contain in addition various
more or less accidental substances belonging to the erythro-
phyll and ckrysotannin groups, which to some extent appear
to be characteristic of particular classes. As far as colour-
ing is concerned, the green Alg@ are therefore perfectly
typical plants. On the contrary, the olive Alge differ from
them in a very marked manner. They contain no yellow
chlorophyll, or either of the two kinds of xanthophyll, all
three so very characteristic of the most perfect plants, but
contain chlorofucine and fucoxanthine, both of which are
found in certain species of Actimia, like Anthea cereus, var.
smaragdina. ‘The presence of such colouring matters, there-
fore, connects them with-some of the lowest classes of
animals, in the same manner as the presence of chlorophyll
connects such animals with plants.

I have extended this method of comparison to many
other cases, but much remains to be learned before the
exact connexion of all the leading groups of plants can be
looked upon as established in a satisfactory manner, and I
have hitherto been unable to obtain suitable material -for
thoroughly investigating the, relation between the lowest
classes of plants and animals. Though I look upon my
present results only as a beginning of the subjeCt, it may,
perhaps, be well to explain what is the general bearing of

1873.] Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 463

the facts so far determined, and to give a tabular view of
the manner in which some of the different classes of plants
should be arranged, so as to be in the order of the most
simple continuity. This table, of course, refers only to the
chromatological characters, and since we could scarcely
expect them to follow the same order as the structure, we
cannot be surprised to find that the order of arrangement is
not exactly the same as that so commonly adopted, and yet
the general agreement ‘is sufficient to show that a similar
great principle is common to both.
Actinia.
Anthea cereus, vat. smaragdina.
Olive group of Alge.

Red Algae. Oscillatoria.
Porphyra. Peltigera.
Green Alge. . Lichens.

Higher Cryptogamia.
Highest classes of plants.

It was some time before I could understand how fungi
should be placed in this arrangement, for they could not be
inserted anywhere in the direct series. At length I found
that on the whole their most prevalent colouring matters
correspond with those characteristic of the fructification of
lichens, and that fungi, therefore, bear much the same rela-
tion to lichens that the flowers of a leafless parasitic plant
bear to the foliage of the highest class of plants. This con-
clusion, derived from the study of the colouring matters,
agrees so well with what has been deduced from other quite
independent data, connected entirely with structure, that it
must be looked upon as additional evidence of an important
relation between the general organisation of plants and
their coloured constituents; which unites with other facts in
showing that they are not mere chemical produ¢ts, formed
under such conditions as can be imitated artificially, but in
some way or other depend on structure, or on forces
connected with it in living organisms.

My attention has lately been directed to the study of the
changes which occur during the growth of the various organs
of plants. For example, I have compared the constitution of
the endochrome of the petals, when in a rudimentary state,
with that of leaves and fully developed flowers. Even so
far the results are of much interest. The endochrome of
the rudimentary petals approximates in character to that of
leaves; and, during their development, this leaf-like character
is gradually lost, and often new colouring matters are formed.
_ Differently coloured varieties are often simply cases in which
this development is arrested, so that some, when fully grown, ©

¢ .

464 Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. [Otober,

correspond to others in a more rudimentary state; and if
the development be arrested by unfavourable conditions,
artificially produced, this rudimentary chara¢ter of colouring
is retained when the petals are fully grown. One of the
most remarkable facts is, that in some cases, if we slowly
oxidise the mixed colouring matters dissolved out froma
flower grown in the light, by adding a little turpentine, or
by exposing the solution to the sun, the relative proportion
of the different substances is changed, so as to closely cor-
respond to that met with in the same kind of flower grown
nearly in the dark. Exposure to light thus produces the
same effect on the dead colouring matters that absence of
light produces in the living plant, which seems to show,
that, when the constructive energy is weak, those substances
which are most easily decomposed are not sufficiently pro-
tected from decomposition. The study of such changes
during the growth of other parts of plants cannot, I think,
fail to throw much light on several interesting questions.
Such, then, is a brief account of some of the leading
features of what appears to me to be a very promising
branch of research. There are many questions connected
with it that I have alluded to in the most incidental manner
or not mentioned at all. The study of the action of light
on the various coloured substances when in different condi-
tions, and dissolved in different liquids, either when alone or
mixed with others, is of itself a wide field for inquiry, well
worthy of attention, since it may serve to explain the
manner in which the energy of the sun’s rays becomes
stored up in the various compounds formed by plants. I
have studied this action very carefully, and though I have
been able to deteét what appear to be general laws of much
interest in connection with optics and chemistry, very much
still remains to be learned. ‘The chemical relations of the
various colouring matters require much further investiga-
tion, in order to ascertain whether and in what circum-
stances one may be artificially or naturally changed into
another, which is especially interesting in connexion with
the colour of the petals of flowers. It is also very desirable
that the connexion between the decomposition of carbonic

acid and the changes that take place in the colouring

matters when exposed to the sun, should be more fully
examined, since, when separated from the plants, their
decomposition by light seems to be a process of oxidisation,
which, of course, is the reverse of what occurs when living
plants absorb carbonic acid and give off oxygen. Perhaps
it is only those portions of the endochrome which in some
way or other have lost their normal power that are thus

—

P

£Q73") Comparative Vegetable Chromatology. 465

destroyed, so as to make way for the younger and more
active. It will also be requisite to still further study the
variations in the spectra of the different colouring matters
which depend upon the conditions in which they occur,
since In some cases it is thus possible to ascertain whether
they naturally exist in a free state or are combined with
oily or waxy substances. This makes such a remarkable
difference in the spectra of some yellow flowers, that for
a long time I thought that the colouring matters were
entirely different, but I have now found that when oil pene-
trates to the endochrome, so as to combine with the colour-
ing matter, the spectrum is changed to exactly the same as
that met with in other cases which are not thus changed
by the addition of oil, as though sufficient had been
naturally present. In these experiments, the petals must
be well crushed, so as to burst open the cells, and then
dried, or else the oil will not penetrate to the endochrome.
By carefully examining the position of the absorption-
bands, we may not only determine such facts as these in
the case of a colouring matter insoluble in water, but when
they are soluble we may sometimes prove that they are not
dissolved in the aqueous juices in the living plant, but
do become dissolved when decomposition takes place, as
though perhaps originally enclosed in minute cells, and
set free when the cell-walls decay. Independent of these
various general questions, the study of all the leading
classes of plants, and of a number of the lower classes of
animals, is necessarily a very extensive subject that can
only be worked out by degrees, on account of the difficulty
of procuring the requisite materials, in a fresh state, at the
proper season of the year; and it is made still more
extensive by the necessity of examining the same plants at
different periods of their growth, and when grown under
different natural and artificial conditions. On the whole,
then, it will be seen that comparative vegetable chro-
matology, in its full extent, including everything requisite
for its successful investigation, is a very wide and almost
new branch of science; and, though I have accumulated a
large amount of facts, I cannot but feel that it is only.in its
infancy. Still, however, the brief account of it which I
have now given will, I trust, suffice to show that even
already it has thrown a new light on a number of facts, and
that a further and more complete study will probably
enable us to examine some of the most important questions
connected with vegetable physiology and the evolution of
plants, from a new and independent point of view.

466 7 1 Peat. (October,

IV, PEAT...
By FREDERICK CHARLES DANVERS, Assoc. Inst. C.E.

S all questions connected with fuel are, at the present
day, of primary importance, it is proposed, in the
present article, to investigate the subject of peat,

and the treatment it undergoes in order to fit it for all the
different purposes, domestic and industrial, to which it has
been, and is now, in some part, applied. Before, however,
dealing with the various means by which it is prepared, it
will be advisable to give some few details of its nature and
peculiarities, as well as such scientific and_ statistical
accounts of its available quantity and commercial value, as
may tend to demonstrate more fully the vast mine of wealth
lying hidden beneath the surface of bogs, and which is too
often half neglected even where it is not wholly ignored and
unutilised.

Notwithstanding the inferior calorific value of peat, which
we shall further allude to presently, it has several undoubted
advantages over coal, of which we may specially notice that
it is more easily worked, and that without the necessity of
any large expenditure on plant and machinery, such as is
required for coal mines; the working of a peat bog is
unattended with those dangers to life and limb which are so
characteristic of coal mines; peat is reproductive, and can
be cultivated, whereas the supply of coal existing in any
country is incapable of being maintained, and must in
course of time become exhausted. Peat can consequently
be worked more cheaply and economically than coal. On
the other hand, as we have already stated, the calorific
value of peat is inferior to that of coal; its specific gravity
being lighter, it is also more bulky, and consequently more
costly, bulk for bulk, in carriage. Peat produces several »
valuable produéts on distillation, to which we shall refer
more particularly as we proceed; it also produces a very
pure charcoal which is highly esteemed in many manufac-
tures.. The best mode of carbonising peat for charcoal has
been the subject of numerous experiments, but space will
not admit of our entering upon this ‘part of the question in
the present article.

It will thus be seen that, although peat is undoubtedly
inferior to coal as a fuel, it yet possesses many valuable
properties and advantages which render it well suited asa
substitute for coal, especially in localities in the near

1873.] Peat. . 467

proximity to peat bogs, and where the carriage of that fuel
would, therefore, not bear too high a proportion to its
economic value.

According to Berthier and Regnault, peat gives from
28 to 30 per cent in weight of coke; lignite, 40 to 50
per cent ; bituminous coal, 60 to 80 per cent; anthracite,
80 to go per cent; and graphite, 92 to 94 per cent of its
weight. From a view of this table, it appears not at all
improbable that we have in the above-mentioned substances
a regular gradation of the action of nature in the produc-
tion of pure carbon from vegetable substances. If we goa
little further back, and take vegetable matter in the form of
wood, we find that the amount of charcoal obtained from
different kinds of wood varies from 16°4 per cent from
Scottish pine to 26°0 per cent from lignum vite; the pro-
portion of charcoal from the latter being therefore nearly
equal to that from peat.

The following table of calorific values of combustibles,
compiled chiefly upon the authority of experiments made by
M. Péclet, is taken from M. Bosc’s valuable work, ‘‘ Traite
Complet de la Tourbe,” a book which affords more valuable
information on the subject of peat generally than any book
hitherto: published :— |

Calorific value of one kilogramme.

CoMBUSTIBLES. Dried. Containing
25 per cent of water.
; Calorific units. Calorific units.
Wood-dtied at. 100°..." .; 3600 2750
With ro per cent
: of water.
PURE GT AGIES Mie ase a, Dems 8000 7150
| SUAS Ch 0: RS i ae 7800 7000
Wood charcoal . . aes 7300 6500
Coke from moulded peat Bar i 7400 6500
SOA Auist QUAMEY)r ee, cc 6000 5350
Ditto (second quality) RPS 5500 4850
Soke trom GOa) a's. s, 6500 5800
Ditto from ordinary peat. '. 5500 4900
Purified moulded peat. . . 4500 3900
Ordinary peak, 7s). : 6s, » 3200 2800

Experiments undertaken by the Chemin de Fer de l'Est,
with stationary engines and locomotives, at their depot at
Epinal, both with coal and with peat obtained from the
manufactory of M. Laroche and Co., at Sautaures, in the
Vosges, gave the following results :-—

Stationary Engine.—Peat consumed as fuel from the 1st

468 : Peat. (October,

to the 15th of August, 4500 kilogrammes (about Io cubic
metres). The machine was kept running for six hours per
diem, consuming 50 kilogrammes per hour. With coal fuel
the same engine running six hours per diem consumed
30 kilogrammes per hour. The peat gave a lively and clear
flame, equal to that of coal, and it emitted no bad smell ;
the 4500 kilogrammes gave 7 kilogrammes of cinder and
very little ash. |

Locomotive Engine.—The same peat as fuel in locomotives,
from the 15th to the 30th November, was tested to the
amount of 4500 kilogrammes, or 10 cubic metres. Engines
in reserve consumed 30 kilogrammes per hour while standing
still, and 20 kilogrammes per kilometre when drawing goods
trains. Similar engines burning coal fuel consumed 2o kilo-
grainmes per hour, and 15 kilogrammes per kilometre, under
similar circumstances respectively.

From these experiments it would appear that peat fuel is
equal to two-thirds of the value of coal, and this is the
standard of value which is most generally given to it; but
much necessarily depends upon the purity of the peat
itself, and upon the method in which it has been dried and
prepared.

On the Bavarian State railways, it is stated that one
cubic foot of ordinary air-dried turf, of rather a light
description, and weighing from 16 to 18 lbs., as used there
in the locomotive, is considered to be equal in heating power
to about 13 lbs. of compressed turf, or 13 lbs. of lignite, or
74 Ibs. of coal.

Last year, owing to the exertions of Mr. Alderman
Purdon, of Dublin, a Commission was organised “for the
purpose of investigating, in the public interests, by personal
examination in the fullest manner, such of the best modern
systems of preparing improved fuel from peat as are now to
be found elsewhere.” The report of this Commission was
presented in January last, in which, with reference to the
economic value of peat as compared with coal, they remark
very justly that ‘‘ various estimates have been put forward
of the relative heating powers of coal and turf—their com-
parative values as fuel—some rating peat as less than half
the value of coal (weight for weight), others at two-thirds.
These estimates may, in different cases, be true, for the
value of peat is very variable, depending on its quality,
density, and dryness; and in the combination of these, no
two samples may be found identical.”

Peat, as it is cut from the bog, contains from 70 to go per
cent of water. Air-dried turf usually contains from 18 to

1873.] Peat. 469

25 per cent of water. It does not appear to be capable of
being dried in air beyond a point at which it will continue
to retain about 15 per cent of water; and even when dried
in a stove, it is never reduced beneath 7 or 8 per cent.
According to Dr. Ure, the calorific power of dry turf is
only about half that of coal. This power is, however,
immensely diminished in ordinary use by the water which
is allowed to remain in its texture, and which the spongy
character of its mass renders it very difficult to get rid of.
Again, we find it stated, in ‘‘ Tomlinson’s Cyclopedia,” that
7 \bs. of properly dried peat will évaporate the same quantity
of water as 6 lbs. of Newcastle coal. No reliance can, how-
ever, be placed on any of these statements, so far as they
concern the actual. value of peat as a fuel, without more
detailed information relative to the analysis of the peat
used, the mode in which it was prepared, and the analysis
of the coal against which it was tried. In the absence of
this information, all reports on the relative values of peat
and coal are unreliable, except as regards the experiments to
which they relate, and worse than worthless for general
purposes of comparison, as they are calculated to mislead
rather than to give substantial facts that will apply in other
cases and in other localities than where such results had
been obtained. The fact, which is too often lost sight of by
the advocates-for the use of peat, is that that fuel varies in
its nature and properties to a far Steater extent even than
coal. In speaking of the value of peat, therefore, care
should be taken to define the quality of the substance
referred to, in some such a manner as we now refer to coal
of different kinds under the names of ‘“ anthracite,”
Psteam, 7.9 DiItUInInOUS, ; cannel,”. &e." &e.. and unel
this is done, the statistics relative to peat and its perform-
ances must possess but a very questionable value. In order
to show more clearly what we mean by this observation, we
shall give presently some further particulars regarding the
analyses of different peats, and the properties varying with
its increased age, and its relative position in the peat bog.
We shall thus see that great discernment is necessary for
the judicious and economical working of a peat bog, as well
as in its subsequent preparation as fuel. |
According to Dr. Percy, the specific gravity of peat
varies irom 0°25 to from o°6 to o’g, and it varies in its
contents of carbon from 32°28 in peat from Cashmere to
61°04 in peat from Kilbeggan, in Ireland. The value of
peat as fuel will, of course, as a rule, vary according to the
amount of carbon it contains, the peat having the highest
VOL. eas (Nes:) | 22

470 Peat. (October,

proportion of carbon possessing also the greatest calorific
value. The use of machinery and other appliances in the
preparation of peat is chiefly to increase its density and to
expel as much as possible of the water which it naturally
contains. Now Sir R. Kane has stated that it is very usual
to find the peat of commerce containing one-fourth of its
weight of water, and that when dried- in the air it will
contain one-tenth of its weight. Hence the necessity for
resorting to artificial means for getting rid of the water,
which only has the effect of. detraCting from the value of the
fuel; and it will be our object to point out some of the
numerous devices which have been proposed for this purpose,
and of the results obtained from them. .

Almost all authors who have written on the subject of
peat—with the single exception, so far as we are aware, of
Dr. Zimmermann—assert that peat is a recent formation;
for there appear never to have been found in it any remains
of antediluvian animals, whilst bones of the ox, and the
horse, horns of the stag and of the roebuck, and tusks of
the boar are not of uncommon occurrence. The nature
of the soil upon which peat bogs rest is that of ordinary
vegetable earth, such as any other vegetation might grow
upon. Frant and Sthel accord to peat a mineral origin;
but there can, we think, at the present day, be few, if any,
who would agree with them in this respect. Dejan says
that peat is produced by marsh reeds and other aquatic
plants, the stalks of which multiply, cross one another,
interlacing themselves, and thus end by forming a solid
mass of vegetable fibre. Other authors attribute the forma-
tion of peat to forests which, by reason of some natural
phenomenon, have become thrown down and submerged,
and, by a partial decomposition of wood and leaves, have
given birth to peat. Zimmermann, again, gives another
account of the growth of peat, which, he says, is formed
of the decomposed roots of a group of plants, called
Sphagnum. Peat of ancient formation, however, that author
considers to be principally composed of the foliage and
stalks of a reed-grass, or rush, of the roots of various
aquatic plants, and of some peat-turf.

That peat is of vegetable origin there can be no reasonable
doubt, but it appears in many varieties, according principally
to its age and the circumstances of its origin. The fore-
going remarks relative to the nature and character of peat,
may at first sight appear to be not relevant to the subject
more especially under consideration, namely, the different
methods of preparing peat for fuel and the machinery

1873.! Peat. 471

employed therein. A little consideration will, however,
prove the contrary; for it must be admitted that a correct
knowledge of the nature of the material to be operated
upon must necessarily precede any attempt to define the
method by which it may be most advantageously prepared
for its destined use. Its economical development also
necessitates the consideration of questions affecting the
working of peat bogs, as well as the possibility of their
cultivation and extension.

Generally speaking, peat may be divided into two classes:
that which contains nothing but terrestrial vegetable matter
is called ‘‘bog peat,” whilst that in which is found marine
vegetable matter is known as ‘“‘marine peat.” Again, some
authors recognise three classes of peat, which they distin-
guish as follows :—1. Bog peat; 2. Open country peat; and
3. Mountain peat. Sometimes two of these will be found
in the same bog, merging, by insensible degrees, from the
one to the other.

I. Bog peat is formed at the mouths of great rivers and
of streams, as well as on their banks, on lakes, on ponds,
and on the sea shore. The indispensable conditions for the
formation of this kind of peat are a bed of water, rather
shallow, and with only a moderate current, and the presence
of certain vegetable matters, of a perennial growth, which,
dying down each year, deposit at their rvots the decaying
vegetable matter, which, by constant accumulation, produces
what is known as peat.

II. Messrs. Rennie, Dr. Walker, and Ch. Patin, besides
others, consider that a great number of peat bogs owe their
origin to a sudden destruction of forests; and this theory is
strengthened by the faét that in many open country peat
deposits there are found the trunks of trees embedded in
the moss.

III. The mountain peat is formed chiefly by an innu-
merable quantity of mosses, of the genus Sphagnum.
These mosses hold water in their stems like a sponge.
They spread their roots and suckers over the moist débris of
wood or other similar matters, and matting themselves
together as they grow, form a species of felt, which, in
course of time, yields the matter known as peat. One
species of this plant, the Sphagnum cuspidatum, is so prolific
that a single pod is said to contain no less than 2,800,000
seeds.

The cultivation and reprodu¢tion of peat is a subject
regarding which there is now no longer any doubt. Expe-
rience of living witnesses has proved that it takes from

472 Peat. (October,

thirty to forty years for a peat-bed to grow to the extent of
one metre in depth, or about three metres in depth of good
peat for fuel is produced in the course of a century.

It must be borne in mind that it is not possible to work
all peat bogs with profit, and they are therefore again sub-
divided into those that are workable and unworkable bogs.
When a bog is of a sufficient extent, and its peat of a good
quality, not only should it be worked, but it should also be
cultivated, the same principles of reproduction being appli-
cable to peat bogs as to scientifically worked forests, where
a system of clearing and planting are going on continually.
One advantage of peat crops is that they have not to be
gathered year by year, but the longer they are left, the
greater and better in quality is their yield, and they are
also independent of those variations in meteorological con-
ditions which too often lead to the deterioration of other
crops. After a careful consideration of those plants which
are most productive in the formation of peat, it is necessary,
for the sake of obtaining peat of good quality and purity, to
protect the bog from the introdu¢tion of foreign matters.
As these bogs are mostly situated in valleys, surrounded, for
a part, at least, of their circumference, by hills, care must
be taken to prevent silt being carried over their surface by
heavy rains; the best way to accomplish this being to cut a
trench round that portion of the bog exposed to such incur-
sions. Unworkable bogs are those which do not-produce
peat of a sufficiently good quality to make it worth while to
work them for fuel ; these should be drained and cultivated.

Having now briefly treated of the nature and properties
of growing peat, it may be interesting, before passing on to
a description of the various methods of preparing it, to give
some idea of the extent to which it is known to exist in
different countries, in order to show how vast an area is
available for the production and growth of fuel.

In France alone the peat deposits cover an area of about
1,200,000 hectares. ‘They are spread over 58 departments,
and are found in 5140 different localities. It does not appear
that there are any peat bogs in Algeria; and, indeed, it is
rather the exception than the rule to find this fuel growing
in tropical climates. It has been stated by some authors
that a temperature below 4° centigrade is necessary for the
formation of peat, but this does not appear to be fully borne
out by actual experience ; for, as we shall presently show,
peat deposits are to be found almost all over the world, but
they are unquestionably most numerous in the more humid
and temperate climates. In Belgium, the principal peat

1873.] Peat. ! 473

bogs are to be found in the environs of Ath and Antwerp, on
the banks of the Escaut and of its tributaries, and in La
Campine Belge. Peat deposits form almost the entire soil
of Holland. The site of the Haarlem lake, upon which, in
1573, the Spaniards and Dutch engaged in naval combat, .
and which is now drained, and covered with luxuriant farms,
consists entirely of a reclaimed peat bog. In Italy, one of
the most remarkable bogs is that of St. Martin-Perosa, in
Sardinia, which has an area of from 4000 to 5000 heétares,
and a depth of from 4 to 8 metres. Piedmont also furnishes
peat in some provinces; and it is stated that many of the
paper and cardboard manufa¢turers about Turin employ 8o,
and sometimes as much as go per cent of peat in the pulp of
their cardboard. Peat is also very generally found in most
of the districts of Lombardy. The peat area of Denmark
is estimated at about 180,000 hectares. In England but
little attention has been given to peat, but the bogs in
Ireland are said to cover about one-sixth of its entire area.
Bogs of large extent also exist in Germany, Prussia, Russia,
America, and Canada. Mouhot,* in his travels in Indo-
China, &c., mentions the discovery of a peat bog in the
Ko-Man Islands of Siam. In an interesting paper read
before the Society of Arts, on the 27th of January, 1871,
Lieutenant-Colonel Romaine Wragge produced unques-
tionable evidence of the existence of peat in many parts of
India; and in Chinaf it is certain that peat exists in one
locality at least, and it is not improbable that, if sought for,
it would be discovered in other parts, also, of that country.

Enough has now been stated on this portion of our subject
to prove that peat exists almost universally, wherever cir-
cumstances favourable to its existence are tobe found. The
next point for consideration is the chemical constituents of
peat, for upon this depends the possibility of its being con-
verted into a serviceable fuel. Subjoined are some of the
most important analyses of peat obtained from various
quarters. .

The specific gravity of peat varies considerably, according
to the nature of the peat moss. Its density varies also with
the degree of its dryness. Ordinary peat, according to M.
Bosc, is about 170 kilogrammes per cubic metre, and com-
pressed peat from 600 to 800, and sometimes goo kilo-
grammes per cubic metre.

* Page 148. ;
+ ‘Industries de l’Empire Chinois,” par M. Paul Champion, page ro.

: Pe ie 5 wok a
a Se
=

474 Peas - .* (O€tober,

Dr. Percy, in his work on Metallurgy, gives the following
particulars of peat from Ireland (four samples), and of peat
discovered by Dr. Hugh Falconer on the banks of a lake in
Cashmere :—

Locality. Density. Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Nitrogen. Ash.

Ireland :—

Philipstown . o'405 58°69 6°97 32°88 1°45 I'gg
Ditto < o°669- 60°48 O80 «= 92755) ores. gacce
Wood of Allen 0°339.: 59°92 | GOL.» S221, paeea ees
Ditto ire ee 0°R3Q: | OEIO24 45°97. 632 40e Ree
Vee

Cashmere ner 40} 32° 28° 3°66 “21°03 1°81 “ear8e

The following are analyses by M. Regnault :—

Locality: Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Ash.
Vulcaire, near Abbeville .- 57°05 _ 5°63. 21°76 15758
Longprés Shs » ae egGFOg «Ses 2°13) AEaOL

Champfen (Vosges) . (ss) 9 5790s Wb" 2 Ds eG gF eee

We have here purposely limited ourselves to a notice of

the analyses of peat of the best quality—with the exception

of that from Cashmere. The latter will afford some idea of

the wide range in variation of constituents which may be

found in peat. We now give one or two analyses of the

a parts of peat obtained by distillation :—
Ammoniacal

Locality. Charcoal. Tar. Liquid. Gas. Ash. Loss.
and Water. E
Vesle (Marne). 15°45 6° 80 38"g0° 18°60, 19°25 Irae
—-+- ——
Koenigsbrunn . 24°40 70°60 5°00 —

Carbonic Carb. of
acid. Hydrog.
Baviere i's 6. 40°25) “2ahgo. 14°10 ) 027) oo eae
Gasandloss. Cinders.
Brunswick. . 33°60 5°00 35°00 20°00 6°40 ~
The lower the stratum of the bog from which peat is ex-
tracted, the more valuable it is as afuel. The upper surface
of a bog is often styled turf to distinguish it from the feat
which lies below. When peat is cut in the ordinary manner,
with the view of being burnt as fuel after having merely
been dried, and without any further preparation, a particular

Nitrogen.

shaped spade* is used, which cuts the peat at once in.

* At the Government works, at Haspelmoor, in Bavaria, much of the turf
used as fuel in the locomotives of the state railways is less, on an average,
than two inches in thickness; the object of this being to facilitate and expedite
the process of drying. At an Agricultural Exhibition, at Munich, the attention

of the Irish Commission was attra@ed to a double plane, intended for cutting —

two sods of turf at a stroke, which they considered well suited for raising
thin sods.

1873.] Peat. 475

blocks of the required size, and these are then stacked
in small open heaps to dry in the air. Where there is much
water in the cuttings, dredgers of various sorts are used for
raising the peat. The object of the present paper, however,
not being to describe antiquated processes, but rather to
take some notice of the modern improvements in the treat-
ment of peat which the recent high price of coal has called
forth, we shall abstain from any further remarks upon the
preparation of what is known as “ordinary” peat, that is,
peat simply cut and dried in the open air, without any
further attempts at artificial preparation.

To obviate the natural inconveniences arising from the
use of raw, or ‘‘ordinary,” peat, attempts were made in
1821 to compress it into blocks. This plan was first com-
menced in Germany ; afterwards it was adopted in Sweden,
at the iron mines of Eckman; subsequently it was intro-
duced into France; and, lastly, it was brought to England
about the year 1837. Numerous processes have been
patented for the purpose of compressing peat, but they have
been unattended with any satisfactory results. At first
attempts were made to compress the peat when in a partially
dry state, but this proved a failure, as it did not achieve the
desired end. Attention was next directed to means for com-
pressing it whilst moist, and for this purpose powerful
hydraulic presses were used; but they, instead of driving
out the moisture, tended to confine it within the fuel.. This
plan failing attempts were made to substitute chemical
agencies for the expulsion of the water, and the formation
of the peat into compact blocks; but, as might have been
expected, such treatment would no more produce the desired
results than force unscientifically applied as above referred to.

At Haspelmoor and at Kolbermoor, in Bavaria, there are
works in which compression of peat by force is, however,
carried out at the present day. The system, technically
known as “‘ Exter’s,” consists in obtaining the peat from the
surface of a bog (previously well drained and levelled) in
the condition of a fine mould or powder, which, when
partially dried by exposure to the sun and air, is scraped
together in thin layers, and removed to the place of manu-
facture, where, being dried more fully by artificial heat, it is
subjected to powerful mechanical compression effected by
steam machinery. The cost of this compressed turf for the
past year was estimated at about equal to 12s. sterling per
ton. ‘This system is essentially the same as that for which
works were at one time erected at Derrylea, in Ireland,
where the results were commercially unsuccessful. At

476 Peat. (October,

Kolbermoor the bog surface is harrowed by portable steam
power, and the exhaust steam from the fixed compressing
engine is employed in drying the fine turf mould. These
factories are occupied chiefly in producing compressed turf
for locomotive purposes.

With respect to the efforts that have been made from time
to time for depriving raw peat of its water by hydraulic
or other mechanical pressures, it may be stated that all such
attempts have been entirely unsuccessful. This is not to
be wondered at when we consider the nature and properties
of peat.

According to different authorities raw peat, when freshly
dug, contains from 75 to go per cent of water, and Ioo tons
would therefore only produce from 10 to 25 tons of fuel—
more generally the former quantity than the latter. How
to get rid of this water in a cheap and expeditious manner
was, therefore, the important point requiring solution.

Peat consists of a number of stems or stalks of the
Sphagnum, or other peat plant, closely matted together
with partially decomposed vegetable matter. These stems
all contain capillary tubes, which hold the water with great
tenacity, and from which it can only be expelled by the
complete destruction of the capillary. Hence we see that
the only true method of treating peat is by maceration and
precipitation, for it is found that when thoroughly macerated
the precipitated particles, uniting themselves by a chemical
affinity, discovered by M. Chaleton, a French chemist,
causes the pulp to discharge the water contained in it, and
to obtain a density nearly the same as pit coal.

This method of preparing improved fuel from peat is
based upon the fact that when raw peat is subjected to any
treatment by which, in the wet condition, its fibrous
structure is broken up so that the whole forms a homogeneous
mass of pulp, it will not only dry more rapidly, but will
acquire a cohesion and density in the process of drying
greater than any ordinary mechanical pressure could impart
to it. This quality of density gives not only an increased
value to turf as fuel, but also the great advantages arising
from increased facilities of transport. ‘Turf, thus treated,
on being thoroughly dried, will sometimes become reduced
to one-sixth part of its original bulk or volume.

The principle of maceration in the preparation of dense
turf is found in the making of ‘‘ hand-turf,” as practised in
different parts of Ireland. The capability of hand labour
for the production of large quantities of dense turf is, how-
ever, limited in practice. Dense turf is produced in large

1873.) Peat. 497

quantities in the Netherlands in the following manner, but
the product is not equal to that resulting where machinery
is employed for the purpose:—Owing to the position of
several peat districts in the low countries, much of the
peat lies under water, and, when raised by dredging, is con-
veyed to working places, where it is well kneaded or trodden
under foot, and at the same time freed by hand of any roots
or other substances that would interfere with bringing the
whole to a fairly uniform mass. The spreading ground is
generally strewn with some loose, dry material, such as
broken reeds, and in this way adhesion to’the surface is pre- |
vented, and some opportunity is given for the escape of
moisture from below. In the kneading operation short
pieces of boards are attached under the feet of the workmen,
and, when in this manner the mass is sufficiently levelled,
it is marked out lengthwise and crosswise, and is sub-
sequently divided by a simple tool made for the purpose,
after which the usual process of drying in the open air
proceeds. In Friesland and the district of the Haarlemmer
the size of dense turf made in this manner averages, when
dry, from 5 to 6 inches in length, and in thickness from
2+ to 3 inches square. In other parts it is produced of re-
duced thickness with a view to drying in a shorter time, and
made thus it has a shape not unlike flat tiles of peat,
varying in size from 5 to 6 inches in length by 4 inches in
width, and only r4 inches in thickness. The annual pro-
duction of dense turf in the Netherlands supplies largely
the place of coal for many industrial purposes, and presents
the most extensive development of dense turf industry at
present in Europe.

For the purpose of producing dense turf of a still better
class than the foregoing the application of machinery is
required for the complete reduction of the peat fibre. This
process was, according to M. Bosc, first employed about
fifteen years ago by the Comte de Lard, in the peat-bog of
la Saussaye, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, near Paris.
The method adopted by him may be thus briefly described:
—The peat is extracted from the bog in the ordinary manner.
It is then cast into a grinding machine, and ground up with
an alkaline solution. The sludge passes into a large basin,
and by the aid of powerful pumps it is raised into a second
basin, 3 metres higher than the former one; from this it is
permitted to flow into open wooden side frames standing on
a bed formed of bundles of osier, straw, or grass, through
which the water filters away, whilst the pulp left behind
attains, at the end of a few days, such a consistency as to

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3 Q

478 Peat. (October,

allow of its being cut into blocks, and after a further period
of fifteen days, the latter are sufficiently dry for stacking.
A system of maceration and precipitation, accompanied by
filtering, is adopted in the factory of Montanger, near
Corbeil ; and at a factory near Munich the maceration is
followed by compression.

About six or seven years ago works and machinery were
erected in the province of Drenthe, in the Netherlands, for
the production of dense turf. Here the macerating mill is
a vertical cylinder, about 6 feet high and 3 feet in diameter,
in which a vertical iron shaft revolves. Upon this shaft
several arms are fixed, which-tear up the raw peat, after
which the pulp is forced by a screw through a pipe at one
side. This pipe terminates in a mouthpiece with three
orifices, through which the disintegrated peat finally issues
forth, and as it issues is cut off when about 12 or 13 inches
long, and the pieces are removed for drying in the open air.
The dense turf produced by this arrangement is of very good
quality; the pieces when dry have an average size of g inches
long by 23} inches square, and each piece weighs nearly a
pound and a half.

The manufacture of peat has for some years past been
extensively carried on in Canada, by a process invented by
Mr. James Hodges. The whole of the machinery employed
in this manufacture is carried on vessels, which float in
canals cut by themselves through the peat bogs. A pair of
large screws, with cutting blades, are placed at the front end
of the boat, and driven through gearing by an engine in the
stern of the vessel. These screws cut their way through
the bog, forming a channel 1g feet wide, and from 4 feet to
6 feet deep, and as the water flows in as fast as the peat is
taken out, the vessel floats and moves onwards as the screws
advance, generally at the rate of about 15 feet per hour.
The peat is cut and driven by the screws into a well in the
bow of the boat, it being first cleared of any pieces of wood,
roots, or other extraneous matter. From the well the peat
is lifted by an elevator, and discharged into a hopper, and
thence into a part of the machinery which arrests all roots,
&c., which have not been previously removed. After this it
is pulped, and from the pulping machinery it passes, with a
consistency of thick mortar, through a distributing shoot
projecting at right angles to the vessel, whence it falls on to
a space of ground, specially prepared, on either side of the
canal, over which it is spread evenly to a thickness of about
g inches. In acouple of days or so the pulp is sufficiently
dry for the next operation, namely, that of cutting the peat

1873.] ~ Peat. | 479

transversely, which is done by hand with tools specially
adapted for the purpose. A few days afterwards it is in a
fit condition to be cut longitudinally ; the size of the slabs,
or bricks, being 18 inches long by 6 inches wide. A fortnight
later—if the weather be favourable—the bricks are hard
enough for stacking, and after several days more they are
turned and re-stacked; ultimately they are loaded upon barges
on the canal, and floated down to store. The machine,
which we have thus briefly described, in ten hours’ working
excavates and pulps sufficient peat to give 50 tons of air-
dried fuel, and in doing so it makes a navigable canal
150 feet long, 19 feet wide, and 5 feet 6 inches deep. One
ton of this peat fuel measures 70 cubic feet. Experiments
as to its efficiency have been made upon the Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada with the following results as compared
~ with coal and wood, with an express passenger train on a
run of 177 miles :— :

Average mileage run with 1 tonofcoal. . 59°91

I cord of wood (4000 Ibs. ) 40°69
bey a jy) 42 ton of peat.iueliy 50°50

Taking the then relative prices of the above three classes of
fuel it was found that the cost for the distance of 177 miles
would be as follows :—viz., coal 29°50, wood 30°87, and peat
fuel 16 dols.

It will, of course, be understood that this method of
manufacturing fuel can only be carried out where a sufficient
supply of water exists in the peat to fill up the channel as
it is formed, and to float the manufacturing vessel forward.
In the absence of a sufficiency of water for the above
purpose, recourse must be had to the use of stationary and
fixed machinery. Of this class there exist two principal
methods of treatment: the one patented by Messrs. Clayton,
Son, and Howlett, and the other the invention of Mr. John
Box. These two, however, differ very materially from one
another, as will be seen from the following descriptions of
them :—

According to Messrs. Clayton’s process, the raw peat, as
dug, is filled into a special arrangement of ‘‘ squeezing”
trucks, having perforated sides for the escape of water from
the peat. A piston forced against the peat in the truck by
the aid of a screwand lever effects a pressure upon the body -
of the peat, and during the passage from the bog to the®
machine the peat is thus freed of a considerable portion of
the water. The rough peat is fed from the squeezing trucks:
into a hopper, through which it falls down a vertical chamber
in which revolves a shaft, having screw blades fixed on it,

33 br} 33

480 Peat. [October,

as in an ordinary pug mill. By the aétion of these blades
the peat is broken up and forced downwards into the com-
minuting apparatus. The latter consists of a horizontal
cylinder fitted with a central revolving shaft, upon which are
fixed propelling screws, and a series of curved arms or discs,
so arranged upon it, that in their whole length they form a
dissected double helix, with increased spiral. Along the
bottom of this cylinder, and proje¢ting upwards towards the
shaft, are arranged cutting blades of hardened steel, between
which the discs pass in their revolution. The general
arrangement of this part of the apparatus is very similar to
that of a huge sausage-making machine.

The peat thus fed into the cylinder is carried forward by ~
the discs, each revolution bringing the peat against the
cutters, and thereby effeCting a complete mastication of its
fibrous tissues and cellular structure, the roots and other
undecomposed portions being reduced to a state of fine pulp,
and the whole mass is brought into a uniform condition.
The end from which the pulped peat issues is fitted with a
number of moulding orifices through which it is forced.
These may be of any desired shape and number according
to circumstances. Beneath the chamber upon which the
moulding orifice is fixed is a roller table, on which the
trays for receiving the moulded peat are placed in succession
by a bog, so that they run in a continuous series underneath
the moulding orifices and receive the peat issuing from them.
As the front end of each tray comes up the workman severs
the streams of moulded peat by means of a sliding cutter,
which severs each bar into pieces 5 inches long. The trays,
thus loaded, are lifted on to racks, where they remain for
about three days, until the peat will bear handling, when
they are placed upon open shelves for final drying. It is
stated that peat of a fibrous nature when treated by this
machinery becomes compact and hard, and assumes a specific
gravity of from 1°05 to 1°10, whilst black decomposed bog
condenses to about 1°20.

In conclusion we have to make a few observations upon
Mr. Box’s method of treating peat in order to produce it in
a dense form; but first we must refer to a few principles
laid down by that gentlemen to be observed on this subject,
as, so far as we are aware, they have not previously been
insisted upon. With regard to the initiatory pulping of
the peat, it must be observed that this process may be carried
to too great an extent, as extreme fineness of maceration
entirely defeats the object in view. Mr. Box has remarked
on this subject, in a letter to the Freeman’s Fournal

1873.! Peat. 481

of the 24th of January last, that he had seen mantel-shelves
made of peat finely passed through sieves, and that it was
as little subject to fire as an ordinary piece of stone. It
must be remarked also that dense peat ripens by age, and
acquires a greater value in proportion to the length of time
it has been made; thus, in May, 1872, advertisements in
the journals of the Department of the Somme, in France,
quoted the price of peat fuel of 1871 at 16s. 4d. per ton, whilst
that of 1870 was 18s. per ton. Peat, if properly prepared,
may be used after about two to three months’ drying, but it
is not then hard enough to bear the weight of iron ore in a
blast-furnace, nor would it resist the blast for a sufficiently
prolonged period of time.

The chief peculiarity in Box’s process is, that he employs
a Carr’s disintegrator in preference to any other kind of mill
for pulping the peat; and this he has adapted to the tearing
up and disintegration of raw peat mixed with water, it being
found that it would not disintegrate the peat unless it was
worked in water, and this is the principal change which he
has made in Mr. Carr’s mill.

With this machine the raw peat is torn up and divided
as it comes from the peat bog, the supply of water to it
being so regulated as to produce a pulp of a certain and
equal consistency. The raw peat is supplied to the side of
the opening of the mill by a hopper or funnel of a peculiar
form; it is allowed to escape from the mill with considerable
velocity, and falls a height of 4 or 5 feet on to a sieve of
considerable dimensions, and rushing through it leaves all
undecayed vegetable remains on its surface, from whence
they are roughly raked by a man placed at its side. The
pulp runs into reservoirs, which are merely spaces of ground,
surrounded by planks, about 60 feet long by 40 feet wide;
the bottom of these reservoirs is specially prepared, and
rendered porous by under draining. The peat pulp is run
into these reservoirs to a depth of about g inches, and within
twelve hours it will often be found to have shrunk to 5 inches
in thickness, and to have assumed about a consistency of
prepared brick clay; at this moment a stamper, worked by
a man, cuts the solidified pulp into pieces g inches by 4 inches.
These pieces shrink from one another, and about the third
day they are sufficiently dry to be handled. ‘They are then
carried away in specially constructed wheelbarrows, and
placed on shelves formed of laths in small sheds or frames,
some 400 to 500 feet in length, 6 feet high, and 4 feet deep,
where they are left to harden. This hardening, in summer

482 ' Peat. (October,
time, takes about two months, and the peat blocks are then
ready for use.

From the particulars above given, it will readily be
assented that, in the application of the principle of
macerating the raw peat, and in the air-drying process, will
be found the only reasonable system of producing dense turf
upon a commercial basis: and this is the conclusion to
which Mr. Purdon’s Committee in Dublin arrived. The
simple air-drying of raw peat, as it is cut in blocks, with
the slane from the peat bed, produces but a light friable
species of fuel, and one which is inconvenient for transport,
and subject to considerable waste in handling. The more
fibrous the peat is, the more subject is it to both these
inconveniences. The maceration of the peat into a pulp
is, in effect, the hastening of the work of Nature; and
its subsequent precipitation causes the production of a
result in a few days equal in effect to what would have
taken probably centuries in the ordinary course of events.

The question of cost of producing dense peat by macera-
tion and precipitation has purposely not been treated of in
the present article, as it has not yet been carried out to
a sufficient extent in this country to enable reliable data to
be obtained; besides which, many considerations have to be
taken into account which differ largely in various districts,
such as the price of labour, local peculiarities, the distance
of the bog from the manufactory, and other points which
will readily suggest themselves, so that they need not be
further dwelt on here. As some guide to the cost, however,
it may be as well to state, that at Brandenberg the total
cost of labour in the production of dense turf was estimated
by Mr. Purdon’s Committee at 6s. 6d. per ton; at Prince
Schwartzenberg’s works near Gratzen, in Bohemia, the cost
of manufacture is set down at 6s. gd. per ton; Hodge’s
Canadian Peat Company produce peat at 6s. 6d.; the
Boston Peat Company at 8s.; at Haspelmoor, in Bavaria,
it costs 12s.; Messrs. Clayton, Son, and Howlett estimate
the cost by their process at from 3s. 6d. to 5s.; whilst
Mr. Box believes, that, by his process, the expense of
manufacturing peat will be only 2s. per ton.

—eee ee ee re

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 483

V. CHANGES IN: THE MOON’S SURFACE,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

SUPPOSED CHANGES IN LINNE AND PLATO.

By RicHArp A. Proctor, B.A. Cambridge, Hon. Sec. R.A.S.
Author of “ The Sun,” ‘‘ The Moon,” “ Saturn,” &c.

HE study of our moon by astronomers has had for its
main purpose the recognition of change, the effects
of processes taking place on the moon resembling

in some degree those with which we are familiar on earth,
and especially of effects due to the existence of life, animal
or vegetable, upon the surface of our satellite. It is impos-
sible to avoid the recognition of this fa¢ét in the work of
even the most systematic and rigidly scientific lunarian
astronomers. The charting of the moon would certainly
not have been. prosecuted with the care and energy actually
shown by such workers as Cassini, Schroter, Beer and
Madier, Lohrman, and Schmidt, but for the faét that such
researches afford promise of an answer to the question,
whether the moon is on the one hand a dead and arid waste,
without any signs of motion or of change, or on the other
hand a scene where systematic processes of change are
taking place, which may or may not be interpretable by us, -
but the mere occurrence of which would suggest that the
moon is the abode of some forms of life.

I propose now to enter into the discussion of the
question here indicated, regarding it in the light afforded by
recent researches chiefly, but not omitting the consideration
of antecedent probabilities on the one hand, or of theoretical
inferences on the other. For I hold that, in scientific inves-
tigation, a mere array of facts is of little force; it is from
facts viewed in their relation to known physical conditions
that we can alone hope for useful additions to our knowledge.
And we must in a special manner avoid the common mistake
of too rigidly directing our attention to the particular subject
We are upon, instead of combining a careful scrutiny of
that subject with the search for information and analogies
derivable from other subjects, and even from subjects which
at a first view may appear little connected with the one
in hand. This, at least, is the course which experience
suggests as the most effective, the whole history of science
showing the uselessness of the mere accumulation of facts,

484 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. (October,

and the importance of the comparison of the discovered
facts of one subject with the recognised truths of other and
especially of more advanced subjects.

One other point is to be noticed before we proceed. The
enquirer into such a subject as that we are upon, whether
he endeavours to advance by means of his own personal
observations directly, or by the analysis and comparison of
observations made by himself and others, must not act upon
any preconceived ideas as to the result of his work. In
particular, he must not consider that success depends on
the recognition of signs of lunar activity rather than on
the acquiring of evidence pointing the reverse way. He
must in fact proceed quite independently, or his labours will
be worse than useless; they will be self-deceptive, or at
least they will have a tendency to be so. It has been
unfortunate that some of our most earnest lunarians have
adopted apparently a different view, and would seem to
consider that, unless they establish the occurrence of change,
they have done nothing. On the contrary, if, by the rigid
scrutiny of some particular part of the moon, any observer
should succeed in demonstrating that there at least there
has been no change, or none that can be recognised, his work
is aS important in its scientific aspect as though he had
demonstrated that some remarkable change had taken place,
though no doubt far less interesting to the general public.

The first astronomer to take up the special form of lunar
research we are here considering, with direct reference to
the condition of the moon as a probable abode of life, was
Schroter. Fontenelle had earlier discussed the question,
and had spoken of the downfall of a lunar peak, which had
probably never had any existence but in his own lively
imagination. Huyghens, in his ‘‘ Cosmotheros,” takes the
habitability of the moon for granted, and speculates fancifully
on the nature of the lunar inhabitants; but Schroter
endeavoured observationally to establish the fact. He
conceived that he had demonstrated the existence of a
lunar atmosphere of appreciable extent. He supposed that
he had discovered a great lunar city, north of Maurius;
besides lunar canals and roads in other regions. He
described the formation of a new mountain on the Mare
Crisium, and its eventual disappearance; and he asserted
that another had come into existence in Helicon*, and still
remained, where previously there had been no mountain.

* The mountain in question disappears when the moon is full, at least for

ordinary telescopes; and it was doubtless in this way as Webb suggests, that
Hevelius and Riccioli overlooked it.

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 485

Gruithuisen went further even than Schroter had done;
but his chief reliance was placed, not upon changes in the
moon, but on the existence of certain regular formations.
** He collected with the utmost diligence,” says Crampton,
in his interesting little treatise on the Moon, ‘‘all the
objects which he beheld on the lunar surface having the
appearance of regularity, such as would be shown in the
works of man here ;” and, strange to say, his search, with
the aid of a somewhat wild imagination to help it, was by
no means unsuccessful, at least as far as ‘‘ finding such
objects”? was concerned. Yet objects of the kind appear
regular only when examined with low telescopic power.
In instruments of considerable size they show manifest
signs of being simply natural formations.

However, it is not my present purpose to consider those
features of the moon which present an aspect suggestive
of artificial construction, but to deal specially with the
instances or supposed instances of change.

No one can study the moon for any considerable time
without being led to the conclusion that her general aspect
is unvarying, save, of course, as respects the changing
amount of illumination as the lunar month proceeds. It
becomes clearer and clearer, the longer the study of the
moon is continued, that it is by the careful scrutiny of small
portions of the moon’s surface that any signs of change are
to be recognised.

But this general constancy is in itself a most important
point in our subject. For supposing we should recognise
signs of change in any small portion of the lunar surface,
we shall have to enquire into the probable cause of such
change; and in making such an enquiry, it will be most
important to have determined beforehand whether any
atmosphere surrounds the moon’s globe, and if so, what
is its probable nature and extent. I do not propose to
discuss this point at any length here, because it is one
which -has been already discussed in full elsewhere; but
I would invite the student of selenography to notice that
all the direct evidence tends to show that there is scarcely
any appreciable atmosphere round the moon, zo¢ in quantity
(the absolute quantity may be and probably is very con-
siderable), but as respects actual density at the mean level
of the moon’s surface. Now, in the enquiry into changes
taking place on the moon as the result of mechanical
processes, whether from the contraction and expansion
of the surface, or from sublunarian forces which may
still be at work, we are not compelled to consider the

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3R

486 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [October, |

density of any possible lunar atmosphere. But if we extend
our theories of lunar activity, so as to include changes
resembling those due to terrestrial vegetation, or again to
those which living creatures might produce by their works,
we are bound to take some thought of this relation. We
must, in fact, consider how far it is probable that any form
of vegetation, or any kind of life can exist, where the
atmospheric density is as small, let us say, as in the so-
called vacuum produced by one of our most perfect air-
pumps. Now it appears unsafe to argue that no kind of
life, animal or vegetable, can exist in such an atmosphere
merely because our experience has not made us acquainted
with any. But, on the other hand, it must be remembered
as we proceed, that whatever degree of difficulty there may
be in admitting the existence of vegetable or animal life
under such conditions, is opposed to the occurrence of lunar
changes explicable as due to such forms of life. The whole
question being one of probabilities, we must not overlook
this antecedent improbability.

At the same time, life exists under such varied conditions
on our own earth, that it is impossible to assert that, where
there is certainly very little air, and as certainly very little,
if*any, moisture, life cannot exist. Let us admit the possi-
bility, and let us further admit that the strange vicissitudes
to which living creatures on the moon would be exposed
during the lunar day and night, are not necessarily fatal to
the hypothesis that life exists on the moon.

We have, then, two forms of change to enquire into—
those due to mechanical, chemical, and other like processes,
and those due to the existence of life upon the moon.

But’ at the outset of the enquiry, we must take into
consideration a circumstance which is very frequently
overlooked in dealing with this subject. In all terrestrial
comparisons to determine processes of change, the observer
or experimenter is careful always to keep the circumstances
unchanged under which the object of research is examined.
If he desired to ascertain whether some distant and (let us
say) inaccessible surface underwent changes, he would, to
speak plainly, be careful to look at that surface in the same
way throughout his experiments, and also to sele¢t occasions
when the atmosphere was in some given condition.

Now, first, the conditions under which any lunar object is
observed necessarily change with the progress of the lunar
day. As the sun gradually rises higher and higher above the
horizon of any lunar place, the shadows not only decrease
in length, but shift in direction; and as the sun passes

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 487

down again towards the horizon, the shadows, though they
increase again in length, are yet thrown in quite a
different direction from that in which they fell in the earlier
part of the day. The effect of such changes will depend
partly on the nature of the surface; but all parts of the
moon’s surface where one would look for changes due to
volcanic action, or to the effects of expansion and con-
traction, would be certainly very much affected by changes
of illumination. Thus it is found that the whole aspect of
a lunar region at morning time differs from its noon aspe@,
and its noon aspect again from the aspect it presents when
its evening is in progress. Wecan take the diurnal changes
into account in successive lunations, because (weather per-
mitting) we can observe any given lunar region repeatedly
at about the same hour of the lunarday. But we cannot
do this with perfect exactness; for the lunar day, that is
the lunation, is not commensurable with our day. Since one
lunation in fact contains approximately 29°53 of our mean
days, we see that if any lunar feature is observed in a given
part of our sky, at a given lunar hour in one lunation, then,
in the next lunation, that part of the lunar day will
correspond to a time when the moon is nearly 12 hours of
diurnal rotation from that part of the sky. For instance,
if true full moon occurs at midnight in one lunation, so
that a place on the moon’s central meridian is observed at its
noon and at our midnight, then, in the next lunation, the
noon of that place will occur nearly at our mid-day, and
the moon was on the meridian about half a day of our
time before, or will be on the meridian about half a day of
our time after the time of true moon for places on the
central meridian of the moon; in half a day of our time
a place on the moon undergoes a considerable change of
illumination. Since two lunations amount to 59°06 days,
that is to 59 days and nearly an hour and a half, we
see, that in the next lunation but one, there will be a much
smaller difference of illumination if any lunar region is
observed at almost the same hour of terrestrial time; for
an hour and a half of our time corresponds to only about
three minutes of lunar time,* and as we know the sun’s

* Since the lunar day contains 29°53 of our days, it follows that the lunar
hour, or the 24th part of the day, corresponds to 1°23 terrestrial days, or 29°53
terrestrial hours. Again, one terrestrial day corresponds to 1+29°53 of -a
lunar day, or to rather less than 48m. 46s. of lunar time supposed to be
divided as ours (that is, the day into 24 equal parts, to be called lunar hours,
the hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds). These two
relations are sufficient for the ready conversion of terrestrial into lunar time,
and vice versa.

488 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. (October,

position does not change much in three minutes. But then
a great change will have taken’ place in the moon’s diurnal
course, simply because the moon’s position with respect to
the equator, at any given phase, varies as the sun’s does
(sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the position
of the nodes of the moon’s orbit, but always to a con-
siderable degree), since the inclination of the moon’s orbit to
the equator is never less than 18°; accordingly a long time
elapses before there is a close approach to identity in the
lunar and terrestrial conditions under which a lunar region
is observed.

And it is to be noted that, when so far as the moon’s
motion in her orbit is concerned there would otherwise be
a close approach to identity in the conditions, the continual
change in the inclination of the orbit causes a marked
difference in the elevation at which the moon is seen above
the horizon.

If we add to these considerations the fact that the moon has
seasons, though they are not very marked, and that the sun’s
elevation at lunar noon thus varies through an arc of about
3, we see that a very long interval must elapse before there
is any very near approach to the conditions, lunar as well
as terrestrial, under which any lunar region is observed.

As yet we have taken no account whatever of the lunar
librations. These occasion a distinét class of differences.
The varying solar elevation affeCts the aCtual aspect of any
lunar region as it would be seen from one and the same
standpoint; and varying lunar elevations, by causing the moon
to be observed under different conditions of terrestrial atmo-
sphere, must manifestly produce varying effects. But the
lunar librations correspond to an actual change of place on
the observer’s part.

This Would not be the place to give a full account of the
lunar librations. In faét, the subje¢t would require much
more space than is here available. But there are certain
considerations which bear in a very important manner on
the question of change in the lunar surface.

Let it be noticed, that the point which is at the centre of
the moon’s disc when there is no libration is carried by the
librations so as to occupy in turn every part of a lunar area
appreciably re¢tangular, some 152° wide in lunar longitude
and some 13+° wide in lunar latitude. Thus the lunar
region occupied by this point is viewed in every direction
corresponding to these limits. We see it square when it is
in its mean position, we see it tilted 73° on either side of its
mean position in longitude, and 63° on either side of this

1873.] Condition of the Moon’s Surface. 489

position in latitude, and in every possible mean position as
well as with every possible combination of tilt in longitude
and latitude. In fine, if o (Fig. 1) be its mean and central
position, then this point occupies in turn (and in the course
of time) every part of the areaABCD.

Now this has only been stated to show the actual
librational sway of the moon, not to indicate the impor-
tanee ol. the efects: due to such libration. «For it ‘is
manifest that the region about o cannot be very much
affected in appearance by being shifted even to the point
A, or to B, or to C, or to D, that is, to its maximum amount.
If we were looking at the summit and slopes of any hills or

FIG. I.

craters, when the central region was at 0, we should also
be looking at those summits and slopes when the region was
at A, B, C, or D,—unless, indeed, the slopes were exceedingly
steep.

Of course the two opposite slopes of a ridge, suppose,
would be seen in different proportion at A andc, or at D
and s, and if they were differently tinted, a different effect
would be produced, whether we could see such slopes
separately or not.

Thus if such a ridge as ABC (Fig. 2) were looked at
directly when at 0, we should see the slopes AaB, BC, of
apparently equal width, as shown by the equality of DE

490 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [OGtober,

and E F drawn square across the parallels from A, B, and c,
towards the eye; whereas, if the base A c were inclined to
the position ac or a’c’, we should in one case see bc the
wider, and in the other see 0’c’ the wider, as shown by the
inequality of the lines de, ef, and d'e’, ef’. Such changes
would necessarily produce some effet; and the effet might
be deceptive, and indicate change where there had been no

Fic. 2.
- } { 1 J
poral Pay
i : : j : H ‘gv J ses)
!
1 aad 3 perdi nate 6 1 eneaeons + a eee F ee teil .
1 i i i at | |
i 1 t 1 ! : i |
Bl aoe
I ‘h | il ' ' ‘|
1 !
1
1

\
Q
Dy Jan is fa Sh os
n

yoo

change, if a surface were covered with ridges such as A BC, .

too minute to be individually discernible, and having the
side towards c darker or lighter than the side towards A.
The same would hold also if the slopes A B and B c were
not, as in the imagined case, inclined equally to the base Ac.

But it will be manifest that these effects, though they
might be appreciable, would be insignificant compared with
those which libration might produce, in certain circum-
stances, on points at a considerable distance from the centre

of the disc. Thus, take such a case as is illustrated in —

Fig. 3, where a ridge, ABC, instead of being looked at
squarely, is viewed at an angle of 40°, corresponding to

Fic. 3.
oe
/ a Pd
id . se Se
7
ie 4
Zs. 7
ee Y 7
4 se XN 4
7 / ey ? ,
/ 7 Se /
/ 7 Ler J
% 4 Sy “sS
Fv z / acs es
~/ 4 7 X. ~
f Ys 7 < 4
4 # io bt 7

f
7 Z SZ
ye Pej

4 oes
Pe Z , PS 2g 4
yy) | Fe
ella Zs

a position removed 50° from 0, in Fig. 1. Then lines being
drawn from ABC, and, at an angle of 40°", to Ac, and
parallel lines from the corresponding points of the same
ridge tilted on either side of its mean position as before, we
see that the inequality between DE and EF is much less
than that between de and ef, and much greater than that
between d’e’ and e’f’. The effects of libration may thus be

ad
4 .'<
=f
— Ss. ee

1873.] - Condition of the Moon’s Surface. | 491

very considerable indeed on places considerably removed
from o (Fig. 1). It is indeed clear that places which, when
the moon is in mean libration, are near the lunar limb, but
not near enough to be carried actually out of view, must be
very importantly affected, since de (Fig. 3) would vanish
altogether with a slight reduction of the angle at which the ©
parallels of the figure are inclined to ac.

Remembering that every point of the visible lunar hemi-
sphere undergoes libration, and that in every lunar month
there is a complete oscillation of the point 0 over a certain
libration-ellipse, which is continually varying in different
months as well in position and size as in the direction in
which it is traversed, while the maximum libratory effects
(always considerable) are attained at different epochs in
different lunations, we see that we have here a very impor-
tant cause of changes in appearance. It is utterly im-
possible that any surface like the moon’s could, as a whole,
undergo such remarkable librations without some note-
worthy changes of appearance being produced, even without
those changes of illumination which have been referred to
above. Further evidence on this point will presently be
cited. .

Now the cycle of libratory changes for the moon, regarded
without reference to her phases, is a long one. It amounts,
on the average, to almost exactly six years; and we may
say that the same libratory condition is not restored until
this period has elapsed. ‘There are momentary coincidences
of position, but these positions are arrived at, and passed
away from, in different ways, until at the end of the long
cycle the same series of changes is re-commenced. But this
is not all. Wemust consider phase in this inquiry; indeed,
it is the most important consideration of all. Now, the six-
yearly period brings back the same libratory condition, but
not the same phase when given libration effects are pro-
duced. This is manifest if we consider that the node
regredes only 19 21’ per annum, and therefore in six years
regredes little more than 116’, having, therefore, a totally
different position with respect to ecliptical longitude. In
two six-yearly periods it regredes rather more than 233°, or
has still a totally different position. ~In three six-yearly
periods it regredes 348° 23’ 24”, or is now I1° 36’ 36” from its
first position. This is the nearest approach. The fourth,
fifth, and sixth six-yearly periods bring the node to
2% 13°12 trom Ws first position. We may call this-a
second eighteen-yearly period. Ten such eighteen-yearly
periods bring the node 116° 6’ from its first position, and

492 Condition of the Moon’s Surface. [Otober,

one other six-yearly period then brings it into all but perfect
coincidence with its first position. But 186 years have then
elapsed, and though the conditions are nearly reproduced
so far as libration is concerned, the astronomer who made a
first series of observations at the beginning of this period is
not alive to repeat them under like conditions, even if like
conditions existed. Even this, however, is not the case
absolutely, since the lunation would be in another part of its
progress at any given season of the year, at the end of the
long period named.

Of course I would not have it understood that there is
not, within much shorter periods, an approach to the
restoration of given relations. Two or three times, perhaps,
in ten years, any given feature in the moon may be seen
under conditions so nearly alike as to produce a great
similarity of aspect; and if the weather is favourable on
such occasions, a legitimate comparison may be instituted
for the purpose of ascertaining if change has taken place.
But it may safely be asserted that the opportunities pre-
sented during the life of any single astronomer for a trust-
worthy investigation of any portion of the moon’s surface
under like conditions are few and far between, and the whole
time so employed must be brief even though the astronomer
devote many more years than usual to observational
research.

I shall now proceed to indicate a remarkable instance of
the effects produced by libration on the aspect of a lunar
region lying not very far from the limb, in order that the
student of the subje¢t may duly recognise the importance of
position in this matter.

Mr. Webb, in his ‘‘ Catalogue of Lunar Objects,” makes
the following remarks respecting a supposed lunar crater:—
‘‘On the western edge of the Mare Crisium. Schroter
delineated a crater, called by him Alhazen, which he
employed to measure the existing libration; he saw in it,
after a time, unaccountable changes; and now, it is said, it
cannot be found. Beer and Madler confounded it with a
crater lying further south; the question, however, which in
the interim was debated between Kunowsky and Kohler, is
not quite cleared up.” In January, 1862, Mr. Birt observed
two objects where Schroter had seen a single crater, and
addressed a letter on the subject to Mr. Webb, who then
gave him the following interesting and instru¢tive history of
the region: —‘‘Schroter had watched Alhazen and measured
from it for years, and found it too varying in aspect to be
accounted for by the varying angle of illumination. At first

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 493

it was a depressed circle surrounded by a ring, and distin-
guished from the neighbouring objects under all angles by
its dark grey tint. Subsequently, it often appeared, even in
a 27-foot reflector (mirror about 20 inches) under favourable
circumstances as a bright longish flat mountain, though
more frequently in its original grey aspect; occasionally it
would be so indistinét, other objects being well defined, that
he could not tell‘what to make of it. On March 1, 1797,
Alhazen being very near the limb (only 27°27” from it), and
therefore in a position to be very indistinct, especially as the
terminator had advanced to the other side of the Mare, he
saw it with a 13-feet reflector (mirror about g inches and
power 180) more distin@tly than ever, and in quite a new
form, as a real very deep and bright crater, with an irregular
ring, scarcely united to the south, and open to the north,
with a projection on the east side. Also, there was a small
Shadow as of a crater never seen before during the
innumerable observations of ten years. Schroter thought
Alhazen, under this aspe¢t, appeared as deep as Proclus.”
‘“Mr. Webb,” proceeds Mr. Birt, ‘‘ enclosed a tracing, with
this remark :—‘I think you will consider it as affording an
interesting comparison with your own observations. He
has figured, you will see (as well as described), a little crater
where you describe two (?). The circumstance of his ranges
~ uniting so closely to the south may be due to a different
libration.” Kunowsky, in the Astronomische Fahrbuch for
1825, speaks of Alhazen as lost. Inthe Fahrbuch for 1826,
Pastorff, writing January 20, 1823, says his son repeatedly
found Alhazen. Pastorff also saw it. In the Fahrbuch for
1827, Harding is recorded as having seen Alhazen as
Schroter had drawn it. Pastorff saw it in the same year,
and in 1829. The difference of aspect, as well as the occa-
sional difficulty of finding this interesting spot, is highly
curious. Schroter’s earliest delineation gives it, as described,
a shallow depression, entirely surrounded by a ring. My
own observations, which now follow, may perhaps throw
some light on these differences and difficulties. Two
ranges of mountains, one behind the other, may easily be
taken for a crater, and at a certain angle of illumination it
may be exceedingly difficult to distinguish the difference.
After a while the supposed crater entirely vanishes, libration
alters the visual angle, and rotation the illuminating one,
the observer being greatly puzzled as to what has become of
his well-recognised crater.”

Mr. Birt then describes the observations made by himself
on January 3 and 4, 1862. On the former day Schroter’s

VOL. Ll. (N-S.) 38

494 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. [October,

Alhazen at first sight appeared to have somewhat the
appearance of a crater, the west edge being high but the
east much lower. ‘‘ Upon attentively considering it,” says
Mr. Birt, ‘‘I have some reason to think it consists of two
nearly parallel ranges of mountains, just on the borders of
the Mare, the eastern range forming a part of the actual

border. The shadow of the western range is, under this |

illumination, terminated at a line west of the eastern range,
the western slope of which is glowing in bright sunshine.”

On January 4, Mr. Birt remarks as follows,—‘‘ At times .

the definition has been very fine, and the real character of
Schroter’s Alhazen well seen; the southern terminations of
the two mountain ranges were seen to be quite separate the
one from the other, and the level surface passing between
them. It is not surprising that the two combined should
have been regarded as a crater, especially if viewed by alow
power ; for now, haze coming on, it is impossible to distin-
guish the two from a crater. In the earlier part of the
evening, the independence of the two ranges, especially
on the south, was very apparent; the shorter shadow brought
out very distinctly the mountain character, and the recess of
the shadow of the eastern range revealed the existence of
two (?) small craters lying at the foot of the eastern slope,
upon the very border of the Mare Crisium. Beer and
Madler figure two mountain ranges in the locality, but very
unlike the mountain ranges described above.”

All this is very instructive. It shows what effects the
varying visual angle and illumination will produce where
most effective, and therefore the effe¢ts which they tend to
produce under other circumstances.

I pass to the consideration of two lunar regions, to which
in recent times attention has been specially direéted,—the
crater Linné and the Floor of Plato,—proposing to discuss
the evidence of change (mechanical change in the one case,
and systematic variation recurring each lunar day in the
other), with careful reference to all the known circumstances
of each case.

On November 17, 1866, Mr. Birt received a letter from
Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, to the following effect :—‘‘ Depuis
quelque tems je trouve qu’un crateére de la lune situé dans le
plaine du Mare Serenitatis, n’est plus visible. Cette cratére
nommé par Madler ‘Linné’ se trouve dans la quatriéme
section de Lohrmann sous le signe A. Je connais ce cratére

depuis 1841, et méme en pleine lune il n’était pas difficile.

de l’apercevoir; en Octobre et Novembre, 1866, a l’époque
du maximum de son apparence, c’est a dire un jour avant le

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 495

lever du soleil a son horizon, cette profonde cratére, dans
le diamétre est 5°6 milles Anglais, était parfaitement
disparu ; seulement un lueur, un petite image blanchatre se
présentait au lieu de Linné. Auriez vous bien la bonté de
faire quelques observations sur cette localité.”

Passing over the earlier observations made in accordance
with this suggestion, I quote the statements made by Dr.
Huggins, in the ‘‘ Monthly Notices of the Astronomical
Saciety * tor ,June,.1667. He remarks that.‘‘on May 11,
1867, Linné had the appearance of an oval patch on the
darker background of the Mare Serenitatis. The character
of the surface of the white spot may be described as similar
in appearance to that of a cloud, for it presented no distinct
details, and remained undefined when the small neigh-
bouring craters were seen with great clearness. The
absence of any defined points upon which the eye can rest
is probably the reason that the boiling motion of our atmo-
sphere is perceived in a much more marked manner over
the white spot than on the adjoining sharply-defined parts
of the moon’s surface. From this cause, Linné appeared
on several occasions as a mass of white cloud in motion, at
the same time that the craters near it were seen steadily
and with distinctness. This cloudy appearance arises pro-
bably from a peculiar partly reflective property of the
material of which Linné consists. Some other portions of
the moon’s surface reflect light in an analogous manner.

. The shallow saucer-like form of Linné was not seen,
bac. I have detested it on other occasions. ... In the
centre nearly of Linné, but rather nearer to the western
margin, was seen the small crater. This object was well
defined in the telescope. ‘The interior of the small crater
was in shadow, with the exception of a small part of
it towards the east. The margin of the small crater was
-much brighter on the western side, and at this part appears
to be more elevated above the surface of Linné. Under
very oblique illumination, this high western wall appears as
a small brilliant eminence, and casts a shadow which
is somewhat pointed. . . . I estimated the diameter of the
small crater to be rather greater than one-fourth of the
diameter of the white spot.” . . . . On the evening of July 9,
the boundary of Linné was noticed not to end abruptly,
but to pass “gradually into the darker surface of the
Mare Serenitatis.”’

Dr. Huggins then proceeds to inquire into some of
the historical evidence. ‘‘ Herr Schmidt,” he says, “is of
opinion that a great change has recently taken place in the

496 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. (October,

appearance of Linné, when it is viewed under oblique illu-
mination. This conclusion is based upon a comparison of
its present appearance with the descriptions of Lohrmann
and Madler, and with Herr Schmidt’s own observations
from 1841 to 1843. On this account, it is of importance to
notice that the earlier observations by Schroter seem to
agree very closely with the appearance which Linné now
presents. In Plate IX. of Schroter’s ‘‘Selenotopographische
Fragmente,” the place occupied by Linné is marked by
a round white spot, and not by the figure of acrater. The
spot is distinguished in the plate by the letter v. At page
181, Schroter gives the following description of this obje¢t :—
‘ Die sechste Bergader Kommt von einer fast dicht an den
sitidlichen Granzgebirgen befindlichen, verhaltlich gezeich-
neten Einsenkung u, streicht nordlich nach v, woselbst sie
wieder eine ohnegefahr gleich grosse, aber ganz flache, als
ein weisses, sehr kleines rundes Flecken erscheinende,
etwas ungewisse Einsenkung in sich hat.’ . . . The obser-
vation was made in 1788, November 5, from 4 hours 30
minutes to 8 hours. The mean time of the observations
was 7 days 14 hours after new moon. Schroter employed a
power of 161 on his 7 feet reflector. The description of
this object as a flat somewhat doubtful crater, which
appeared as a round white spot, agrees remarkably with the
appearance which Linné now presents under similar condi-
tions of illumination. The absence of any mention by
Schroter of the small interior crater cannot be regarded as
evidence of much weight that this little crater has been
subsequently formed. An objeét so small might easily have

been overlooked by Schroter. However, Lohrmann’s de-

scription, in 1823,* and that by Madler, in 1831, do not
appear to be in accordance with Schroter’s observations, or
with the present aspect of the object. My observations

were made with a refractor of 8 inches aperture, and with

various powers from 200 diameter to 800 diameters.”

The next communication from which I shall quote is con-
tained in a paper in the Student, August, 1867, and is by
Mr. Birt :—

“The question of change on the moon’s surface, supposed
to have been manifested in the case of the crater Linné,
with which our readers are acquainted, remains undecided.
Respighi, on the Continent, as well as several eminent astro-
nomers in our own country, having come to the conclusion

* “A is the second crater upon this plain,—has a diameter which exceeds

somewhat one mile, is very deep, and can be seen under every illumination.”
—Topographie der Mondoberfiache, p. 92 and plate, section IV.

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 497

that no change whatever has taken place in the condition of
Linné, and that if any appearances have been presented indi-
cating change, such appearances are to be explained either by
defective observations, by unfavourable conditions of our own
atmosphere, by variations in the angles under which we see
lunar objects, or by different incidences of the solar light
falling upon them.

“The results that have as yet been arrived at, and which
are supported both by English and Continental observations,
are as follows :—

“First. The existence of a shallow crater, usually pre-
senting the appearance of a whitish cloud, which, by the
way, is of variable size; the crater itself has been very
rarely seen. Respighi saw it on the rtoth of May, 1867,
during a perfectly tranquil state of the air. Knott caught a
sight of the ring on January 12th, 1867, and, on the
Same evening, in moments of quiet air and good definition,
Buckingham noticed the shallow depression. Webb saw.
the ring on April r1th, 1867.

“Second. In this shallow crater or depression, a little
west of the centre, a small crater with a well-marked
interior shadow has been seen more or less distin@ly, both
in England and on the Continent, since November, 1866;
in some cases a perfect crater, in others portions only
have been detected. The evidence tending to establish the
existence of this small crater is certainly beyond dispute.

“Third. Herr Schmidt, of Athens, carefully observed
Linné from October 16th, 1866, and during November, 1866,
without having detected either the large shallow crater
or the small one within it. The rim of the small crater
appears to have first arrested his attention on December
13th, 1866, as a delicate white hill; Buckingham seems to
have first seen the shadow asa black spot on the following
evening, December 14th.

‘‘ From the data given, a table (see next page) has been
constructed.

“ Respighi would seem to have measured the shallow
crater instead of the small one.”

Wollf makes the following remarks in the Comptes Rendus
for June 17, 1867 :—

*“* Since the roth May I have noticed that the crater Linné
continues to exist, but with a much smaller diameter than
that of the crater indicated in the maps of Lohrmann
or Beer and Madler. In the centre of the white spot
a circular black hole may be seen, bordered on the west by
a portion of ground which seems prominent above the

498 Changes in the Moon’s S urface. [October,

oa
ESTIMATIONS AND MEASURES OF THE EXTENT OF LINNE.

Authority. Epoch. Eng. feet. Seconds. ObjeG@s. Remarks. ~

Schmidt. . — 36.449 5°17. Crater.

B. and M. . 1831 33.482 4°83 Crater.

Schmidt. . 1866, OG. 18 48,688 6°90 ©=Whitish cloud.

Birt . . . 1866,Dec.15 81,920 1x1°61 Whitish cloud. Measured.
py ese. ae: 49,886. 77°07 Whitish cloud. Measured.
we le oe Ee, ee 7°32 Whitish cloud. Measured.
4k oy eR Ss 2 aes 6°75 Whitish cloud. Measured.

Schmidt. . 1866, 27. + 12,790 1-81 Whitish cloud.

Bae.) ee 1 ea, Jan. 14 56,100 7°95 Whitish cloud. Measured.
Buckingham 1867, Mar.14 42,336 6:00 Whitish cloud. Measured.

Wolf. . =. 3867, Jume a2. . 41,752 4°50 Whitish cloud.

Bit... ss. FBG, Tuly= Saas 5°33. Whitish cloud. Measured.
ew else VE, (erg, fee 700 Whitish cloud. Measured.
ee ee ee ee ee 5°36 Whitish cloud. Measured.

Schmidt. . 1866, Dec. 13 1,918°4 0°27 Delicate hill.

ee ee a ee ee, 1,695 0°24 Fine black point.
te) me de gee Fas eS 1,279 o°18 Fine black point.
et wrk, k OE eS 25 1,918°4 027 Fine white peak.

Seccm) . . 2507, Rem. 1 2,352 0°33. Small crater.

Respighi . 1867,Apr.,May 28,224 4°00 Small crater.

Wolf. . . 1867, June 12 7056 t‘oo Small crater.

remainder of the spot. This slight extra elevation has
already been described by Schmidt. Atmospheric circum-
stances did not allow me to obtain an irreproachable image
of the moon before the roth June. On that day, at 8 o’clock,
Linné had already been in full light nearly 48 hours, and
the central hole could be seen with perfect sharpness. It is
a deep crater—deeper than most of the little craters
surrounding it, if one may judge from the comparative
intensity of the shadows; but its diameter is not equal to
that of craters A and B of Beer and Madler. The white
spot which spreads radiatingly (s’étend en rayonnant) round
it, had, on the r2th June, a diameter of 4°5”, that of Bessel
being 7°7”; the crater itself subtending a little less than
one second. The perfect purity of the atmosphere, and
the optical power of the telescope which I employed,
allowed a number of small craters to be seen very distinétly
round Linné, or rather a number of small round holes with-
out elevated margins, and which are not shown in Beer and
Madler’s map. Six of these little craters form a very
remarkable double range to the north and north-east of
Linné. They are smaller than the craters in a line situate
to the north-west of Linné, and noticed by Schmidt. I em-
ployed magnifications of 235, 380, and 620 times.

‘‘ The brightness of Linné has not changed since Beer
and Madler’s observations, for it is always equal to that of
the white spot situated near Littrow, on the western margin
of the Sea of Serenity, to which B. and M. assigned the
luminosity 6.

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 499

‘* Tf, then, we compare the actual appearance of Linné
with the text of Lohrmann and his successors, it is possible,
ala rigueur, to believe that it has undergone a certain change.
Linné has always been a deep crater, with elevated margins;
its lustre has not changed—its total diameter has remained
about the same. A comparison of maps, on the contrary,
indicates a real alteration, for these figure a large crater
occupying all the space now filled by the white spot.
Schmidt thinks that, we cannot refuse to attribute great
weight to the identity of the indications of these two maps.
The authors of the second, having the first at their disposal,
it is probable that if they had not found the great crater
drawn by Lohrmann, they would have noticed so extra-
ordinary a fact. It is not, however, without interest, to
compare their indications with that of earlier maps. The
picture drawn and presented by Lahire, which is in the
library of St. Genevieve, represents Bessel, Sulpicius
Gallus, and other little craters, equal to Linné in the map
of Madler; but he does not indicate Linné. He has only
many white spots in this part of the sea. Cassini’s map
appears merely a copy of Lahire with less detail. Accord-
ing to Schmidt’s note, Schroter seems not to have seen
Linné, at least not as one of the principal craters in the
Sea of Serenity, although he noticed others that were
smaller.

“If we consult the photographs of the moon, we see, in
the large copy of Warren De la Rue (1858), Bessel and
Sulpicius Gallus exhibiting an indication of an interior
shadow, while Linné figures as a white spot. The same is
seen, though clearer, in the enlarged copy of the magnificent
photograph obtained by Mr. Rutherford on the 4th March,
1865.

‘“The disappearance of the great crater of Linné, then,
dates as far back as 1858, if not as far back as Lahire.
Apart from the indications supplied by the maps of
Lohrmann and Beer and Madler, to which we may oppose
the counter indications of Lahire and Schroter, we only
possess a single positive document testifying that Linné has
undergone any change, and that is the affirmation of
Schmidt that his crater and drawings of 1841 represent the
object differently to what is now seen.”

In April, 1869, Mr. Browning described his observations
of Linné, and gave pictures of the shallow crater and the
small crater within. These pictures are interesting, as
showing the changes which the same object may present, as
seen by the same observer, within a very short space of

500 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. [October,

time. The following description is from Mr. Browning’s
Note-Book. I invite special attention to the times of
observation :—

‘September 8, 1869. £1.30 a.m.—Saw Linné very dis-
tinctly as a crater, elongated north and south. The north
part of the crater the narrowest. The evening terminator
crossing Bessel. Eye-piece used, positive achromatic,
power 208.

‘2.15 a.m.—The wall of the crater appears nearly per-
pendicular on the west.

‘*3 a.m.—The small crater is seen to be in the centre of
a shallow cup, about four or five times its own diameter.
Eye-piece same kind, power 306.

‘4 a.m.—A white nebulous line, resembling steam,
appears to start from the mouth of the crater, and is con-
tinued in the form of a scythe, with the blade directed
towards the west. At 4.15 this line was much fainter, and
at 4.50 it was no longer visible. As this appearance only
presented itself for about ten minutes, I have little doubt
that it was an optical illusion, caused by a small cloud
in our atmosphere, moisture in front of the pupil of the eye,
or some cause quite independent of the object.” (I venture
to doubt whether any such cause could have produced
an illusion of the sort lasting for so many minutes).
‘‘ During the time the appearance lasted,” proceeds Mr.
Browning, ‘‘I changed the eye-piece, and rotated the
drawer-tube which carried the eye-pieces. As neither of
these proceedings affected the appearance, it could not have
been a ‘ ghost,’ caused by reflection from the surface of one
of the lenses in the eye-piece.’

Mr. Browning, after considering the evidence afforded by
his own observations, considered in connection with those
made by others, arrives at the conclusion that ‘‘ there is
scarcely any ground for supposing that any change has
occurred in this small but celebrated crater. Should this
eventually prove to be the case,” he adds, “‘ the time that
has been given to this matter has not on that account been
lost. Attentive examination of this minute object has
made us acquainted with peculiarities of the reflecting
power of portions of the moon’s surface which may ulti-
mately lead to some more exact knowledge of the character
of the surface of our most. interesting because most per-
plexing satellite.”

These remarks appear to me to contain the gist of the
whole matter. We see that Linné has a surface so consti-
tuted that as the sun is rising there, and so pouring his rays

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 501

very obliquely, there is a continual change of aspect
precisely resembling that which can be recognised when
certain kinds of rock surfaces, and especially crystalline
formations, are viewed under oblique illumination. We
know that in such cases the tints vary not only absolutely,
but relatively, insomuch that a part which is darker than
another with one oblique illumination will be lighter under
another and but slightly different oblique illumination.

It appears to me that no other explanation can reasonably
be suggested; because, in point of fact, we have to choose
between the theory that there has been a definite change
of surface in this part of the moon, or that the change is
only apparent. Nowif there has been a definite change at
any time, fresh changes must have restored, either from time
to time or definitely, the former condition of the surface.
But this seems extremely unlikely; while such a change as
Sir John Herschel considered to afford the best explanation
of Schmidt’s observations may be regarded as one which no
subsequent process could so modify as to restore, or nearly
restore, the original appearance of the region. For, says
Herschel, ‘‘the most plausible conjecture as to the cause
of” the disappearance noted by Schmidt, ‘‘ seems: to be the
filling up of the crater from beneath by an effusion of
viscous lava, which, overflowing the rim on all sides, may
have so flowed down the outer slope as to efface its rugged-
ness, and convert it into a gradual declivity casting no true
shadow.” Such a change would doubtless account well for
the observed appearances; but it leaves the restoration of
the crater afterwards unexplained.

It remains to be noticed that recently the crater has been
observed again somewhat attentively by Dr. Erck and Mr.
Burton. Mr. Birt thus speaks of their observations of
Linné :—‘‘ During the present year this celebrated object
has appeared more of a crater form than for some years
previously,:at least.since 1866. .....,On June 4, 1873) Dr.
Erck measured the largest diameter of the elliptical spot,
and found the mean of several measures to be equal to
4 seconds, or 28,226 English feet, which but little exceeds
half the length of the largest diameter as measured by Dr.
Huggins. Mr. Burton gives a drawing to scale, which
differs very materially from Dr. Huggins’s, in the ‘‘ Monthly
Notices.”” In Dr. Huggins’s drawing, the small crater is
situated in the western part of the white spot, its exact posi-
tion being indicated by the following numbers: Length, 35;
small crater, 5, or one-seventh of the length of the white
spot; west ‘rim of small crater distant from west edge

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3T

502 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. (October,

of white spot, 10; east edge of small crater distant from”

east edge of white spot, 20. In Dr. Erck’s (and Burton’s)
drawing, the small crater is situated on the eastern part
of the white spot; its position, measured on the same scale
as Dr. Huggins’s drawing, is shown as follows: Length, 15;
small crater, 5, or one-third of the length of the white spot;
west rim of small crater distant from west edge of white
spot, 8; east edge of small crater distant from east edge of
white spot, 2. Upon reducing the numbers for each drawing
to the same scale, we have, in 1867, the eastern distance
double the western, and in 1873, the same distance is only
one-third that of the western. Equal weights being accorded
to the drawings (and we know that, in 1867, the then presi-
dent of the R.A.S., Professor Pritchard,* laid great stress
on the drawings of Dr. Huggins), it is clear that Linné has
undergone a change in the interval between 1866 and the
present time, and this circumstance of itself is enough to
induce renewed energy in as earnest an attack upon Linné
as took place in 1866 and 1867, especially as there is
now great probability of settling the disputed question of
change.”

It needs, however, only a comparison between the three
drawings taken by Mr. Browning on September 8, 1869, to
see that within the space of three hours Linné changed
from the aspect presented to Mr. Burton in 1873 to an
aspect more nearly resembling that presented to Dr. Huggins
in 1867.

I pass now to the Floor of Plato.

It was in November, 1861, that Mr. Birt communicated
his first series of observations of Plato to the Royal Astro-
nomical Society. On the same occasion he described an in-
strument for comparing colours, which he proposed to call
the homochromascope. In describing this instrument, he re-
marked that he had ‘found it necessary to devise some
means for comparing with various standards of colour
the tints of various portions, especially the dark-floored
craters, the extensive grey plains, and the more luminous
districts in immediate proximity with the raised craters.”
I do not quote the description of the instrument, because I
am only concerned with its purpose; and, in point of fact,
the instrument has not been completed, nor any substitute

* We have evidence here of the mischievous results which must follow
from the election to high office in a learned society of a fellow thereof. who,
whatever his qualifications may possibly be in other departments of knowledge,
has no special knowledge of the subject to which such society is devoted.

The supposition that any astronomical work by Dr. Huggins could gain
weight from comments by Professor Pritchard is amazingly absurd.

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 503

used in the observations of Plato, so far as I know. What
I wish to indicate is that, at the beginning of this inquiry,
Mr. Birt recognised the necessity of some instrumental con-
trivance for determining colour tints, as distinguished from
mere processes of eye-estimation.

The observations of the Floor of Plato divide themselves
into two classes. First, there is the observation of the floor
itself, regarded as a whole, and compared with neighbouring
regions, and especially with the neighbouring parts of the
Mare Imbrium; then, secondly, there is the study of the
spots, thirty-seven in number, which have been detected in
the floor, and which vary in visibility, not only absolutely
but relatively.

The main result which Mr. Birt deduces from the general
study of the Floor of Plato is that it grows darker as the
lunar day advances, being darker near noon at Plato. Ido
not know that any good would be gained by entering into
minute details, which would occupy much space, and would
not elucidate the subject, since those who believe that a real
change takes place attach no importance to these minutia,
but ask for acceptance only of the general fact that as the
sun rises higher above the level of Plato the floor of
the crater grows darker as compared with the neighbouring
region, and that the morning tints are resumed as the sun
gradually passes from its culmination descendingly towards
the western horizon of Plato. ©

I have before me as I write a series of observations made
by Mr. Neison, F.R.A.S., which would occupy, were I to
quote them in full, far more space than remains available to
me. They indicate, as satisfactorily as need be, the process
of darkening to which I have just referred.

Nothing could seem more clearly demonstrated than the
fact that Plato darkens towards the noon-tide hours of that
lunar region. We might enter on the inviting speculations
suggested by such a state of things, inquiring whether that
darkening was due to some process of vegetation, or to
chemical changes in the surface of the floor. And a variety
‘of speculations more or less ingenious might suggest them-
selves as to the general condition of the regions within the
circular crater-walls.

But we must not overlook the possibility that the
darkening of Plato may be apparent only, not real. It
is most important that before we begin to reason on
processes of change we should assure ourselves that change
really does take place. There is another reason for caution in
the circumstance that, so far as can be seen, any explanation

504 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. (October,

of the darkening of Plato which refers the phenomenon -
to real processes of change, must be based on the conception
of physical processes unlike any with which we are familiar;
and it is a recognised rule in science that such conceptions
should be avoided. It is true that in regions to which we
are unable to extend experimental research such processes
may take place; nay, we may say that certainly there occur
in nature many kinds of a¢tion which are unlike any we are
familiar with. But it is one thing to recognise such things
as possible or probable, another to accept them as legitimate
explanations of observed facts. Now, processes resembling
vegetation, recurring within a period of a few days, taking
place in an atmosphere more tenuous than the vacuum of a
receiver, repeated after a fortnight of intense cold, and
brought about by as remarkable an intensity of heat, must be
regarded as quite beyond our experience, and therefore
affording a very unsafe basis for reasoning, to say the least.
Nor is it a fact unworthy of being noticed that the apparent
maximum effect on the Floor of Plato occurs at the noon
hour of the place instead of at the hour corresponding
to two o’clock in the afternoon, when, according to our
experience, the accumulated effect of solar action is greatest.
Then, again, if we compare the darkening of Plato to some
of those chemical processes with which we are familiar as
effects of solar action, we find the change after lunar noon
at Plato unintelligible, since assuredly any chemical process
progressing as day advanced should not come to an end
at noon and then be replaced by the reverse process, but
would continue until the evening hours, and according to
our ordinary terrestrial experience would leave a permanen
effect. :
Setting aside other possible explanations—for it is a
mistake to suppose, as Mr. Birt appears to do, that surfaces
of different tints must maintain the same relative tints
under varying illumination—there is the effect of contrast
to be considered. This I believe, from my own observations,
to afford the true explanation of the observed phenomena.
Plato lies on lunar highlands, which shine very brilliantly
under high solar illumination. Towards the Mare Imbrium
a comparatively narrow ridge separates the floor from
that region. Now when the terminator has just passed
beyond Plato, the surrounding wall is not nearly so bright
as at the time of full moon; the black shadow of its western
ridge occupies the western side of the floor; and the eye, in
estimating the tint of Plato, is neither oppressed with the
glare of general light on the one hand, nor forced to

1873.] . Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 505

compare the tint of the floor directly and solely with a
much brighter surface; if the comparison is made on the
east, with an illuminated wall, it is made on the west with
a perfectly black shadow-streak. Similar remarks apply to
the time when the terminator is about to pass away from
Plato. But at the time of full moon, the highlands around
Plato are very brightly illuminated. The glare necessarily
makes Plato itself look relatively dark, notwithstanding the
fact that the floor is also much more brilliantly illuminated ;
for it is a recognised fact, that surfaces of unequal light-
reflecting capacity appear to differ more in brightness under
a high illumination than when they are only faintly illu-
minated. We know, in fact, that a surface which is only
dark looks almost or perfectly black when itself and a
bright background are under strong illumination.

We have recently had some remarkable illustrations of
the deceptive effects of contrast in the aspect of Jupiter’s
fourth satellite as it has crossed the face of the planet.
This satellite’ is somewhat inferior in light-reflecting
capacity to the other three satellites, and if it were not for
the physiological law into which I am now enquiring, we
should expect this satellite to look somewhat darker than
the others when transiting the disc of Jupiter. But asa
matter of fact, instead of looking merely dark, this satellite
looks nearly black when on Jupiter’s face, insomuch that it
has been often mistaken for a shadow of a satellite. Mr.
Roberts, when observing one of those dark transits of the
fourth satellite, could scarcely believe that the satellite
would be visible at all when outside the disc; and yet, on
every such occasion, as soon as the transit was over, the
satellite was seen as usual, though, when close to the
planet, looking rather faint by contrast. Mr. N. E. Green,
a very excellent observer, and to whom we owe some
admirable pictures of Mars and Jupiter, made the following
even more pertinent observation on the 26th of March last :—
“The transit of the fourth satellite,” he says ‘‘ was closely
observed; it certainly appeared as dark as any of the
shadows, sometimes even sooty in its blackness, and on
leaving the disk seemed unusually faint. But here a
remarkable fact, in connection with the law of contrasts,
was observed. No sooner had it passed away into the clear
sky than it seemed to be brighter than the dark belt
against which it had so recently appeared as a decided
dark.” Such an observation as this appears to me to be
decisive against mere eye-estimations, showing that abso-
lutely no reliance can be placed on them unless some

506 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. (October,

contrivance is employed to destroy the effect of contrast.
As it is conceded that none of the observed darkenings of
the Floor of Plato have been other than eye-estimates, no
further discussion seems needed, or can in my opinion be
legitimately given to the subject. I may mention, however,
that having, though as yet in an imperfect manner, studied
Plato with a much reduced field, so that I could eliminate
to some degree the effects of contrast,* I have not found
that the floor grows relatively darker towards the time of
full moon.

The other circumstance which hasbeen referred to
change, the variation of the visibility of the spots on the
Floor of Plato, cannot be explained as due to contrast, since,
in point of fact, the study of different spots introduces a
correction for any effects of contrast. Contrast might
make any given spot more conspicuous at one time than at
another; but it could not cause one spot to be visible at
one time when another was invisible, and then after a time
the latter to be visible when the former was unseen. As
this is what has been detected in the spots on the Floor of
Plato, we must either believe that a real change takes place
in these spots, or else we must adopt some optical explana-
tion other than that depending on the laws of contrast.

There is a difficulty in the assumption of real change in
these spots which does not present itself when we are
considering the change of a single crater, or of the floor
regarded as a whole. It is not easy to imagine any
processes by which different spots in the same limited
region of the moon, and under like circumstances, should
be very differently affected. If these spots were vegetation-
covered, we should expe¢t them to show similar variations;
or if we admitted the possibility of different effects, resulting
from the same general process, we should still require
evidence showing that the changes of visibility had as a
period either the lunar day or the lunar year, neither of
which relations has in any single instance appeared; and
similar results follow whatever real changes we imagine to
have affected these regions.

But if we enquire into apparent changes taking place, we
find a case precisely corresponding to that of Linné. In
Linné the white spot assumes varying proportions and
dimensions with varying illumination, and doubtless also

* In point of fad, the field was larger than Plato; but I was able to get the
boundary of the field across the floor, and thus to produce effects corresponding
to those at sunrise and sunset, when there is shadow on the western or eastern
side of the crater.

1873.] Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 507

with varying position as libration operates to shift the
region. Now the aspect of the Floor of Plato, as seen with
a powerful telescope, suggests precisely that condition of
the surface which would render its appearance most likely
to be affected by such changes. The floor is in a general
sense level, though it does not suggest the idea of
smoothness. It looks as if it were granulated, and the
streaks and spots present the appearance of having a
surface not differing in tint alone, but in texture; or rather
(such at least as been my own opinion when I have studied
the Floor of Plato with Lord Lindsay’s 12}-inch telescope)
they suggest the impression that ‘their difference of tone is
due much more to difference of surface-texture than to
difference of tint. Now we view the Floor of Plato very
obliquely, the line of sight having a mean inclination
of only 40° to the surface, and libration therefore affects
the direction of vision very importantly, according to
the principle indicated above. The range, in fact, roughly
is, from an angle of 33° to one of 47°, or the greatest and
least angles are nearly as 3 to 2. It would not be at all
wonderful, therefore, if a surface such as the Floor of Plato
varied greatly in appearance—now one, now another part
being the darker.

The following experiment should be tried by those who
imagine that the unequal affections of such spots as are on
the Floor of Plato manifestly indicate real change. Leta
flat circular tin be filled with sandy earth, and over parts of
this earth let drops of different liquids be let fall, some
colourless, some slightly tinted, some drying with a glazed
surface,and soon. Let also certain spots be formed on the
surface, by removing portions of the sandy earth and
substituting finely crushed glass of various neutral tints.
Now let the general surface be viewed at an angle of about 40°
(that is, the line of sight inclined 50° to the normal to the
surface) ; then (1) let the direction of illumination be varied,
while the direction of sight remains unchanged, and (2) let
the direction of_the line of sight be changed through 6° or
7° on either side of the original angle of 40°. I venture to
affirm very confidently that the behaviour of some of the
spots will satisfactorily prove that apparent changes of
relative brightness are no sufficient evidence of real changes
in the nature or condition of a surface.

The mistake seems to me also to have been made of
supposing that, because a lunar surface looks smooth, or
because the terminator when crossing the surface shows
no indentations, therefore the conditions of illumination

-

“508 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. . [Oétober,

may be discussed as though the surface really were optically
smooth. In point of faét, if a surface were covered over
with minute cones a quarter of an inch in height, it would
present the same peculiarities of general illumination as
though it were covered with conical hills several hundred
feet in height.» Now it may be: said) that as vhoesgem
irregularities, whether large or small, can be detected in the
Floor of Plato, it is not admissible to make the possible
existence of such peculiarities a basis of reasoning. ‘That is
perfectly just; but it is equally inadmissible to make the
possible smoothness of the Floor of Plato a basis of
reasoning. We have no direct evidence either way. As to
probabilities, it seems at least as likely that the floor is
covered with minute elevations as that it is smooth; nay, if
we remember that the floors of the lunar craters present all
the appearance of having once been fluid with intensity of
heat, it seems more reasonable to infer that their surfaces
now have a crystalline structure than that they are smooth.

We may, indeed, sum up the evidence obtained by
Mr. Birt in this way :—It implies either real changes,
or surface peculiarities, probably of the nature of minute
irregularities, such as result from crystallisation. If real
changes be regarded as very unlikely, we have strong
probable evidence in favour of surface peculiarities, a result
of considerable interest. If surface irregularities be thought
very improbable, then we have strong evidence in favour of
real changes, aresult also of considerable interest. Whether
it is more unlikely that real changes so affect these spots as
to make their whole surface change in brightness (though no
large surfaces ever show such changes), or that the once
fluid surfaces within the craters should have a granulated
surface different in different parts, is a question which will
be answered according to the general views of the lunar
student. I have no hesitation in adopting the second view
as far the more probable.

I would not, however, have it understood by any means
that I think it unlikely that change is taking place on the
moon’s surface. On the contrary, when one considers the
wide variations of temperature to which the surface of our
satellite is exposed, it seems altogether probable that (1) a
process of disintegration must be in progress, which should
at times, one could suppose, produce even remarkable catas-
trophes on the moon’s- surface; and (2) that the lunar
atmosphere, tenuous though it undoubtedly is, may be
affected by changes of condition dete¢tible under certain
conditions from our distant standpoint.

1873.! Changes in the Moon’s Surface. 509

Still less would I have it thought that such researches as
those which Mr. Birt has advocated, and to some degree
prosecuted, should be discontinued as useless. On the
contrary, I consider in the first place that they have already
led to results which, however interpreted, are of great
interest and importance, and that in the second they .
are the only possible means for arriving at a_ solution
of the problems suggested by the general aspect of our
satellite.

What I wish, however, to urge earnestly on students of
the moon is the necessity of perfect independence of pre-
conceived opinions as they proceed in their enquiries. The
results they obtain should not be held to owe their importance
to the evidence they seem to give in favour of this, that, or
the other theory, but should be discussed altogether without
bias for one view or another. If in this essay I have
given prominence to the objections which may be urged
against the evidence thus far obtained, so far at least as it
has been regarded as evidence of real change, it is solely
because, in my judgment, this is necessary to correct a
contrary tendency on the part of those who consider that
real changes have been demonstrated. I shall venture to
quote, in conclusion, the words of a well-known student of
the moon, who, if he inclines somewhat (as his words will
show) to the theory that change has taken place, nevertheless
presents very fairly the doubts which really surround the
whole subject. Thus, then, speaks the Rev. Mr. Webb, after
describing some of the principal causes of deception by
which changes of illumination, or of direction of vision
may affect the aspect of lunar regions :—

‘“Tt would be easy to extend this list of causes of decep-
tion; but those here given may suffice as indications of the
caution with which it is necessary to approach the much
disputed question of still existing physical change. In
the answer to that question—the affirmative answer—
undoubtedly lies a great part of the charm of selenography.
Whatever may be the magnificence of the abrupter features
of the lunar scenery, or the smooth and tranquil aspect
of its gentler valleys and wide-extended plains, we shall
contemplate them with a different amount of interest
accordingly as we are obliged to consider them an inanimate
and silent record of the worn-out and spent convulsions of
bygone ages, and forces wholly extinct in selenological
death ; or whether we may detect if it be but the last feeble
efforts of that marvellous working which once threw open
such amazing gulfs, and piled up such terraces and towers

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3 U

510 Changes in the Moon’s Surface. _ [O@tober,

and pyramids, and overspread such wide-extended areas of
the globe with confusion and ruin. Some observers may
have perhaps been precipitate in assuming the utter and
final collapse of all those ancient and evidently long-
enduring energies. It were safer to wait and see whether
all is indeed so dead and cold. And again, we must not
assume, we have to prove—if it can be proved—the absence
of atmospheric phenomena. This is not one of those cases
where an undemonstrated negative may suffice. The burden
of proof—or rather disproof—here naturally rests upon the
opponent, when all analogy is in favour of some kind of
gaseous envelope: and whatever may, or rather must, be
its tenuity as compared with our own, its total absence
would be contrary to all chemical and mechanical pro-
bability. Nor is it a mere theoretical question: indications
are not wanting that the inferences of Schroter and
Gruithuisen, to whatever exception they may be liable
in their full extent, are at any rate deserving of some
consideration. We may be called upon to make abundant
deductions on the score of precipitancy and prepossession,
and yet a residuum may be found to exist, small inamount,
but refractory in character, which cannot be disposed of by
any summary mode of treatment. Simple negation will
not suffice, much less contemptuous neglect of the labours
of those who have preceded us. The first general aspect of
that great world lying in its confusion and desolation may
indeed be, to some eyes, that of absolute quiescence and
arid sterility; a wilderness of rock and sand, lifeless and
even soundless, in its unclothed contact with the emptiness
of boundless space. But the student, in proportion to his
earnestness and perseverance, may see cause to be distrustful
of first impressions; he will rather be looking out carefully
for those minute indications—and experience has proved
that only minute ones can be expected—which may yet
show to a well-trained eye and cautious judgment that such
a conclusion would be too precipitate. At any rate the
question is not yet set at rest; and it can only be finally
decided by the faithful carrying out, in very circumstantial
detail and with scrupulous accuracy, of the graphical
representation of the moon’s surface.”

1873.] ( 511 )

NG Litt es, Or BOOKS.

—_———_ —______—

THE PYRAMIDS OF. EGYPT.*

A NEw work on the Pyramids of Egypt has been produced in
the present year in France, by M. Dufeu, Member of the
Egyptian Institute, and of the Society of Historical Studies of
Paris.

It is a goodly-sized octavo, of 322 pages, and claims to have
discovered the true object, end, and aim of the “‘ Four Pyramids
of Gizeh;” by means of methods, too, and strange discoveries,
which are entirely new to the world : while the chief results thus
attained to, are that—

(1). Menes ascended the throne of Egypt at the date of
564.5. Bice

(2). The Great Pyramid was founded in 4862 B.c.

(3). All the Pyramids are scientific monuments, and
scientific only ; and—

(4). The authors of the designs of all of them were the
priests of the profane idolatrous Egyptian religion.

The names of Champollion, De Rougé, Mariette, Lepsius, and
other well known scholars and literati occur so frequently
through the pages of this dazzling book, that one might at first
expect the author to be of the school of the modern Egypto-
logists; but that is far from being the case, for there is no
deciphering of any piece of hieroglyphics all through the work ;
and its chief method of proceeding is the wonderful assertion
that the list of Manetho, so long held to be a chronological and
historical account of the kings of Egypt, is in reality nothing
but a series of readings (in an arbitrary unit) on the scale of the
Nilometer near Cairo, of the successive annual inundations of
the Nile, combined with occasional geological variations of the
Jevel of the land through which it flows: a wild theory which
no Egyptologist has yet been found venturesome enough to take
up with.

Again, there are so many quotations of figures representing
either cubits, metres, feet, or inches, and so much assertion of
science existing in the Pyramids,—that some persons might
imagine that the author is a partaker in that particular
‘‘scientific theory,” which was commenced by the late John
Taylor, in London, and has been carried on since his time to
- farther developments by many other workers, including myself.
But that is also far from being the case: for M. Dufeu’s results
in chronology, science, and religion are perfectly different from

* Découverte de l’Age et de Ja veritable destination des quatre Pyramides de Gizeh, Princi-
palement de la Grande Pyramide. Par A. Durev. Paris: Ve A. Morel et Cic., 1873.

512 Notices of Books. [Octuber,

those of the English scientific and sacred theory; and his
methods of proceeding are distinguished far more by ignorance
than knowledge, of the absolute local and monumental facts.

The very title of M. Dufeu’s book is a senseless antagonism
to Pyramidal measured and known data, when he therein speaks
of “the four Pyramids of Gizeh;” for who, after once seeing
the Pyramids of Gizeh (Jeezeh), would ever think of speaking of
them as four, when there are three large ones and two sets of
three small ones each, or nine altogether? One, he might speak
of, because one of them is larger and better than all the rest; or
two, he might name, because the second one is so nearly as
high as the first that many old Arab authors alluded to them as
‘the pair;” and three he might talk of because the third,
though by no means so large as either the first or the second, is
yet far larger than all the others, stands in a line with the first and
second, and is thought by some authors to have been even more
expensive than them in construction, on account of the large
quantity of granite employed in its casing, making it through all
history ‘‘the coloured Pyramid.” But the moment any one
passes beyond this third one, he must, to be truthful, either
mention the six small ones, little mites of things though they
be, or none at all.

And then behold the “science” of the book! M. Dufeu
asserts that the Great Pyramid commemorates its own lon-
gitude! But how, and from what, and why?

By taking the profane cubit of Egypt, dividing it into
360 little parts, and representing in those previously unheard of
and unused terms, an unimportant feature of the unfinished,
subterranean chamber of the Great Pyramid, adding, multiplying,
and dividing by other arbitrary numbers representing the rise of
some Nile inundations at some time or,other, the author at
last gets a number which, he says, enables him to state that the
longitude of the Great Pyramid was 152° 38’ 20” from a certain
point in the 44th degree of latitude; but whether that latitude
was in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, and whether the
meridian was east or west of the Great Pyramid, he finds
nothing to define. So there are four points to choose amongst ;
and as three of them fall in deep ocean water, but the fourth
happily alights on land in the American continent, in the
Oregon distri¢t—the author adopts that point, and exclaims
‘‘ therefore America had been discovered and known by them (the
Pyramid builders) before the foundation of the Great Pyramid
of Gizeh, 6735 years ago” (see page 210). Yet the excellent
M. Dufeu never seems to have considered that if the longitude
of the Great Pyramid was measured from a point in America
and not that point in America from the Great Pyramid, if there
was any longitude measuring at all—America should have been
a more civilised, advanced, and developed country than Egypt,
in that very early day, and have left behind it some marvellous

1873.! Notices of Books. — 513

trophies of science and art, philosophy, history, and literature,
' both sacred and profane, dwarfing utterly in their age all the
remains that have come down to us from all the “ five great
empires of the East.”

Next, let us take an example of ignorance of Pyramid surface
facts of a very important class. In his chapter 14, the author
arrives at the conclusion, that ‘‘ the Great Pyramid was never
cased,” or coated with the much talked of sheet of smooth,
bevilled casing stones; and because, he says, there is not only
no such casing now to be seen, but no fragments even of it;
none of the prismatic edges or corners of the stones, which
would have been knocked off at the place, if the. casing stones
had been pulled down by the early Caliphs, and carried away to
build Cairo, as Arab tradition reports‘ was done. Of such
fragments M. Dufeu has the hardihood to declare—

On napercoit pas la moindre indication, la moindre trace de
débris de nature a révéler un pareil travail ;—
and again—
rien de cela ne s’apercoit.

Yet I, having carefully examined in 1865 the four enormous
heaps of rubbish on the four sides of the Great Pyramid, have
found them almost entirely made up of fragments of the
peculiarly white Mokattam limestone employed for the casing |
stones; and have further been rewarded by finding many of the
‘‘ prismatic” corners and edges of casing stones, and nothing but
casing stones, giving under measurement the very characteristic
and crucial angle of the slope of the sides of the Great
Pyramid. A collection of these angular fragments I had the |
honour of presenting, in 1867, to the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, where they may be seen in a special case in their
Museum: while only last year the interesting present was made
to me, by my friend Mr. Waynman Dixon, C.E., who
was then at the Great Pyramid, of an almost complete casing
stone, which he had found amongst the rubbish on the north
side of the Great Pyramid’s base, together with large fragments
of several others. Mr. W. Dixon’s completer specimen
measures 25 inches long, 21 high, 30 thick, has the outer
bevilled slope of 51°, 51+, and is now in the official residence
of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland: a solid witness to the
absolute folly of M. Dufeu’s assertion, and a proof of his utter
ignorance of the most essential facts connected with the exterior
of the Great Pyramid.

But now for more curious things touching the interior.

In chapter 17, the author discusses the coffer or sarcophagus,
in the king’s chamber inside the Great Pyramid. In so doing,
he speaks of it as ‘‘a box;”’ considers it to be a representation,
by means of outside and inside measures, arbitrarily multiplied
and divided by him, merely of the length of the profane

514 Notices of Books. |OGtober,

Egyptian cubit; in illustration whereof he gives, in his table 5, five
different sets of measures of the said monolithic stone box,
coffer, or sarcophagus.

Of these sets of measures, the first one is intituled as being
‘“by the computation of Piazzi Smith and Joseph Jopling.”

Now, if the first name is intended for mine, I have to say
that Joseph Jopling is now dead, and I never saw him during
life, and never worked in concert with him in anything; and
though I have read some of his writings, I never approved of
his hypothetical ideas about the size of the coffer, but, on the
contrary, maintained that they were very erroneous. What I have, .
at any time, published for the size of the coffer as my own
results were the means of very numerous measures taken by
myself at the place—more numerous, indeed, than all the pub-
lished measures yet taken by anyone and everyone in modern
times (see my “ Life and Work at the Great Pyramid,” vol. ii.)
and very different in result or amount from the numbers attri-
buted to me by M. Dufeu, with what object I do not pretend to
know.

The fourth column of measures set forth by M. Dufeu is
labelled as being by Professor Greaves, the Oxford Astronomer,
whom the author seems to consider a very late authority on
the Pyramid, and a great deal more trustworthy than me; yet
he died two hundred and thirty years ago, and all his measures
were taken merely at a single visit on one particular day to
the Pyramid, with a janissary guarding the entrance all the time.

The fiith set of measures M, Dufeu entitles “net
mesure ;” and yet, such title notwithstanding, I am compelled
to dispute that the numbers which he gives could really have
been measured upon the coffer of the king’s chamber in the
Great Pyramid, by any ‘‘ savant”’ whatever.

My special reasons for thus declining to accept the statement
of a Member of the Egyptian Institute, are, that if the gentleman
himself, or any friend of his, had really measured each of the
six elements of the coffer, as he has recorded them, to o’oo1
of an inch; he could not have failed to have discovered that
one side at one part of its height was longer than the other
by a whole inch; that three of the sides are curved and not
flat; and that there is a quasi sarcophagus ledge of large size
cut out of the substance of the top of all the four sides, raising
very serious questions as to how the measures are to be taken ;
yet not one word on any of these most noteworthy features is
there throughout the whole book.

In conclusion, though the author is on every few pages de-
claring that his theory is entirely new, and that he is therefore
a hero to publish it, I am sorry to say that it is not more new
than it is true; for the greater part of it was invented, written,
and printed for private circulation in 1863, by Hekekyan Bey,
an old Armenian officer now resident in Cairo; was discussed

1873.] Notices of Books. 515

with him there by me in 1864, and noticed as untenable in my
‘¢ Life and Work” book published in 1867.

M. Dufeu has indeed added something to Hekekyan Bey’s
original matter, such as the ‘‘ Longitude of the Great Pyramid,”
‘‘the proof that it was never cased,” and his own alleged ‘ coffer
measures,’—but they are precisely the most flagrantly erroneous
parts of the whole book.

PIAzz1 SMYTH,
Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

The Moon: her Motions, Aspect, Scenery, and Physical Condi-
tions. By RicHArD A. Proctor, B.A. With three Lunar
Photographs by Rutherford, and many Plates, Charts, &c.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1873. 8vo. 394 pp.

THE admirable works on Astronomy written by Mr. Proctor
during the last few years possess many features which make
them peculiarly acceptable to this period—a period marked in
the history of Science as one in which a general desire is mani-
fested by all classes to obtain accurate, and at the same time
popular, knowledge of the universe. These works are eminently
popular; they are pleasantly written, the abstruse treatment of
difficult subjects is avoided, and the illustrations are abundant
and novel. The author aims specially at original treatment; he
does not merely give the reader a compilation, after the manner
of the generality of popular scientific writers, but he introduces
extended descriptions of various phenomena, and frequently
supplies information existing only in the memoirs of some
learned Society, or not to be found elsewhere. This was no less
noticeable in the last book of Mr. Proctor’s (‘* The Sun”’) which
we reviewed in this Journal, as in the present. Between the
appearance of these works less than four years have intervened,
yet in this time our author has published some three or four
works which have taken their place among the popular scientific
literature of the day, and which bear upon them the stamp of much
earnest and accurate work.

The work before us is divided into six chapters, which treat
respectively of—(1) The Moon’s Distance, Size, and Mass;
(2) The Moon’s Motions; (3) The Moon’s Changes of Aspect,
Rotation, Libration, &c.; (4) Study of the Moon’s Surface;
(5) Lunar Celestial Phenomena; (6) Condition of the Moon’s
Surface. These are followed by Tables, and an Index to the
Map of the Moon.

The first chapter opens with an account of the view of the
Ancients regarding the moon, and the mode of measuring her
distance from the earth. From this we learn that Aristarchus
of Samos calculated the distance of the moon (by an unknown
method) at two millions of stadia, or about 230,000 miles,

516 Notices of Books. (October,

while the estimates given by Ptolemy and Alfonso X. approach
235,000 miles. Tycho Brahe calculated the distance as 223,000
miles. The real distance, deduced by Professor Adams from
the observations of Breen at the Cape of Good Hope, would
appear to be 238,818 miles. We may roughly take the moon’s
diameter as two-sevenths that of the earth, the moon’s surface
as twenty-two-sevenths, and her mass at two-ninety-ninths. The
surface would be about equal to that of Europe and Africa to-
gether, or of North and South America taken together. The
earth’s disc, as seen from the moon, would appear to be 133 times
larger than ‘the moon appears to us. :

The second chapter, which treats of the moon’s motions, is
one of the most important in the book. It discusses the subject
in many points more fully either than Sir G. B. Airy (in his
article ‘‘ Gravitation”) or Sir John Herschel (in his ‘ Outlines
of Astronomy”). ‘This chapter occupies nearly one-fourth of the
entire work, and it is fully illustrated by designs of the author;
among others, illustrations of the advance of the perigee and
the retreat of the nodes. It is altogether an elaborate exposition
of a most difficult subject, which has engaged the attention of
the most eminent astronomers and mathematicians of the last
century and a half. Our author says, in conclusion, ‘“ In the
whole history of the researches by which men have endeavoured
to master the secrets of Nature, no chapter is more encouraging
than that which relates to the interpretation of the lunar
motions.”

In the account of the study of the moon’s surface we have
some interesting details concerning the colour of the moon. As
to the general results of telescopic observation of the surface,
we have to remember the circumstances under which they are
made and the power applied. ‘‘ The highest power yet applied
to the moon (a power of about six thousand) brings her, so to
speak, to a distance of 40 miles—a distance far too great for
objects of moderate size to become visible. Many of my readers
have probably seen Mont Blanc from the neighbourhood of
Geneva, a distance of about 40 miles. At this distance the pro-
portions of vast snow-covered hills and rocks are dwarfed almost
to nothingness, extensive glaciers are quite imperceptible, and
any attempt to recognise the presence of living creatures or of
their dwellings (with the unaided eye) is utterly useless.” .
Again, as to other difficulties, ‘‘ We view celestial objects through
tubes placed at the bottom of a vast aérial ocean, never at rest
through any portion of its depth; and the atmospheric undula-
tions which even the naked eye is able to detect are magnified
just in proportion to the power employed. ‘These undulations
are the bane of the telescopist. What could be done with
telescopes, if it were not for these obstructions to perfect vision,
may be gathered from the results of Professor Smyth’s observa-
tions from the summit of Teneriffe. Raised above the densest

1873.] Notices of Books. 517

and most disturbed strata, he found the powers of his telescope
increased to a marvellous extent. Stars which he had looked for
in vain with the same instrument, in Edinburgh, now shone with
admirable distinétness and brilliancy. Three delicate striplings
of the discs of Jupiter and Saturn, which require in England the
powers of the largest telescopes, were clearly seen in the excel-
lent but small telescope he employed in his researches. It is
probably not too much to say that even if the Rosse telescope
were perfect in defining power, which unfortunately is very far
indeed from being the case, yet, on account of atmospheric dis-
turbance, instead of reducing the moon’s distance to 40 miles,
it would in fact not be really effective enough to reduce that dis-
tance to less than 150 miles.’”’ Remembering all this, we see that
we must receive with great caution observations asto the colour of
the moon, the texture of its surface, and so on; the apparently
smooth seas or sea-bottoms may in reality be hilly and irregular.
The most notable feature of the moon’s surface is perhaps the
crateriform mountains, which Webb has divided into “ walled or
bulwarked plains, ring mountains, craters, and saucer-shaped
depressions or pits. . . . Copernicus is one of the grandest
craters, 56 miles in diameter. It has a central mountain (2400
feet in height, according to Schmidt), two of whose six heads
are conspicuous; and a noble ring composed not only of terraces,
but distinct heights separated by ravines ; the summit, a narrow
ridge, not quite insular, rises 11,000 feet above the bottom, the
height of Etna, after which Hevel named it. Schmidt gives it
nearly 12,800 feet, with a peak of 13,500 feet west, and an incli-
nation in some places:of 60°.” .

Many attempts have been made to determine whether the
moon be inhabited or not. Herschel held the former opinion, |
and many expected that Herschel’s or Rosse’s great reflector
would reveal something of the inhabitants. But in vain. Of
course the creatures themselves could not be visible, but large
cities might appear; and it has been argued that, as the force of
gravity is so much less at the surface of the moon than on the
earth, the lunar inhabitants might, without being unwieldy, be
much larger than our race of men. ‘Nor is this argument
wholly fanciful. A man of average strength and agility placed
on the lunar surface (and supposed to preserve his usual powers
under the somewhat inconvenient circumstances in which he
would there find himself) could easily spring four or five times
his own height, and could lift with ease a mass which, on the
earth, would weigh half a ton. Thus it would not only be pos-
sible for races of lunarians equal in strength to terrestrial races
to erect buildings much larger than those erected by man, but it
would be necessary to the stability of lunar dwellings that they
should be built on a massive and stupendous scale. Further, it
would be convenient that the lunarians, by increased dimensions
and more solid proportions, should lose a portion of the super-

VOL. iI. (N.S-) ax

518 Notices of Books. [October,

abundant agility above indicated.” It only remains to be men-
tioned that no object which could possibly be erected by an
intelligent being has ever been observed on the moon’s surface,
even by the use of our most powerful telescopes. Neither,
during the two centuries and a half in which the moon has been
carefully scrutinised, has any evidence of physical change ap-
peared ; all evidence seems, indeed, to show that the moon is
‘‘a dead and useless waste of extin¢ét volcanoes.”

Varieties of colour are noticeable on the moon’s surface ; some
regions appear white, and would be spoken of as snow-covered
if it were not impossible from the fact that water and air do not
exist in the moon. ‘Then there are grey, and greenish, and pale
red regions.

An interesting account will be found (pp. 272—282) of the
experiments which have been made in order to determine the
heat of the moon,—notably the recent experiments of Lord
Rosse and M. Marié-Davy. ‘These appear to show that the heat —
which is received from the moon is mainly radiated, not re-
flected; that the temperature of the moon’s surface is about
500° F.; and that the calorific effect of the full moon is only
equal to about one ninety-four-millionth of a degree centigrade.
But we must bear in mind that the greater amount of lunar heat
which is radiated to the earth is absorbed by the aqueous vapour
in our atmosphere.

The fifth chapter discusses, among other things, the possible
evidence of alunar atmosphere. All the known evidence tends
to prove that the moon has either no atmosphere at all, or that
the atmosphere possesses extreme tenuity. Sir John Herschel,
. however, and others have admitted the possibility of the existence
of an atmosphere on the hemisphere of the moon which is
turned away from us, and this theory is based upon the fact that
the moon’s centre of gravity is nearer to us than her centre of
figure.

Among the more striking illustrations in the work are two
lunar landscapes, drawn by Mr. Proctor. Of course such land-
scapes can only faintly indicate what we may imagine an
observer would see if he were placed on the surface of the moon.
Yet as, our author observes, ‘‘ we know certain fa¢ts,—we know
that there are striking forms of irregularity; that the shadows
must be much darker, as well during the lunar day as during an
earthlit lunar night, than on our own earth in sunlight or moon-
light ; and we know that whatever features of our own landscapes
are certainly due to the action of water, in river, rain, or flood,
to the action of wind and weather, or to the growth of forms of
vegetation with which we are familiar, ought assuredly not to be
shown in any lunar landscape. But a multitude of details abso-
lutely necessary for the due presentation of lunar scenery are
absolutely unknown to us. . . . In looking at one of these views
(Plates XXI. and XXII.) the observer must suppose himself

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. No. XL., Oct., 1873.

PLATE XxXl.

EARTH.

LUNAR LANDSCAPE —“FULL’

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. No. XL., Oct.,

PLATE XXII.

EARTH.

Ving
‘i

— = =

=" if ——=
=a ——

SES

LUNAR LANDSCAPE —‘*NEW”

1873.| Notices of Books. 519

stationed at the summit of some very lofty peak, and that the view
shows only a very small portion of what would really be seen
under such circumstances in any particular direction. The por-
tion of the sky shown in either picture extends only a few
degrees from the horizon, as is manifest from the dimensions of
the earth’s disc; and thus it is shown that only a few degrees of
the horizon are included in the landscape.”

This chapter concludes with a very graphic description of what
an observer stationed on the summit of the lunar Apennines
would have seen on the evening of November 1, 1872. We
recommend all our readers to carefully peruse these most elo-
quent and beautifully descriptive passages. We may only quote
one or two paragraphs as examples :—‘ On all sides, this mighty
star-belt spread its out-lying bands of stars, far away on the one
hand towards Lyra and Bootes, where on earth we see no traces
of milky lustre, and on the other towards the Twins and the
clustering glories of Cancer—the ‘dark constellation’ of the
Ancients, but full of telescopic splendours. Most marvellous,
too, appeared the great dark gap which lies between the Milky
Way and Taurus; here, in the very heart of the richest region
of the heavens, with Orion and the Hyades and Pleiades blazing
on one side, and on the other the splendid stream laving the
feet of the T'wins,—there lay a deep black gulf, which seemed
like an opening through our star system into starless depths
beyond. . . . And now, as hour passed after hour, a series of
changes took place in the scene, which were unlike any that are .
known to our astronomers on earth. ‘The stars passed, indeed,
athwart the heavens on a course not differing from that followed
by the stars which illumine our skies, but so slowly that in an
hour of lunar time they shifted no more than our stars do in
about two minutes. And, marvellous to see, the great orb of
earth did not partake in this motion. Hour by hour passed
away; the stars slowly moved on their course westwards, but
they left the earth still suspended as a vast orb of light high
above the southern horizon. She changed, indeed, in aspect.
The two Americas passed away towards the right, and the broad
Pacific was presented to view. Then Asia and Australia ap-
peared on the left, and as they passed onwards the East Indies
came centrally upon the disc. ‘Then the whole breadth of Asia
could be recognised, but partly lost in the misty light of the
northern half, while the blue of the Indian Ocean was con-
spicuous in the south. And asthe hours passed on, Europe and
Africa came into view; and our own England, foreshortened and
barely visible, near the snow-covered northern region of the
disc.”

Here, then, we end our brief examination of a work which
commends itself both to the general well-informed reader and to
the man of Science. The really new matter is by no means in-
considerable, and the work constitutes, we believe, the most

520 Notices of Books. [October,

complete monograph on the moon which has yet appeared. We
may read every part with a perfect feeling of confidence in the
exactness of the matter, remembering that it is at once the work
of a mathematician, an astronomer and practical observer, and
of an elegant writer.

An Introduction to Physical Measurements. With Appendices
on Absolute Electrical Measurement, &c. By Dr. F.
KouHLRaAuscH, Professor-in-Ordinary at the Grand Ducal
Polytechnic School at Darmstadt, and formerly Professor
of Physics at the University of Gé6ttingen. ‘Translated
from the second German edition by T. H. WatLEr, B.A.,
B.Sc., and. H. R. Procrer, F.C:S. ):-London:. J.,and.A:
Churchill. 1873. 8vo. 244 pp.

SoMEONE (we think Quetelet) has remarked that no science has
made any great progress until weight, measure, and number
have been introduced into it, in fact, until it has become more or
less capable of mathematical treatment. We all know how true
this is:—The determination of the mechanical equivalent of
heat raised the science to a position which it never before
occupied among its brethren; to which result the admirable
mathematical deductions of Carnot, Fourier, and, later, of Hirn,
Helmholtz, and Clausius have also conduced. Again, Ohm’s
law, and the various mathematical problems brought to bear
upon the subject of electricity by Sir W. Thomson, Clerk
Maxwell, and others, have quite revolutionised that science. As
an important means to the end indicated above, we welcome the
book before us with open hands. It will be invaluable in those
physical laboratories which are happily commencing to appear
in this country, and which, by the end of the century, will, we
trust, have become general in all centres of sound learning.

The author remarks very truly, ‘‘that the mere verbal
teaching of physical laws is seldom of much use, tending
frequently merely to confuse the student, whilst the simple
performance of an experiment gives him confidence in himself
and in the laws he is investigating.” This work on the measure-
ment of physical quantities enables the student the more readily
to verify the great laws which obtain in the history of matter
and of force.

The introduction treats, in the first place, of ‘‘ Errors of
Observation,” and of the influence of error on the final result.
‘And here we meet with advice on a practice which very
frequently prevails in the calculation of- final results :—‘‘ We
may here insist upon the fact that it is generally quite in-
admissible arbitrarily to exclude from a series of observations
some of the number simply because they do not agree with the
greater number. The probability of an increased error being

ine wets, ced nS rT a a ek Oe

1873.] Notices of Books. 521

introduced by the irregular numbers will be compensated by the
very process of taking the arithmetical mean, for, as single ones
among a greater number, they have small influence upon the
mean value.” This is, no doubt, good advice, but very difficult
to follow; if, for example, in a series of twenty observations,
seventeen agree very closely, and three are altogether anomalous,
or at least differ more widely, the conclusion seems to be almost
irresistible that, in these three divergent results, the ‘‘ personal
equation” of the observer has, by some unknown means, been
unduly exalted, or some unseen or unremembered error of manipu-
lation has crept into the observation. If made absolutely under
the same conditions, of course every determination, however
anomalous it may be, and however the series may be prolonged,
is subject to equal credence.

The first section is devoted to an account of ‘‘ Weighing and
the Determination of Density.” In this, full rules are given for
the adjustment and testing of a balance and of the weights;
also various modes of weighing, and the determination of the
density of solids, liquids, and gases. This is followed by
measurements relating to heat; the calibration of a thermometer,
and determination of its fixed points; the various methods of
calorimetry, &c.

The determination of the modulus of elasticity of a body is
discussed under various forms, as by stretching, and by the
complex and somewhat unusual method by longitudinal vibra-
tions, in which the necessary factors are (a) the length of the
wire, (@) its specific gravity, (y) the acceleration by gravity, (4)
the number of longitudinal vibrations per second. ‘The time of
vibration is determined by a tuning-fork of known pitch, and the
longitudinal vibrations are produced in the usual manner, by
rubbing the rod with woollen cloth sprinkled with resin. The
determination of the modulus by bending a rod, and by swinging
under torsion, is also described.

The optical measurements include various determinations
connected with spectroscopy, the wave-length of a ray of light,
the focal length of a lens, the magnifying power of optical
instruments, the operations of saccharimetry by polarised light.
Finally, a number of magnetic and electrical measurements are
described in detail. —

The tables at the end of the volume will be found of consider-
able service ; here we find, among others, the density of certain
gases given to seven places of decimals, the density of water
to five places of decimals between o° and 30° C., the expansion
of water, the density of -air at various temperatures, and the
capillary depression of mercury in a glass tube of from 1 to Io
millimetres diameter. Table 19 gives the lines of flame-
spectra of the most important light metals, according to the
scale of Bunsen and Kirchhoff, in which the slit is considered to
have the breadth of one division, while the sodium line is taken

522 Notices of Books. [October,

at 50. Under these conditions, the colours of the spectrum are
approximately as follows :—Red to 48, yellow to 52, green to 80,
blue to 120, and violet beyond.

A Dictionary of Terms Used in Architecture, Building, Engi-
neering, Mining, Metallurgy, Archeology, the Fine Aris,
Gc. By JoHN Weave. Fourth Edition, with Numerous
Additions. Edited by Ropert Hunt, F.R.S. London:
Lockwood and Co. 1873.

WHEN a work has so rooted itself in our literature as to reach a
fourth edition, the business of a reviewer becomes tolerably
simple. Indeed the public has long ago formed its own opinion
as to the merits of the work; and the very existence of the
successive editions bespeaks its value more clearly than any
favourable expressions that may fall from the reviewer’s pen.

The rapid growth of modern science, and the consequent ex-
tension of scientific terms to the various branches of industry
and art, renders it more than ever necessary that we should con-
stantly have at hand some trustworthy work of reference on
technical nomenclature. It is difficult to point to a handier
book for this purpose than Weale’s well-known Dictionary ; it is
comprehensive, though small, and is, indeed, just the book which
one may confidently consult when seeking the interpretation of
some obscure word in the language of our industrial arts.

The present edition of Weale’s Dictionary has had the benefit
of careful revision by Mr. Robert Hunt, whose long experience
with kindred literature leads him to know exactly the kind of
matter which the public seeks and expects to find in a work of
this character. The editor has judiciously adopted, in preparing
this edition, a more systematic arrangement of the matter; and,
by omitting the biographical sketches which appeared in the
earlier editions, has contrived to squeeze in a goodly amount of
new matter without increasing the bulk of the book.

A rapid glance down the columns of this Dictionary is suffi-
cient to show that even the best informed amongst us may often
turn with profit to its technical definitions. Take, as accidental
examples, the first and last words in this Dictionary ;—-surely it
is not everyone who, if suddenly called upon, could give a satis-
factory definition of either Aam or Zyghar.

Celestial Objects of Common Telescopes. By the Rev. T. W.

_ WEss, M.A., F.R.A.S., Vicar of Hardwick, Herefordshire.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Third Edition, Re-
vised and Enlarged.

It is gratifying to learn that such a book as this has reached

a third edition. It is not a library book, is by no means likely to

1873.] Notices of Books. 523

be read by Mudie’s subscribers, nor purchased by anybody for
the mere sake of perusal. It is simply a Guide-Book for travel-
lers in the heavens, one intended and well adapted to the wants
of those who have decided to devote some portion of their
surplus means to the noblest of human pursuits—the direct
study of Nature. We may therefore regard the demand for such
a book as a measure of independent astronomical research. We
use this word ‘‘research”’ deliberately, and apply it to the hum-
blest efforts of the humblest possessor of the smallest of telescopes
who uses such an instrument, or even the naked eye, for the
purpose of obtaining knowledge direct from the heavens. We
have no sympathy with those scientific prigs who pretend to
despise amateur astronomers, and would lead the docile readers
of Quarterly Reviews, &c., to believe that a ‘‘ broad basis of
scientific culture” is the exclusive prerogative of University
professors and officials. All who have followed the recent pro-
gress of Astronomy in this country must be struck with the great
amount of scientific work of the highest order that has been
done by pure amateurs, by men who have begun with small
telescopes and unpretending efforts, and have been led on, by the
fascination of the subject, to purchase more and more perfect
instruments and aim at higher and higher work, until—in those
cases where wealth has accompanied scientific enthusiasm—they
have found themselves the proprietors of observatories in which
they have made some of the most important of modern astrono-
mical discoveries. The existence of such a body of able amateur
astronomers as constitute a large proportion of the Fellows of the
Royal Astronomical Society is alike honourable to the nation
and advantageous to Science, and we welcome the third edition
of Mr. Webb’s Handbook as a valuable aid and incitement to
valuable and disinterested scientific enthusiasm.

The Depths of the Sea. An Account of the General Results of
the Dredging Cruises of H.M.SS. Porcupine and Lightning
during the Summers of 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the
Scientific Direction of Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., J. Gwyn
Jeffreys, F.R.S., and Dr. Wyville Thompson, F.R.S. By
C. WyvItLe. Tuempson, LL.D., F.R.SS. L.. and E.;'F-E.S2
&c., Regius Professor of Natural History in the University
of Edinburgh, and Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff
of the Challenger Expedition. London: Macmillan and Co.

ScIENCE is undoubtedly cosmopolitan ; nevertheless the business
of scientific research may be materially promoted by a certain
amount of international division of labour. If ‘‘ Britannia rules
the waves” she ought to take the lead in studying all that lies
beneath and about them. There are solid as well as sentimental
reasons for this. We have a huge navy. Our finest ships are

524 Notices of Books. (October,

liable to rot if left lying idle in dock or harbour, and the best of
sailors are subject to analogous corruption unless provided with
some kind of active occupation. A genuine sailor has a huge
contempt for useless inactivity and lubberly land-lounging, but in
these ‘‘ piping times of peace”? he has no small difficulty in
finding some plausible pretext for a cruise. Pirates are practi-
cally extinct ; there is nothing to be done in chasing them; the
only approach to old-fashioned naval occupation now remaining
open to him is the weary blockading of the pestiferous mouths of
swampy African rivers for the meagre chance of occasionally
capturing a slaver.

The Times newspaper has recently taken up the subject of
Arctic Exploration, and would have us give up all further attempts
to solve the polar problems, because the private and imperfectly-
organised expedition of the Polaris has compelled some sailors
and Esquimaux to suffer the hardship of wintering on a drifting
ice-floe. If sailors were helpless babes and the Times were the
national wet-nurse for marine. infants, this tender solicitude
would be emphatically proper and dutiful, but, as it is, the
opinions of the quarter-deck and forecastle are far better guides
for outsiders, like ourselves, than those of Printing-House
Square. If responsible officers and sober men, who have already
had some practical experience of arctic hardships and dangers,
are willing and eager to incur them again, and if full-grown civilian
naturalists are equally urgent in their desire to share the sailor’s
perils, it would be little short of insult if the nation at large were
to accept the conclusions of the Times, and refuse to enter upon
further arctic exploration merely on the pretext of maternal ten-

derness. If the whole truth could be told, we should probably .

learn that the risks of physical suffering which our sailors en-
counter in the streets of Valetta, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, and
other Mediterranean ports, while their ships are lying idly in
harbour, are quite as great as those to which they are exposed
when threading their way between Greenland icebergs.

If any statesman desires to learn how the spare ships and men
of the British Navy should be occupied during times of peace,
let him send at once to Bedford Street for a copy of Dr. Thomp-
son’s ‘‘ Depths of the Sea;” let him read it thoughtfully, and
compare it with the log-book of the ordinary ships of war which
we are compelled, at great expense, to maintain in sailing condi-
tion for mere preparation sake. He will see, by the continual
reference to the hearty co-operation and valuable aid of the naval
officers, how readily and aptly the sailor takes to scientific work;
and when he reflects on the fact that warfare is becoming more
and more a struggle of scientific engineering, the importance of
the prevalence of scientific habits of mind among naval officers
must be obvious. If he has any old-fashioned patriotism, the
perusal of this luxurious volume must stir up a healthy British
pride in the truly glorious conquests of the Porcupine and the

1873.] Notices of Books. 525

Lightning during the summers of 1868, ’69, and ’7o0, and show
him how vast are the conquests that may yet be made in the
new and higher career of honour which is opened up for the
British flag by such expeditions.

Most of our readers know already, by the reports that have
been published from time to time-in the scientific and other
journals, what was done during these well-spent summers; and
we recommend all to revel, as we have done, in the luxury of
travelling again over Dr. Thompson’s connected and beautifully
illustrated narrative of the whole of the proceedings. As a pro-
foundly valuable contribution to science, as a literary effort of
high order, and as an elegantly artistic volume, this book is
worthy of the warmest praise. It is indeed fortunate that the
results of such important expeditions should be recorded by'so
able a writer as Dr. Thompson, and that such a writer should
find such spirited publishers as Messrs. Macmillan and Co.

The simplicity of style and clearness of description are very
high merits. The whole book is readable by any man or woman
of ordinary liberal education, and this great merit is attained
without any sacrifice of scientific technicality or precision.
We sincerely hope that the privilege of reading the original
record of such important scientific work will be fully and popu-
larly appreciated, as it is not often that researches which have
had so important an influence on some of the foundations of
cosmical science are thus easily accessible.

The most important philosophical results of the expeditions
are summed up in the concluding essay on the ‘ Continuity of
the Chalk,” wherein the author states his reasons for concluding
that, in spite of the myriads or millions of centuries that must
have elapsed since the deposit of the chalk which lies beneath
our feet here in London, there has been no chasm of time, no
interregnum of deposit between this ancient and the actual but
somewhat modified chalk formation now proceeding at the bottom
of the Atlantic.

Admitting to a certain extent the justice of the objections
made by Sir Roderick Murchison and Sir Charles Lyell, to his
early expression that ‘“‘we are still living in the cretaceous
epoch,” on account of the indefinite sense of the terms ‘“ geolo-
gical epoch” and ‘ geological period,” Dr. Thompson shows
good reason for maintaining the conclusion which these words
were intended to express, viz., that ‘‘the various groups of
fossils characterising the tertiary beds of Europe and North
America represent the constantly altering fauna of the shallower
portion of an ocean whose depths are still occupied by a deposit
which has been accumulating continuously from the period of
the pre-tertiary chalk, and which perpetuates with much modifi-
cation the pre-tertiary chalk fauna;” or otherwise, that ‘‘we
must regard the tertiaries as the deposits formed and exposed by
depressions and upheavals of the cretaceous sea: of a sea

VOL. III. (N.S.) 3Y

526 Notices of Books. (October,

which, with many changes of condition produced by the same
oscillations which alternately exposed and submerged the ter-
tiaries, existed continuously, depositing conformable beds of
chalk-mud from the period of the ancient chalk.”

The important bearing of these conclusions upon the very
foundations of geology are obvious enough, and are rendered
more strikingly so when expressed in the still more pointed
language of Professor Huxley, ‘‘that the modern chalk is not
only the lineal descendant, so to speak, of the ancient chalk, but
that it remains, so to speak, in possession of the ancestral
estate ; and that from the cretaceous period (if not much earlier)
to the present day the deep sea has covered a large part of what
is now the area of the Atlantic. But if Globigerina and Tere-
bratula, caput serpentis and Beryx, not to mention other forms of
animals and plants, thus bridge over the interval between the
present and the mezozoic periods, is it possible that the majority
of other living things underwent a sea-change into something
new and strange all at once?”

Such suggestions are almost revolutionary, and if confirmed
they will cruelly spoil the orthodox lecture-room diagrams of the
geological ladder and the common stratigraphical descriptions of
superposition of rocks in the order of time. All the symmetry
of geological chronology will be destroyed if the cretaceous
system is to run up through the eocene, the miocene, the pliocene,
the pleistocene, and the recent ; and we must cease to call these
by the name of “ periods,” as they may merely indicate localities
or variations of sea-depth. If the chronological conclusions
based upon the stratigraphical arrangement of these later rocks
are thus shaken, may not something analogous have occurred
when the lower rocks were forming? May there not be other
cases where depths of ocean have been mistaken for depths of
time? or, in other words, may not many geological formations
hitherto described as deposited successively have actually been
proceeding, to some extent, simultaneously ?

Thus, again, we are presented with an important phase of the
great question of evolution. If the creatures now living in the
great depths of the Atlantic can be proved to be the true
descendants of those of our chalk cliffs, and their line of an-
cestry can be traced continuously, we have command of a vast
period of time under which to study the laws of modification of
varieties, of species, and even perhaps of genera.

But these are problems of vast magnitude, which the cruises
of the Lightning and the Porcupine have only opened or sug-
gested, and which we may hope that the Challenger will open
yet wider; their complete solution will demand an amount of
further research proportionate to their magnitude and great phi-
losophical importance. ;

We are satisfied that every reader of ‘“‘The Depths of the
Sea” who is earnestly interested in the progress of Science and

1873.] Notices of Books. 527

the true honour of his country will share our comfortable satis-
faction in knowing that Dr. Wyville Thompson is the Director
of the Civilian Staff of the Challenger Expedition; and our
conviction that when future historians recite the sea-battles that
have been gloriously fought under the British flag, and the names
of the ships that have carried it to victory, those of the Light-
ning, the Porcupine, and the Challenger will take leading rank in
the list; and also in our hope that the British Navy is entering
upon a new era of higher and better conquests than those which
have hitherto fed the pride of the nation.

Critiques and Addresses. By THomas Henry Huxtey, LL.D.,
F.R.S. London: Macmillan and Co. 1873.

Tus is a collection of Essays like the ‘‘ Lay Sermons, which,
as Dr.- Huxley says, ‘‘indicate the high-water mark of the
various tides of occupation by which I have been carried along
since the beginning of the year 1870. ‘They include the fol-
lowing subjects :—‘‘ Administrative Nuihilism.” ‘The School
Boards: What they Can Do and What they May Do.” ‘“ Medi-
Esl Meucation.” Yeast.’ “The Formation. of Coal.{” ‘Coral
and Coal Reefs.” ‘‘ The Methods and Results of Ethnology.”
‘““Some Fixed Points in British Ethnology.” ‘ Paleontology
and the Doctrine of Evolution.” ‘* Biogenesis and Abiogenesis.”’
“Mr. Darwin’s Critics.” ‘‘ The Genealogy of Animals.” ‘ Bishop
Berkeley on the Metaphysics of Sensation.” These titles
sufficiently indicate the range of subjects, and the impossi-
bility of including within our limits anything like an analysis or
discussion of the contents of this volume. The subjects and
their treatment are strikingly characteristic of the noble breadth
of Dr. Huxley’s attainments and philosophy.

The vast accumulations of modern knowledge have rendered
a division of labour among the experts in Science a matter
of absolute necessity. We have undoubtedly gained great ad-
vantages by one man devoting his life to mathematics, another
to metallurgy, a third to organic chemistry, a fourth to com-
parative anatomy, &c.; it has enabled either of these to
learn all that has been done in his particular department, and
thus to start fairly upon the path of original investigation.
This arrangement is, however, not unaccompanied with dis-
advantages, some of them rather serious. Among these is the
common practice of assuming that Physics, Chemistry, Physi-
ology, Political Economy, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, &c.,
are subjects that have actual separate existences in the scheme
of Nature, rather than regarding them in their true aspect as
artificial subdivisions of the one and only science of Universal
Natural Law, and remembering that such divisions have
been made for the accommodation of human weakness. There

528 Notices of Books. [Octuber,

are but few of our modern teachers of Science that are able
fairly to divest themselves of the cramping influences of this
patchwork view of Nature. Amongst these few Dr. Huxley
stands out with leading prominence. His special study having
been that of Biology, which is placed, so to speak, midway be-
tween the physical and moral subdivisions of Natural Science,
he stands upon a middle eminence, from which he can best survey
the equally surrounding area of human knowledge. With an
intellectual vision of unusually great penetrating power, and a
moral nature of well-balanced proclivittes, he is thus able ta
present to his readers, with remarkable vividness and impartial
truthfulness, a picture of the great panorama thus placed at his
feet. The ‘Critiques and Addresses” is a series of these
pictures, not avowedly connected and yet not altogether detached.
They are all painted with remarkable artistic power, and more or
less characterised by a catholicity of treatment which obliterates
the artificial boundaries that have been mischievously set up
between, physical, physiological, moral, and theological science.
The powerful essay on ‘‘ Mr. Darwin’s Critics ” is a fine example
of this. It is positively refreshing to be able to travel in the
midst of a purely scientific atmosphere over a fertile region of
thought which is usually rendered pestiferous by the miasma of
theological bigotry, and to leave it, as we may after wandering

-under Professor Huxley’s guidance, with a healthily invigorated

intellect.

_ Inthe first two papers we have political subjects treated in
like manner, without at all descending to ‘‘the region in which
Tories, Whigs, and Radicals ‘ delight to bark and bite.’ ”

In the course of his enquiry into the limits of Government
functions, Prof. Huxley comes in collision with the conclusions
of his friend and fellow-worker—we might almost say twin-
brother in Science—Mr. Herbert Spencer, and the consequent
combat is conducted with the utmost vigour on both sides, ac-
companied with a polished courtesy suggestive of a courtly
fencing bout between the most chivalric of antagonists. Ac.
cepting Mr. Spencer’s parallel, Prof. Huxley contends that ‘the
vascular system, or apparatus for distributing commodities in
the animal organism, is eminently under the control of the
cerebro-spinal nervous centres—a fact which, unless I am again
mistaken, is contrary to one of Mr. Spencer’s fundamental as-
sumptions. Inthe animal organism Government does meddle
with trade, and even goes so far as to tamper with the currency.”
We will not venture to step between such combatants, or even
to record the *‘hits” on either side, but merely state in the
meantime that* few can follow this controversy on a two-sided
subject without profiting considerably by seeing both sides so
well displayed.

While the subjects usually supposed to belong rather to the
provinces of ornamental or controversial literature than to science

a

¥873.) Notices of Books. 529

are thus treated-in accordance with strict inductive philosophy,
without losing anything of literary refinement or readable sim-
plicity, the other subjects, commonly supposed to be more
strictly scientific, are by no means presented in the bare skeleton
style of pedantic disquisition which is popularly supposed to be
the truly scientific style, but are exhibited to the reader in their
truly natural forms, enveloped in the rounded and tinted integu-
ments of a polished literature, Which appeals to the emotional—
the poetic faculties of the reader, as well as to the purely intel-
lectual powers. In reading these we seem to be listening to a
voice that comes genially across a dinner table rather than coldly
from a professorial chair.

With these characteristics, we have no doubt this collection of
“Critiques and Addresses” will be as popular and usefully
influential as the ‘‘ Lay Sermons” that were published three
years ago.

Reprint of Papers on Electro-Statics and Magnetism. By Sir
) Wireman )iomson, D.C.L. LED, FiR.S:, F.RS.E:;
Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge, and Professor of
Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. London:
Macmillan and Co. 1872.
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. By JAMES CLERK
MaxweE.i, M.A., LL.D. Edin., F.R.SS. London and Edin-
burgh, Honorary Feliow of Trinity College, and Professor
of Experimental Physics in the University of Cambridge.
2 vols. (Clarendon Press Series.) London: Macmillan
and Co. 1873.
‘THOSE amongst our readers who are acquainted with periodical
scientific literature will find in Sir W. Thomson’s “ Reprints ”
much they have already studied and much that will be new to
them. But the first idea one obtains from the volume of nearly
six hundred pages is the immense amount of unpublished work
implied. It is a characteristic of physical science memoirs, and
a reason for their scarcity, that they represent not only so much
work done upon paper, but long and tedious labours in the
laboratory, endless disappointments from having taken the wrong
road, and turnings back which have certainly served the purpose
of rendering surer the way for future travellers, but wearying in
the extreme to the explorer. Another surprise is the practical
results that may accrue from purely mathematical deductions,
but of which, upon closer inspection, the secret turns out to be
the logical and comprehensive argument involved. Such views
are encouraging, especially in the science of electricity. We
were fast growing into the habit of looking to Germany for our
mathematical investigation of electro-statical and electro-mag-
netical science, and this not because these papers were unknown,

530 Notices of Books. |October,

but because they were too scattered for immediate reference.
Great good has been done by their collection, for they are, to use
a German expression, ‘‘ sclence-making”’ in their nature.

We will note in the order of the papers as nearly as possible
the chief points of Sir William Thomson’s work. The first
paper deals with the exceedingly difficult problem of the unifor
motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies and its connection
with the mathematical theory of electricity. Before this paper
there were prominently current two questions—one resulting
from Fourier’s investigation, by which it appeared that the
conduction of heat is proportional to the rate of variation of
temperature at point to point of the conductor; the other re-
lated to the distribution of electricity on conductors, and in-
cluded the assumption that the electrical particles exerted
mutual forces varying as the square of the distance. One
implies a flow, the other instantaneous action. Yet these
questions, so contrary in the experimental methods of investi-
gation, were proved by Thomson to be mathematically one.
Substitute in Fourier’s formule electrical surface for heat surface,

electric potential for temperature, and at once they are fitted to

the use of the electrician.

And very much more than this collation of scientific principle,
the highest of generalisation do we owe to the present occupier
_of the Professorial Chair at Glasgow. To Sir William Thomson
are due the embodiment of Faraday’s idea of continuous action
in mathematical formule, the method of electrical images, and
of electrical inversion. The practical applications of his mathe-
matical theories are too well known to need detailing here, and
the list is too long, for it includes researches into atmospheric
electricity, the construction of electrometers, of galvanometers,
telegraphic instruments, and experimental researches into all
branches of electricity.

In Professor Thomson’s book we really find the germ of much
important work of our second author; tor in one of Thomson’s
earliest papers—that on the attractions of conducting and non-
conducting electrified bodies, published in 1843—we find the
speculation commenced that Professor Maxwell has since made
famous, the complete mathematical rendering of Faraday’s
physical lines of force. ‘Then passing on to the consideration of
vortex motion, we have Professor Maxwell again in the same
field. But these developments are essentially original works,
for so narrow and yet so liberal must be the reasoning that every
step is an opus magnus. Here the resemblance between the two
books ceases. Professor Maxwell’s book, while it affords in-
struction to the student, really includes the most important of
the higher theories of electrical science, the first issue being the
treatment of Faraday’s lines of force. How he has attempted
this we must let our author speak for himself, The general
complexion, he says, of the treatise differs considerably from

1873.] Notices of Books. 531

that of several excellent electrical works, published, most of
them, in Germany; and it may appear that scant justice is done
to the speculations of several eminent electricians and mathe-
maticians. One reason of this is, that before I began the study
of electricity, I resolved to read no mathematics on the subject
till I had first read through Faraday’s ‘‘ Experimental Researches
on Electricity.”” I was aware that there was supposed to be.a
difference between Faraday’s way of conceiving phenomena and
that of the mathematicians, so that neither he nor they were
satisfied with each other’s language. I had also the conviction
that this discrepancy did not arise from either party being wrong.
I was first convinced of this by Sir William Thomson, to whose
advice and assistance, as well as to his published papers, I owe
most of what I have learned on the subject.

As I proceeded with the study of Faraday, I perceived that
his method of conceiving the phenomena was also a mathematical
one, though not exhibited in the conventional form of mathe-
matical symbols. I also found that these methods were capable
of being expressed in the ordinary mathematical forms, and thus
compared with those of the professed mathematicians.

For instance, Faraday, in his mind’s eye, saw lines of force
traversing all space where the mathematicians saw centres of
force attracting at a distance. Faraday saw a medium where
they saw nothing but distance. Faraday sought the seat of the
phenomena in real actions going on in the medium; they were
satisfied that they had found it in a power of action at a distance
impressed on the electric fluids.”

The portions of this work relating to the construction of gal-
vanometers and other electrical instruments show the author to
be as much at home in the workshop as the scientific world knows
him to be in his study.

The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By JouHn Tiss.
London: Lockwood and Co. 1873.

YEAR after year Mr. Timbs continues with praiseworthy industry
to collect all kinds of scientific scraps, and to piece them together
in the shape of these handy little volumes. The year-book for
1872, like its predecessors, contains an interesting collection of
extracts which are generally well chosen; and though one may
have met with most of the paragraphs elsewhere, it is convenient
to have them at hand in a form easily available for reference. It
is, however, to be wished that the compiler would extend his
labours to the original sources of information offered by the
Proceedings of our learned Societies; for the reader who con-
sults his annals often craves for some higher authority than the
daily and weekly journals which form the great repository whence
Mr. Timbs draws most of his information. Still we have to
thank the editor for taking the trouble to preserve in these annual

532 Notices of Books. [O¢tober,

records many useful paragraphs which would otherwise be soon
lost in our ephemeral literature.

Mr. Timbs gives us, as usual, an obituary list of persons
eminent in science, art, and literature, who have died during
the year. A popular account is then given of most of the inventions
in the mechanical and useful arts, and the principal discoveries
in physical and natural science. The doings of the British
Association at the Brighton Meeting come in for a full share of
notice; and, finally, we have a table devoted to a summary of
meteorological observations in 1872.

If Mr. Timbs’s year-books cannot pretend to fully chronicle
' the progress of science, or to equal in completeness some of the
_German Jahrbicher, it must nevertheless be admitted that they
are extremely handy books of reference, and may be fairly and
favourably compared with the little yellow-covered volumes
which we are in the habit of receiving from Paris—Figuier’s
*“L’Année Scientifique et Industrielle.”

Report on the Filtration of River Waters, for the Supply of Cities,
as practised in Europe, made to the Board of Water Com-
missioners of the City of St. Louis. ByJames P. Ktrxwoop,
C.E. New York: D. Van Nostrand. London: Tribner
and Co. 1869.

THE supply of wholesome water for domestic purposes is one of
the most important questions of the present day, and in collect-
ing and publishing the most recent experience as carried out in
different towns of Europe, the Board of Water Commissioners
of St. Louis have done a great public service; and from a
perusal of the volume now before us we have no hesitation in
Stating that in the selection of Mr. J. P. Kirkwood for that duty
their confidence has been in no way misplaced. The principal
portion of this’ Report is devoted to the different forms of
filtering beds used at the water-works in the principal towns of
England, France, Germany, and Italy, whilst in the Appendices
descriptions are given of the duty performed by the London
pumping engines and their boilers, as an important subject in
connection with the general question. The book is also
copiously illustrated with well-executed engravings, which adds
considerably to its value as a standard work of reference.

The amount of silt carried by rivers from which a water supply
is drawn is, of course, an important question, as well as the
nature of the districts through which they run, and the amount
of contamination their waters receive from surface drainage off
highly-manured fields and from the drainage of manufacturing
districts. In a few places what is called the natural filter is in
successful use. Where artificial filters are required, as is most
generally the case, the materials used for their construction are

1873.] Notices of Books. 533

sand, gravel, and broken stone or shingle, the depth of the whole
varying from 5 to 6} feet; a layer of cells has sometimes been
used placed between the stratum of gravel, but this is not found
essential, and is now generally omitted. In some cases this
filter bed rests upon a foundation of puddled clay or concrete,
where there is a loose and porous sub-stratum beneath. Each
filter bed, at short intervals varying with the condition of the
water, must have the deposit which accumulates on the surface
of the sand cleared off or removed, and while any one is _under-
going this process, the other remaining filters must be competent
to deliver the required supply without overstraining their functions.
If, then, there are six filters, five of them must be competent
to the full duties of the service, and if eight filters, seven of
them must be competent to this duty, on the supposition always
that not more than one filter will at any time be off duty. Should
the circumstances in effect render two unserviceable, the re-
mainder must have area enough to meet the requirements of the
case.

Space will not admit of our entering further into detail re-
lative to the peculiarities of filter beds in different localities and
under varying circumstances, but these will be found carefully
considered in the pages of the Report itself, to which we must
refer our readers if they desire more reliable information upon
the subject.

VOL, III. (N.S.) | , 32

(534 ) [Otober

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE,

MINING.

GoLpD Minne in the Colony of Viftoria continues in a healthy state of activity,
judging, at least, from the volume of ‘Mineral Statistics for 1872,” which
has been prepared as usual by Mr. Brough Smyth, and recently issued
under the authority of the Minister of Mines at Melbourne. These statistics
do not pretend to offer anything more than approximate figures, for the returns
are given voluntarily, and there is therefore no means of obtaining them from
those miners who are not sufficiently acute to see that the collection of such
statistics must even be of the greatest benefit to the mining community at
large, and as individual statements are merged in totals that can never be pre-
judicial to the interests of individual miners. But, though the Vi@oria returns
may not state precisely the quantity of gold raised during the year, they
evidently merit a considerable measure of confidence. According to. the
estimates made by the several mining registrars, there was obtained in
1872 about 1,331.377 ozs. of gold. The returns furnished by the Commissioner
of Trade and Customs give 1,160,554 ozs. 1g dwts. as the quantity of gold
exported during the year: whilst the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Mint
has received 121.965 ozs. 17 dwts. Again, the returns made by the
managers of the several banks showed that they purchased during the year
1,218,094 ozs. g dwts. F

In studying the detailed statistics and comparing them with those of the
previous year, it is satisfactory to note an increase in the average yield of
gold from quartz, and also an increase in the quantity of stuff treated; there
is, however, a slight falling off in the quartz tailings, mullock, &c., worked in
the past year. Mr. B. Smyth calls attention to a cheap and simple, though
slow, process for separating gold from pyrites, tailings, and mullock. By
stacking such materials with a due proportion of small coal, gum leaves, and
other vegetable matter, the gold would be slowly set free, and could then be
readily collected. Appended to the volume of statistics is a report by Mr. J.
Cosmo Newberry on the work done during the past year in the Melbourne
laboratory.

The magnitude and value of the mineral resources of our Australian Colonies
are well represented in the Australian Annexe to this year’s International
Exhibition. South Australia is especially prominent, exhibiting some splendid
examples of copper and iron ores; the former including fine samples of native
copper, red oxide, copper pyrites, purple ore, malachite, and atacamite from the
mines on Yorke’s Peninsula; whilst among the iron ores are some noble
specimens of magnetite, hematite, and limonite. The South Australian
copper industry is also represented bya metallurgical series from the Wallaroo
smelting works. Bismuth ore from the Balhannah mine, and ingots of
metallic bismuth smelted from this ore, are also exhibited; whilst the gold-
fields, of which one has not yet heard much, are represented by some
valuable specimens. The interest of this collection is greatly enhanced by
the publication of an excellent catalogue.

New South Wales, in addition to its fine samples of coal, exhibits some
splendid specimens of tin ore, illustrating the recent discoveries which were
duly chronicled in these columns. Vittoria sends some capital collections
arranged by Mr. Brough Smyth, and well exhibiting the capabilities of the
Colony. In the Queensland Annexe, an excellently arranged department, we
note especially the fine specimens of precious opal recently discovered. This
opal appears to occur in the form of a thin layer in fissures of ironstone
nodules, but though of extremely fine colour with no lack of fire, it seems too
thin to be of much value to the jeweller. We have lately seen some samples
of opal, discovered under different conditions in the adjacent colony of New
South Wales, but these are not yet represented in the Exhibition.

‘ a
7

1873.] Metallurgy. 535

Some interesting information on the mineral resources of Upper Burmah is
given by Captain G. A. Strover in a recently-issued official report. It appears
that iron ore abounds in the Shan States, and that a manufactory on very
crude principles is at work at Pohpah Toung. A rich hematite has been found
abundantly to the west of Sagaing, and the requisite plant for establishing
large works for smelting this ore is to be sent over from this country. Coal is
known to occur in several localities in Burmah; some being, it is true, of only
inferior quality, resembling lignite, whilst other varieties are said to equal
the best English coal.

Several interesting papers bearing on Cornish mining were communicated
to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at its recent meeting in Penzance.
Among them we may refer to a paper by Mr. J. H. Collins, “On the Mining
Distri@ of Cornwall and West Devon,” in which the writer gave a general
description of the geological features of the district, the mode of occurrence
of its mineral veins or lodes, and the methods of Cornish mining. In a
paper ‘“*On Machinery for Dressing Tin and Copper Ores,” Mr. H. T.
Fergusson described in detail the different forms of tin stamps, and explained
the advantages of Husband’s patent pneumatic stamps; the author also
noticed the chief improvements in the dressing of copper ores, including
Borlase’s buddle, Dingley’s pulveriser, and Oxland and Hocking’s patent
calciner. A description of the tin steam works in Restronguet Creek, near
Truro, was presented by Mr. C. D.-Taylor, of Devoran. These works yielded
large quantities of tin at the end of the last century, and after various
vicissitudes have again been opened up by Messrs. Taylor. The Institution
visited these works among other places of interest in the county.

Coal-cutting machinery has undergone considerable improvements at the
hands of Messrs. Simpson and Hurd. After introducing many modifications,
they have succeeded in producing avery superior machine. A couple of these
machines—the first two which had been completed by the makers, Messrs.
Matther and Platt, of Manchester—were recently exhibited at Wigan to the
members of the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Institution of
Mining Engineers. Some lithographs of the machine have been published in
the Colliery Guardian (Aug. 8).

It is reported that recent explorations in the Hundred of Wirral in Cheshire,
between the Dee and the Mersey, have led to the opinion-that several seams
of good coal exist within this area. A bed of coal. 11 feet thick, is, indeed,
said to have been discovered on the Trelawney Estate at Songhall Massie.

We also hear of the discovery of a large lode of hematitic iron ore in
North Devon, and of a rich silver-lead lode at Poolvash in the Isle of Man.

METALLURGY.

For the first time in the history of the Iron and Steel Institute, it has held
a Continental Congress. Liége, on the Meuse, surrounded by some of the
great iron-producing districts of Belgium, was the scene of its late session.
In delivering the presidential address, Mr. I. Lowthian Bell gracefully alluded
to the amicable relations between Belgium and Great Britain, and referred to
the great value of the Belgian coal-fields, the exceptional charaGer of their
coal seams, and the ingenuity of her mining engineers in developing these
resources under adverse natural conditions. It appears that during the past
year the output of the Belgian collieries was about 14 millions of tons, and
that between 5 and 6 millions were exported. The exports also included
nearly 800,000 tons of hematitic iron ore, though iron ores are at the same
time largely imported into Belgium. The president reminded our neighbours
that the development of their iron trade was in large measure due to one of
our countrymen, John Cockerill, who erected the first coke blast-furnace in
Belgium, and thus laid the foundation of the great iron works of Seraing.
Mr. Bell had a good word in favour of the Ecoles des Mines of Liége, Mons,
and Charleroi, and for the kindred schools in other parts of Belgium. Nor
did the excellent technical journal which issues from Liége—Cuyper’s Revue
Universelle des Mines—pass without its due measure of praise. Finally, the

536 Progress in Science. [Oetober,

president took occasion to compare the iron industry of Belgium, France,
and Germany with that of our own country.

In a very readable paper communicated to the Institute, M: Julien Deby
traced the rise and progress of the iron and steel industries of Belgium.
Going back beyond the ken of history, he said that archeological discoveries of
quite recent date, still unpublished, seemed to indicate that at the period of
the Roman Invasion iron had already been made in Belgium though unknown
to the inhabitants of the British Isles. M. Piot has found in Brabant and
elsewhere vast heaps of cinder, associated with stone arrow-heads and frag-
ments of coarse pottery, the relics of a non-historic iron-working folk. In
connection with the recent progress of the Belgian iron industry it may be
stated that the first Danks’s rotary puddling furnace was erected a few months
back at the works of the Société Anonymé of Sclessin. As to the Belgian
steel trade, which is comparatively of recent date, it appears that both
Bessemer’s and Siemens’s processes are largely used, and that in 1872 as
much as 15,284 tons of steel were made in the province of Liége alone.

A paper “On the Economical Preparation of Iron for the Danks’s Puddling
Furnace” was read before the Institute by Mr. C. Wood, of Middlesbrough.
One of the difficulties of Danks’s system is the mode of melting the pig-iron ;
if, as is commonly the case, the pigs are broken in halves and thrown dire&
into the rotary furnace, a long time is occupied in melting them, and during
this time the furnace cannot be rotated, as any motion would evidently tend to
knock the heavy bars against the lining of the converter, and thus cause injury.
To obviate this inconvenience, it has been proposed to melt the ironin a cupola
before running it into the rotator. Butas this is an expensive method, Mr. Wood
suggests that the pig-iron should be granulated by aid of the simple machine
which he has successfully used for granulating blast-furnace slag. The re-

volving furnace is charged with the granulated pig-iron, and set in motion at
once.

It is well known that for some time past, Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., has been
actively engaged in developing his processes for the dire€&t conversion of iron
ores into wrought-iron and steel. His results were laid before the Chemical
Society last spring in a valuable leGture ** On Smelting Iron and Steel,” which
has been published in the July number of the Society’s journal. It is un-
necessary to offer an abstra& of this le€ture, as the metallurgical reader can

so readily refer to the original, where he will have the benefit of consulting
the accompanying illustrations.

Messrs. Gerhard and Caddich, of the Brierley Foundry, Bradley, have
lately been turning out blooms of finished iron made direé& from the ore by a
new process. Ground hematite is mixed with fluxing and reducing agents in
the form of lime and pitch, and the mixture baked in a coke oven. A furnace
is charged with this preparation, and it is said that in half an hour the iron is
turned out ready for the helve or the squeezers.

As all questions relating to the economy of fuel are of first importance to
the metallurgist, we readily call attention to an excellent paper by Mr. Emerson
Bainbridge, ‘‘On Coppée’s Patent Coke Ovens, and the extent to which their
Waste Gases can be Utilised,” a paper recently published, with numerous
illustrations, in the ‘ Transa@tions of the North of England Institute of
Mining and Mechanical Engineers.” The iron manufacturer is so large a
consumer of coke that any improvement in its manufacture closely affe@s his
interest. The ovens almost universally used in this country for the pre-
paration of coke are of that form known as the Beehive. Coppée’s system is
considered by the writer to present great advantages over these English ovens;
but though it has been in operation on the Continent for at least a dozen
years there have been but few of them erected in thiscountry. The advantages
of the Coppée ovens are—first, the retention in the form of coke of the largest
possible proportion of the carbon of the coal; secondly, the utilisation of the
heat of the evolved gases, by the use of flues so arranged as to impart an intense
heat to the inside of the oven, and thus facilitate the expulsion of the gases ;
and thirdly, the application of the heat retained by the gases as they leave the

1873.1 Mineralogy. 537

-

stack of the ovens to the production of steam. No water is introduced into
the ovens, as is done in the old system, but the coke is watered after it has
been withdrawn, and thus absorbs about 3 per cent of water.

MINERALOGY.

A mournful interest clings to a memoir in a recent number of “ Poggen-
dorff’s Annalen,” descriptive of Gustav Rose’s researches on the action of
heat on diamond and graphite. This memoir represents, indeed, some of the
last work in the long and active life of the great mineralogist of Berlin—a life
which extends over * nearly seventy-five years, and was brought to aclose on
the 15th of last July. Although it is beyond our purpose to trace the history
of Rose’s scientific labours, we may yet point to the long list of papers in the
Royal Society’s Catalogue—a list numbering upwards of 120 memoirs—in
proof of his extraordinary activity, his devotion to original research, and the
success with which he cultivated mineralogical science, whether in its geome-
trical, its chemical, or its geological aspect.

Rose’s last paper, which was communicated a few months ago to the Berlin
Academy, is the outcome of some lengthened researches on the behaviour of
diamonds at high temperatures. To some extent these observations confirm
those of Schrotter and others who have worked in this direction. For
example, Rose found that by placing crystals of diamond between carbon-
points im vacuo, and subjecting them to the action of a Siemens’s dynamo-
electric apparatus, the diamond became red-hot, and eventually flew to pieces,
and at the same time the surface acquired a black crust which had all the
characters of graphite. Exposed to the temperature at which cast-iron melts,
the diamond was found to undergo no change, but at the fusing-point of
wrought-iron it became quite black and opaque, exhibiting a strong metallic
lustre, and becoming, in fat, converted into a graphitic substance. But the
most curious point in the behaviour of diamond is seen when the gem is
heated in a muffle, with access of air. Under these circumstances the faces
of the diamond exhibit regular triangular depressions, reminding one of the
markings common on many of the South African diamonds. Some interesting
examples of these symmetrically developed etchings are figured in the plates
accompanying the memoir in “* Poggendorffs Annalen.”’

As so much discussion has been rife with respect to the nature of the
colouring-matter of the emerald,—one party referring it to an oxide of chro-
mium and another to an organic source,—it is interesting to find that the
subje& has lately been taken up by Mr. C. Greville Williams, F.R.S., who has
communicated his researches to the Royal Society. On exposing a South-
American emerald to a bright reddish-yellow heat for three hours, in a platinum
crucible, the green colour was not destroyed; hence the author was led to
disconnect the question of colour from that of the presence of carbon. Indeed
a colourless Irish beryl was found to contain rather more carbon than a richly-
tinted emerald. The author believes that there is no room for doubting the
correctness of Vauquelin’s conclusion, that the green colour of the emerald is
due to the presence of chromic oxide. Experiments on the fusion of beryl
and emeralds showed that these gems lose density when fused, but this fa&
cannot be used in argument against the formation of such minerals at a low
temperature; for it is quite possible that they were crystallised from a fused
mass which was originally formed at a temperature sufficiently high to keep
the constituents of the emerald in a state of fusion, and that the enystels
developed during a slow process of cooling.

Von Kobell has lately described, under the name of Kjerulfin,—a name
suggested in honour of the Norwegian mineralogist and geologist, Kjerulf,—a
new mineral-species from Bamle, in Norway. The substance had been deter-
mined by Rode, of Porsgrund, to be a new phosphate of magnesia, and com-
plete analyses by Von Kobell and Wittstein lead to the following formula :—
2(3MgO.P,0;)+CaF,. Kjerulfin is therefore very similar in composition to
the rare mineral known as Wagnerite.

538 Progress in Science. [October,

Having had his attention dire@ed to Wagnerite, by the study of Kjerulfin,
Von Kobell has undertaken a new analysis of the old phosphate. From this
recent examination of Wagnerite its formula seems to be thus represented :-—
2(3MgO.P20;5)+(2Na,iCa)F,. ;

A new mineral, belonging to the Pinite group, has been described by
Laspeyres, of Aix-la-Chapelle, under the name of Hygrophyllite. This name
refers to the curious behaviour of the mineral when brought in contaé with
water or with steam. Placed in water, the mineral—which is ordinarily of a
greenish tint—immediately becomes white, and exfoliates in very fine scales,
which peel off, layer after layer, until the entire mineral is disintegrated, and
a whitish-grey finely-divided plastic mass is obtained, which, under the micro-
scope, is seen to be made up of very delicate scales. In many other liquids,
such as alcohol, ether, hydrochloric and nitric acids, the mineral retains its
coherence.

Some ‘“ Mineralogische Mittheilungen ’’ have been communicated by Dr.
Wibel, of Hamburg, to Leonhard and Geinitz’s ‘‘ Jahrbuch.” One of these
communications describes the occurrence of the rare mineral, lime-uranite
(autunite), in the so-called Portuguese phosphorite. The presence of a
mineral containing uranium in a substance whose origin is so often referred to
organic agency is not without its interest. The author has analysed a sample
of gold from Vancouver Island, with the following results :—Gold, 91°86;
silver, 6°63 ; copper, 1°00; iron, o*51. A third subje& discussed by.Wibel is
the composition and formation of blue carbonate of copper (azurite). His
analysis of a Siberian specimen gave—Cupric oxide, 69°66; carbonic anhy-
dride, 24°26; water, 6°08.

It is proposed by Von Kobell to change the name of the mineral called
Montebrasite by Des Cloiseaux into that of Hebronite, the mineral having long
been known from Hebron, in Maine, U.S.

The rare mineral called ¥ordanite, from the Binnenthal, has been lately
studied by Sipocz, whose analysis points to the formula As,Pb,S,.. The same
chemist also publishes analyses of a Hungarian Bustamite and an East-Indian
potash-mica.

So much discrepancy may.be observed in the analyses of the oxychloride of
copper called Atacamite that we are glad to see that the mineral has been
lately re-examined by E. Ludwig. His analyses of some fine crystals from
Wallaroo, in South Australia, give results indicated by the formula
Cu,ClO3;H3. The author believes the hydrogen to be essential to the consti-
tution of the molecule of Atacamite, and that it exists in the form of hydroxyl.
He construé¢ts the following constitutional formula, making the atom of copper
tetratomic :—

Cu(OH)Cl

|
P Cu(OH)>.
The author’s analysis of Brochantite also points to copper as a tetrad.
Atacamite has likewise been lately studied by Tschermak, who has specially
direG@ed his attention to the alteration by which this mineral can be trans-
formed into malachite, some fine pseudomorphs illustrating this change having
been obtained from the Siberian copper-mines.

Artificial crystals of Atacamite have recently been obtained by Friedel,
whose process renders it probable that some natural forms of this oxychloride
may have been produced by the action of ferric chloride on cupric or cuprous
oxides. These results were obtained during the author’s examination of a
new mineral, Delafossite, which is a combination of the oxide of iron and
copper, corresponding to Fe2,03.Cu,0, or perhaps to the simpler expression
FeO.CuO.

In some mineralogical notes on the Far West, Prof. Silliman puts on record
the existence of Enargite in Southern Utah; and of bismuthine, wulfenite,
orpiment, and realgar, from the same territory. He also describes a new borate
of lime from Nevada, under the name of Priceite.

1873.] Engineering. 539

A chemical examination of Staurolite has been undertaken by Rammels-
berg. Two crystals were examined—one from Brittany, and the other from
Pitkaranta, in Finland.

‘The occurrence of indium in zinc-blende, from several American localities,
has been detected by Mr. H. B. Cornwall. From Roxbury, in Conneéticut, a
blende was obtained so rich in indium that it could be detected spedtroscopically
by examining the raw powdered blende, without treatment with acids according
to Richter’s method.

Several analyses of American minerals have been published by Prof. A. R.
Leeds, in a recent number of “ Silliman’s Journal.”

A new analysis of Dewalquite, from Salm-Chateau, in Belgium, has been
recorded by M. Pisani. This is the same mineral which has been described
by German writers as Ardennite. The new analysis shows 3°12 per cent of
vanadic acid.

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Guns and Armour.—It is impossible to anticipate when or where the contest
between guns and armour will cease. No sooner has an armour-clad vessel or
fort been constructed, with a view to defence against the heaviest known guns,
than the War Department at once begins to devise a gun whose shot shall
pierce the thickest armour in the world. Thus there is continually going on
an incessant competition for supremacy between the Admiralty and the
War Office. The biggest gun of which we have hitherto heard is the
‘© Woolwich Infant,’’ of 35 tons weight, which fires a 7o00-lb. shot with a
charge of 110 lbs. of powder; and the shot from this monster piece of ord-
nance could perforate the turret of the Devastation at any distance up to
500 yards. The armour plating of the Devastation is 14 inches in thickness,
but an additional 2 inches in thickness would, it is said, render the vessel
shot-proof against the biggest gunin the world. The War Department has
hitherto cautiously advanced from guns of 12 tons weight, to 18, 25, and
ultimately to 35 tons in weight,; but they are now said to be contemplating
the construction of one of 60 tons, the powder charge for which will weigh
200 lbs., and it will throw a shot over half a ton in weight, which will be able
to perforate a 20-inch turret.

Harbours (Holyhead).—The inauguration of the harbour of refuge at
Holyhead, on the roth of August last, by the Prince of Wales, marks the
completion of one of the finest works of this class yet completed. Between
the years 1835 and 1847 the attention of Government was directed to the im-
portance of providing improved harbour accommodation on the coast of North
Wales, in the interest of the packet-service between England and Ireland.
For this purpose Holyhead was selected as the most suitable site; and of the
several schemes proposed for that place to accomplish the required end, the
plan suggested by the late Mr. James Meadows Rendel was ultimately ac-
cepted, who, in August, 1845, was requested by the Lords of the Treasury to
furnish detailed plans and estimates for the new harbour, and who reported
thereon on the 5th of December of that year. Mr. Rendel’s plan consisted
of a north breakwater 5360 feet in length from the coast line, and an eastern
breakwater about 2000 feet in length,—the two enclosing between them an
area of 267 acres of available water space,—and of a packet pier 1500 feet
long, situated within the enclosed area. The east breakwater was subse-
quently abandoned, as was also the proposed packet-pier, it having been sub-
sequently determined to carry on the packet-service in the old harbour, where
jetties and works have been constructed for the purpose. The north break-
water alone has been retained, and the new harbour has become principally a
harbour of refuge. As the works advanced, however, it was found that, not-
withstanding the abandonment of the new harbour as a packet station, which
imcreased its capacity as a harbour of refuge, it was likely to prove too small
even for refuge purposes. The Lords of the Admiralty therefore decided to
lengthen the north breakwater by 2000 feet, and subsequently by another

540 Progress in Science. [Oetober,

500 feet, making its total length 7860 feet from the shore. These extensions
considerably more than doubled the capacity of the harbour for refuge pur-
poses, for they sheltered a roadstead of 400 acres of deep water, in addition
to the 267 acres of water space. The breakwater consists of a sub-structure,
or rubble mound, of stone, upon which is erected a substantial stone super-
structure, the end of the breakwater being terminated by a head, on which is
erected a lighthouse. The rubble mound is of great size, the average depth of
water at low-water spring tides being 40 feet, and the greatest depth 55 feet,
the rise of tide being 18 feet. The inclination given to the foreshore, or the
slope from low water to the superstructure, is nowhere steeper than 7 to 1, and
this inclination continues to about 10 feet below low-water mark, when the
mound assumes a slope of 2 to I, to about 25 feet below low-water mark, and
somewhat flatter than 1 td 1 from that point to the bottom.» On the harbour
side the slope of the mound is about r tor. At the level of low water the
mound is nowhere less in width than 250 feet, and in 50 feet depth of water
it is 400 feet wide at the base. It contains altogether about seven millions of
tons of stone. The superstructure consists of a solid central wall of massive
masonry, built principally of stone from the Holyhead mountain ’quarries.
The foundations of this wall are laid at the level of low water, and it is
carried up to a height of 38 feet g inches above low water, upon which is a
handsome promenade, surmounted on the sea side by a massive parapet. At
a lower level, or at 27 feet above low water, there is on the harbour side of the
central wall a lower terrace or quay, 40 feet wide, formed by an inner wall
built at a distance from the central wall, the intermediate space being filled in
with suitable material. The head at the end of the breakwater is a massive
structure, 150 feet long and 50 feet wide. The first contra& for these works
was made on the 24th of December, 1847. The late Mr. Rendel was Engineer-
in-Chief from the commencement of the work until his death, at the end of
1856, when Mr. John Hawkshaw was appointed to that post, and the works
have since been carried on under his superintendence. The cost of the whole
of the works has been £1,479,538, which includes not only the outlay on the
north breakwater, but also the provision of the accommodation for the Irish
Postal Service in the old harbour, the construction of a beaching ground, and
other miscellaneous works.

Kurrachee Harbour.—These important harbour works in India having re-
cently been brought to a completion, a brief notice of them will be interesting.
Kurrachee is situated near the north-western extremity of Sindh, and is the
only seaport of that province available for vessels drawing more than to feet
of water. Its position is one of very great importance, whether regarded
from a commercial, political, or military point of view. In 1848 a lighthouse
was erected on Manora Point, on the western entrance to the harbour; and,
in 1855, im consequence of the increasing importance of the place, two
dredging vessels were constructed for the improvement of the harbour, and a
light-draught steamer was provided for the purpose of towing vessels in and
out. In 1856 a committee was formed on the spot for the purpose of consi-
dering the best means of effeCtually improving the harbour, and their report
was referred for the opinion of the late Mr. James Walker, C.E., who, in
October, 1858, submitted his report, in which he recommended the construction
of a breakwater from Manora Point, on the west side of the entrance; of a
groyne from Keamari, at the eastern side; the closing of Chinna Creek, so as
to force the ebb and flow tides to pass up and down the entrance channel,
and the construction of new docks and basins, and of a graving dock. In
1860 orders were issued for the commencement of the works, which, with
certain interruptions, have been carried on up to the present time,—first under
the direction of the late Mr. Walker, and at his death by Mr. W. Parkes.
Keamari Groyne is 7400 feet long, construéted of stone upon the Keamari
sand-spit, having its top 2 feet 6 inches above monsoon high-water. This
work was commenced in December, 1861, and completed in April, 1863. The
extension of the groyne for 1500 feet (known as the East Pier) was commenced
in May, 1864, and completed in O@ober, 1865. Other works within the chan-
nel were also carried out which had the effet of considerably improving the

1873.] Engineering. 541

harbour, but it was not until the year 1868 that the construction of the Manora
Breakwater was sanctioned. This breakwater is 1500 feet in length, running
out into the sea in a direct line from Manora Point. It is construed of huge
blocks of concrete resting upon a rubble base. These blocks are all formed of
auniform size and shape, and are held in position merely by their own weight,
no cement of any kind being employed to join them to one another. The last
block was set, and the Kurrachee Harbour Works thus far completed, on the
22nd of February last. By the aid of dredging over the bar, which runs
across the mouth of the harbour, the result of these works is an increase of
the depth of channel to 20 feet, and a considerably increased water-space
within the harbour available for vessels to moor in.

International Communication.—M. Dupuy de Lome has recently contributed
to the Academy of Sciences a paper upon the scheme he has elaborated, in
connection with Mr. J. Scott Russell, for improving the means of communi-
cation between England and France. According to the author of the paper,
it is by the improvements in ships and ports that the desired end can be
achieved rapidly, and without financial assistance from the State. The pro-
posed solution to the problem involves the employment of very large vessels,
suitable for carrying passenger and goods trains on board, as long since pro-
posed by Mr. Fowler. The dimensions of these ships would be—Length,
442 feet; breadth, 35°75 feet; load draught, 11°48 feet; displacement, 2700
tons. They would be driven by side wheels 32°8 feet in diameter, actuated by
engines of about 3600 horse-power. Each vessel would be able to carry a
train, either for passengers or goods, 380 feet in length, and weighing 300 tons
for the goods or 180 tons for the passenger train. The train would be run
upon the after part of the ship, upon rails laid on the lower deck, and ata
level of about 6 feet 6 inches above the sea. It would thus be covered by the
upper deck, and be securely sheltered from the action of the sea. On either
side of the line of rails suitable saloons and state-rooms would be provided
for the accommodation of passengers. According to M. Dupuy de Léme the
steadiness of the boats would be greater than it is possible to obtain with
ordinary ocean steamers : the mean intervals of the channel waves being from
7 to 8 seconds, the vessel should have a period of oscillation of from 12 to 13
seconds, so that one wave would counteract the rolling produced by the pre-
vious one. On the English coast Dover Harbour has been sele@ted as a
terminus; but as on the French side there exists no harbour like that of
Dover, suitable for the entry of large vessels at all stages of the tide, it is
proposed to create a port appropriate to the service of the train ferries, and
the site selected by M. Dupuy de Lome and Mr. Scott Russell is in the locality
of Calais, the port being so laid out as not to produce any silting up around
the entrances.

Dover Harbour.—The importance of improving Dover Harbour has at last
become so urgent, both in consequence of requirements for improved ac-
commodation for the Continental service, and of the necessities of the port
for naval and military purposes, that the Government recently requested Mr.
Hawkshaw to place himself in communication with Colonel Sir Andrew
Clarke; with the view of considering whether a plan could be prepared which
would combine the naval and military requirements of Dover with the objects
desired to be effected by the Dover Harbour Board, and what the works would
cost. The result has been a joint report from those gentlemen which, for the
packet service, proposes the construction of a steam-packet pier about
1250 feet long by 125 feet wide, starting from a point close to the Admiralty
Pier, and running in a south-easterly direction. Besides this a breakwater is
proposed, which commences about 400 feet to the east of the Castle Jetty,
and is continued seawards in a slightly south-westerly direction for about
3800 feet. At that point it turns and runs west for about 2200 feet, when it
ends. Then comes an opening of 600 feet for vessels to enter, at the other
side of which will be the end of the proposed extension of the present
Admiralty pier, which is a length of 500 feet, and meets the end of the work
now in progress at the present head of the pier. An opening of goo feet is

VOL. Ill. (N.S.) 44

542 Progress in Science. (OGtober,

left in the eastern end of the breakwater. The estimate for the breakwater
alone is, according to this design, £850,000, and the maximum time of con-
struction eight years. Colonel Clarke has, however, proposed an alternative
design, in which the railway company’s water station is retained in a modified
form. The proposed extension of the Admiralty Pier eastwards for 500 feet
_is retained, and then comes an opening of 600 feet. The breakwater. then
commences, and turns eastwards for about 2000 feet, when it turns by a curve,
and takes a northerly direction to the shore, which it joins about 150 feet
eastward of the Castle Jetty. The eastern entrance is omitted, as owing to
the currents at that point it would in all probability silt up. The area enclosed
is about 350 acres to low-water line. In the space left between the Castle
Jetty and the eastern wall of the breakwater, Colonel Clarke proposes to
build a small dockyard. From the Castle Jetty, along the whole coast line
to the entrance of the present harbour, Colonel Clarke further proposes in the
future to have a commercial quay and boulevard with trees and promenades.
The whole matter is in the hands of the Board of Trade, and a sum of
£10,000 was voted last session for carrying out the work according to Colonel
Clarke’s alternative design. The breakwater will be formed of concrete
blocks, with the intervening space filled in with fluid concrete to a level of
about 16 feet below low water. From that point and up to 3 feet above low
water, concrete blocks alone will be used. From the last-named level to the
top of the work, which is 6 feet above high water, the structure will be carried
out in concrete, which will be put in between tides. The modification pro-
posed by Colonel Clarke will admit of the completion of the work in five
years from the time of their atual commencement.

Bow and Stern Screw Ships.—A paper on this subject was read on the
16th of June last, before the Royal United Service Institution, by Mr. Robert
Griffiths, whose name is so well known in connection with the subje& of
screw propulsion. In order to avoid some of the difficulties and dangers that
now attend screw ships, and also to improve their speed, it occurred to Mr.
Griffiths that if in addition to the screw at the stern another propeller were
applied in the bow of a steamship, both screws being placed in tunnels formed
in the side of the ship so as to be protected from coming in contact with such
objects as a ship’s anchor or cable, it would-be the means of avoiding a great
many of the difficulties and dangers now attendant upon screw ships. From
experiment it was ascertained that the best arrangement was that wherein
the water from the bow screw was delivered underneath the ship, and water
for the stern screw was taken also from underneath, so that both ends of the
ship were made the same below the water-line. In this case the bow screw
itself gave a better result in consequence of the water discharged from the
screw meeting with a greater resistance, giving the same effect as is now pro-
‘duced by lowering the screw, and thereby obtaining a deeper immersion of
the blades. Another-great advantage may be obtained by this method of
placing the screw, and that is, that the screw may be made to discharge any
bilge water or any great leakage that may happen to take place in the vessel.
As a result of trials made with a small vessel thus fitted with bow and stern
screws, Mr. Griffiths asserts that besides numerous other advantages from
this method of disposing the screws, 20 per cent less power is required by the
screw when working in the tunnel to obtain the same speed than when
working in the ordinary way.

Rock Drills.—A paper on the Diamond Rock Drill was recently read before
the Iron and Steel Institute at Liége by Major Beaumont. The diamond
drill is in principle quite distin@ from any other system of holing rock, and
works by rotation without striking a blow. Its adtion is rather that of
abrading than cutting, and the effe@ is produced by the sheer difference in
hardness between the diamond and the rock it is operating upon. The
wonderfully resisting power of the diamond enables machinery of the simplest
and most ordinary character to be used, and thus avoids those special difficulties ;
that the mechanic must face when he is driven to utilise a large power in the
produétion of percussive a@tion; moreover, machinery can be applied in
places where a reciprocating mction, if admissible at all, would present

‘ =

1873.] Geology. ; 543

peculiar difficulties. The diamonds that are used are not valuable gems, but
carbonate, a substance that till lately had no commercial value, and was first
introduced for the purpose of cutting other diamonds. It differs from the
brilliant diamond in being very imperfectly crystallised, which also gives: to
carbonate its value for drilling purposes, as it has next to no cleavage, and
consequently does not split up or break in the way that a diamond or piece of
boart would do. The application of the diamond to rock-drilling is worked
out as follows :—The stones are set in an annular ring made of steel; they
are fastened in by making holes as nearly as possible the size of the stones to
be set, and then burying them, leaving projecting only the amount necessary
to allow the water and débris of the cutting to pass; the metal is then drawn
round the stone so as to close it in on every side, and give as large a bearing
surface as possible to resist the tendency of the stone to be forced out. The
crown so set is attached to the end of a steel tube and kept rotating against
the rock at some 250 revolutions per minute. Water is supplied through the
hollow of the bar, whence it passes under the cutting face of the crown to
the surface of the hole between the side of the latter and the outside of the
boring tubes; the diamonds are thereby kept cool, and the débris from the
cutting is washed away. The crown has to be kept pressed forward with a force
depending on the nature of the rock to be cut, varying from 400 lbs. to 800 lbs.,
when the cutting is done at speeds varying from 2 inches to 4 inches per
minute. Granite and the hardest limestone are readily cut at 2 to 3 inches per
minute ; sandstone at 4 inches; and quartz at 1 inch per minute. The‘cutters
travelling in an annular ring, it follows that a core is produced, an arrange-
ment which, while it ensures a minimum of work being done to make a given
sized hole, affords evidence of the strata passed through, a fact which is in-
valuable for certain applications.

GEOLOGY.

Palzontolog . Ray Lankester has described a new form of hetero-
stracous fish-shield, which is intermediate in form between Scaphaspis and
Pteraspis. The specimen, which he names Holasfis sericeus, is figured in the
‘Geological Magazine,’’ and was discovered in the grey cornstone, of Old
Red Sandstone age, near Abergavenny.

Professor Owen has communicated to the Geological Society the description
of a fossil dentigerous bird, which he names Odontopteryx toliapicus. From a
consideration of all the chara@ters furnished by the remains, which were
obtained from the London clay of Sheppey, he concluded that it was a warm-
blooded feathered biped with wings; that it was web-footed and a fish eater,
and that in the catching of its prey it was assisted by the pterosauroid armature
of its jaws. He indicated the characters separating Odontopteryx from the
cretaceous fossil skull lately described by Professor O. C. Marsh,* and which
be affirms to have small similar teeth implanted in distinct sockets.

Professor Duncan, continuing his researches on the fossil corals of the West
Indies. has now described those from the Eocene formation. He remarks that
the affinities and identities of the fossil forms with those of contemporaneous
reefs in Asia and Europe, and the limitation of the species of the existing
Caribbean coral fauna, point out the correctness of the views put forth by
S. P. Woodward, Carrick Moore, and himself concerning the upheaval of the
Isthmus of Panama after the termination of the Miocene period.

In an address to the Natural History Society of Montreal, Dr. Dawson has
discussed the geological distribution of the oldest known fossil, Eozdon
Canadense and allied forms. He mentions its occurrence in rocks of
Huronian age in Ontario and Bavaria; inthe Middle and Upper Cambrian
there are few limestones likely to contain such a fossil, but in Labrador species
of Archgocyathus are found, one of whichhe has ascertained to be a calcareous
chambered organism of the nature of a foraminifer, though there is little
doubt that others are, as Mr. Billings has shown, allied to sponges. In the
limestones of the Trenton group (Lower Silurian) animals of the Eozdon type
occur abundantly. The concentrically laminated fossils which sometimes

* Vide Quart. Journ. Science, No. xxxviil., April, 1873, p. 272.

544 Progress in Science. [October,

form large masses in these limestones, and which are known as Stromatopora,
are mostly of this nature, although fossils of the nature of corals have been
included withthem. Inthe Upper Silurian (or Silurian proper) are similar
if not identical forms known as Cenostroma, with a skeleton consisting of a
series of calcareous layers connected with each other by pillars or wall-like
processes ; while in the Devonian masses of limestone, sometimes 12 feet thick
are made up of these organisms, which have clearly foraminiferal affinities,
and are intermediate between the Eozéon of the Laurentian and the Parkeria
and Loftusia of the greensand and eocene.

Prof. Bianconi has published further information on the bones of Zpyornis,
corroborative of his views of its being an immense vulturine bird, the ‘* Roc”’
of Marco Polo.

M. Schmidt, in a note published in the ‘*‘ Geological Magazine,” states his
opinion that the shields of Pteraspis and Scaphaspis belong to one and the
same animal, Scaphaspis representing the ventral shield of Pteraspis.

Mr. Davidson has described some Brachiopoda collected by Mr. Judd from
the Jurassic deposits of the east coast of Scotland. Three of them were
obtained from the equivalent of the Kimmeridge Clay, which was the more
remarkable as the Brachiopoda of that formation are comparatively few.

Dr. Gimbel has described to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences the so-
called ‘* Nullipores,”’ which he resolves into two kinds :—1. True calciferous
Alge (Lithothamnium, and an allied form, Lithiotis); and 2. Foraminifera
(Dactyloporideae).

M. Barrande, who is so well known for his researches on the Silurian
system of Bohemia, has recently published a supplement to Vol. I. of his
great work, on the different Crustacea and Fishes of these old rocks. Of the
former he describes ninety-four new species of Trilobites, of the latter indi-
cations of four genera have been discovered, namely Asterolepis, Coccosteus,
Ctenacanthus, and Gompholepis. His observations do not agree with the
theory of evolution. He passes in review the different parts of the Trilobites,
the succession of their species and genera in time, and institutes a comparison
between the fishes, Trilobites, and Cephalopoda, and their relations to the
primordial fauna generally. Everywhere he finds that the appearance of new
forms is sudden and unaccountable, and that there is no indication of a regular
progression by variation.

The base of the Palzozoic series in America until lately was formed by the
Potsdam sandstone, although lower horizons of life had been determined by
Barrande in Bohemia, and Salter and. Hicks in Wales. The researches of
Mr. Murray in Newfoundland, together with the study of the fossils by Mr.
Billings, have revealed a lower Potsdam, while Messrs. Hartt and Matthew,
by their explorations of the rich primordial fauna of St. John, have led to the
establishment of an ‘‘ Acadian Group” on the horizon of the lower slate
group of Jukes in Newfoundland, of the gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia,
and of the slates of Braintree in Massachusetts.

Stratigraphical Geology.—One of the most important papers in British
geology which has been published in recent years is that ‘‘On the Secondary
Rocks of Scotland,” by Mr. J. W. Judd, the first part of which has been pub-
lished in the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.”” The Mesozoic
periods are in Scotland represented only by a number of isolated patches of
strata, situated in the Highlands and Western Isles; which have been pre-
served from the destructive effects of denudation, either through having been
let down by great faults among the palzozoic rocks, or through being sealed
up under vast masses of tertiary lavas. These have been unravelled by
Mr. Judd, who has depicted their superficial extent upon a coloured geological
map which accompanies his paper. The cretaceous rocks, exhibiting very in-
teresting characters and yielding a beautiful series of fossils, were discovered
by the author on the mainland, and in several of the islands of the west of
Scotland. The Jurassic rocks, which were first described by Murchison, are
now shown to present a remarkable contrast with their equivalents in England,

1873.] Geology. 545

in being constituted throughout their whole thickness by alternations of
marine and estuarine series of beds; in which respect they precisely resemble
the equivalent strata of Sweden. The Triassic rocks have now been dis-
covered in Sutherland, where their conformable relations to overlying beds,
containing a fine Liassic fauna, entirely confirms the conclusions concerning
their age, derived from Professor Huxley’s studies of the remarkable reptiles
yielded by them in Elgin. Two new species of Brachiopoda, discovered by
Mr. Judd in the Upper Oolite of Garty, in Sutherland, are named by Mr.
Davidson respectively, Rhynchonella Sutherlandi, after the Duke of Suther-
land; and Terebratula Foassi, after the Rev. J. M. Joass.

Physical Geology.—The Rev. J. M. Mello, in a sketch of the geology of
Derbyshire, touches upon the solvent power of water on the mountain lime-
stone as explaining the origin of its characteristic scenery. He considers that
the dales were in many instances originally caverns, which have been through
countless ages eaten away by the streams till at length the roofs have fallen
in, and in their turn have been for the most part carried away by the same
powerful agent.

The Rev. O. Fisher, in treating of the formation of mountains, has attributed
the elevating force, which has raised mountain ranges, to the contraction of
the heated interior of the earth, and subsequent wrinkling of the crust so as to
accomodate itself to the diminished nucleus. In arecent paper, communicated
to the ‘‘ Geological Magazine,’’ he proves that if we suppose a stratum 500
miles thick, buried under 25 miles of crust, to have contracted since the crust
became rigid on the whole, as much as a slag would do in passing froma
fused to a devitrified state, this would give a mountain-range of something
under half a mile high on every hundred miles of surface. If only a part of
the area were disturbed the mountains would be higher.

Mr. W. T. Blanford has drawn attention to the superficial deposits of Persia.
He described especially the desert plains of the interior of the country, the
paucity and scantiness of the streams, most of which terminate in salt swamps
and lakes, and the occurrence of vast slopes of gravel on the margins of the
desert plains, covering up the junction of the latter with the surrounding
mountains. The desert plains he regarded as in general the beds of ancient
lakes.

Glacial Geology.—The Duke of Argyll, in his Presidential Address to the
Geological Society, while discussing the general opinion in regard to the
glaciation of the British Isles, remarked ‘ that the history of geology, like the
history of other sciences, is the history of the prevalence of particular theories
at particular times—not generally to be wholly abandoned, but almost always
to be greatly modified.” He had “a strong impression that the glacial theory
is now at about its maximum, and that, when all our valley-systems are
described as being nothing but magnified striz, we are pretty near the summit-
level of this particular excursion of the scientific imagination.”

Dr. Dana’s observations upon the Glacial and Champlain Eras in New
England, go to show that the former was an era eminently of transportation
by ice, the latter one of deposition. He regards the Glacial period as of great
duration, and expresses the opinion that 1 foot a week was the average rate of
the movement of the ice, so that 10,000 years would be required to carry a
boulder 100 miles, In the northern part of New England, he estimates the
ice to have had a thickness of from 5000 to 6500 feet, and in the southern part
an average of 2700 feet. The pressure must have been immense—6oo0 feet
corresponding to at least 300,000 pounds to the square foot ; the glacier as it
moved must have had tremendous power in abrading, and made boulders and
gravel in immense quantities.

Mr. J. C. Ward has described the glaciation of the Northern part of the
Lake distri. He maintains that there is no evidence that a great ice-cap
from the north ever swept over this distrit. The ice scratches trending along
the principal valleys, but sometimes crossing watersheds, indicate a great
confluent glacier-sheet, at one time almost covering a great part of the distri,

546 Progress im Science. (October,

the movement of which was determined by the principal watershed of the
Lake district. .

Mr. J. F. Campbell has described the Glacial phenomena of the Hebrides.
Various ice-marks were noticed, which all seemed to come from the north and
west, also numerous perched blocks. On the whole, the author was inclined
to think that the last Glacial period was marine, and that heavy ice came in
from the ocean, the local conditions being like those of Labrador. He regarded
most of the Lake-basins of the Hebrides as formed by ice-action, and considered
that the ice by which those islands were glaciated came from Greenland.
Mr. James Geikie has also described the Glacial phenomena of Long Island,
or Outer Hebrides. The lakes of the mountain distri@ he regarded as all
produced by glacial erosion.

The Duke of Argyll has discussed the formation of six Lake-basins in
Argyllshire, five of which he considers could not have been due to glacial
action.

The glaciation of the British Isles has received of late a good deal of atten-
tion, and the presence of sheets or fields of ice covering vast areas has been
invoked in order to account for the phenomena observable in different parts of
the Kingdom. Mr. R. H. Tiddeman, describing the glacial phenomena of
North Lancashire, and the adjacent parts of Yorkshire and Westmoreland, as
bearing testimony to a widespread and almost universal glaciation in the
distria, brings forward evidence to show that they were produced by an ice-
sheet. While, however, the drainage of the district is to the south-west, the
general movement of the ice over it appears to have been to the south or south-
south-east, across deep valleys, and over hills of considerable elevation. This
he explains by the scratches on the rocks, the direction and method of trans-
port of the Till, its materials, and their arrangement along lines coinciding
with the scratches, as well as by the superficial disturbances of the rocks. To
account for the direction of the ice-sheet, which under ordinary circumstances
would be working down from the watershed to the sea in the direction of the
main valleys, Mr. Tiddeman considers that there must have been a great
barrier, along what is now the seaside plain, to dam up the mouths of these
valleys to a great height, and prevent their discharge of ice to the south-west.

‘Evidence of sucha barrier exists in the traces of agreat stream of ice coming from
the Lake distri@t and bearing with it rockspecimensof thatcountry. This barrier
he concludes was but the line of junction of the ice of the Pennine chain with
that from the Lake district, and to the eye they must have presented only the
appearance of one great sea of ice. These observations, which Mr. Tiddeman
communicated to the Geological Society of London, are illustrated by a
coloured map upon which the physical features of the country are depicted
and the direction of the ice-scratches shown.

PHYSICS.

Microscopy.—The most powerful spectroscope yet constructed has been pre-
sented to the University of Oxford by Mr. J. P. Gassiot. The great dispersive
power of the instrument is obtained by a battery of six compound prisms
3 inches high by 2 inches wide. The light, after passing through the upper
half of these prisms, is reflected back through the lower half, the light in its
course through the prisms having to pass through more than 4 feet of glass
before it reaches the eye of the observer. . The telescopes are of 18 inches
focal length, and the object-glasses 13 inches in diameter. The prisms are
provided with the automatic arrangement for keeping them at the minimum
angle of deviation for any ray under examination. It is intended that all the
measuring of the spectra should be done by means of a micrometer eye-piece
placed in the telescope ; but for the purpose of readily finding any line in the
spectrum, the prisms are provided with a vernier which moves round a cir-
cular arc; the divisions are on an alloy of palladium with silver. There isa
contrivance for setting the train of prisms in motion, the milled head which
moves the prisms being close to the eye-piece of the telescope, andt hus com-
pletely under the command of the observer. The weight of the instrument is
rather more than 140 lbs.

1873.] | Physics. 547

Mr. J. W. Stephenson, F.R.A.S., and Mr. Charles Stewart, F.R. M. S., make
use of the appearances presented by objects immersed in media of different
refraGive power to determine some points in their structure.* This especially
applies to colourless transparent organisms such as the skeletons of diatoms
and siliceous and calcareous spicules of sponges. The siliceous deposits, both
of plants and animals, are of less refractive index than Canada balsam ; con+
sequently, when mounted in that medium they appear, if convex, to ac as
concave lenses do in air, and vice versa. If diatoms are examined in air, i.e.,
dry, they are in some instances too opaque for transmitted light, but on im-
mersing them in water, of which the mean index is 1°366,sthey become more
translucent ; with media of higher refractive power, the translucency increases
until the mean index of strong sulphuric acid (1°434) is attained, in which they
become practically invisible. As every object which is transparent and colour-
less becomes absolutely invisible when immersed in a colourless medium
identical in refra&tive power with itself, we know approximately that the
refractive index of diatomaceous silex is 1°434 (much below that of quartz),
and this is accordingly for diatoms our neutral point. By progressively
increasing the refractive power of the mounting medium the diatoms again
become more and rore visible, until, as we all know, when mounted in
Canada balsam (1°540) the coarser species are sufficiently defined for all ordi-
nary purposes; but if we require a still greater departure from the neutral
point, or invisible condition, we must select some other substance of still
higher refractive power. This we find in bisulphide of carbon, the index of
which is 1°678, and by dissolving phosphorus in the bisulphide we may obtain
any power between 1°678 and 2°254; but when large thick diatoms, such as
Heliopelta, are mounted in a strong solution of phosphorus, they again become
nearly, if not quite, as opaque as they were in air. From the ‘above it is
evident that, on examination of a diatom or other obje& in air and in bisul-
phide of carbon, they are seen under conditions in which the respe@tive optical
effects arising from their form are reversed. The results of the examination
of some diatoms are given in the paper, with figures showing the various effects
produced by the use of varied mounting media. It is also suggested that
some animal tissues, in which the staining process has failed to reveal differ-
ences of structure, may be profitably examined in media of such high refractive
index as bisulphide of carbon or oil of cassia.

Lecture Illustrations of Solar Phenomena.—In a recent lecture on “ Sunlight
and its Source,”’ President Morton, of the Stevens Institute of Technology,
employed several new illustrations of his own device, which will interest
some of our readers. In the first instance, to illustrate the motion of sun

FIG. 4.

Kn

iv

'é

spots across the solar disc, their foreshortening when near the limb, &c., an
apparatus was employed consisting of a glass cylinder, on which a sun spot

* Monthly Microscopical Journal, vol. x., p. I.

548 Progress in Science. [Ogtober,

was painted, supported so as to rotate on its axis and admit of various incli-
nations. This was placed as an “ obje@”’ in a large oxyhydrogen lantern, in
front of a circular orifice representing the solar disc. The effe& upon the
screen was remarkably good. To imitate the formation of solar protuberances,
a glass tank, provided with a coil of platinum wire, was likewise introduced
in the lantern and filled with water, at the bottom of which was a little solu-
tion of cochineal. The coil being heated by the current from a single “ flask”
battery, a stream of the crimson cochineal solution was thrown up, and as-
sumed from time to time various forms, some of which bore a striking resem-
blance to the figures of solar prominences which have been figured by Young,
Lockyer, Respighi, and others. Again, to illustrate the various phenomena
of a solar eclipse, an apparatus was employed whose construction and opera-
tion can be explained by the aid of the accompanying figure. To the further

Fig. 5.

side of the frame, A B, is attached a plate of glass on which is painted or
photographed a picture of the sun’s disc, with the “ flames” and corona.
These are, of course, bright on a dark ground. Next, in front of this, slides a
plate of clear glass, c D, with a brass disc at its centre, of such size as to
correGly represent the moon’s apparent diameter as compared with that of the
sun. The edges of this disc are slightly serrated, to represent the moun-
tainous profile of the moon as shown in some of the eclipse pictures. In
front of this plate are arranged two doors opening on hinges, c k, and LI,
and having spiral springs also at these points, which tend to throw them open.
The door, H1, a little overlaps the other, and thus a bolt, mo n, engaging a
projecion at H, secures both doors when they are shut. A circular orifice,
half in each door, corresponds with the solar disc on the rear glass. The
doors then being shut, and the plate cp drawn to the right, we see only the
bright solar disc with such sun spots and facule as have been represented on
it. Then the plate cp being slowly pushed towards the left, we see the
moon’s disc encroaching on the sun, and all the phenomena of the partial
phases, ending with ‘“ Baily’s beads,” which are of course due to the serrations
of the disc. An instant after, and as the disc entirely shuts off the sun, the
glass plate, cD, by pressing against the lug, m, of the bolt, shoots it, and
allows the doors to fly open, displaying the prominences and corona sur-
rounding the dark lunar disc. The figure represents the doors in the ac of
flying open, and is correc in detail, except that the corona should appear
bright on a dark ground. Yet again, in illustration of the vivid brightness of
the crimson protuberances or hydrogen flames, as seen during a total eclipse,
the following device was employed :—A large coloured drawing of the moon,
surrounded by the solar corona, was stretched on an appropriate frame, and
the places of the prominences cut out. Behind these were attached a number

mS

1873.] | Physics. 549

of hydrogen spe&trum tubes, and the whole enclosed from behind with a board
covered with white paper. The reflection from the white paper fills the whole
opening representing the prominence with crimson light, so that the tubes are
not noticed. Fig. 6 shows the general appearance, and Fig. 7 the arrangement

Fic. 6. FIG. 7.

ofthetubes. President Morton also stated that he was preparing some spe@rum
tubes with meteoric hydrogen, so as to have what might be considered as a
real solar-prominence specimen.

ELECTRICITY.—The improvements in magneto-slectric machines follow each
other in rapid succession. Hardly is M. Gramme’s machine announced ere
Mr. Wild, who has long been known in electrical circles as one devoting great.
attention to, and bringing forward important inventions in, magneto-eletricity,
introduces a machine with multiple armatures, producing a greater number of
currents for one revolution of the axis than has hitherto been obtained.
Although this machine has for many practical purposes been superseded by
the continuous current generator of M. Gramme, its importance in the pro-
duction of the electric light must not be overlooked. It consists of a circular
framing of cast-iron firmly fixed by stay-rods. A heavy disc of cast-iron is
mounted on a driving-shaft running in bearings fitted to each side of the
framing; one of these bearings is carefully insulated from the framing by
ebonite, and also from the shaft by a cylinder of thesame substance. Through
the side of the disc, and parallel with its axis, sixteen holes are bored for the
reception of the same number of cores or armatures. Around each inside face
of the circular framing, and concentric with the driving-shaft, sixteen cylin-
drical electro-magnets are fixed ; the two circles of magnets consequently have
their poles opposite each other, with the disc and its circle of iron cores
revolving between them. The ends of the cores are terminated with iron
plates of a circular form, which answer the double purpose of retaining the
helices surrounding the cones in their places, and overlapping for a short dis-
tance the spaces between the poles of the eleftro-magnets. The closing of
the magnetic circuits of the electro-magnets and armatures for a short distance,
like the closing of the electric circuits for a brief interval at the point of no
current, has a marked influence on the power of an electro-magnetic induction
machine, both contrivances conspiring simultaneously to maintain the mag-
netic intensity of the ele@ro-magnets during the rise and fall of the magneto-
electric waves transmitted through the helices. With the Gramme machine
much progress has been made in detail. One of the improvements, by
Mr. Robert Sabine, C.E., tends to add mechanical, and somewhat of electrical,
strength to the apparatus. Instead of the cumbrous magnets employed by
the inventor, Mr. Sabine proposes to substitute magnets placed parallel to
the coil (see Figs. 3 and 5 of our article on ‘‘ Magnetic Illumination” in the
July number of this Journal) and united at their similar poles by transverse
bars of soft-iron. The magnetic polarity of these bars follows precisely the
Faradian lines of force, and the true pole appears to be situated in, or rather

VOL. III. (N.S.) 4B

550 Progress in Science. [October,

shifted to, the point where the bar would most influence the coil. The advan-
tages gained in economy of construction (by the use of smaller magnets) and
in compactness of arrangement are the chief points in the improvement. With
the Gramme machine a striking experiment, first made by MM. Gaston-
Planté and A. N. Breguet, has been recorded by them in ‘“* Les Mondes.”
They charge a Planté secondary couple (coiled sheets of lead in dilute
sulphuric acid), and, in place of discharging the couple, they allow it to
remain in communication with the machine; when, if the machine be suddenly
and completely stopped by the hand, the coil, on the removal of the hand’s
resistance, will re-continue to revolve, not in an opposite dire@ion, but in the
same direction as when charging the secondary couple, for a period of two or
three minutes. Nothing would appear more paradoxical than that the machine
should continue to turn in the same direG@ion. But the explanation is simple,
and is given by the experimenters in the following words:—“ If we consider.
the direction of the current furnished by the machine that of the current given
back by the secondary couple, which is inverse to the preceding, and if we
take into account the a@tiion which results, we shall find that, according tothe
laws of induction and ele@ro-dynamics, the movement of rotation should be in
the diretion indicated by experiment. And if we observe that the secondary
couple has an intensity temporarily superior to that furnished in a given time
by the machine, we shall easily be able to perceive that the discharge from the
secondary couple overcomes that of the machine.”

The next step in eleGrical science most probably will be in improved
application of the ele@ric light. Recently, at St. Petersburg, experiments
have been made by Messrs. S. A. Kosloff and Co. with the invention of
M. Ladiguin. This invention consists in the use of one piece of charcoal or
other bad conduéor, which, being attached to a wire conneéted with a magneto-
electric machine, is placed in a glass tube from which the air is exhausted, and
replaced by a gas which will not at a high temperature combine chemically
with the charcoal. This tube is then hermetically sealed, and the machine
being set in motion, the charcoal becomes gradually and evenly heated, and
emits a soft, steady, and continuous light. Taking into consideration the fa@
that one machine worked by a small three-horse power engine is capable of

lighting many hundred lanterns, it is evident that a great step has been gained

to the end of lighting our streets by means of elericity.

Practically, perhaps, the greatest good has been achieved by the application
of the duplex system of working on our telegraphic lines and cables. By this
system the capacity of our lines for work are doubled, and consequently the
capital invested should repay doubly what it would on the single transmission
system. The improvements in this country come chiefly from Mr. W. H.
Preece, C.E., of the Post Office telegraphs. The Americans have long em-
ployed a system similar in effe&, invented by Mr. J. B. Stearns. The system
apparently most in favour is that founded on the use of the Wheatstone
bridge; and, indeed, the system may be described briefly as the arrangement
at each station of such a bridge system as will have its galvanometer needle
defieGed by a current other than that of its own battery. This is effected by
substituting the instrument of the sending station for the galvanometer of the
bridge, putting equal or proportional resistances into two branches, the line
wire into the third branch, and a resistance compensating that of the
line wire into the fourth. An out-going current thus possesses opposite
and equal potentials at the terminals of the instrument, but an in-coming
current finds only a divided circuit, in one branch of which is the instrument.

Amongst the eleGrical apparatus meeting the wants of the laboratory and
lecture-table especially, may be classed the new ozone-generator invented by
Mr. Tisley. The construction of this instrument may be described as follows :—
‘On each end of a piece of glass tube of uniform bore is placed a brass cap,
bored with two holes, and coated internally with shellac. In the interior of
this glass tube, and of a diameter scarcely less than that of the tube itself, but
not quite so long, is placed a thin hollow brass box, with its surface made as
true as possible by turning in a lathe. This brass box is placed concentrically

oe oe

1873.] Technology. 551

with the outer tube, and is completely coated on its exterior surface with tin,
the tin being acted on to the smallest extent by the ozone. This hollow box
communicates with the exterior of the apparatus by means of tubes passing
through the centre of the caps. It is intended that a current of water should
circulate through this box. In the small annular space between the box and
the glass tube oxygen is passed from the tubes fitted to the cap. The box
itself forms one of the electrodes in connection with an induction coil, and a
strip of tin-foil fixed to the outside of the glass tube forms the other.

Another interesting but different order of experiment, a discovery of
M. Demoget, consists in replacing the plate of resin of an eleCtrophorus by a
membrane of caoutchouc. The membrane from a child’s air-balloon strained
on a metallic circle of 0o°8 c.m. diameter, smartly rubbed with the back of the
hand, the rubbed surface inverted upon a yood conductor and the superior
surface rubbed, will result in imparting to an insulated disc of 25 c.m. diameter
sufficient electricity to discharge sparks of 3 to 5 c.m. length. The experiment
may be utilised in the charging of an electrometer, or may be the source of
amusement to the young.

The eleGrical theories advanced by M. Edlund, and that of eleGrolysis by
M. Domalip, during the last quarter, would require more space for adequate
consideration than can be afforded to a resumé.

M. Dupuy de Lome describes the cryptograph of M. Pelegrin as an instru-
ment’ designed to be raised on the ground, and to convert into expressions
capable cf being transmitted direAly and secretly by telegraph, the polar co-
ordinates ef points which determine a given figure; whence the possibility
with this instrument of following and interpreting, that is, of drawing, in
Paris, ¢.g., what correspondents in different parts of the country in telegraphic
communication with Paris may see and telegraph but do not interpret.

._TECHNOLOGY, &c.

In consequence of the illness of Dr. Joule, Dr. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S.,
presided over the Bradford Meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. His Inaugural Address, which attracted the deepest atten-
tion, was delivered on the evening of the roth of September. Owing to the
' meeting being held later in the season than usual we are prevented from giving
an abstra& of the proceedings in our present number. Evening lectures were
delivered by Prof. W. C. Williamson, on ‘‘ Coal and Coal-Plants;*’ by Dr.
Siemens, F.R.S., on ‘*Fuel;” and by Prof. Clerk Maxwell, F.R.S., on
‘““ Molecules.” Dr. Russell, F.R.S., was President of the Chemical Section.
He departed from the usual custom of reviewing the progress of chemistry
during the year; and after a feeling allusion to the death of Liebig, and to his
connection with the British Association, the attention of the audience was
directed to the history of the colouring matter found in madder. Of the
papers read before the Association, that which deservedly attracted the greatest
attention was Dr. Ferrier’s paper on the “ Brain.’’ We shall give an authentic
account of these important researches in our next number.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science held its twenty-
second annual meeting at Portland, Maine, beginning Wednesday, August 2oth.
The Officers of the meeting were—President, Prof. Joseph Lovering, of Cam-
bridge, Mass.; Vice- President, A. H. Worthen; Permanent Secretary, F. W.
Putnam ; General Secretary, C. A. White. The attendance of members was
large, and a goodly number of papers were presented. The following papers
on chemical and closely related subjects were read :—‘‘ On the Silt Analysis
of Soils and Clays,” E. W. Hilgard; ‘Analysis of Mississippi Soils and Sub.
soils.” E. W. Hilgard; “On the Distribution of Soil Ingredients in the Sedi-
ments obtained by Silt Analysis,” R. H.-Loughbridge; ‘ On the Influence of
Strength of Acid, and Time of Action on the Results of Chemical Soil
Analysis,” R. H. Loughbridge; ‘‘ Remarks on Plate Lime-Glass and the
Manufacture of Glass in General,” L. Feuchtwanger; ‘“‘ The Chemistry of
Copper Matte,” T. Sterry Hunt; ‘*‘ Metaphysical Theory of Chemistry versus

Tet S Se a ee ee ee
“ 3 2" Be

552 Progress in Science. (October,

the Atomic,” Clinton Rogsevelt. Subje@s conne&ed with geology and natural
history formed the bulk of the papers.

At one of the “ Public Conferences” of the French Association for the
Advancement of the Sciences, which was also held in August, at Lyons,
M.A. Gaudry delivered a leGture on the modern progress of chemical industry.
He informed his audience that the amount of sulphuric acid manufaGured
annually in Europe amounts to 800,000,000 kilos., and would fill a canal
2 metres deep, Io wide, and 25 to 30 kilometres in length. To yield this acid
800,000 tons of pyrites are yearly consumed. The condensation of the hydro-
chloric acid liberated in alkali works, the improvements of Mr. Weldon and
Mr. Deacon in the manufacture of chlorine, the revolving soda-furnace, the
extraction of potash as a secondary produ@ in the manufacture of beet-root
sugar, and the recent improvements in producing paper-pulp from wood, are
among the principal points touched on in the remainder of this popular and
able lecture.

M. Ruimet des Taillis, writing in the “ Chronique de la Société d’Accli-
matation,” states that, by feeding silkworms on vine leaves, he has obtained
cocoons of a magnificent red, and, by employing iettuce, others of a deep
emerald-green. M. Delidon de Saint Gilles, of Vendée, has obtained silk of
a beautiful yellow, other samples of a fine green, and others again of a violet,
by feeding the silkworms on lettuce or on white nettle. He points out that
the silkworms must be fed on mulberry leaves when young, and supplied with
the vine, lettuce, or nettle leaves during the last twenty days of the larva-stage
of their life.

For the preservation of gum arabic from mouldiness Hirschberg adds a
little sulphuric acid to the solution, and finds that the mixture retains its -
adhesive property uninjured after the lapse of eighteen months.

M. Ducrot has published an interesting paper on apparatus for heating
with hot air. From the theoretical point of view, the writer concludes that
the quantity of calories furnished by the same apparatus, acting under the
same conditions, is greater as the heated air issues at a lower temperature.
By the same conditions, he means a constant external temperature, same
quantity of fuel disposed in the same manner on the grating, burned in the
same time with equal quantities of air. There is, however, for a piece heated :
with a given weight of fuel per hour, a maximum of temperature corresponding
to a determinate quantity of air passing over the heating apparatus.

.

The following process was proposed by the late Professor Fuchs for fastening
leather upon metal :— One part of crushed nutgalls is digested six hours with
eight parts distilled water, and strained. Glue is macerated in its own weight
of water for twenty-four hours, and then dissolved. The warm infusion of ~-
galls is spread upon the leather, the glue solution upon the roughened surface
of the warm metal, the moist leather is pressed upon it and then dried, when
it adheres so that it cannot be removed without tearing.

Steam has been proposed for extinguishing fires, by means of large pipes,
communicating with a boiler, and capable of filling the building with steam
in case of a conflagration.

In a paper on the spontaneous combustion of hay, H. Ranke says that,
in consequence of prolonged fermentation, hay can become. transformed into
a true coal, which, when exposed to the air at somewhat elevated temperatures,
acts as a pyrophorus. .

M. Jobert has instituted researches on the history of digestion in birds: he
finds that the gizzard is not exclusively a triturating organ, but a chemical
stomach, which secretes an acid liquid.

According to E. Brescius beer may be clarified by means of tannin. For
tooo litres the author employs about 140 grms. of tannin, dissolved in 0°75
litre of water, which is thoroughly stirred up. After three or four days he
adds 1 litre of isinglass or 2 of gelatine in the proportion of 1 kilo. to 100 litres.
The complete clarification requires about eight days.

1873.] Technology. 553

Struck with the inconveniences resulting from the use of toilet-soaps with a
base of potash or soda, M. Bonnamy has prepared alumina soaps. These are,
as a matter of course, neutral and free from causticity, and being insoluble in
water their detergent action is simply mechanical, not chemical.

Ozokerit, which is now largely used in the manufacture of candles, is found
in beds in the sandstone of Slanik, in Moldavia, in the neighbourhood of
mines of coal and of rock-salt ; it has also been discovered in the Carpathians.
The material in its crude state is brown, greenish, or yellow; it is translucent
at the angles, and its fracture is resinous. It is naturally brittle, but when
softened can be kneaded like wax. It blackens on exposure to the air. It
becomes negatively electric on friction, and exhales then the aromatic odour of
a hydrocarbon. It melts at the low temperature of 66°. Its illuminating
power is such that 754 ozokerit candles give a light equal to 891 of paraffin,
or 1150 of wax.

The recent sudden destruction of two large passenger ships, the Atlantic
and the City of Washington, has called attention to the desirability of availing
ourselves of the means which modern science has placed at our command for
the prevention of such disastrous accidents. For this purpose Mr. John
Newlands proposes that each large passenger ship should carry a small but
powerful steamboat or launch, and in foggy weather this steam launch should
be sent on ahead some few hundred yards, being connected with the passenger
ship by a flexible telegraphic cable provided with an electric battery, so that
signals or messages might be continually transmitted from one to the other.
The steam-launch should also carry an eledtric or other strong light, and be
provided with a powerful steam whistle. On meeting with ice or with vessels,
or unexpectedly approaching the coast, it would be comparatively easy to stop
the steam-launch and give warning in time to save the passenger ship from
danger.

General Morin gives a formula indicating what amount of air should be
renewed hourly for each individual, in order that carbonic acid and vapours
exhaled may not accumulate beyond a proportion of 00008 in a given enclosed
space. He finds that in a cubic space of 10 cubic metres this renewal hourly
should be go cubic metres; in 12, 88; in 16, 84; in 20, 80; in 30, 70; in
40, 60; in 50, 50; in 60, 40. Various applications of the formula are sug-
gested—barracks, bedrooms, public halls, hospitals, &c.

Some improvements in photo-lithography have been effe@ted by M. Paul. The
paper is coated with a layer of white of egg beaten up and mixed with a con-
centrated solution of bichromate. When dry it leaves a hard smooth surface.
After a sufficient insolation under the negative, the paper is covered with
lithographic ink, then immersed in cold water to dissolve out the unchanged
albumen, which is then removed with a fine sponge.

Horsky’s diffusion apparatus does away with the rasping process in the manu-
facture of beet-root sugar, dispenses with three-fourths of the manual labour,
and extracts the saccharine matter completely. The yield of sugar obtained
by the use of this arrangement has this season amounted to 8'5 per cent, an
amount greatly superior to that obtained in establishments where other pro-
cesses for extraction are in use.

The following is the formula for Dr. Jeannel’s horticultural manure :—
Nitrate of ammonia.. .. ..- .. 400 parts.

Biphosphate of ammonia a shag incr eoOO ss
Mitraterar petashe ais) cnet wis, sate 250. ay
Hydrochlorate of ammonia .. .. 50 4,
Sulphate of lime A. We ee ee 60.. 55
Sulphate of iron ahs: ee AG 3;

At a general meeting of the Société isiiedine de Photographie, held on
August I, 1873, a letter from M. Anthony, of New York, was read, offering
the following prizes, open to photographers of .al] nations :—100 dols. for the
best bust of a lady; 100 dols. for the best head of a boy under six years of age ;
too dols. for the best head of a girl under six years of age; 100 dols. for the

554 Progress im Science. [O¢tober,

best group of two children under six years of age; 100 dols. for the best land-
scape. The proofs to be 164 by 214 centimetres, mounted on cards 254 by
304 centimetres.

At the same meeting M. Champion gave the following as the result of his
experiments on the preparation of gun-cotton:—The acid mixture consists
of 2 measures of nitric acid at 40° B., obtained by mixing common and
fuming nitric acids, 3 measures of sulphuric acid at 66°. The mixture may
be used either cold or at 40°C. The cotton is left in contact with the acid
for three minutes, and the produ& washed till perfe@ly neutral.

Dr. E. Priwoznik records a change in cast-iron produced by the action of a
mineral sulphur water. On examining an iron water-pipe which had been ex-
posed for twelve years to the action of water rich in the sulphide of hydrogen,
the innermost stratum was found to consist of—

Hydrated oxideiof irene fio' sk} Ris wee 2. bee es es

Pred Salphae! ac i ay rise ele te ee ee Lee = es Sue

Suiphice of: 0H S's wie’ et eis Wee Se RE an ts Fe

Ey eroscopic Wate# s5 5, ica) ee ee bhi tee here fee Say

Nickel, cobalt, magnesia, silicic acid (soluble and
insoluble), traces of carbon, and chlorides of an 1°58
MONIUN ANd SOMA eek oe GR) ae

I00°00O

This stratum is, therefore, an intimate mixture of hydrated oxide of iron,
sulphide of iron, and sulphur. The hydrated oxide has the composition
2Fe203,3HO, and is therefore identical with limonite. The middle stratum
contained 79°2 per cent of metallic iron, and the exterior 92°6.

Interesting researches on the stroboscopic determination of the pitch of
tones have been made by M. Mach. In the apparatus there is a cylinder
which makes three revolutions in a second, and is divided into five octaves,
At one end of it begins 10 bands, which, however, become more numerous and
dense towards the other end, being there 320. To the axis of a syren is fixed
a disc having equidistant radial slits of the same number as the holes in the
syren-disc. The surface of the rotating cylinder is looked at through this
slitted disc, while the syren tone is gradually raised. According to the. stro-
boscopic principle the bands look distinét and at rest where there pass before
the eye an equal number of them and of slits in the disc. If a scale of num-
bers of vibration be attached to the cylinder, the number of vibrations of the
syren can be at once ascertained by observing the part corresponding to the
distinct and still ring of the cylinder. One sees, however, distinc and at rest,
not only the part of the cylinder corresponding to the number of vibrations
of the syren, but also all those parts which correspond to the harmonic over
tones. Of all such parts it is, of course, that one which furnishes the smallest
number of vibrations that corresponds to the vibration-number of the syren.
The determination may be varied in accuracy by varying the bands on the
paper of the rotating cylinder. The apparatus may be applied to other
sounding bodies. Thus let'a mono-chord string be stretched at right angles
to the axis of the cylinder; then simple teeth (Zachen) appear where the
sounding string is opposite that part of the cylinder indicating the same
number of vibrations. Another application is to attach small mirrors to
tuning-forks, and watch in them the image of the rotating cylinder. An organ
pipe may be also submitted to observation with aid of Konig’s capsules and
dancing jets.

ERRATA.—Page 474, footnote, for plane read slane. Page 480, line 22 from
bottom, for bog read boy. Page 540, line 25 from bottom, for north-western
read south-western.

Ty]

1873.] (555)

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS AND PERIODICALS RECEIVED

FOR REVIEW.
Ozone and Antozone, their History and Nature. By Cornelius B. Fox, M.D.
Edin. F. and A. Churchill.
Experimental Researches on the Causes and Nature of Catarrhus stivus.
By Charles H. Blackley, M.R.C.S. Bailliere, Tindall, and Cox.

Eledtricity and Magnetism. By Fleeming Jenkin, F.R.SS. L. and E.
Longmans and Co.

The Noaic.Deluge: its Probable Physical Effe&ts and Present Evidences.
By the Rev. S. Lucas, F.G.S. Hodder and Stoughton.

Record of Draught of Water of Sea-going Ships leaving Ports in the United
Kingdom. Printed for Samuel Plimsoll, M.P.

Papers relating to the Transit of Verus in 1874. Parts I. and II.
Washington Government Printing Office.

Results of Five Years’ Meteorological Observations for Hobart Town. By
Francis Abbott, F.R.A.S., F.R.M.S. Tasmania: Fames Barnard.

Half-Yearly Compendium of Medical Science. Part IX. January, 1873.
Philadelphia: S. W. Butler.

Monthly Record of Observations in Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism,
taken at Melbourne Observatory during Rovemsnes and December, 1872,
and January, 1873.

Light Science for Leisure Hours. Second Series. By R. A. Proctor, B.A.
Longmans and Co.

Sanitary Engineering: a Guide to the Construction of Works of Sewerage
and House Drainage. By Baldwin Latham, C.E. E. and F. N. Spon.

The SpeGroscope. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., &c. Macmillan and Co.
Records of the Geological Survey of India. Tribner and Co.

Long-Span Railway Bridges. Revised Edition. By B. Baker, Assoc. Inst. |
C. E. E. and F. N. Spon.

Sulphuric Acid Manufacture. By Henry Arthur Smith. £. and F. N. Spon.

Six Le&ures on Light, delivered in America. By John Tyndall, LL.D.,
F.R.S. Longmans and Co.

Reports of the Committee on Electrical Standards appointed by the British
Association. Revised by Sir Wm. Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S.; Dr. J. P.
Joule, LL.D., F.R.S.; Professors J. Clerk Maxwell, M. A, BF R. S., and F.
Jenkin, F.R. S. With a Report to the Royal Society of Units of Ele@rical
Resistance, by Prof.’ F. Jenkin, F.R.S. Edited by Professor Fleeming
Jenkin. E. and F. N. Spon.

Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1872. Edited by Spencer F. Baird.
New York: Harper Bros. London: Sampson, Low, and Co.

Special Report on Immigration. By Edward Young, Ph.D.
Washington Government Printing Office.

The Natural History of the British Diatomacez. By Arthur Scott Donkin,
By ¥. Van Voorst.

The Convolutions of the Human Brain. By Dr. Alex. Ecker. Translated by
J. C. Galton, M.R.C.S. Smith, Elder, and Co.

(556 ) [OGober,

Outlines of Natural History for Beginners. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D.
W. Blackwood and Sons.

Student’s Class-Book of Animal Physiology. By T. A. Bullock, M.D.
London: Rolfe Bros. Manchester: $. Heywood.

Results on an Experimental Enquiry into the Mechanical Properties of
Fagersta Steel. By David Kirkaldy.

Half-Hours with the Microscope. By Edwin Lankester, M.D. Illustrated
by Tuffen West. Robert Hardwicke.

PERIODICALS.
Macmillan’s Magazine.
Naval Science.
The Popular Science Review.
The Geological Magazine.
The American Chemist.
The Westminster Review.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES, &c.

Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Academy of Science for 1871.
Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. Vol iv., Part V. 1872,

Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. No. 26,
with Index to vols. i. to xxv. Longmans and Co.

Monthly Notices of Meteorological Society of Mauritius.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Monthly Microscopical Journal. Robert Hardwicke.
Proceedings of the Royal Society.

1873.] ' (557)

INDEX.

AND, W., dry mounting, 278

— lens ruled in squares, 422

Actinism and magnetism, 294

ApaM, M., arite, 266

Agricultural geology, 426

Alcohol from sawdust, 281

Amblygonite and montebrasite, 416

Amorpholithic monuments and the
dolmen mounds of Brittany, 236

ANDERSON, J., “The Strength of
Materials and Structures” (re-
view), I24

Annelides, new genus of, 272

Aphides, 421

Ardennite, 266

Arite, 266

Armour and guns, 136, 539

Arseniates and phosphates, 265

Arsenic in carpets, 281

Artillery matériel, British, notes on
recent changes in, 329

Atacamite, crystals of, 538

— mineral, 538

Atmospheric life germs, 224

Atomic weight of thallium, 7

Australian tin, 132

Axinite, 416

Axon, W. E. A., the future af the
English language, 367

AERLE, M., soluble glass as a
detergent, 282
BAINBRIDGE, E., Coppée’s patent coke
ovens, 536

BarrRETT, W. F., spheroidal state of
soapy water, 279

Beer, clarification of by means of
tannin, 552

BESSEMER, Mr., channel steamer, 138

Birds, fossil, 272

— digestion in, 552

BuAKE, Dr., natural current of elec-
tricity, 281

Bleaching animal fabrics, 282

Bordosite, a new mineral, 135

BREITHAUPT, M., nantokite, 265

Bridges, new, over the Thames, 138

British strata, 426

Brochantite, mineral, 538

VOL, III. (N.S.)

Brown, G. T., pocket microscope, 277
‘** Budget of Paradoxes” (review), 121,
Burette, new, 282

Butterflies, fossil, 272

Grae hemimorphism in, 136

Calcium fluoride, 417

Callidina, new species, 422

CAMPBELL, J. F., glaciation of Ireland,
425

CappPiE, J., “Causation of Sleep’
(review), 129

Carnivore, fossil, 272

Carpets, arsenic in, 281

Cast- or wrought-iron, conversion of
into steel, 433

Cast-iron, change produced in by
mineral sulphur water, 564

‘** Causation of Sleep ”’ (review), 129

“Cause, Date, and Duration of the °

last Glacial Epoch of Geology,
and the Probable Antiquity of
Man; with an Investigation and
Description of a New Movement
of the Earth ” (review), 256

** Celestial Obje&s of Common Tele-
scopes ”’ (review), 522

Celestine, 416

Channel steamer, 138

Charcoal-iron, 264

Charred papers and documents, 427

‘Chemistry, Practical, the Owen’s:
College Junior Course of’’ (re-
view), 259 .

Chemical industry, modern progress:
of, 552

Chinese varnish, 281

Chromatology, comparative vegetable,.
451

CuuRCH, Prof., arseniates and phos-
phates, 265

**Coal at ae and Abroad” (re-
view),

Coal beds in the United States, 425

— discovery of, 535

— famine, 145

— mines, accidents in, 131

— recent discovery of in various parts
of the British Isles, 262

4c

558

Coal supply, the limits of, 343

— trade, present state of, 413

Coal-cutting machinery, 535

_Coffee adulteration, 427

Colliery explosions, 131

— winding engines, 414

Colorado gold mines, 13

Colour blindness, apparatus for testing,
276

Sion and their relations, 74

Condition of the moon’s surface, 29

CONSTABLE, C., retaining walls, 417

Copper pyrites, extraction of silver
and gold from, 134

Coral reefs and the glacial period,

170

“Critiques and Addresses” (review),
527

Crookes, W.,a solution of the sewage
problem, 55

— magneto-eledtric illumination, 307

— on the probability of error in expe-
rimental research, 1

Cryptograph of M. Pelegrin, 557

Crystallographic nets, 417

ANKS, Mr., lining rotatory pud-
dling furnaces, 133

DANVERS, F. C., peat, 466

Darwin, C., “‘ The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals”
(review), 113

Davis, H., Callidina,

422

Dawson, Commander, powder pres-
sures of the first 35-ton gun, 267

— J. W., introduction of genera and
species in geological time, 363

Derty, H., trunk refinery and pud-
dling furnace, 264

‘““ Depths of the Sea”’ (review), 523

DE Moreay, A., ‘“*‘ A Budget of Para-
doxes ” (review), 121

Devonian question, present state of
the, 104

Dewalquite, 266, 539

Diamond, combustibility of, 424

— some new facts concerning, 437

Diamonds imbedded in xanthophyl-
lite, 265

— in California, 416

‘ DiGionary of Terms used in Archi-
teGure, Building, Engineering,
Mining, Metallurgy, Archzology,
the Fine Arts, &c.” (review), 522

Didymium in Cumberland, 136

Diffusion apparatus, Horsky’s, 553

Dixon, W., researches at the Great
Pyramid, 273

Dolmen mounds and amophorlithic
monuments of Brittany, 236

new species,

INDEX.

[October,

Dovctas, J., gold mines and milling
of Gilpin County, Colorado,
United States, 13

Dover harbour, 541

Drayson, Mr., “On the Cause, Date,

and Duration of the last Glacial’

Epoch of Geology, and the Pro-

bable Antiquity of Man; with

an Investigation and Description
of anew Movement of the Earth”

(review), 256

Drills, rock, 542

Dureu, M., the pyramids of Egypt,
511

Dyes, stability of various, 142

Dynamite, 267

Dynamometers, 418

2: } AS an Investigation and
Description of a New Move-
ment of” (review), 256

EleGric currents of the earth, 142

— light, 550

Electrical method of sawing timber,
141

‘* Elementary Geology ” (review), 129

‘‘Elementary Treatise on Natural
Philosophy ” (review), 394

‘Elements of Natural Philosophy ”’
(review), 409

“ Elements of Zoology” (review) 128

Emerald, colouring matter of, 537

Enargite, mineral, 538

*“ Encke’s Comet, Reports of Obser-
vations on” (review), 125

English language, future of, 367

ENGLISH, T. J., inje@ing apparatus
for animal tissues, 277

Enstatite, 266

Erosion of lake-basins, 425

Error, probability of in experimental
research, I

“Eruption of Vesuvius in 1872” (re-
view), 247

Evolution theory, 363

Exhibition, International, 1873, scien-
tific aspect of, 386

Explosions, colliery, 131

‘* Expression of the Emotions in Man
and Animals” (review) 113

ETTLING with oxide of iron,
264
Fire-proof paint for wood, 143
“Forces of Nature” (review) 126
Furfurol, formation of from wood,

143

ALLOWAY, R.,
262
Gas-burner, Wallace’s, 421

safety-lamps,

1873.]

Gas reservoir, a natural, 281

Gases, variation of temperature which
occur in diffusion, 424

GEIKIE, A., ‘‘Science Primers: Physi-
cal Geography ”’ (review) 411

Genera and species, introduction in
geological time, 363

‘‘ General Glaciation of Jar-Connaught
and its Neighbourhood in the
Counties of Galway and Mayo”’
(review), 260

Geological awards, 270

" — diagrams, 426

‘*Geological Stories; a Series of
Autobiographies in Chronological

_ Order” (review), 258

Geological time, introduction of
genera and species in, 363

* Geology of the London Basin” (re-
view), 251

“Geology, the School Manual of”
(review), 258

*‘Geometric Turning” (review), 406

German silver, 428

Germs, atmospheric life, 224

‘“*Girders and Similar Structures,
Theory of Strains in” (review),254

**Glacial Epoch of Geology, Last
Cause, Date, and Duration of”
(review), 256

Glacial period and coral reefs, 170

— geology, 545

Glaciation of Ireland, 425

‘Glimpses of the Future Life” (re-
view), 407

Gold and silver, extraction of from
copper pyrites, 134

— — — separation of from lead, 134

— brittle, from Australia, 143

— from quartz, 534

— mines and milling of Gilpin
county, Colorado, U.S., 13

— mining, 534

GRAMME, M., magneto-electric engine,
-280

GREENER, T. and W. ELLIS, fettling
with oxide of iron, 264

GRovER, J. W., railways and their
future development, 153

Guadalcazarite, a new mineral, 135

GUILLEMIN, A., *“‘ The Forces of Na-

; ture ” (review), 126

Gum Arabic, preservation of from
mouldiness, 552

Guns, 267

— and armour, 136, 539

Gun-cotton, preparation of, 564

ZEMATITE, brown, occurring in
the lower silurian rocks in
Longford and Cavan, 263

INDEX.

909

Hair, preparation of, 281

HALL, A., and W. HArKNEssS, ‘ Re-
ports on Observations on Encke’s
Comet ”’ (review), 125

Harbours, 539

HauGuTon, S., ‘ Principles of Ani-
mal Mechanics ” (review), 404

Hay, spontaneous combustion of, 552

Heat from the moon, 279

— new form of experiments on pro-
duction of, 141

Hebronite, 538

HELMHOLTZ, H., ‘* Popular Le&tures
on Scientific Subjects” (review),

395

Herschelite, mineral, 135

Horner, C., spectra of some cobalt ,
compounds in blowpipe chemistry,
419

Hot air, apparatus for heating with,

552

HuaueEs, W., ‘‘ Physical Geography”
(review), 411

Hut, E., “A Treatise on Building
and Ornamental Stones of Great
Britain and Foreign Countries ”’
(review), 127

— — the coal famine, 145

Hux.ey, T. H., ‘ Critiques and Ad-
dresses ” (review), 527 .

Hydrargyrite, mineral, 135

‘‘ Hygiene of Air and Water” (re-
view), 118

Hygrophyllite, mineral, 538

poe in zinc-blende, 539
Injecting apparatus for animal
tissues, 277

International communication, 541

— exhibition, 1873, scientific aspect
of, 386

‘Introduction to Physical Measure-
ments’’ (review), 520

“Tron,” a weekly journal, 264

Iron and Steel Institute, 414, 535

— — — manufacture, 414

— lake, patent for producing, 133

— economical preparation of for
Danks’s puddling furnace, 536

— gilding, 428

— ore fossiliferous, description of the
remarkable deposits of in Southern
Pennsylvania, 263

— ores of Nova Scotia, 263

— purifying with salt cake, 134

Isopyre, 265

EFFERSONITE, 266
Jones, F., ‘* The Owen’s Col-
lege Junior Course of Pradtieal
Chemistry ” (review), 259

560

Jordanite, mineral, 538
Jukes, J. B., ‘‘ The School Manual of
Geology” (review), 256

ENT’S hole machairodus, 204
Kieserite, applications of the
mineral, 135

KINAHAN, G. H., ‘* The General
Glaciation of Jar-Connaught and
its Neighbourhood in the Counties
of Galway and Mayo”’ (review),
260

KIRKWOOD, J. P., ‘‘ Report on the Fil-
tration of River Waters for the
Supply of Cities ’’ (review), 532

KouHLRAuSCH, F., ‘“* An Introduction
to Physical Measurements”’ (re-
view), 520

Kjerulfin, mineral, 537

PARES origin of, 425
Lamp-black, manufacture of,
281

Lanarkite, 266

LANDAU, Mr., new safety-lamp, 413

LASAULX, Dr., ardennite, 266

Lead, separation of gold and silver
from, 134

LEIFCHILD, J. R., ‘‘On Coal at Home
and Abroad ”’ (review), 412

Le Roux, M., electric indudtion,
280

Leucite crystals, 415

Life germs, atmospheric, 224

‘* Life of Richard Trevithick”’ (re-
view), 127

Lime-uranite, 538

Lithofrateur, 131

Lunar rainbow, 276

Lucas, S., ‘* The Noaic Deluge ” (re-
view), 407

ACHAIRODUS, Kent’s Hole,
204

Magnetism and actinism, 294

— condensation of, 141

‘* Magnetism ’”’ (review), 129

Magneto-electric engine, 280

— illumination, 307

— machines, 549

‘‘ Man, Probable Antiquity of” (re-
view), 256

Manganese, metallurgy of, 133

‘‘ Manual of Elementary Chemistry,”
(review), 128

‘‘ Manual of Microscopic Mounting ”’
(review), I19

‘* Manual of Paleontology” (review),
128

‘““Manual of Recent and Existing
Commerce ”’ (review), 394

INDEX.

(October,

Manure, horticultural, 553

Mars, the planet, in 1873, 178

MarTIN, J. H., ‘* Manual of Micro-
scopic Mounting ” (review), 119

MASKELYNE and FLIGHT, isopyre and
percylite, 265

Maxite, a new mineral, 134

MAXWELL, J. C., “A Treatise on
EleGricity and Magnetism ” (re-
view), 529

‘* Memoirs of the Geological Survey
of England and Wales” (review),.
251

Mercurial poisoning, 281

Metal, fastening leather upon, 552

MetaHurgy, statistics of progress in,
132

Meteoric iron, 266

Mettalum martis, 264

Micrometer scale, engraved, 277

— — for direct vision spectroscope,

_ 275

Microscope stand, 422

— pocket, 277

Microscopic objects, dry mounting,
278

— objective, new, 140

— objectives, improved, 278

Micro-spectroscope, introductory work
on, 277

— novel, 140

Milk, artificial, 142

Mineral resources of India, 414

— — — Australian Colonies, 534

— riches of the Philippines, 318

Mines Regulations Aés, 130

Mining gold, 534

— statistics, 130

Molecular motion, what determines,

429

“Moon: Her Motions, Aspect, Sce-
nery, and Physical Conditions ”’
(review), 515

Moon’s surface, changes in, 483

_—— condition of, 29

Mor Town, President, lecture illustra-
tions of solar phenomena, 547

NANTORITE, 265

NEWLAnDs, J. A. R., on preventing
colliery explosions, 131

New South Wales, tin from, 132

NicHoLson, H. A., ‘* Manual of
Paleontology” (review), 128

Nickel, substitutes for, 415

**Noaic Deluge” (review), 407

NoBERT’s test-plate, 139

Nohlite, a new mineral, 135

‘*Notes for My Students: Magne-
tism”’ (review), 129

1873.1]

“Notes on River Basins” (review),
125

BITUARY, Drs.
BENCE JONES, 427

— the Rev. ADAM SEDGWICK, 269

Object-glasses, new microscopic, 140

OLIVER, S. P., notes on recent changes
in British artillery matériel, 329

— the dolmen mounds and amorpho-
lithic monuments of Brittany,
236

“Orbs Around Us” (review), 124

‘Our Seamen: An Appeal”? (review),
245

Ovens, CopPrEE’s patent coke, 536

“Owens College Junior Course of
Practical Chemistry ” (review),
259 ;

Ozokerit, 553

Ozone-generator, new, 550

ING on tin-foil, 142

LIEBIG and

Paleontology, 272, 543

PALMIERI, L., ‘“* The Eruption of
Vesuvius in 1872” (review), 247

Paper, materials for manufacture of,

143

“Papers relating to the Transit of
Venus in 1874” (review), 250

Peat, 466

Pebbles, green, of Iona, 267

PENGELLy, W., the Kent’s Hole
Machairodus, 204

Percylite, 265

Petroleum, purifying, 143 :

Phosphorus, removal of from pig-iron,
263

Photographic printing, 143

— prizes, 553

Photo-lithography, 553

‘* Physical Geography” (review), 411

Pisani, M., dewalquite, 266

— jeffersonite, 266

— native amalgams of silver, 266

Planet Mars in 1873, 178

Platinum, fusion in a furnace, 415

PLIMSOLL, S., ‘Our Seamen: an
Appeal” (review), 245

Pneumatic foundations, 417

Polar Sea, open, 279

Poe, W., the Rigi railway, 418

PonTon, M., actinism and magnetism,
294

— colours and their relations, 74

— ‘Glimpses of the Future Life”
(review), 407 ‘

*¢ Popular Le&ures on Scientific Sub-
jects” (review), 395

Potash-acetate, 423

INDEX.

561

Powder-pressures in the first 35-ton
gun, 267

PRALL’s water-lifting apparatus, 417

Priceite, a new borate of lime, 539

‘* Principles of Animal Mechanics”
(review), 404

PRIVAT- DESCHANEL, A., ‘‘ Elementary
Treatise on Natural Philosophy”
(review), 394

ProcTer, H. R., glass reading-scale
for spectroscopes, 274

Proctor, R. A., changes
moon’s surface, 483 -

— condition of the moon’s surface,

in the

29

— ‘*The Moon: her Motions, Asped,
Scenery, and Physical Condi-
tions ”’ (review), 515

— ‘The Orbs around us’? (review),

124
the planet Mars in 1873, 178

ProcTErR, W., ‘“‘ The Hygiene of Air
and Water” (review), 118

Pucherite, 416

Puddling-furnace and trunk refinery,
264

— furnaces, lining rotatory, 133

Pyramid, the Great, recent researches
at the, 273

‘* Pyramids of Egypt” (review), 511

UADRUMANA, fossil, 272

Quartz, gold from, 534

Ra economy, 269

Railways and their future develop-
ment, 153

— relative advantages of the5 ft. 6 in.
gauge and of the metre gauge, 268

— new lines of, 137

Rainbow, lunar, 276

** Records of the Rocks’”’ (review), 121

‘‘ Report on the Filtration of River
Waters for the Supply of Cities ”’
(review), 532

Resistance, maximum, to electricity,
280

“Reprint of Papers on Eledro-
Statics and Magnetism ” (review),
529 :

Retaining walls, 417

-RIcHARDSON, J. G., acetate of potash,

423

Rigi railway, 418

Rock-drill, form of, 414

RoscoE, H. E. ‘*The Owens Col-
lege Junior Course of Praétical
Chemistry ”’ (review), 259

562

Rose, GusTAv, action of heat on dia-
mond and graphite, 537
Rosse, Earl of, heat from the moon, 279

ne aa eae new, 413

— lamps, 262 :

Salt-cake for purifying iron, 134

SANDBERG, C. P., rail economy, 269

Savory, H. S., ‘‘Geometric Turn-
ing ’’ (review) 406

Sawdust, alcohol from, 281

SCHEERER, M., removal of phos-
phorus from pig-iron, 263

**School Manual of Geology” (re-
view), 258

Science and sects, 285

‘*“Science Primers; . Physical Geo-
graphy ”’ (review), 411

Sea, safety at, 553

Sects and science, 285

SEDGWICK, Rev. Adam, obituary of
269

Seebachite, a new mineral, 136

Selenium, condu@ivity of, for elecri-
city, 280,

Sewage problem, a solution of the, 55

Shells, 267

Ships, bow and stern screw, 542

SIEMENS, C. W., manufacture of iron
and steel, 414

“Signal Service U.S. Army: Tele-
grams and Reports for the Bene-
fitof Commerce and Agriculture”
(review), 260

SILLIMAN, B., description of the re-
markable deposits of fossiliferous
iron ore in Southern Penn-
sylvania, 263

— diamonds in California, 416

Silver amalgams, 266

— filiform, artificial produdion of, 136

—and gold, extraction of from cop-
per pyrites, 134

— — separation of from lead, 134

— articles, cleaning, 428

Slags from blast-furnace, utilisation
of, 415

Slide for viewing microscopic objects,
139

cipcite L., note on meteoric iron, 266

— W., conductivity of selenium for
electricity, 280

— W. S., pneumatic foundations, 417

SmyTH, Piazzi, ‘*‘ The Pyramids of
Egypt” (review), 511

Soaps, alumina, 553

Solar phenomena, lecture illustrations
of, 547

Soluble glass for washing, 282

Solution of the sewage problem, 55

INDEX.

[October,

Soudan railway, 268

Sorsy, H. C., comparative vegetable
chromatology, 451

— on Aphides, 421

Species and genera, introduction in
geological time, 363

Spectra of some cobalt compounds in
blowpipe chemistry, 419

Spectroscope, glass reading scale for,
274

— presented to the University of Ox-
ford, 546

SPENCE, Mr., combustibility of the
diamond, 424

Spheroidal state, 279

Staurolite, 539

Steel, production of, 133

Stentorin spectrum, 422

STonEy, B. B., “The Theory of
Strains in Girders and Similar
Strudures”’ (review), 254

Stratigraphical geology, 271, 424, 544

‘Strength of Materials and Struc-
tures”? (review), 124

Symonps, W. S., “ Records of the
Rocks ”’ (review), 121

Syngenite, a new mineral, 135

Aes H., metallurgy of man-
ganese, 133

TAYLOR, J. E., ‘* Geological Stories:
a Series of Autobiographies in
Chronological Order’ (review),
258

Telegraphy, duplex, 550

Tertiary formations of New Zealand,
425

Thallium, atomic weight of, 7

“Theory of Strains in Girders and
similar Structures, &c.”’ (review),
254

Tuomson, C. W., ‘The Depths of
the Sea” (review), 523

— Sir W., and G. P. Tair, ‘‘ Elements
of Natural Philosophy” (review),

409

— ‘Reprint of Papers on Elecro-
Statics and Magnetism” (re-
view), 529

Times, J., “* The Year-Book of Facts
in Science and Art” (review), 531

Tin, effec of cold on, 143 -

— foil, painting on, 142

— from Australia, 132

— — New South Wales, 132

— smelting in Banca, 134

Tones, pitch of, 564

TopLey, G.,comparative agriculture
of England and Wales, 426

‘“‘ Transit of Venus in 1874” (review),
250

1873.]

*“ Treatise on Building and Orna-
mental Stones of Great Britain
and Foreign Countries’’ (review),

12

- es on Electricity and Magne-
tism ”’ (review), 529

TREVITHICK, F., ‘‘ Life of Richard
Trevithick ” (review), 127

ore ISH, Chinese, 281

“Venus, Papers Relating to the
Transit in 1874” (review), 250

‘Vesuvius, eruption in 1872” (re-
view), 247

3 ea ERITE, mineral, 538

WALLACE’s gas-burner, 421

Warp, J. C., coral reefs and the
glacial period, 170

— “Elementary Geology” (review),
129

Water-lifting apparatus, 417

Watts, H., ‘“ Manual of Elementary
Chemistry by G. Fownes” (re-
view), 128

WEALE, J., ‘“A Dictionary of Terms
Used in Archite@ture, Building,
Engineering, Mining, Metallurgy,
Archeology, the Fine Arts, &c.”
(review), 522

WEBB, J. W., ‘‘ Celestial Objects of
Common Telescopes” (review),
522

WEBBER, 9., the Francis dynamo-
meter, 418

“WenuaM, F. H., microscopic objec-
tives, 278

LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME III.

CONDITION OF THE Moon’s SURFACE

THE PLANET MARS IN 1873 .
MAGNETO-ELECTRIC ILLUMINATION
Lunar LANDscAPES (2 plates)

INDEX.

563

WHEILDON, Prof., arctic climate and
open polar sea, 279

WHITAKER, W., ‘““Memoirs of the
Geological Survey of England
and Wales ’”’ (review), 251

WiuuiaMs, C. G., formation of fur-
furol from wood, 143

— colouring matter of emerald, 537

—R.A., “Notes on River Basins”
(review). 125.

Witsovy, A., ‘“‘ Elements of Zoology ”’
(review), 128

— W. J., “Notes for My Students ;
Magnetism” (review), 129

Woop, W. W., the mineral riches of
the Philippines, 318

Woopwarp, H. B., remarks on the
present state of the Devonian
question, 104

Wool, cleaning with soluble glass, 282

Woolwich Infant, 267

ANTHOPHYLLITE, diamonds
found in, 265

ATES, Mr.,_ self-extinguishing
safety-lamp, 263
‘* Year-Book of Faéts in Science and
Art” (review), 531
YEATS, J., ‘‘Manual of Recent and
Existing Commerce, from the
Year 1789 to 1872” (review), 394
Youna, J. W., composition of some
zeolites, 266

ZF, nOLIIES: composition of, 266

Zinc-blende, indium in, 539

(N.S.)
PAGE
: I
Sn 200
313
fc

LIST OF WOODCUTS IN VOLUME III. (N.S.)

Microscopic Slide for viewing Ba¢teria, Vibriones, &c. .

Micro-Spectroscope .
Apparatus for Production ‘of Furfurol

Glass Reading Scale for Dire&t-Vision Sau arhaepes

Direct- Vision Micrometer Scale for Pocket Spectroscopes
Magneto-Electric Illumination (2 figures) ‘
Spectra of some Cobalt hie a a in Blowpipe Chemistry F

Spectrum of Aphides
Microscope Stand

Changes in the Moon’s Surface (3 figures)
Lecture Illustrations of Solar Phenomena (4 figures)

139

140

144

274

276

309

41g

421

423

489, 490
547—549

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES
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