it proceeds from gaseous molecules which must be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the sun, and that, in fact, a solar atmosphere seems only able to fulfil those conditions. The red prominences were not found to be polarised, and it is permitted thence to conclude that the solar clouds are composed of liquid, or even solid, particles, and are something like our own. It will be seen from the foregoing conflicting opinions that the natures of the sun and solar atmosphere are not yet entitled to enter into the rank of settled truths.

The astronomer royal, it may be finally observed, discussed the evidence of the different witnesses at the meeting of the British Association at Manchester, and expressed his opinion on the matter to the effect that his conviction was that the appearance called Bailly's Beads were occasioned by imperfections in the telescope, and that the red protuberances belonged to the sun.

Further observations on the meteorological influences of the moon upon our atmosphere have tended to establish a fact of importance. Herschel had long ago propounded that the full moon appeared to possess the singular property of dispelling clouds, and Humboldt found the same opinion received in Peru. Arago also determined, as the result of his observations, that the amount of rain that fell was greater at or near the time of a new moon than when the moon was full. Forty-three years' thermometric observations, made at Greenwich by Mr. Park Harrison, establish a nearly constant rise of temperature from the new moon to the full moon, and as constant a fall from the full moon to the new, as also that the maximum of rainy or cloudy days correspond to the maximum of temperature.

In connexion with the fall of rain, we may mention that a M. Hervé Mangon has invented a pluvioscope, which is founded upon the circumstance that a drop of rain gives rise to a black spot when falling on paper dipped in a solution of sulphate of iron, and rubbed over with very fine powdered gall and gum. The paper thus prepared is made to revolve once in twenty-four hours, and indicates the slightest, as well as the heaviest, fall of rain, and the time at which it fell. The rain, in fact, manufactures its own ink, and records its own progress.

Some rain that fell at Sienna was coloured red, and was examined by Professors Campani and Gabbrielli, who determined that the substance was held in solution by the water, and could not be referred to anything in the vegetable or mineral world carried up by a whirlwind into the clouds, as had hitherto been supposed. This requires, however, further elucidation. M. de Castelnau saw a number of Chinese and Malays busy picking up fish in the streets of Singapore, after a torrential rain that fell on the 22nd of February, 1861, and they declared that they fell from the clouds:

M. Liais has applied photography to the determination of terrestrial longitudes. Such an application of instantaneous records would be of real value to science. M. Becquerel, a name also well known to science, declares that cutting down woods renders the summers hotter and the winters less cold. A point of interest, at all events for the future of Canada, which may with the progress of civilisation obtain a milder climate. Herschel has said that the abundance of harvest increased with the number of solar spots. M. Renon has propounded that hard winters come by groups of five or six every forty-one years. This

period of forty-one years is precisely that which corresponds to the epoch when the solar spots reappear in the same position at the same season of

the year.

Science may be truly said to have never stood in a greater or more triumphant phase than it has done during the past year. For some time past now the hearts of philosophers have beat at the wonders which have been brought to light by recent researches. There was an instrument, a mere piece of glass-a prism-about which there was a history which would form the basis of novels in after years. That instrument had unveiled things never thought of or seen before by mortal eye. From its production of the prismatic colours had been rightly inferred the manner in which the rainbow was produced. For many years the instrument had remained a toy; but lately, Fraunhofer, a German philosopher, had discovered in the spectrum produced by it from the sun's rays a series of dark lines called Fraunhofer's lines. Sir David Brewster had discovered that a peculiar light could be produced if the rays of light passing through the prism had first to traverse certain gases. Then, more recently, Professor Bunsen, of Heidelberg, had found that if, into the flame of a lamp employed to produce a spectrum, the slightest portion of any metal or other element was introduced, there then would be different lines struck across the prism, having a different colour or characteristic for every element. The ten-millionth part of chloride of sodium could be detected by this means. This great discovery, which was qualitative but not quantitative, was called spectrum analysis. Applying this mode of analysis, Kirschof had discovered in the atmosphere of the sun the same metals as in the earth. Recent researches, also, in connexion with spectrum analysis, had determined almost to demonstration that, throughout the whole universe, there was diffused an etherial medium which chemists could not touch, and that the heat which we felt was nothing more than the motion of this body. In this way common flame was shown to be exactly analogous to the heat of the sun.

It has been the fashion in Paris to laugh at the expense of M. Babinet -an amateur astronomer and philosopher-but he has this year achieved a great triumph. He foretold the occurrence of a "mascaret," or high rolling tide, in the Seine, and hundreds are said to have gone from Paris, on the faith of his prediction, to the pretty village of Caudebec, near Rouen, to witness the phenomenon. Nor were they doomed to disappointment. A majestic tidal wave is said to have rolled up, on Sunday, the 6th of October, twelve feet high, carrying all before it, inundating the quays, and satisfying many of the unbelievers by giving them a thorough drenching. The phenomenon was reproduced, on a smaller scale, the next day. A propos of these tidal waves, the dates of which are now reduced to a mathematical certainty, the good people dwelling "above and below bridges" must look out in the ensuing year for the 17th of March and the 26th of April. Should the wind happen to be in a favourable direction for pushing the tidal wave up the Thames, there will be all the more danger to be apprehended, especially in flooding cellars, &c. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

A certain step has been recently made in medical science by what is termed the synthetical method of research. Up to the present time all that has been done in the study of disease has been to collect a great number of diseased conditions, subject them to analysis, examine what

remedies would be good in such a case, or to examine what were the conditions of the body in the course of that disease and after it. That method, called analysis, has no doubt done a great deal of good. But now they take an animal which they know to be susceptible of a specific disease, subject it to certain conditions likely to produce some particular disease, and from the live animal they deduce absolutely the disease. Thus they produce diabetes in the dog. In another animal they produce epilepsy; in another animal cataract; in another rheumatic fever, with disease of the heart, and all other incidental diseases.

Much importance has naturally been attached to these facts by the lecturers at the inaugural meetings of schools of medicine, and it has been argued that since diseases are producible by human means, so, consequently, they are avertible by human prudence. This is no doubt the case, and it constitutes the basis of the late Dr. Andrew Combes's principles in regard to the physical and moral laws, as propounded in his brother's treatise on the "Constitution of Man," and as applied to the prevention and cure of disease; but it is a nicer point to determine how far slight deviations in quantity and quality of air, exercise, and nutriment are calculated to produce certain forms of disease. The new track for investigation, therefore, thus opened is a good one; it forms, as it were, a supplement to Liebig's investigations in organic chemistry, and it will no doubt lead to valuable results being obtained in connexion with that much-neglected science which is by our continental friends termed hygiène, but which with us, as a more practical-i. e. less refined—nation, is looked upon simply as the art of taking care of oneself. The day will come, however, when the least cultivated person will find that there is a whole education involved in that which he so complacently believes to be a mere art, reduced to a few very simple rules.

Among the most interesting points connected with the progress of geography during the past year, as influenced by France, we may notice Captain Vincent's exploration of the Western Sahara. It is now some time since the French colony on the Senegal River has begun to attract greater attention than it has hitherto done. This is mainly on account of a projected line of communication between that colony and Algeria by way of Timbuktu. There was a rumour, which no doubt had good foundation at the time, that the emperor was going to solve the difficulty, as the sultans of Morocco did in olden time, by an armed expedition. It is not because such is delayed that it may not yet be accomplished by some of the trained bands and Oriental auxiliaries to be found in Algeria or on the borders of the desert.

In the mean time available information has been sought for by more peaceable means. A prize, founded by the Geographical Society of Paris, the Minister of Public Instruction, the Minister of Commerce, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Algeria-yet amounting in the aggregate to only 8320 fr. (say 3331.), but open to increase from subscriptions has now been proffered for some years to the traveller who shall have first proceeded from the colony of Senegal to Algeria, or from Algeria to the colony of Senegal, passing by Timbuktu, and who shall, at the same time, have brought home with him itineraries, and collected new and exact observations upon the caravans that cross this portion of the Sahara, on their importance and the epochs of their journeys. We wonder that no enterprising Englishman has undertaken the journey, not

so much for the value of the prize, which would not cover expenses, as for the credit of the undertaking. But there are great difficulties connected with the journey. We know, from the experience gained by Livingstone and Andersson, that the natives of Africa are the more corrupt the more you approach European settlements. The colony of Senegal has been, further, incessantly at war with its neighbours. We are told that the governor, M. Faidherbe, "has inaugurated a new policy," that he has made "the French name feared and respected by glorious combats," that "he no longer contents himself with a localised influence on the Senegal, but extends it at the same time as our commercial relations over an immense extent of territory, in the midst of which flows the river that serves as a basis;" that "a handful of men now maintain order upon a line of two hundred leagues in extent, and hold their own against a fanatic Mussulman, whose eloquence moves whole populations;" and that "commerce no longer dreads penetrating to the Upper River." This is no doubt true, and it is to be hoped progress is made; but still it does not take away from the existence of inimical and fanatic Mussulmans, and we know from Barth's experiences at Timbuktu with what infinite apprehensions the southerly advance of the French from Algeria is looked upon by the tribes of the Sahara, more especially the wide-spread and warlike Tawarek or Berbers. This may account for the circumstance of the glove thrown down by the society, backed by the government, not having been picked up after the lapse of several years.

Staff-Captain Vincent has, however, proceeded in the same direction, but by another line, that of the coast; and he has in reality explored the greater part of the country that extends between the Senegal and Morocco, besides making lateral excursions into the interior of great interest, as attesting the existence of hilly inhabited regions, with water, palmgroves, and excellent pasturages. Some opposition was met with on the part of a local chief, designated as King Muhammad al Habib, but it was triumphed over. He was chief of the Trarza or Warrior Tribes, the pastoral and peaceful tribes being chiefly Moors. The latter are also engaged in fishery, and are divided into two parties: the one depending on the Aulad Selim, a powerful and warlike tribe inhabiting the Tiris; the other on the Trarza and the French. These fishermen belong to the tribe Aulad ben Seba, or the children of the sons of the Lion, and between them and the Senegal is the country of the gum-producing acacias. The bank of Arguin, renowned for the loss of the Medusa frigate, is in the heart of the fishery, and is said to be dangerously infected by sharks, whom the lion-hearted Moors, however, fight as it were hand to mouth. The governor of Senegal suggests that this fishery would be less onerous, more advantageous, and more lucrative to France than that of Newfoundland, "où nous sommes soumis à des tracasseries de la part des Anglais et des Américains."

The Aulad ben Seba also catch ostriches, that come down in autumn to the coast, like fashionable people, to refresh themselves with the seabreezes. Beyond Arguin is Tariast, a region of strong clayey and gravelly plains, producing splendid herbage at the wet season, and which again is succeeded by the horizontal table-land called Tiris, and to the east of which are the granitic peaks of the Adrar. The Aulad Delim, a warlike and plundering tribe, dwell in these fastnesses. The daughters

of these "brigands," as Captain Vincent calls them, are very fair, and much sought after by the marrying young men of the neighbouring tribes. Here they obtained guides to conduct them by the sandy and stony plains of Azfal to the residence of Auld Aida, chief of the Yaya ben Othman, a prosperous, numerous, and powerful tribe, dwelling chiefly in the hilly district of Adrar. The expedition was detained here twenty-seven days under the strictest surveillance, and finally had to take its departure without being able to explore the country, which was ascertained to contain several towns, much cultivation of corn, maize, barley, millet, and dates, many horses and camels, and mines of salt. There are no rivers, but wells are numerous and superficial. A rapid retreat had to be effected by the pass of Ja-ul and the plain of Inchiri, and it was not without many dangers, privations, and fatigues, that the expedition regained St. Louis. Still Captain Vincent argues that the Adrar, being the centre of a very considerable traffic, owing mainly to its salt-mines, permanent communication between Algeria and the Sudan, or Negroland, by Timbuktu, will never be so productive as the same by the Adrar, the Rio Nunez, and Senegal; and he adds, that all the efforts of the governor of St. Louis are directed to attracting the produce of the Sudan and of the Sahara which goes by Adrar to the said port of St. Louis, instead of, as at present is the case, its going to the English at Mogador. The natural outlet for the trade of Sudan or Nigritia is, however, we may remark, the Niger and its tributaries, and neither Mogador nor St. Louis.

The account given of an expedition to the Amur, under M. Maack (Pontechestvié na Amour), contains some curious details regarding the Managrians, a Tunguse people, who live solely by fishing and hunting on the Upper Amur. They are a Mongolian race, robust, well made, and tall. Their habits, manners, and dress, have been a good deal influenced by their connexion with the Mantchu Tartars, the Dahurians, Yakuts, and Russians, but they still preserve much that is original. Their huts are covered with bark in summer, and elk-skins in winter. There is an idol in every yurt, or hut, at the place of honour. They fish chiefly sturgeon and salmon (Salmo fluviatilis and S. lagocephalus). It is remarkable that the latter species, which abounds in the Lower Amur, ascends the Kumara, and is very rarely met above the confluence of that river, nor does it occur in the Shilka or the Arguin. Their canoes are made of the bark of birch. They hunt reindeer, elk, and stags, sometimes with arrows poisoned with putrified grease, which propagates itself with such rapidity as to impart a sickening smell to the flesh of the animal. The Managrians partake, however, of this poisoned flesh without repugnance or bad effects. They also eat the flesh of wolves, foxes, and polecats. They hunt the sable and other small quadrupeds for their furs. These they exchange for powder, balls, tea, tobacco, salt, and grain. Their only domestic animals are the small trans-Baikal horse and dogs. They are subject to the Chinese, but elect their own governors, and give up their wives to the Mantchus when dwelling among them. Their only religion is a kind of Shamanism, or belief in good and bad spirits. Their shamans, or priests, have great influence with them, from their supposed power of controlling the bad spirits. Their idols are grotesque figures of human beings and animals. They never tell their names, or that of a countryman, to an inquirer. Poly