Les bottiers du père Guillaume Les bottiers du père Guillaume Sont tous dans leurs petits souliers. The gamin is a better representative of the French character than most others; the proclamation against the bouches inutiles touches him rather nearly, and, being of a fiery nature, the sparks soon appear. The deputy who first made use of the term bouche inutile of course is fair game, and here is one of the little shafts flung at him: De Paris menacé, tu veux, Jules Simon, The large new fountain of the Place du Château d'Eau, which was to have been inaugurated on the 15th of August, remains unfinished, the eight lions on their pedestals with gaping mouths doing nothing-images, says a journalist, of a strong and brave people gaping in enforced idleness. They should send those lions away," said a gamin the other day: "theirs are useless mouths!" In 1792 Barnave proposed that the inscription placed on the guns in the time of the Bourbons"Ultima ratio regum"-should be superseded by the words garantie nationale, and it is now asked by the republicans whether the time has not arrived for some such inscription! The chassepôt has not yet all the world at its feet-I should say at its butt perhaps. A hardy Breton came to Paris with an old flint-musket, and when asked what he was going to do with that old iron, replied: "What my father did fifty-six years ago: demolish the Prussians." A friend laughed and recommended him to change it for a good fusil à tabatière, to which the Breton replied: "I know nothing of new inventions, but I know this here tool. In 1814 my grandfather had it blessed by the late curé of Vitré, and he never received a scratch. Last Sunday my mother had it blessed again by our present cure, and I am quite sure of my affair. Le bon Dieu would not deceive me, nor M. le Curé neither." And they say that there is no faith now-a-days! GERMANY AND THE WAR. Y. Leipzig, Aug. 28 (Goethe's Birthday), 1870. WAR sermons still continue to be poured forth from the press. In last week's catalogue I counted no less than twenty-one-making just forty since the first. Pamphlets, too, are on the increase; but as you would probably not thank me for a bare enumeration of their titles,-liable as these are, moreover, to sad misprints,-I prefer reproducing a passage from one, being a reprint from the 'Preussische Jahrbücher' ('Prussian Annals'), by Heinrich von Treitschke, the Heidelberg Professor of History. This essay is entitled 'Die Feuerprobe des Norddeutschen Bundes' ('The Ordeal of the NorthGerman Confederation'), and is published under the title of Aus den Preussischen Jahrbüchern,' the encroachments of the Manchester doctrine, which threatens to drown all faith in the moral blessings of life. The hope seems to be illusory, for the island kingdom really seems already to be gliding down that slope on which Carthage and Holland once descended. Does not one among British statesmen see what a scornful disregard of England it is that Louis Napoleon should have ventured even to begin such a war-a raid which even easy-minded Lord Palmerston would not have suffered? No doubt they see it; but the love of Mammon has wholly deadened their sense of honour, their feelings of right and wrong; cowardice and sensuality hide beneath that unctuous theological cant which, amongst the faults of Englishmen, is to us free German heretics the most disgusting. We fancy we hear the reverend gentleman's nasal twang when we see the English press roll its pious eyes, full of indignation, at the unchristian warlike people of the Continent, as if the strong God, in whose name Cromwell's Iron Dragoons fought, commanded us Germans to allow the aggressor unmolested to march into Berlin! Oh, hypocrisy! oh, cant, cant, cant! To all appearance, the war will be brought to an end without England's lifting her trident. The Times reporters will, with lofty calmness of soul, describe to its piously indignant readers the remarkable duel of the two great ruffians; the London charitable society will be most scrupulous in transmitting exactly the same number of pounds and shillings to Berlin as to Paris; the English and shillings to Berlin as to Paris; the English merchants, as of old the Mynheers of Amsterdam, will sell powder, coal and horses to France; while, by way of indemnifying us, the officers at the military clubs will stake high sums on the victory of the German arms; and, when the peace comes, the contempt of the wide world will weigh on England's shoulders like a mountain; and perhaps a compassionate European Congress will one day meet to declare the island kingdom neutral, like Belgium and Switzerland, and enable the Queen of the Ocean to sell her fleet as a useless toy to the highest bidder." To give your readers an idea of the high mental calibre of some of our officers, I will mention, as one instance out of many similar ones, that General von Hartmann, whose proclamation to the inhabitants of Alsace appeared in the Times of last Friday, has a son who served as a lieutenant in the war of 1866, and who, being disabled for further service by a wound then received, devoted himself to the cultivation of philosophy, and has since published, besides several smaller, more or less valuable treatises, a work-'The Philosophy of the Unconscious,'-which displays as much erudition as originality, and places him in the first rank as a writer and thinker. Literary Gossip. SIR JOHN BOWRING has sent us the follow of Sir David Lyndesay's 'Poetical Works,' in two volumes, leaving his long-promised handsome edition in three volumes to come out later. The only drawback on the announcement is, that the more-wanted re-editions of Mr. Laing's 'Select Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of Scotland,' and his 'Early Metrical Tales,' are to wait for the re-appearance of the less-wanted Lyndesay.' We hope however, that the 'Remains' will follow soon. MR. EDWARD PEACOCK has in the press a novel, intended to illustrate the political and social state of Eastern England during the period between the rebellion of 1745 and the accession of George III. Scattered about the work is a good deal of broad Lincolnshire dialect, which may interest students of glossaries. THE Ballad Society has just issued Part II. of its Roxburghe Ballads,' edited by Mr. W. Chappell, with copies of the original woodents by Mr. Rudolph Blind and Mr. W. A. Hooper. MR. JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS is about to finish his long-delayed collections on 'BoyBishops,' for the Camden Society. He wishes to trace the copy of Hugh Rhodes's 'Song of the Chyldbysshop,' that Warton saw and describes in his History of English Poetry.' It is in thirty-six eight-line stanzas, was printed by Cawood in 1555, and 'sange before the quenes maiestie in her privie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the ffeeldes on saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche,' with his company. Mr. Hazlitt, Mr. Furnivall, and others, have searched for it without success. What bibliotaph as Mr. Blades says has it in one of his coffins? DR. ANDREW WOOD, who is well known as an eminent Scotch physician, and who is a member of the Medical Council, is engaged on a translation of Horace's 'Satires,' which will be issued in October by Messrs. Nimmo. The Doctor has adopted the 'Don Juan' stanza, which, we think, has not been used by any previous translator. AMONGST recent Italian translations of some of Byron's poems we note a new version of 'The Corsair,' by the Cav. Luigi Senerelli Honorati, published at Bologna, and an excellent translation of 'Manfred,' from the pen of the distinguished poet Andrea Maffei, just published by Le Monnier at Florence. ANOTHER rare if not unique tract of Robert along with two other essays, 'The French Army' ing translation of Lamartine's response to Crowley's, now belonging to Mr. F. S. Ellis, is and The Diplomatic Prelude to the War,' by W. Wehrenpfennig (Berlin, Reimer). I should not have ventured to quote the extract, had I not met, in your review of Mr. Doubleday's Matter for Materialists' (August 20th), with an animadversion on "the encroachments of the narrow commercial spirit which threatens England." In reproducing Von Treitschke's strong language, however, I would not be understood to subscribe to it without considerable reserve. Be it also remarked, that though a native of Saxony, the author is a thorough partisan of Prussia as the leading state of Germany. In reviewing the relations of the neutral states to the present war, then, he says-"Where once England lay, a vast gap in the life of the nations (of Europe) now stares us in the face. We had hoped -and who that has a heart for freedom should not have hoped with us?-that this birthland of parliamentary life would guard against the fate of all commercial nations. We thought the great reminiscences of a glorious history, the wisdom of a politically educated nobility, the sense of justice of a free people, would serve as a barrier against Becker's German Rhine': Roll on, thou free and noble stream, roll on- WE understand that among the forthcoming volumes of "Ancient Classics for English Readers" will be 'Xenophon,' by Sir A. Grant, Bart., whose edition of 'The Nicomachean Ethics' is well known. WE are glad to hear that Mr. David Laing, of Edinburgh, is busy finishing a cheap edition to be added to Mr. J. M. Cowper's edition of his Select Works for the Early English Text Society, namely, his "Voyce of the last Trumpet, callyng al estate of men to the ryght path of theyr vocation: wherein are conteyned xii lessons to twelve several estates of men; which, if they learne and follow, all shall be wel," 1550. The sketches of the twelve professions and trades are curious. MR. ROBERT HOWIE SMITH is editing 'The Poems and Songs' of Sir Alexander Boswell, Bart., of Auchinleck. This will be the first time they have been collected. A FAC-SIMILE of the great Hereford 'Mappa Mundi' is to be published shortly by the Rev. Samuel Clark and other gentlemen. THERE is a well-written paper on 'Robert Owen and the Experiment of New Lanark,' in the last number of the Rivista Europea, by Dr. Alexander Hertzen, the son of the distinguished Russian democrat. THE Spenser Society has just issued its last Part for 1869-70, the first collection of those works of John Taylor, the "Water-poet," which are not contained in his "Workes, 1630." This matches the handy quarto of the Works. How earnestly the study of Political and Social Economy is pursued in France, may be judged from the following list of a few of the books which have appeared in France during the pres.nt year :-De l'Influence des Idées Economiques sur la Civilisation,' par M. Félix Rivet,'La Morale dans les Campagnes,' par A. Audiganne,-De l'Association de l'Ouvrier aux Bénéfices du Patron,' par Julien Le Rousseau,Questions Industrielles,' par le Dr. A. Joire, 'LOctroi et le Vinage,' par Romuald Dejernon, -'De l'Impôt sur le Sel,' par Gustave Goullin, Annuaire de l'Économie politique et de la Statistique pour 1870,' par Maurice Block, 27 année, and Le Libre Échange' par Jules Simon. M. A. F. DIDOT, the eminent printer and publisher, has long been known for his attainments as a classical scholar. He has lately challenged attention by his studies of the Mediæval period, and has produced some Essays on the life and works of the 'Sire de Joinville.' THE Volney prize of the Académie des Inscriptions has been divided between MM. Ascoli and Vullers. AMONG historical works recently published abroad, we notice the third volume of Herr Gregorovius' Geschichte der Stadt Rom. im Mittelalter,' M. Baschet's Archives de Venise,' and M. Boutaric's 'Saint Louis et Alfonse de Poitiers.' ALL who have read the delightful work I miei Ricordi,' by Massimo d'Azeglio, and have felt the charm of the narrative as told by the accomplished statesman and writer, will rejoice to hear that a collection of the letters of Massimo d'Azeglio Lettre di Massimo d'Azeglio a sua moglie, Luisa Blondel,' edited by Signor Giulio Carcano,-has been published at Milan. The correspondence begins on the 18th January, 1838, and terminates with a letter dated the 19th October, 1865; the letters now published, which were written during these twenty-seven years, amount to 315 in number. It is a pity that their publication should have been delayed during four years. MR. JOHN BYRNE, jun., has been elected secretary of the Newspaper Press Fund. There were 100 applicants for the post. M. E. LEHR published, just before the beginnning of this war, L'Alsace Noble,' a large work in three volumes, which contains the Livre d'Or of the Patriciate of Strasburg. A SECOND edition is announced of the Canti' of Signor Luigi Mercantini, whose popular songs, especially the political ones, have obtained for him a place amongst the most esteemed Italian poets of the day. Signor Mercantini wrote the spirited words of the Hymn of Garibaldi; he now holds the post of Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Palermo. SIGNOR CARLO BAUDI DI VESME, who has specially turned his attention to the history of Piedmont, has brought out a work 'On the Industry of the Mines in the Territory of Villa IT is said, but we do not know with what truth, that the General Government of Tashe kend has recently acquired the copy of the Koran written by the Caliph Osman's own hand, and stained with his blood. It was pur chased out of the mosque of Chodja-Ackrard, at Samarcand, for 126 roubles, and sent to the Minister of Public Instruction at St. Petersburg. This manuscript is said to be the only relic of the famous library collected by Timour. The tale seems a little too romantic. WHILE the King of Burmah and others are making great efforts to propagate Buddhism, it is being deposed in Japan by the authorities, in favour of the more ancient national reliThe Buddhist idols are gion of Sintooism. to be broken up. CODIFICATION has become necessary in Chili, Customs laws, which, as in many parts of and the portion now in hand is that of the South America, still suffer from the impress of the old and vicious Spanish system. A NATIONAL library is being built at Salvador, in Central America, for which 8,000 vo lumes are provided, and the Government is increasing the amount of gratuitous instruction. AN Indian paper announces an interesting novelty for numismatists, namely, that "those interesting people, the Shans," put into circulation, at the Tahoung Fair, in Burmah, a considerable quantity of bad silver, in imitation of the sissee (qy. sycee), a small ingot in the shape of a shell. M. NEVOSTROUEF has published a description of the MSS. contained in the Synodical Library at Moscow: the work is printed at the expense of the Synod. ROYAL POLYTECHNIC.-Prof. Pepper's New Lecture, showing how the marvellous GHOST EFFECTS are produced.-New Musical Entertainment, The Wicked Uncle; or, Hush-bye-Babes in the Wood.-and and the Suez Canal.'-American Organ daily.-The whole for One Shilling. SCIENCE The Practical Solution of the Great Sewage Question. By William Justyne. (Day.) FULLY agreeing with Mr. Justyne as to the desirability of the utilization of sewage, we are yet unable to admit that, in the little volume before us, he has furnished us with a "practical solution" of this extremely important question. Many instructive facts are brought before us, in a definite and intelligible form, in these pages, which to a certain extent are of value, as furnishing a sort of handbook on the subject; but the absence of exhaustive information diminishes the value both of the facts actually presented and of the conclusions drawn from them. In a "history of sewerage," commencing with the date of the Exodus, we might reasonably have expected to find some more definite account of the London Main Drainage Works than that they were completed "at an enormous expense." The Report of the Metropolitan Board for the year 1867 states that "they have been called on to improve the London portion of the river at a cost of 4,200,0007.” We are presented with a chemical analysis of the ingredients of sewage, together with a calculation that the excreta of each indi vidual possess a fertilizing value to the amount of 11. sterling per annum. The difficulty of the case is, that this value, for the most part, has hitherto been attained only on paper; and that, while the claims of hygiene are impera tive and the removal of nuisances is an essential part of the police functions of civilization, the best, or indeed only sure, method of prac tical application of the results to agriculture is yet matter of very fierce debate. the recommendation of what is called the A B C The main object of the book appears to be Process, invented by Mr. Sillar. Divine inspiration is not directly claimed for the invention, although we are told that "the idea occurred to the inventor through a Biblical allusion to the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean."" As few persons will admit that the inspired writer had any occult reference to the mode of purifying sewage in the passage which Mr. would have been Justyne has had the courage to quote, it more satisfactory to be furnished with detailed information as to the ready consumption of the manure produced by this process, which involves the application of alum, blood, and charcoal, at "the selling price of 41. 158. a ton." The Report of the River's Pollution Commission as to the results of the A B C process at Leamington, in December, 1869, was adverse. We are told that this was owing to an unfortunately heavy fall of rain, and to the process being "then in its infancy." We shall be glad to receive definite information as to its success when it has attained maturity. It must have grown very rapidly, if the defects which were noticed by the Commissioners, in December last, "have been long since remedied." Advocacy of this extreme description discredits at once the advocate and the cause. It is a thousand pities that the miasma attendant on sewage should exert, apparently, so irritating an effect on those who write on the subject; and that there should be so much difficulty in arriving at a clear knowledge of facts. It is within our recollection that great things were promised by the application of a process similar to, if not identical with, the A B C process, to sewage in Belgium, some fifteen years ago: information as to the success and failure of those operations would have been of much value in a discussion of the subject. The financial result of the sewerage works of Paris, we are told, "is anything but a success.' Considering the large amount of educated and intelligent attention which, during the last fourteen years in particular, has been turned to the subject of the defecation and the utilization of sewage, there can be little doubt that any practical method of extracting and removing the twenty shillings' worth of fertilizing elements that each of us is said to contribute to the sources of the national wealth, that should not cost more than nineteen shillings and sixpence, would be readily adopted. The difficulty of the case lies here: the chief fertilizing power of sewage resides in the dissolved salts contained in the liquid. The mechanically suspended solids can be removed by subsidence or by other means, but they possess little fertilizing value. The liquid which runs away, even when chemically clarified, takes with it the chemical wealth which, as yet, has only effectually been secured to agriculture by the direct process of sewage irrigation. This process, however, is only applicable in limited localities, and, unless we are misinformed, to certain crops, especially Italian rye-grass. It is, moreover, a question of doubt whether a long-continued course of this irrigation does not actually poison the crop. possessed of the faculty of speech, and did not SCIENCE IN WAR. WHILE it would be premature to attempt to draw the lessons which the present terrible war will enforce before the close of the campaign, there are yet questions as to the influence of Science on the conduct of warfare to which it is seasonable to call attention, as by the solution of them additional light may be thrown on the stirring events of the colossal struggle of which we now witness the commencement. Added to this inherent difficulty, is the The first general remark that suggests itself from artificial obstacle caused by our bad mechanical the present contest is, the superior importance of arrangements for discharge of the surface what we may call the higher mathematics of war, rain-water, which we barbarously turn into the compared with military mechanics. Not that we sewers; thus at once wasting a precious supply, would underrate the latter. Command of improved of which each year we are more in need, and weapons of offence, of improved means of transit, diluting the sewage to a degree that renders cating intelligence, are as necessary to the successof improved means of obtaining and of communiit unmanageable. One hundred tons of liquid ful General as full supplies of men and of horses. London sewage contains, according to the But so rapid is the communication of scientific analysis of Mr. Etheridge, 82.72 lb. of mecha- knowledge among us, that no people, entering on nically suspended solid matter, the agricultural a great war, can expect to have any monopoly of value of which is only two shillings and twosuch improvements. For a new weapon to become a secure instrument of conquest, its introduction pence halfpenny. The chemically dissolved must have the effect of a surprise. Such was the matter in the same one hundred tons is 245.95 case with the bayonet; such was the case in that pounds in weight, and its value is fifteen ancient and famous encounter in which the unexshillings and fourpence halfpenny. This ana-pected employment of missile weapons, though the lysis, if trustworthy, must form the key to engine was no more complex than a sling, turned the practical solution of "The Great Sewage the tide of war in favour of a people so essentially unwarlike that even their Egyptian experience had Question." not taught them the use of the bow; such, to some extent, was the introduction of rifled cannon in the Austro-Italian war; such it was hoped would be the function of the mitrailleuse. The advantage of a new arm cannot be expected to endure very long beyond the period at which its excellence is proved. The art of war is not illustrated by encounters between well-armed and ill-armed troops. Parity of weapons must be assumed in regarding any problem of strategy. Armature is as essential an element of military calculation as either number or position; yet nothing but positive knowledge can justify a strategist in assuming his enemy to be worse armed than himself. Sketches of Creation. By Alexander Winchell, THIS book is an introduction to the study of the It thus happens that all the immense mechanical improvements of the last twenty years, in the precision, the range, and the destructive power of firearms of any description, seem only to keep pace with the numerical increase in the troops which the generals of the present day are bringing into the field. A battle is now a massacre; but so enormous are the contending armies, that the obliteration of a whole corps does not constitute a decisive battle. If one siege, or storm, or obstinate combat, costs as many lives as was sacrificed in a year of the warfare of the great Condé, the proportion of the loss to the magnitude of the respective armies is but little more than was the case at the time when men first began to make use of the matchlock. Another point of great importance has surprised those who have regarded rather the mechanics of war than the morale of the troops engaged. It has been thought that war was becoming more and more an artillery deed, and that the extreme range and precision attained by the various forms of breech-loading rifles would so decimate columns, at a considerable distance, as to prevent hand-tohand encounters. The very contrary has proved to be the case. Nor is the reason far to seck. The soldier is not a machine, but a man. untried soldier is exposed to the sensation of alarm, if not of fear, when first exposed to fire. All soldiers, or almost all, are, under certain cir The cumstances, liable to panic. The counterpoise to either fear or panic is the sensation of anger. The soldier becomes indignant at seeing his brother shot down at his side: his wrath overcomes cooler emotions. It is not in flesh and blood to stand as a practice-target; and at once in pity and in instinctive self-defence the soldier rushes to the charge. In all the recent great battles hitherto the actual combat has raged with an intensity fully proportioned to the fatal character of the improved fire-arm. Under this uncontrollable fury of the attack the increased labour of the engineer has assumed far less importance than we have been led to anticipate. The essential necessity of accustoming troops to provide themselves with rapidly constructed shelter in the field has been tardily recognized by our military authorities. It is within our knowledge that when this matter was urged upon the Horse Guards three years ago, the reply made was, that it was very important, but that our army was too small to furnish men to be drilled in the use of the spade! In the new drill-book, however, we rejoice to find that this matter has received due attention; and we understand that it is intended that a light spade, with a movable handle, shall furnish a part of the equipment of the foot-soldier. Not only the maintenance, for a time, of an important position, but the very preservation of troops as a body may depend on the spade. As yet, however, this has been but little illustrated in the GermanoFrench war. But amid all that is new, and all that is old, in the recurrence of the shock of arms, the essential importance of the mathematics of strategy comes into full display. Never was the supremacy of the brain over the arm more distinctly proved,-that supremacy which can first prepare, and then employ, a great armed force as an instrument of offence. Arms, supplies, pontoons, bridges, railways, all these have been newly stamped and struck out by science for the service of war. But wielding all these improved and terrific weapons of destruction, the great captain of to-day is safe only so long as he holds to the time-honoured principles of the art of war. Military science absent, magnitude of force involves only magnitude of disaster. MR. MONGREDIEN'S TREES AND SHRUBS.' 50, Albemarle Street, August 27, 1870. THE reviewer of Mongredien's 'Trees and Shrubs for English Plantations,' noticed in your paper of this day, asks, why is the Araucaria excelsa in the frontispiece passed off as Araucaria imbricata? Now, the writer knows quite well that A. excelsa cannot grow out of doors in this country. But the tree in question has been known to me for many years it grows in the open air in the grounds of Dropmore, near Maidenhead, and is decidedly the finest specimen of the A. imbricata in Europe. The figure prefixed to Mr. Mongredien's book was drawn expressly for me by Mr. Whymper, who went to Dropmore for that purpose in the early part of this year. I write this note, not merely to correct a misapprehension, but to call the attention of all lovers of pines to this most uncommon specimen, remarkable alike for its size, elegance of outline, and perfect symmetry of branches, and to induce them to go and see it for themselves. No one who has not seen it can have any conception of A. imbricata in perfection. It is about fifty feet high. JOHN MURRAY. *** We asked why the Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria excelsa, -a conservatory plant with us, was made to do duty for the Chili pine, A. imbricata; and we are told in reply that there is a fine specimen of the latter at Dropmore, which is quite true. It is equally true that the artist has drawn A. excelsa, and not A. imbricata; unless, indeed, the same line of defence be adopted as in the case of the man who sold rooks for pheasants, and who, when taxed with it, replied, "Appelez-les comme vous voudrez, des corbeaux s'il vous plait ; moi, je les appelle des faisans.” THE DEAF AND DUMB. Liverpool, August 27, 1870. In the review of a book by Dr. W. R. Scott, you say that the author reports unfavourably of the results of the efforts made to teach the deafmute to articulate. As a rule, those efforts have been unsuccessful in England because the teachers have not been trained to the system: but it is not so abroad. I have a son born deaf, who is making rapid progress in articulation, and whom I should consider it wrong to teach the finger-alphabet. He is at present under the care of Mr. Van Asch, in Manchester, whose efforts in this direction have been most successful. I have visited the Imperial Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Paris, and the Schools at St. Gall and Zurich; and no one who has seen the results there obtained would say the System is unsuccessful. The School at Rotterdam has turned out some able teachers, amongst whom are the gentleman above-named and Mr. Van Praag, of Burton Crescent, London. I think it right, in the cause of humanity, to correct the impression which might be given to those who have children afflicted, by such reporters as the suthor whose book you have reviewed. JAMES SAMUELSON. Science Gossip. THE facilities for the study of practical chemistry are increasing considerably in London. Besides the extensive and complete laboratory, which has recently been built at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, there will be a large one in the new St. Thomas's; and that at Charing Cross Hospital is to be enlarged. THE Commission of Weights and Measures, whose meeting at Paris has been indefinitely postponed, was to have had representatives from twentyseven States. The English members were to have been Prof. Miller, Mr. Airy and Mr. Chisholm. DR. MATTHIESSEN continues his researches on vegetable poisons in the laboratory of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He has obtained some startling results as to the fatal effects of certain vegetable extracts, and the impossibility of subsequent detection. A full account of his investigations will be published in the forthcoming volume of the Hospital Reports. THE meetings of the Académie des Sciences grow shorter and shorter. One of the last occupied only three quarters of an hour. SOME cases of snake-bites have been treated by injection of ammonia with success at Melbourne. THE great Chemical Laboratory at Berlin is doing no work at present. All the assistants and almost all the students have gone off to the war. M. DELAURIER read a paper, before the Académie des Sciences, on what he calls a military eudiometer. It is a machine for ejecting projectiles by means of gas ignited by an electric spark. He calculates that the 400,000 mètres usually used in a day by Paris would discharge a million bullets each weighing 48 kilogrammes. A SYSTEM of warming railway carriages by means of hot air has been recently tried in Bavaria. The heated air is conveyed in gutta-percha tubing, and the plan seems likely to turn out well. SOME time ago Dr. Baikow made a series of experiments to ascertain whether it was possible to transplant the marrow from one bone to another. He concluded that it might be transplanted, but in its new situation became converted into fibrous tissue. Two observers, Dr. Ollier and Dr. Goujon, have recently repeated Baikow's experiments: the former did succeed in a single instance, the latter in only six out of thirty trials. The Italian Alpine Club has issued the fifth volume of the 'Bollettino del Club Alpino Italiano,' and with scientific notes on different subjects with descriptions of recent excursions and ascents, related to the Alps and to Alpine climbing. AMONGST recent ethnological works in Italy Signor Guiseppe Spata's Studii Etnologici di Nicolo Chetta su la Macedonia e l'Albania,' published in Palermo, deserves attention for the learned manner in which it treats a subject which has hitherto not been sufficiently investigated in Italy. PROF. FRANCESCO ORIOLI has published, at Bologna, a useful little volume, entitled 'L'Arte di Preservare dai Calori estivi le Abitazioni e le Persone' on the best way of protecting persons and dwelling-houses from the effects of extreme summer heat. PROF. ALFONSO CORRADI has published, at Verona, his essay 'On the Diffusion of Pulmonary Phthisis, its Causes, and the best Remedies to be employed,' which obtained a prize from the Royal Venetian Institute of Science and Arts. THE Imperial Geographical Society of Russia has, with the sanction of the War Office, sent an expe THE Society of Sciences, &c. of Lille has pub-dition to explore Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan lished a new volume of their Memoirs. THE death is announced of M. J. S. Lacordaire, elder brother of the famous Père Lacordaire. M. Lacordaire was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Liège. He was highly distinguished as an entomologist, and was engaged on a history of insects, of which the eighth volume appeared in 1:68. DR. BLATIN, in a work recently publishedRecherches Physiologiques et Cliniques sur la Nicotine et le Tabac-examines the evil effects on the human system of the use and abuse of tobacco. A translation of this work might be added with utility to the books published by the Anti-Tobacco Society. NEW works on silkworms are very numerous in Italy. Besides the various books we have already mentioned, we note the recent publication of an interesting work by Dr. Pasquale Mauro Vitali, On the Natural Development of the Eggs of Silkworms, and on the System to be adopted for the Early Feeding and for the Preservation_of Silkworms, published by Brigola, at Milan. Dr. Vitali's little volume consists of studies on the "Fo-San-Fe-Rok" of Morikuni, as interpreted by Hoffmann, with the French text added. Also a work, with illustrations, published at Bergamo, On the best means of Preserving Silkworms from the Diseases to which they are Liable,' by Signor Antonio Gasparini. THE Entomological Collection of the Natural History Museum, at Brussels, is being arranged by M. de Borré. He has found that it contains some rarities which it was not known to possess. and the sources of the Chuan-Cho (the Yellow River). A firm of merchants in Nertschinsk has also sent an expedition to try to discover a better trading route to Pekin than the usual one by Kiachta and Vega. ANOTHER Secluded people, the Koreans, are to be brought within the range of intercourse. This time, singularly enough, the Japanese co-operate for such a purpose, the Koreans having encroached on the territory of Satsuma. There will perhaps be a joint European and Japanese intervention. The language of the Koreans is allied to Japanese, and not to Chinese. THE rupee currency is to be finally extended to Ceylon from the beginning of next year. AMONG other features of that new and pushing institution the Punjab University College at Lahore is the institution of a Medical Fellowship, with a salary of 120l. a year, the duties of the Fellow being the translating and editing of medical treatises in the vernacular. FINE ARTS GUSTAVE DORÉ-DORÉ GALLERY, 35, New Bond Street.EXHIBITION of PICTURES, including Christian Martyrs,'' Monastery, Triumph of Christianity, Francesca de Rimini,' at the New Gallery.-OPEN from Ten till Six.-Admission, 18. CHURCHES IN NORFOLK. Briston Vicarage, August 30, 1870. Ir the attention of the Architectural Societies had been called to the condition of the two Nor folk Churches, Sall and Cawston, by your Correspondent (M.), with the object of stirring up the said Societies to aid in the restoration of such magnificent buildings, I should not perhaps have taken the trouble to correct the misrepresentations contained in his letter; as in neither of the parishes mentioned can anything but the most trifling sum be obtained to preserve the fabrics from decay, wing chiefly to the non-residence of the principal landed proprietors. with the circumstances of which he is totally But when a stranger visits the church of a parish ignorant, and presumes forthwith to publish to the world his one-sided view of things, it is only fair that some person, who is well acquainted with the real facts of the case, should come forward to correct the false impressions that may have been made on the public mind, to the prejudice of the clergy and churchwardens of the parishes alluded to. .. Your Correspondent first mentions Sall (not Lall, as it is misprinted), and complains of the choirstalls being covered with the 'droppings of a recent lime washing,”- a statement which leads a stranger to infer that the walls have been lately whitewashed, whereas the former whitewash has been removed, and the walls fresh plastered and stuccoed. But to proceed to Cawston Church, which your teur restoration." The choir, he complains of as Correspondent represents as suffering from "amahaving been damaged by the insertion of "deal seats, while some old oak stalls are consigned to a collection of lumber in the south tran sept." Now, had he taken the trouble to inquire, he might have heard that the oak stalls he mentions (which consist of three seats) have never been fixed in the chancel at all in the memory of the present generation, and are only placed in the south transept to undergo cleaning and repair previous to their being fixed in the vacant sedilia space, which many suppose to have been their original site. The choir-seats (made not of deal, but of the best pitch-pine and chestnut), three rows on each side, for the accommodation of about forty choristers, were put up by the rector within the past year, on the occasion of a new organ being placed in the chancel, and have merely taken the place of two large loose boxes, which formerly served as seats for the rector's family and household; and they are purposely fixed in such a way that they can be easily removed when sufficient funds are forthcoming to replace them with oak sittings; indeed, at the present time they are standing in the body of the church, owing to the chancel roof having been taken off for repair and restoration. The next thing mentioned is the rood-screen, which is described as in a rare state of preservation, but as having received a few touches and seeming "to be about to be further spoilt by some parish painter." Now surely your Correspondent must have drawn on his own imagination in stating such a thing, as I well know the rector has far too great a regard for its beauty and antiquity to allow any parish painter to have anything at all to do with it. Moreover, how can this far-seeing gentleman discover that the screen seems to be about to be" touched by any painter? Hasty and random criticisms of this kind can rarely effect much good, and may cause great pain to those who are earnestly desiring and aiming at the thorough restoration of these grand buildings. "M." has not given us his name, so that no one knows how far he is entitled to be a critic on church restoration at all. I have at least shown him to be content with very imperfect information. CHARLES NORRIS. 66 THE YORKSHIRE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND TOPOGRA PHICAL ASSOCIATION. THE fourth annual excursion of this Association, hitherto called the Huddersfield Archæological and Topographical Association, was held at Pontefract on Wednesday. About 170 members and visitors were received by the Mayor, who accompanied Col. Brooke, the President, and the other members of the Association to the Castle, the different fortifications and other objects of interest being pointed out on the way by Mr. T. W. Tew. On arriving at the Castle, after the necessary steps had been taken for constituting the Association for the future a society for the county, Mr. Tew read a paper upon the Castle, giving its history from the earliest times till its demolition, in 1649. The Castle, which extends over more than eight acres of ground, was examined by the Association, and then the Rock-cut Hermitage at the other end of the town. Mr. J. Fowler read a paper giving a history of its discovery by Thoresby, in 1703 and 1712; the account of it by Gent in 1730; its state in Boothroyd's time, 1807; as described by Fox, in 1827; and, lastly, as it now is. From the documents quoted, it would appear that a hermitage in this situation was founded, in the year 1386, by Adam de Saythorpe and Robert Nisson, and that, after many times changing hands, it ultimately, in the year 1433, became attached to Nortell Priory. The Town Hall, which was fitted as a local museum, and some old houses in the town, one containing an underground cellar, with sexpartite groining believed to be of the thirteenth century, and the Church of St. Giles, were next visited. After lunch All Saints' Church was inspected, and a paper was read by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite. The Association then proceeded to the New Hall, in which a paper was read by Mr. Tew, who afterwards pointed out to the Association the objects of interest seriatim. This building would have furnished a good illustration for Sir H. Spelman, the fragments and Norman sculptured and other stones of the ancient Priory, out of which the Hall was built, being visible in every direction, whilst the structure itself is crumbling into decay, and was never occupied, as Mr. Tew explained, either by the nobleman himself who built it, or any of his posterity. Fine-Art Gossip. THE Congress of the British Archæological Association begins at Hereford on Monday. We shall give a detailed report of the proceedings. ONE of our French contemporaries, devoted to Art, gives this year, for the first time, we believe, in France, a notice of the late Royal Academy Exhibition. The review in question names of Englishmen's works only those of Mr. Millais with high commendations of a qualified order. The pictures of Mr. Leighton come next; then those of Mr. Watts, especially in reference to his portrait of Mr. E. Burnes Jones, described thus :--" Un admirable portrait du peintre Burnes Jones, un de ces portraits que les grands maîtres seuls savent peindre." Mr. Prinsep's 'Cleopatra' is named, with other criticism, as without great merit. The notice continues with remarks on the works of Messrs. Calderon, Storey, Armitage, Leslie, "Hooker," Walker and Marks. Several foreign painters are named, with criticisms. As it is not our custom to criticize the remarks of our contemporaries, although we may now and then venture to note what appear to be errors,- we confine these observations strictly to the fact that a French artistic journal has noticed an English exhibition of pictures. MR. W. BURGES has proposed an iconographic scheme for the decoration of the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral. This comprises a list of subjects which are fit for illustration in the Cathedral, and counsel as to their mode of treatment. It is hardly possible for the matter to be in better hands than those of this accomplished architect, whose work of a similar kind at Oxford we described some time since. It will be borne in mind that the former statement applies strictly to the choice of subjects and their architectonic treatment. Artists in painting will, of course, be employed to design and execute the several pictures, or rather decorations, which are contemplated. WE have received from the honorary secretaries of "the Exhibition for the relief of Widows and Orphans of Germans killed in the War" a letter too long for us to print. The writers say that the Exhibition is held at 39, Old Bond Street; that oils, water-colours, sculptures, sketches of all kinds and reproductions of works of Art are accepted, and that subscriptions are received at the Union Bank, Argyle Place, by F. Broemel, "German Academic Society," 4, Hanway Street, W., and at the Gallery. They do not decline, but do not expect, French contributions, and say that they think it is better for the French and Germans to organize separate Exhibitions,-which may be true, if we look from a money point of view, but not if we look from an artistic or from some other points of view. THE "Death of Messalina" was the subject given in competition for the Grand Prize of Rome this year. The pictures produced differ very little in their general character from those which are frequently exhibited in similar contests: the successful work, that of M. Lamatte, differs more than its fellows from the majority of the class, but can hardly be described as a transcendent work. The winner is described as not twenty years of age; he is a pupil of M. Cabanel. The inferior honours of this class are due to M. Mathieu, another pupil of M. Cabanel. Samson with the Lions was the subject of the competition for the prize in sculpture. M. A. E. Charles was successful. M. A. Jacquet won the prize for engraving, and M. Thomas that for an architectural design of a School of Medicine. ACCOUNTS from both sides agree that the Cathedral of Strasburg has been, let us hope but slightly, injured by the fire of the Prussians who are besieging the ancient, so often tried and so gallantly defended city. It may be that knowledge of this matter has prompted the action, now alleged to be intended, of removing the finest pictures from the Louvre and out of danger of Prussian shells and solid shot. In case it be necessary to take the pictures out of harm's way, as to which it will be wise to be on the safe side, we trust some of the finer antique statues will be equally well cared for. by Signor Luigi Venturi-Della vita e delle opere dell' Architetto Pasquale Poccianti' (Florence, Le Monnier), which also describes his principal works. Prof. Antonio Pantanelli, in his work on 'Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the Siennese Painter, Sculptor and Architect of the Fifteenth Century, published by Ignazio Gati at Siena, gives a picture of the state of Siennese Art during that time. SIGNOR GIACOMO MAIORCA has published at Palermo a volume of numismatic studies on Sicily, 'Numismatica contemporanea Sicula, ossia le monete di corso prima del 1860,' with illustrations. MUSIC BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. PRECEDENCE must be given to the five novelties in the week's programme, prior to a review, however brief, of the standard works which have been performed. The Oratorio, being the epic of musical art, claims priority of notice; and although St. Peter' was only heard for the first time in public have taken place both in London and Birmingon the 2nd of September, the rehearsals, which ham, supply sufficient data for some preliminary remarks, reserving criticism on the execution until the next number of the Athenæum. Mention was made, in last week's issue, of the reasons which induced Mendelssohn to abandon his intention to write a companion oratorio to 'St. Paul,' by setting the subject of St. Peter.' A perusal of the libretto which Mr. Benedict has chosen to illustrate in notation will satisfy all those who may regret the resolution arrived at by Mendelssohn that he exercised a sound discretion in coming to the conclusion that Christ must be predominant in treating the history of the apostle. What are the incidents of the career of St. Peter? Setting aside the apocryphal assertion that he was the first Pope, which theory has really but vague tradition to support it, there are only the bare facts of the calling by Jesus of the fisherman, the storm at sea, the denial of Christ, the repentance thereof, the being sent to Cornelius, and the deliverance from prison. Peter, with Andrew, his brother, are first heard of at the maritime town of Capernaum, the precise position of which not even the most erudite Fellow of the Geographical Society has positively indicated, but conjecture has placed the site at the lake mentioned by Josephus-Gennesareth, or Sea of Galilee, through which the river Jordan runs. The writer of the book of St. Peter,' whose name is not published either in the programme or the pianoforte copy of the work, seems to have been in difficulty at the starting-point. In the sixteenth section of the First Part, which is called "The Divine Call," there are several texts used from the Psalms, Genesis, St. Mark, St. Matthew, the Acts, John, Isaiah, Micah, Chronicles, &c., before the first notification is found of the brothers casting their nets, and of Jesus calling upon the fishers to follow him. On Call" by the author, more texts are resorted to, and this isolated incident, designated "The Divine used like the Greek Chorus, to point the moral, The Lord be a lamp unto thy feet.' But herein is the palpable mistake, for the preaching of the same doctrine has preceded the meeting with St. Peter and St. Andrew. This objection is applicable to the entire book. The second section of the First Part is styled "The Trial of Faith." It is, of course, SIGNOR ROSARIO PRIOLO, chief Director of the the scene of the storm, and the miracle of the Mosaics of the Palatine Chapel, acting under saving of Peter. Although St. Matthew xiv. 33 is instructions from the Department of Science and freely cited, as it should be, texts from the Bible Art of the South Kensington Museum, is now again are employed to illustrate faith and laudaengaged on a reproduction of the large mosaic tion. The Second Part of the book is divided into which adorns one of the walls of that chapel, and the Denial, the Repentance, and the Deliverance. which represents the 'Entry of Jesus Christ into Jesus is prominent in the call of Peter--is equally Jerusalem.' AN historic mansion in the Rue Saint-Antoine, Paris, at the corner of the Rue du Petit-Musc, is now being restored. It was built by Ducerceau, the famous architect and writer on the architecture of the thirteenth century, for Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, the head of the Ligue, and in the time of Louis the Fourteenth became the property of the Prince de Vaudémont; the next possessor was Ormesson, the intendant of finances, who retained it down to the time of the Revolution, and whose name it still bears. Not long since the arms of the house of Lorraine remained over the door, and the room called the Chambre de la Ligue was kept intact; it was there that the plot for the assassination of Henri Trois was hatched, which had for its object the election of the Duc de Mayenne as King of France in place of Henri Quatre. HERR G. CLOSS, a young Suabian painter and wood-engraver of promise, has died at Prien, on the Chiemsee. AMONG archæological books lately published, we have the first instalment of a work on Abydos, by Mariette-Bey, a study of the coins of Aurelianus and Severina, by Herr Rohde, and a treatise on the coins of the Italian Peninsula (from the earliest times till the battle of Actium) by M. L. Sambon. The French Society of Numismatism and Archaeology has published the tenth volume of its memoirs, and its Annual. AMONG recent monographs we may mention a work, just published at Verona by Signor Bernasconi, entitled 'Studi sopra la Storia della Pittura Italiana del secolo XIV e XV,' which gives an account of the painters of the Veronese school. The chief incidents of the life of the architect Pasquale Poccianti are related in a small volume the first figure on the canvas in the picture of the storm-is again in the foreground when the populace denounce the Saviour, and in the Repentance scene is depicted at the Crucifixion. It is, in fact, only in the Deliverance, the prison-scene with the angel, that Peter can be affirmed to be the leading scriptural character. Whether any other mode of treatment could have been adopted to meet Men |