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PSEUDO-GEOLOGY.-As a curiosity of geological literature, it is worth while noticing the recent appearance of a work by Dr. Otto Hahn, of Reutlingen, entitled "Die Urzelle." The writer seeks to revolutionize geology by asserting that such rocks as granite, gneiss, serpentine, basalt, certain sandstones, meteoric stones, and even meteoric iron, consist of altered vegetable matter! Nor are his supposed organisms necessarily of microscopic size. In a piece of Carrara marble, for instance, he finds what he regards as the relics of a plant more than one metre in length, and to this plant he gives the name of Marmora Darwini! Traces of vegetable structure he also detects in other parts of the marble; in fact, he concludes that der ganze Marmor is nichts als Pflanze."

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INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICITY ON COLLIDING WATER DROPS.-Lord Rayleigh communicates a paper to the Royal Society on this subject. It has been long known that electricity has great influence on fine jets of water ascending in a nearly vertical direction. In its normal state a jet resolves itself into drops, which, even before passing the summit of the column, and still more after passing it, are scattered to a considerable width. When a feebly electrified body is brought into the neighborhood of the jet, it undergoes a remarkable transformation, and appears to become coherent; under more powerful electrical action, the scattering becomes more marked than at first. The latter action is due to mutual repulsion of the drops; the former has been hitherto unexplained. The cohesion seems to be more apparent than real; the seat of sensitiveness is at the place of resolution into drops : each drop carries away with it an electric charge, which can be collected in an insulated receiver. He is able to show that the normal scattering is due to the rebound of the colliding drops; such collisions being inevitable in consequence of the different velocities acquired by the drops under the action of capillary force, as they break away irregularly from the continuous portion of the jet. the resolution is regularized by the action of external vibrations, as in Savart's and Plateau's experiments, the drops must still come into contact as they reach the summit of their parabolic path. Under moderate electrical influence, instead of rebounding after collision, they coalesce, and the jet is not scattered. This behavior of the drops becomes apparent under instantaneous illumination, such as that of an induction coil, into the secondary circuit of which a Leyden jar is introduced. To obtain further evidence two similar jets were made to collide horizontally, one being in communication with the earth, the other supplied from an insulated

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cistern. The sensitiveness to electricity was extraordinary. A piece of rubbed gutta-percha brought near the insulated bottle at once determined coalescence. It was also possible to cause the jets again to rebound from one another, and then to coalesce.

Besides statical electricity, the electro-motive force of a single Grove cell was sufficient to produce the same phenomena, one pole being connected with the water, the other to earth. Even the discharge of a condenser charged by a single Grove cell answered the purpose. The writer indicates in conclusion the probable application to meteorology of the facts mentioned. The formation of rain must obviously depend materially on the consequences of encounters between cloud-particles. If the contacts result in coalescence the drops must rapidly increase in size and be precipitated as rain. We may thus anticipate an explanation of the remarkable but hitherto mysterious connection between rain and electrical manifestations.

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.—It would be a triumph of optics and chemistry if photographs could be made to represent the natural colors of objects. Attempts toward this result have hitherto ended for the most part in disappointment. But Captain Abney, in a short paper "On the Production of Colored Spectra by Light," read before the Royal Society, makes known that he has succeeded in producing, approximately in the natural colors, pictures of the solar spectrum on silver plates, and also, but less brilliant, on compounds of silver held in place by collodion. "I reserve for the present," he writes, "the exact details of the production of these pictures, but may say that they are produced by oxidation of silver compounds when placed in the spectrum, an exposure of two minutes being amply sufficient with a wide slit to impress the colors. The coloring matter seems to be due to a mixture of two different sizes of molecules of the same chemical composition, one of which absorbs at the blue end, and the other at the red end of the spectrum, and the sizes of these molecules are unalterable while exposed to the same wavelengths as those by which they were produced." And he is of opinion "that the colors may be preserved unchanged when exposed to ordinary daylight." From this it will be understood that Captain Abney has made a step in advance of high importance.

In connection with this we mention improvements in color-printing, by which Herr Albert, court photographer at Munich, produces chromo-photographs of surprising excellence. The process commences by the taking of three photographs, each being exposed to the action of different and definite portions of the spectrum.

This is effected by causing the light, before it reaches the sensitized plate, to pass through colored glasses, or suitable colored liquids, and, moreover, by employing in each case special solutions for the development of each negative. A positive printing plate (a glass plate gelatinized) is then produced for each negative; and if the absorbing media and the developing preparations have been correctly chosen, it is only necessary to color one of these plates with red, another with yellow, and the third with blue, in order, by successive printings, to obtain a picture which exhibits more or less resemblance to the original. Success appears to depend on the skill and nicety with which the absorbing materials are employed, for mixtures of colors and of coloring materials are quite different things; and, to quote the technical description, "for the negative belonging to the blue plate we must employ such absorbing media and preparations as will prevent green from producing any influence on it, and at the same time will render blue and violet quite inactive, inasmuch as these tints must appear only on the positive plate."

Specimens of landscapes and of decorative panels printed by Herr Albert's process were exhibited at scientific receptions in London during the past session, and were deservedly admired. The details were shown: a plain yellow picture; then on the yellow a blue, and on the blue a red; and with these three the effect of a well-finished water color drawing was produced.

VARIETIES.

DIRT AND BODILY HEAT.-The part which the skin plays in the regulation of bodily heat is not adequately estimated. The envelope of complicated structure and vital function which covers the body, and which nature has destined to perform a large share of the labor of health-preserving, is practicaily thrown out of use by our habit of loading it with clothes. It is needless to complicate matters by allowing it to be choked and encumbered with dirt. If the skin of an animal be coated with an impervious varnish, death must ensue. A covering of dirt is only less inimical to life. We are not now speaking of dirt such as offends the sense of decency, but of those accumulations of exuded matter with which the skin must become loaded if it is habitually covered and not thoroughly cleansed. The cold bath is not a cleansing agent. A man may bathe daily and use his bath-towel even roughly, but remain as dirty to all practical intents as though he eschewed cleanliness; indeed the physical evil of dirt is more likely to ensue because, if wholly neglected, the skin would cast off its ex

crementitious matter by periodic perspirations with desquamation of the cuticle. Nothing but a frequent washing in water of, at least, equal temperature with the skin and soap can insure a free and healthy surface. The feet require especial care, and it is too much the practice to neglect them. The omission of daily washings with soap and the wearing of foot-coverings so tight as to compress the blood-vessels and retard the circulation of the blood through the extremities, are the most common causes of cold feet. The remedy is obvious; dress loosely and wash frequently.Lancet.

HOLLY.-Holly is a name which is often, but wrongly, considered a corruption of the word "holy." The holly-tree is called "Christ's thorn" in Germany and Scandinavia, from its putting forth its berries at the supposed period of the year when Christ was born, and from its time-honored use in decorating Christian churches. This tree, according to a certain legend, was that in which the Almighty revealed himself to Moses in a flame of fire, by which it was not consumed. Likewise it was supposed to have formed the wood of the cross on which our Lord was crucified; hence it was

known as the Lignum Sanctæ Crucis. Many have been the traditions and superstitions conBy the Romans it was dedicated to Saturn, whose feasts were held at Christmas time, and sprigs were sent to friends with good wishes for health and happiness. The Persians sprinkled their children with a decoction from the leaves, to endow them with wisdom. According to Pliny, the flowers were an antidote to poison. Our own Druids used to deck private dwellings with the boughs, to offer thus a shelter to sylvan sprites, to whom none was afforded by the leafless oaks. Holly leaves are sometimes of an ivory white, and, when young, are of a beautiful pinkish color.-Excelsior.

nected with this beautiful tree.

THE ENGLISHMAN AS A READER.-The English gentleman has for more than a century found the time to cultivate athletic sports without sacrificing his professional work, and, to put it in Mr. Bagehot's words, to " spend half of his day in washing the whole of his person"—a by no means unimportant start over the Continent, where such civilizatory habits could only be introduced a very short time ago. But the Englishman of business has not only time to devote to his body, he has also leisure to cultivate his mind. England is the only country where people read, where they read instructive books, I mean, not only novels. Next to England ranges France, where the species of "general reader' still exists, although it is on the wane, and people begin to put their Thierry and

Guizot nicely bound on their book-shelves, convinced that they have in this way sufficiently proved their respect for higher literature. As for the Italian, he seldom masters courage and perseverance enough to read more than a newspaper article of one paragraph; and the German, as everybody knows, reads a book only when he wants to write another book destined to supersede the one he is reading. The English alone find the leisure and the humor to read works of a general but serious character. I do not enter a sitting-room without finding some new volumes on the table; if expensive, coming from Mudie's or Smith's library-which always supposes that such a library purchases at once a hundred copies or more of a book-or, if cheap, bought at the next bookseller's shop. No wonder, when on opening one of these by no means popular" works, you read "seventh thousand" on the back of its title-page. On the Continent such a thing happens only with books destined for amusement or for the flattering of vulgar passions and vulgar curiosity, such as M. Tissot's and Herr Busch's twaddle. The leisure, coexisting with hard work, and the noble use made of leisure, are perhaps the most remarkable results of the enormous wealth which first strikes the eye of the foreigner in England.Nineteenth Century.

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SHAKESPEARE'S MORALITY.-Shakespeare's morality was of a kind which Johnson and his school could hardly understand, because it be. longed to an order, not more honest perhaps, but infinitely higher and wider than their own. If Shakespeare's story and his art-method do not of themselves impress their moral, there are no instructions left. Through death and disaster the sun shines and birds sing, and his eyes are motionless and silent as the eyes in a mask of marble. With a moral design as clear as air, he never tells you what that design is. Like his own Æneas, in Troilus and Cressida

the secrets of nature

Have not more gift of taciturnity.

He that hath ears to hear let him hear, as for the others, he does not care even to speak to them. Just as we see in nature and life itself, he uses facts sometimes in a way which seems His to contradict the accepted moralities. noblest creature starts back from the very thought of dissolution with an undisguised shudder, while his most godless worldling goes to his death in a pleasant dream, in which he "babbles o' green fields." That he looked upon the art of the mere preacher with a wise contempt is capable of abundant proof. In Jaques he makes the preacher's gift the cynical conceit of a played-out roué; while in Polonius he gathers up the preacher's wisdom in words that have never been surpassed, in order to fit hem to the mouth of a meddling and con

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temptible busybody. Notwithstanding this well-marked peculiarity in Shakespeare, there are no writings which more deeply impress the reader with a profound moral intention. would savor of special pleading to attempt to prove such a fact by mere reference to isolated passages, although there are enough of these to found such a school of moral philosophy as one would look for in vain from the work of any other man. The stronger proof lies in the broad moral tendency of his work as a whole, and the moral build of his matchless men and women, for whom he asks, not our admiration alone, but our respect. He knew, none better, that life was a mingled yarn, good and ill together, and that "cakes and ale" in some shape or other had their roots in human nature. By reason of his measureless receptivity he took the good and evil up under that massive frontal arch of his, and held them there without disturbance or displacement until the hour came for using the material in his art, when, without any conscious theory about either art or morals, he instinctively used the darker tints of humanity in such a way as brought its higher and fairer aspects into full relief. In King Lear, for example, Goneril and Regan form but the dark background upon which the artist limns the white soul of Cordelia. In Othello, again, he paints the unsullied fame and the too trusting simplicity of the open-hearted soldier on the still blacker canvas of lago's villany. Everywhere the good and bad are used as contrasts, and in a sense exponents of each other-Lady Macbeth over against the blameless Duncan, the thoughts of whose innocent blood at length unseat her reason; Henry V., Shakespeare's ideal man of the world, is contrasted with Sir John and his goodfor-nothing tatterdemalion crew; while in his most spiritual sphere we have Prospero and Miranda set against the hardly human group of Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. In all these we have the good and ill, the noble and ignoble, together, but we are never left one moment in doubt as to which side engages the artist's moral sympathies.—Cornhill Magazine.

A CHARACTER-AND A QUESTION.
A DUBIOUS, strange, uncomprehended life,
A roll of riddles with no answer found,
A sea-like soul which plummet cannot sound,
Torn with belligerent winds at mutual strife.
The god in him hath taken unto wife

A daughter of the pit, and, strongly bound
In coils of snake-like hair about him wound,
Dies, straining hard to raise the severing knife.
For such a sunken soul, what room in Heaven?
For such a soaring soul, what place in Hell?
Can those desires be damned, those doings shriven,
Or in some loan mid-region must he dwell
Forever? Lo! God sitteth with the seven
Stars in hi hand, and shall not he judge well?

JAMES ASHCROFT NOBLE.

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