to each other, at least as regards the character of the winters.

In the Toronto Globe of May 11 we find a long article based on Professor Kingston's Reports,

in which it is shown that the winter of 1874-5 has been utterly unprecedented in duration, of recent times. The absolute extremes of cold registered have not been as severe as on some previous occasions, but at Toronto for one period of sixteen consecutive days the temperature never rose even to zero Fahrenheit! The longest period of a similar defect of temperature in the course of the last forty years has been only seven days.

As regards Sweden, the Shipping Gazette recently published a letter from its Stockholm correspondent giving the following table of the date at which navigation opened at that port during the last fifty years, from which it will be seen that this event is very irregular in its occurrence, ranging from January 3 in 1863 to May 17 in 1838. The present year shows a late period for its occurrence, but in this respect it has been exceeded on seven occasions since 1824:

1825...March 31. 1826...March 6.

1827...April 14.

1828...April 26. 1829...May 8. 1830...April 16. 1831...April 21. 1832...March 26.

1833...April 12.

-

1851...April 19. 1852... April 12. 1853...May 6. 1854...March 27. 1855... May 2. 1856...April 16. 1857...April 15. 1858...April 12. 1859...February 22.

1834...March 10.

1835...March 7.

1860...April 12. 1861...April 12.

1836...April 5.

1837...April 27.

1838...May 17.

1839...May 6.

1840...April 14.

1841...April 15.

1842...February 18.

1843...April 21.

1844...April 26.

1845...April 25. 1846...March 19.

1847...April 30.

1848...April 5. 1849...April 2. 1850...April 22.

1862...April 26. 1863...January 3. 1864...April 19. 1865...April 19. 1866...April 15. 1867...May 5. 1868...April 7. 1869...March 27. 1870...April 14. 1871...March 31. 1872...March 8. 1873...March 13. 1874...March 2. 1875...April 27.

Anemometer Testing. In the fourth volume of the Repertorium für Meteorologie we have an account of a very interesting set of experiments by M. Dohrandt, of St. Petersburg, made to test the velocity of rotation of various anemometers of different sizes, which were compared by means of a rotation apparatus on Combe's principle, of which no further explanation is given.

The general result of a very complete series of experiments was, that not one of the eight anemometers tested accorded exactly with Dr. Robinson's theory that the velocity of the wind should be three times the velocity of rotation of the cups.

M. Dohrandt says that he has not as yet succeeded in finding an expression for determining the proportion between these two velocities from the dimensions of the instrument, but it appears at first sight that this proportion is more closely connected with the diameter of the cups than with the length of the arms of the instrument.

Meteorology in Victoria.-Mr. Ellery has just issued the Results for the Melbourne Observations, and for those of other stations in Victoria for the year 1872, when the publication of meteorological returns for the colony, which had been interrupted since the date of Neumayer's observations, was resumed. The volume contains a map of the

colony, showing the position of the stations, and

is a very useful contribution to our knowledge

of Australian meteorology.

Report of the Chief Signal Office, Washington.General Meyer has just published the third Report of his office (for 1874), which forms a portly volume of 400 pages, but is, however, less than half the size of its predecessor for the year 1873.

Among the most important parts of its contents are the mean results for Pressure, Temperature, and Wind, with the maximum and minimum temperatures for each of the stations, information on which subjects has never been given before in these Reports.

These, with the Monthly Weather Reviews, and the Reports of Inspection of Stations, make up the bulk of the book.

It appears from the whole Report that the Service is in a very creditable condition, but, as in the former Reports, there is no financial statement whatever, so that it is impossible to institute a comparison between the American organisation and that of our own country.

GEOLOGY.

SEVERAL publications issued by the Geological Survey of India have recently reached this country, and sufficiently attest the activity and ability of Professor Oldham's staff. Among these is a Memoir by Mr. R. Bruce Foote, forming the first of a series of papers "On the Fauna of the Indian Fluviatile Deposits," to be published in the Palaeontologica Indica. In 1871 Mr. Foote was examining the bed of a small nullah near Gokak, in the Belgaum District, when he discovered the remains of a rhinoceros embedded in a black clay, probably of pleistocene age. The animal evidently belongs to the Hypsodont section of the family, but appears to have differed in many particulars from all previously described species, whether living or fossil; and the discoverer has therefore described it in the present memoir under the name of Rhinoceros Deccanensis. The remains indicate a smaller and slighter animal than Rhinoceros Indicus, but probably one larger than any other living Asiatic species. Although most of the bones of the skull are preserved, the nasal bones have not been found, and nothing is therefore known with respect to the horn or horns which the animal possessed.

As it is not often that the remains of birds are

found in marine deposits, it is worth recording

that M. Delfortrie has discovered a number of bird-bones in the faluns of Saucats and in the fossiliferous molasse of Léognan, in the basin of the Garonne. These remains have been described by M. A. Milne-Edwards in the last number of the Annales des Sciences Géologiques. Among the more interesting of the remains from the miocene beds of Léognan are the humerus and tarso-metatarsus of a large bird allied to the albatross, yet sufficiently distinct to represent a new genus; the author has consequently described it under the cating birds related to the gannets and petrels are name of Platornis Delfortrü. Other bones indidescribed as new species, and have received the names of Sula pygmaea, Procellaria Aquitanica, and P. antiqua.

SOME fossils from a new exposure of Rhaetic beds near Hildesheim, where they were discovered a short time ago by Herr F. Roemer, have been described and figured in the last number of the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft. The fish remains have been studied by Herr K. Martins, of Göttingen, who regards them as representatives of new species, naming the one Philodophorus Roemeri, and the other Hybodus furcatostriatus. A beautiful little star-fish from the same deposits has been sent to England for description by Dr. T. Wright, who has bestowed on it the name of Ophiolepis Damesii.

In the same number of the Zeitschrift palaeontologists will find a number of papers of greater or less interest, including a notice of a remarkable deformity in a Devonian Gomphoceros, by Herr E. Kayser, of Berlin; a paper on the Belemnites of the Island of Bornholm, by Herr C. Schlüter, of Bonn; a description of some fossil freshwater shells from Siberia, by Herr E. von Martens, of Berlin; and a monograph on Involutina, a genus of Foraminifera, by Herr L. G. Bornemann, jun.,

of Eisenach.

WHEN the late Dr. A. Campbell was Superintendent of Dárjíling he called Dr. Oldham's atten tion to the reputed occurrence of coal in the neighbourhood; but this "coal" appeared, on examination, to be nothing more than the fossilised stems of individual trees, such as are not uncommon in tertiary deposits. Dr. Hooker, however, subsequently detected carbonaceous shales which pointed to the occurrence of the true Indian coalmeasures in this locality. For a long time but little notice was taken of these indications of coal, but the recent connexion of Calcutta with the hill-districts by means of the Northern Bengal State Railway has given fresh importance to the subject. Moreover, it is well known that copper has been worked in the Sikkim mountains, and the mineral resources of the country were, there

on this work, has written an excellent account of

fore, well worthy of study by the Geological Survey. Mr. F. R. Mallet, who has been engaged his results, which has just been issued as one of the Survey Memoirs, accompanied by a geological map. It appears that the coal has unfortunately broken, and in some parts reduced to the state been subjected to such pressure that it is much need to be prepared as an artificial fuel. Serious of powder; hence before use it would probably but still Mr. Mallet maintains that difficulties stand in the way of working the coal, the Dárjíling seams are well worth a fair trial." As to the copper-mining, it can hardly be said that the report is very encouraging, at least to European enterprise.

paper.

A RECENT visit to the coal-field of Wallerawang, about 105 miles west of Sydney, has enabled Professor Liversidge to publish a paper on the ironore and coal deposits of this locality. He recognises, in addition to several minor seams, three principal beds of coal; the lowest having a thickness of 17 feet 6 inches; the middle one 6 feet 6 inches, and the uppermost 4 feet 6 inches. The coal is said to be hard and compact, and promises to be of much value to the colony. Analyses the of the coals and ores accompany CONSIDERABLY more than a century ago Nicolas Desmarets, one of the most philosophical of the early geologists, wrote an excellent memoir on the evidence of a former land-connexion between England and France. This essay, though now nearly forgotten, is so sagaciously written, and is so rare withal, that we welcome a reprint which has recently been issued under the care of Messrs. MacKean and Co. It bears the title L'ancienne Jonction de l'Angleterre à la France, ou le Détroit de Calais, sa Formation par la Rupture de l'Isthme, sa Topographie et sa Constitution Géologique (Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1875). The memoir is neatly printed, and illustrated with facsimiles of the maps and section which accompanied the ori ginal paper. It will be read with special interest at a time when the restoration of land-communication with the Continent is a project seriously discussed by practical men.

As an illustration of the study of English geology by French geologists, we may call attention to a paper by M. C. Barrois, recently published in the Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord, under the title of "Ondulations de la Craie dans le Sud de l'Angleterre." He points to the three principal axes of elevation in the chalk of the Hampshire basin, correlating the anticlinal of Kingsclere with that of Artois, the axis of Winchester with that of Bresle, and the line of eleva tion of the Isles of Wight and Purbeck with that The formation of the of the country of Bray. Straits of Dover has no direct relation with this series of great folds, since it runs perpendicular to

them.

To the last number of the Annales des Sciences Géologiques, MM. Hébert and Toucas contribute a valuable paper containing a description of the Basin of Urchaux, one of the four chalk basins of France, representing gulfs in the Cretaceous Sea; the three others being the Paris basin, the Basin

of Aquitaine, and that of Touraine. This forms one of a series of papers on the Upper Cretaceous rocks of France.

Jaettegryder, or Giants' Cauldrons, is the name popularly given in Norway to deep hollows, varying in size, shape, and direction, scooped out in the solid rocks, and generally filled with water containing rounded stones. Many of these curious cavities in the neighbourhood of Christiania have been examined by Professor Kjerulf and his pupils, and have been described by Messrs. Brögger and Reusch, both in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, and in the Zeitschrift of the

Berlin Society. The authors believe that the cavities have been formed, or at least enlarged, by stones whirled round by a powerful rush of water during the ice-period. Professor Sexe has also recently published a memoir on the origin of these cavities. He is inclined to refer their formation to the friction of stones moved by a rotating column of ice which has been pressed down into hollows in the rock.

FROM a prospectus recently issued by the committee engaged in the exploration of the Settle Caves, we learn with regret that the work is likely to be materially restricted by lack of funds. Those who have watched the progress of the investiga

tions at the Victoria Cave and know what interesting results have already been attained, confidently look forward to valuable discoveries in the future, if the explorations can only be continued with spirit. The cave is perhaps the most important historic cavern in the country; it was also inhabited by man in the neolithic age; it contains at a yet lower level the remains of pleistocene mammals, and a human bone has been brought to light from a bed of clay, which is regarded by Mr. R. H. Tiddeman, who has carefully studied the deposits in the cave, as of pre-glacial age. A fair prospect of future discoveries should stimulate the prosecution of this work, and support the appeal which the committee has been forced to make. Mr. Birkbeck, of Settle, is the honorary

treasurer.

MR. WILLETT, as Honorary Secretary of the Sub-Wealden Exploration, has just issued his eleventh quarterly Report. It appears that the new bore-hole which was commenced on February 11, had reached a depth of 1,095 feet on May 26. It is, therefore, considerably deeper than the former boring; in fact, all is new ground below 1,018 feet. The clay which has so long been the prevailing rock gave way, between 995 and 1,040 feet, to a hard mottled sandstone. But notwithstanding this lithological change, the uncomfortable conclusion has been forced upon the committee that the bore is still in the Kimeridge clay. The evidence supposed to have been afforded by the occurrence of Ammonites Jason, that the Oxford clay had been reached, is now believed to be fallacious. The committee has determined, however, to proceed with the work to 1,500 feet, but unless new subscriptions fall in there is fear that the undertaking may then have to be abandoned.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. CAMBRIDGE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Thursday, May 20).

PROFESSOR COWELL, President, in the Chair. The Rev. W. W. Skeat made remarks on "Doublets," or words having a double form. These have arisen in English in five ways at least. We have (1) words in which both forms are of native origin; (2) words in which both forms are French; (3) French and Latin forms; (4) words French in form, but Teutonic in origin, or where one of the words is French in form; (5) the doublets which have arisen from a native source on the one hand, and from a classical source on the other.

In a paper on arcesso and accerso, by Mr. A. S. Wilkins, the writer totally separated the two

words from each other; and would explain accerso as a compound of a lost simple verb formed from a primitive root kars (Sanskrit karsh, "to draw, tear, plough"); cf. the lost simple verbs oleo, "to grow," -perio, and -cello. This relation of two distinct but confused words, such as arcesso and accerso, would throw light on the similar pair permities and pernicies.

Professor Mayor made remarks on the phrases bus;" and criticisms by Mr. R. C. Jebb and Mr. "to save appearances," and "in puris naturaliF. A. Paley were also read on Taxi as occurring in Theophrastus, p. 103 (Mr. Jebb's edition).

PHYSICAL SOCIETY (Saturday, May 22). PROFESSOR GLADSTONE, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The names of the following candidates for election were read for the first time:--Lord Lindsay, F.R.S., Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S., and Professor Sylvester, M.A., F.R.S. Mr. Spottiswoode, F.R.S., exhibited and described a "Revolving Polariscope." " A luminous beam passes from a small circular hole in a diaphragm through a polariscope, the analyser of which is a double image prism, the size of the hole being so arranged that the two luminous discs shall be clear of each other. If the prism be made to revolve rapidly, one of the discs revolves round the other and is merged into a ring of light which is interrupted at opposite sides by a dark shaded band, the position of which depends upon the position of the original plane of polarisation. The discs may be coloured by inserting a selenite plate, and the rapid revolution of the analyser then gives alternating segments of complementary colours, or, if a quartz plate be used, the rotating disc passes successively; twice in a revolution, through all the colours of the spectrum, and when the revolution is rapid merges into a prismatic ring,

The effect of the interposition of a -undulation plate, which converts plane into circularly polarised light, was then shown, and Mr. Spottiswoode also hibited the effect of rotation on the characteristic interposed a concave plate of quartz, and exrings of quartz.

Professor Adams, F.R.S., exhibited a polariscope adapted for showing the optic axes of crystals in which they are much inclined to each other, as in the case of topaz. The part of the instrument by which this is effected consists of a frame in which the crystal is supported between two hemispherical lenses, the common centre of which is at the centre of the crystal. The frame is capable of motion round an axis at right angles to that of the instrument. By this means each of the axes can be brought under the cross wires, and the space through which the frame is moved affords a means of determining the angle between the axes of the crystal. The crystal may be immersed in a liquid in cases in which its optic axes are too far apart

to be seen in air.

Dr. Mills made a verbal communication on "Fusion-Point and Thermometry." His apparatus for fusion-points consisted essentially of a beaker, in which stood an inverted funnel, the shortened stem of which carried a test-tube, supported by a contraction at its base. The test-tube contains naphtha of high boiling-point, and the thermometer and capillary tube containing the substance occupying its centre; the funnel has four equidistant semicircular cuts at the end of its stem, and six on its lip; the beaker is nearly filled with strong oil of vitriol, and has a wooden cover; on the application of heat below the beaker warm oil of vitriol ascends in the funnel, and cold oil of vitriol descending, enters at the lip; thus, an automatic stirring is kept up, and the mercury in the thermometer rises so regularly as to appear perfectly continuous in course even under considerable magnifying power.

The manner of preparing and filling the capillary tubes was described.

Attention was then drawn to the " zero error of thermometers. In thermometers which have not been much used, the zero error must always be

determined immediately after experiment. It is also generally necessary to correct for the projection of the thermometer beyond its bath. This correction had been experimentally determined by the author, and required from 1,500 to 2,000 observations of temperature for each of four instruments used. It was ascertained that the wellknown expression—

C=0001545 (T−t) N given by Regnault and Kopp is not supported by actual trial. If we write the expression thus― C = x (T-t) N experiment shows that a depends on the length N exposed, and

x = a + BN. For lengths of about 25° x is about 00013, and increases about 00001 for every additional 25°. The exact values of a and ẞ require, however, to be ascertained for each instrument.

Mr. Bauerman, F.G.S., described and illustrated a very simple method for ascertaining the electric method, which was originally devised by Dr. von conductivity of various forms of carbon. The Kobell, consists in holding a fragment of the substance to be tested with a strip of zinc, bent in a U form, and immersing it in a solution of copper sulphate. In the case of a bad conductor a deposit of copper takes place solely on the surface of the zinc, but when a good conductor is employed a zinc-carbon couple is formed, and a deposit takes place on the surface of the carbon. that the conducting power is greatest in coal Numerous specimens were exhibited which showed which has been subjected to a great degree of heat, and the lowest temperature at which this change takes place appears, in the case of anthracite, to be Such experiments appear to be specially importbetween the melting points of zinc and silver. anthracitic metamorphism has been effected by ant as giving a clue to the temperature at which the intrusion of igneous rock.

Professor Woodward exhibited an apparatus for building up model cones and craters. It consists of a wooden trough about 18 inches long, bladed screw carries forward the ashes, sawdust, with sloping sides; at the bottom of the trough a or other material used, to an opening through which air from a powerful bellows is forced upwards. A board 3 or 4 feet square with a hole in the crater is formed. Several of the peculiarities the centre is placed over the air jet, and on this. structures shown by using sawdust of various of natural cones may thus be illustrated, and the

colours.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE (Tuesday, May 25). COLONEL A. LANE Fox, President, in the Chair. Mr. T. G. Biddle Lloyd read the following papers: "The Beothucs of Newfoundland" and "The Stone Implements of Newfoundland." The first was a continuation of one read before the Institute the previous session, and contained further experiences of the author in Newfoundland, which island he had recently re-visited. The Beothucs had been extinct for many years, so that no personal experience of them had been possible to the author. He had, however, ascertained that they possessed several of the characteristics belonging to many of the tribes inhabiting North America, while, on the other hand, they differed from them in the following peculiarities:-lightness of complexion, the use of trenches in their wigwams for sleeping places, the peculiar form of the canoe, the custom of living in a state of isolation apart from the white inhabitants of the island, and their persistent refusal to submit to any attempt to civilise them. They were also remarkable for their inability to domesticate the dog: pottery as an art was unknown to them. Mr. Lloyd went at great length into the various theories of the origin of the Beothucs and their relations to the Esquimaux and other peoples. Professor Busk contributed a supplementary paper minutely describing two Beothuc skulls. He found that they

presented all the characteristics of the normal brachycephalic type of the Red Indian skull. In his second paper Mr. Lloyd described the stone implements he had brought and exhibited from Newfoundland, consisting of axes, chisels, gouges, spear and arrow heads, scrapers or planers, fish hooks with cores and flakes, whetstones, rubbing stones, sinkers, and stone vessels.

Mr. Park Harrison exhibited and described five photographs from Tahiti, of Easter Island wooden tablets. Mr. H. Taylor exhibited a series of thirtyfour fine photographs of people of the South Sea Islands.

ment.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Wednesday, May 26). MR. SERJEANT Cox, President, in the Chair. The discussion on Mr. Harris's paper "On the Psychology of Memory," was resumed by the Rev. W. S. Moses, Major Owen, Mr. Coffin, and others. The question chiefly debated was whether memory be a faculty of the brain or of the soul, the majority contending that the brain received the impressions, the memory of which was retained by the soul. Many cases were cited illustrative of the arguOne of the speakers who had been restored to life after apparent drowning gave a graphic description of the manner in which the events of his life then passed before him like a panorama. A discussion followed on Mr. Serjeant Cox's paper "On some Phenomena of Sleep and Dream," read at the last meeting. The principal contention was whether there be any, and what, resemblance between the mental condition in dream and in insanity. Many illustrative facts were adduced by the speakers. In consequence of the length of these discussions the reading of Mr. Serjeant Cox's paper "On the Duality of the Mind" was deferred to Wednesday, June 9, when the evening will be wholly devoted to the discussion. Reports were read of psychological facts and phenomena, communicated by several correspondents.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Wednesday, May 26). J. EVANS, ESQ., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. In some "Notes on Peculiarities in the Microscopic Structure of Felspars," Mr. Frank Rutley described a number of sections of various felspars, prepared for microscopic study. Some of the sections of orthoclase showed the cross-hatchings

by Dr. Handfield Jones: "Note on the Discharge of Ova and its relation in point of time to Menstruation," by Dr. J. Williams; "Note on Mr. Mallet's Paper on the Mechanism of Stromboli," by R. Mallet; "Electrodynamic Qualities of Metals, Part VI. Effects of Stress on Magnetisation," by Sir William Thomson.

FINE ART.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.

(Fourth Notice.)

Domestic Subjects (continued).-M. Tissot is a painter of uncommon tact and versatility, who has tried various styles, and none without a true measure of attainment: he seems now to settle himself down for a while in one of the least satisfying of the many possible branches of artThis he treats with an that of fashionable life. eye to its festive and scenic aspects, and also to individual character, of a portraitlike kind in the heads. Hush represents an afternoon performance by a lady violinist in a house of the haut ton: every figure is a personage, not merely a clothes-horse: English national character has evidently been aimed at, and has been caught in a few instances, not in many. Two Indian princes (less well painted than the other figures) are present: several of the guests have seated themselves on the stairs to listen. The half-light, and the general effect of bright yet as a whole subdued colour, are very true, and the entire thing extremely complete in its artificial simplicity. The Bunch of Lilacs is a minor example of the same painter. War-Time is treated by Mr. Briton Rivière in a grave and manly spirit, pathetic when we realise to ourselves the emotion intended, as expressed in these lines by Dobell :

:

"Over valley and wold, Wherever I turn my head, There's a mildew and a mould; The sun's going out overhead, And I'm very cold,

And Tommy's dead."

An aged shepherd is seen, holding a newspaper with bad news from the seat of war, looking over a stone fence, with a set and hopeless expression of countenance: the objects are vague to his eyes, and the thoughts to his mind-vague, but not the which have been taken to indicate admixture with less oppressive. His dog alone sympathises with plagioclase. In other specimens the striae were him, and seems disconcerted at his silence and confined to included patches, while in others again abstraction. Mr. Hennessy paints The Votive they were developed in only one direction. In a Offering: "Many picturesque chapels along the crystal from the trachyte of Berkum, on the coast of Normandy are dedicated to Notre Dame Rhine, the cross-striations were confined to the des Flots; and thither resort the simple and opposite sides of two curves, resembling the hyper-devout Norman sailor and his family, with prayers bolic curves, with pectinate markings, observed by for a prosperous voyage, or thanks for dangers the author in Mexican obsidian. Attention was past, frequently bearing as an offering a carecalled to the fallacies connected with the use of fully-fashioned model of his ship." This is an striae in distinguishing microscopically between able painting, of considerable size, carefully orthoclase and plagioclase. Mr. Ralph Tate de- executed, but rather deficient in concentration, scribed the Lias of Radstock, in Somersetshire, or at least in point, of subject-matter: the giving a section of an old quarry which showed back of the old cure who is seated on the the Lower Lias subdivided into the zones of heights, looking out on the sea, is one of Ammonites angulatus and planorbis, A. Bucklandi the best items, and adds materially to the lifeand A. oxynotus; the whole being covered with likeness of the whole composition. Another imthe conglomerate at the base of the Middle Lias. portant subject of peasant life is that of Mr. Professor Seeley described the axis of a Dinosaur Halswelle - Lo Sposalizio, bringing Home the from the Wealden beds of Brook, in the Isle of Bride-from the neighbourhood of Arpino in the Wight; this bone may probably be referred to Abruzzi. The catalogue tells us of the fine phyIguanodon. He also read a paper "On an Orni- sical type of the bride and bridegroom, of the thosaurian from the Purbeck Limestone of Lang- great meal-chest carried by one of the escort, of ton, near Swanage," and described this under the the pifferari playing, and the boys scrambling for name of Doratorhynchus macrurus. Two specimens sweetmeats: all this is realised on the canvas in were found in 1868, and referred to Pterodactylus, vigorously designed forms, and with a large but the author has been led to regard them as amount of general strength and decision, qualifyrepresentative of a new genus. The vertebrae ing the work to rank among the prominent modern originally taken for caudal are probably cervical. pictures of national costume and manners. From Italy we pass to Spain in Mr. Burgess's painting of The Barber's Prodigy. A customer is kept waiting with lathered chin while the paternal barber shows about to the dispensers of reputation in his quarter the painted sketches which his little boy who would have believed it ?-has produced:

ROYAL SOCIETY (Thursday, May 27). THE following papers were read:-"On the Liquation of Alloys of Silver and Copper," by Colonel J. T. Smith; "On Reversed Tracings,'

the proud satisfaction of the good-looking mother is well depicted, and there is abundance of true expression throughout. The costume takes us back to nearly a hundred years ago. France comes next, with the Sain et Sauf of Mr. Stone. A French linesman is rushing into his country-home, and finds his hearty delighted wife laid up in bed after a confinement: his little girl will not allow a minute for conjugal greetings, but motions papa forthwith towards the cradle wherein the new small baby is lying at rest. The handling of this work is bold, and the story told most perspicuously it passes from figure to figure in a welllinked chain. The father, as soon as he can be allowed to talk otherwise than in hurried exclamations of delight and affection, will no doubt have plenty to relate of his military vicissi tudes, and his wife will be profuse of domestic anecdotes. Too Good to be True is a clever and pleasant picture by Mr. Orchardson, although rather thin in subject-matter for so goodly a canvas. An elderly fruiterer, in his open-fronted shop, good-naturedly holds out an orange, to be taken by a shabby urchin with a spinning-top; the small scapegrace, whose position in life has not accustomed him to such blandishments, hesitates whether to advance or not, but his elder sister reassures him-the orange is actually to be his. School Revisited, by Mr. Leslie, shows us a young lady, lancée upon her own small eddy of the great whirlpool the world, who has come to rebehold the school of her girlhood: she is showing her rings-amid which a wedding-ring does not yet figure-to an admiring and coy circle of younger pupils: her white lap-dog is also to be inspected, and with discretion handled. This an agreeable picture, kept down, in execution as well as in theme, to the level of an innocent simplicity. The Path by the River is a smaller picture by the same artist, but ranks the higher of the two: it is flushed with the golden sunshine of late summer, and with a tone of sweet and pensive reverie. A damsel, with her book by the riverside, is musing; the trees droop and whisper; crows (somewhat too small for their place in the composition) flit to and fro. A picture conspicuous for force and efficiency, both in expression and in execution, is Our Soldiers, Past and Future by Mr. A. Stocks: if the painter will only take care not to fall into a habit of offhand vigour of working, he seems capable of achieving whatever he may be minded to undertake. This picture represents a boy of about nine reading, in a modest but not comfortless interior, the Peninsular War of Sir William Napier to his aged grandfather, a military pensioner slightly hard of hearing: the child's face glows, and he almost rises in his seat, as his tongue and mind follow on the track of the valorous deeds in which perchance his now superannuated auditor bore a part. We find not many things in the Exhi bition deserving to be preferred to this on general grounds; and, among those which can be said to compete with it on its own footing, hardly any. The same painter contributes two minor works, not of special mark, though creditable enough: A Little Maid-of-all-Work and A Litter of Young Rabbits.

Four pictures by Mr. Calderon may be counted among the domestic works. Refurbishing, St. Trophime, Arles, is a simple yet not unpeculiar subject, showing his skill at its best. Three of the faces (we except the fourth, that of the elderly curé, which has a humorous and indeed a rather ignoble cast) are of a more obvious and sympathetic order of good looks than the painter mostly affects: especially the young vicaire, who stands with folded arms. A bright-visaged Arlésienne is polishing the silver statuette of the titular saint, just within one of the cloister arches: her companion is bringing some brass candlesticks and a censer, and other articles of church-plate lie in the foreground. The ancient and beautiful white architecture which forms the setting to this group is a powerful factor in the agreeableness of the total

work-room, surrounded by all sorts of stuffed birds; he faces the window, presenting his back to the spectator. There is plenty of detail here, well characterised in a definite but not elaborate way; the colour is good, and the lighting and tone particularly so. It is a painting d'un seul jet (as the French say) in theme and method, and will be remembered hereafter by many to the credit of its author.

See also-C. Green, Old Neighbours; Shuckard, Returning with the Spoils; Frith, St. Valentine's Day; Black and Blue Eyes; Gow, In Possession; Cope, Home-Attraction; Burr, Domestic Troubles; J. M. Barber, School-time; A. L. Vernon, Jealousy; F. D. Hardy, The Wedding-dress.

(c) Perugini, Tell him a lady at her writingtable is being urged, with kind insistency, by another, to make no secret of the love which she entertains for her correspondent. The painter has succeeded in telling this story very distinctly, by action and expression. A. Weisz, Je suis mon Grandpère; a child-not a boy, as one might expect, but a girl-has adopted the hat, stick, and big gloves, of her grandfather, her mother looking on, in a homely Swiss or German interior; well composed and nicely done. Frère, Gathering Wood near Ecouen, in thick-lying snow; one of the better recent specimens of this highly-prized painter, who has of late years produced (so far as we have seen) nothing entirely up to his mark of some fifteen years ago. J. L. Brown (Paris), La Halte en Forêt; a clever work of small dimensions. G. Bochmann, Peasantry of Esthonia, West Russia, going to Market, vigorously done, in a blocky mode of handling. Henriette Browne, The Pet Goldfinch the bird is out of its cage, on the table at which a little girl is writing; a fair minor specimen of this able lady-painter. Israels, Waiting for the Herring-boats. Slight as is the handling of some of our native exhibitors, this foreign work surpasses in slightness, and sinks into the slovenly in this respect it should count as a warning, not as an example. The numerous figures of women and children are almost dolllike in manner, and the sea approaches closely to the condition of soapsuds. A certain degree of skill is, no doubt, apparent; but such a production hardly claims to rank among pictures, rather among sketches. Linnig, The Mother's Despair: she is wailing, prone over the empty cradle-the infant, as we infer, being now on its way to the burying-ground. Broadly painted, and of adequate strength in sentiment.

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See also-Boughton, The Bearers of the Burden; A Path of Roses; A Grey Day (these able and highly attractive works have been already reviewed in our pages); De Jonghe, The Birthday Wishes; Schäfer, Home Lessons.

W. M. ROSSETTI.

THE SALON OF 1875. (Second Notice.)

Paris: May 28, 1875. YOUR school has one great advantage over ours, in not being under the pretended direction of the State, or, as we call it here, "encouraged" by the State. On noble characters and manly natures such encouragement, it need hardly be said, never had any direct influence. Ever since the beginning of this century the great painters have all trained themselves independently of the Academy and the State, indifferent both to the glory and the orders they distributed. But this has not been the case with the majority. This influence has, in fact, been disastrous in its effect. It prevents men of more than average talent, who are not satisfied with painting subject-pictures, and require a large field for the development of their ideas, from establishing connexions with the municipalities of great provincial centres, which, with us, have a more marked diversity of origin than with you. It equally prevents them from putting

themselves in communication either with the railway companies, who might advantageously em

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ploy them to decorate their principal stations in the large towns, or with other societies yet in their infancy, but growing every day more influential-societies which are being constantly recruited from the rich and bourgeois classes, and might furnish artists with piquant programmes. Thence a new school of art-modern art-will slowly develop itself. It will have the same diversity as the old, together with more vigour and more independence. At the present moment artists are in a visibly inferior position. They are subject to political changes. The appointment of a new Minister of the Beaux Arts is immediately felt in the studios. Thus the demand for battle-pieces ceased with the fall of the Empire, and the taste for disembowelled horses, for wounded soldiers smothered by the dead, for smoke intervening as a dramatic agent, for broken swords strewn upon the ground, began to die out. this theatrical apparatus was no more serious than a performance at a circus. And yet war remains a fact which will unfortunately long continue to appeal to the popular mind, and it will be long before there will be a Salon without battle-pieces. The young generation who, either in Paris or in the provinces, under Gambetta's orders so bravely took a part in the defence of their country's soil and honour, recount their experiences in an almost realistic manner. M. A. de Neuville is perhaps the most enthusiastic. He has painted an episode of the campaign of the Army of the East with great spirit. On January 9, 1871, the men of the 18th Corps were engaged in taking possession of all the houses at Villersexel in which the Germans had barricaded themselves, and were making a stout resistance. Some Mobiles, under a heavy fire, have collected a heap of faggots before the door of one of the houses, and are proceeding to burn out the enemy whom they had failed to dislodge. M. A. de Neuville is a gentleman, and thought it would be discourteous to calumniate his enemies according to ancient custom, as well as stupid to represent them as cowardly. The attitude of the German officer standing exposed at the open window, coolly firing off his revolver at the young aggressors who are lighting the fire in the yard below, is very fine.

M. Auguste Lançon is a forcible painter, rather too forcible even; he seems to be trying to work out a problem of lights and shadows, vivid colours, and the result is that his painting in violence of tone resembles a majolica plate. I shall, therefore, not dwell on his picture, called Les Echappés de Sedan; a group of soldiers on the road to Mouzon, on the evening of September 1, 1870, gathered round a cart that has been shattered into pieces by an obus. It is truthful, touching, and simple, and resembles the letter of a wellinformed correspondent. And the fact is, M. Lançon has only painted what he himself saw; he joined the army as infirmier at the very beginning of the campaign, was taken prisoner by the Prussians, escaped and came back to France just in time to enter Paris before the gates were

shut.

But I wish, particularly, to call my readers' attention to M. Auguste Lançon's etchings. These are international productions, which are more easily exchanged and pass through more hands than paintings generally do. M. Lançon has engraved a certain number of etchings from the sketches he made during the war-interiors of churches in which the wounded were massed together, streets of villages destroyed by fire in which a charred corpse is lying in the last contortions, and a horse is wandering riderless; troops on the march in the dust and mud, sun and rain; whole droves of oxen smitten with pestilence in a single night, families herded together in the cellars of the catacombs during the bombardment, bodies being buried in the wide trenches after the fighting under the walls of Paris, &c., &c.

Since Goya's admirable series of sketches of the war in Spain came out I have never seen the chilling horrors of death so truthfully and fee!

ingly pourtrayed. These etchings convey a faithful expression of sudden death in action and lingering death from wounds and privation, and awaken both horror and pity. M. Lançon is an artist of striking originality. But he is too severe, too hard, too naïf to attract the crowd as readily as more skilful and less emotional artists do-such theatrical costumiers, for instance, as the pupils of M. Meissonier and M. Gérôme. When the day of his success comes it will be great.

I have already said how strongly government influence and opinions are felt in the studios. The end of the Empire is seen in all its depravity in the number of nude women who have no excuse, not even that of beauty of form or splendour of tone, for displaying themselves thus unclothed, some lying extended on couches, others in the landscape. We do not wish to condemn the exhibition of the nude. We believe that our school owes the preservation of its technical superiority over all other Continental schools solely to its persistent study of the living model. Moreover, it is good for the public to take lessons in harmony and to be educated by the sight of the human form, and the female form especially, which is the summing up of all harmony. On this point our customs are more tolerant than yours. But it is a study which must be justified by the results produced. Otherwise these females become both ridiculous and objectionable: unfortunately this is too often the case.

There is a perfect avalanche of religious and mystical pictures. It is too palpably evident that since May 24 l'ordre moral has governed France. I see no harm in religious communities of every denomination decorating their edifices to suit their own particular taste, whatever that taste may be; but it is surely rather strong that the State should make all the forces of the contemporary school converge on socalled religious painting. The present Director of the Beaux Arts has made a great mistake in decreeing the general decoration of the Pantheon. Not only is he spoiling the interior aspect of a building the grandeur of which is in a measure due to the very nakedness of the walls, but he is creating a great disturbance generally in the minds of men. Religious manifestations of this kind call for such men as Orsel, or Perrin of Lyons, or Hippolyte Flandrin, minds with strong convic tions and of a mystical turn. But our present Academicians or their pupils pass alternately from a mythological to a religious subject. M. Bouguereau, for instance (though he does not yet belong to the Academy, he shortly will), sends Flore et Zéphyre and la Vierge, l'enfant Jésus et Saint Jean Baptiste. Nobody looks at Flora because she has an ennuyé face, but right-thinking people are greatly pleased with the Virgin because she is pretty and has bright, clean feet. M. Cabanelhe does belong to the Academy!-exhibits at the same time a Venus, and an episode from the Book of Kings, Thamar, outragée par Amnon, séchant d'ennui dans la maison de son frère Absalon. If only the Venus were beautiful instead of being a vulgar young woman half-clothed in rosecoloured drapery, I should be satisfied; likewise I should be quite content if there were any tendency to ethnographical or moral truth visible in his treatment of the biblical episode, either in the choice of types, in vigour of drawing or purity of colour. But nothing of the kind. Ever since the death of Ingres, the Institut has been drifting about like a vessel that has lost its rudder. This year it fills its best friends with the liveliest anxiety. M. Charles Louis Muller has sent, together with a Roi Lear, which is the outcome of Ducis rather than of Shakspere, a composition that betrays a senility absolutely inexcusable in any immortal: a child left, un Instant seul-that is the title of the picture, which is painted with gooseberry jelly-is pouring a spoonful of pap into a watch!

I am not drawing attention to these buffooneries from a mischievous desire to bring ridicule on artists