Chapter IV: Introduction: Of the Potato (1)

The history of the potato affords a strong illustration of the influence of authority. For more than two centuries, the use of this invaluable plant was vehemently opposed: at last, Louis XV. wore a bunch of its blossoms in the midst of his courtiers, and the consumption of the root became universal in France.

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FARADAY, AS A LECTURER.

Von Raumer acutely observes:--"Mr. Faraday is not only a man of profound chemical and physical science, (which all Europe knows), but a very remarkable lecturer. He speaks with ease and freedom, but not with a gossiping unequal tone, alternately inaudible and bawling, as some very learned professors do; he delivers himself with clearness, precision, and ability. Moreover, he speaks his language in a manner which confirmed me in a secret suspicion I had, that a great number of Englishmen speak it very badly. Why is it that French in the mouth of Mdlle. Mars, German in that of Tieck, and English in that of Faraday, seems a totally different language? Because they articulate what other people swallow or chew. It is a shame that the power and harmony of simple speech (I am not talking of eloquence, but of vowels and consonants), that the tones and inflexions which God has given to the human voice, should be so neglected and abused. And those who think they do them full justice--preachers--generally give us only the long straw of pretended connoisseurs, instead of the chopped straw of the dilettanti."

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THE RAILWAY SYSTEM SUGGESTED.

A striking suggestion of the extension of railway communication into a "system," as connecting lines are now called, will be found in Sir Richard Phillips's _Morning's Walk from London to Kew_, published in 1813. On reaching the Surrey Iron Railway at Wandsworth, Sir Richard records: "I found renewed delight on witnessing, at this place, the economy of horse labour on the Iron Railway. Yet a heavy sigh escaped me, as I thought of the inconceivable millions which have been spent about Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of extending _double lines of iron railway_ from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth! A reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily turning out; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail coaches running at the rate of 10 miles an hour, drawn by a single horse, or _impelled 15 miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engine_. Such would have been a legitimate motive for overstepping the income of a nation; and the completion of so great and useful a work would have afforded rational ground for public triumph in general jubilees!"

The writer of these penetrative remarks lived until 1840, so that he had the gratification of witnessing a triumph akin to his long-cherished hope.

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LORD BROUGHAM'S BLUNDERS.

Dr. Young's theory of light was treated with the most sovereign contempt by Lord Brougham, in the earlier numbers of the _Edinburgh Review_; and Dr. Young died without reaping the honour of his discovery. The theory is now recognised as true; and M. Arago has formally vindicated Dr. Young from the noble critic's animadversions, in a discourse delivered at the French Institute.

In 1809, when the first application was made to Parliament on gas-lighting, the movers in the project were much opposed; a committee of the House of Commons was granted, but the application terminated unsuccessfully; and the testimony of Mr. Accum to the practicability of gas-lighting exposed him to the severe animadversions and ridicule of Mr. Brougham.

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WHO FIRST DOUBLED THE CAPE OF GOOD
HOPE?

"Why, Vasco de Gama, to be sure"--perhaps, the reader will reply. In Portugal, however, a much more ancient navigator has been mentioned. Vieyra, an old preacher of great renown at Lisbon, said in one of his sermons:--"One man only passed the Cape of Good Hope before the Portuguese. And who was he? and how? It was Jonah, in the whale's belly. The whale (or rather great fish) went out of the Mediterranean because he had no other course; he kept the coast of Africa on the left, scoured along Ethiopia, passed by Arabia, took post in the Euphrates, on the shores of Nineveh, and, making his tongue serve as a plank, landed the prophet there."

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THE FIRST KALEIDOSCOPE.

When, by a happy accident, Sir David Brewster had discovered the leading principles of the kaleidoscope while repeating Biot's experiments on the action of fluids upon light, he constructed an instrument in which he fixed permanently, across the ends of the reflectors, pieces of coloured glass, and other irregular objects. But it was not till some time afterwards that the great step towards the completion of the instrument was made, in the idea of giving motion to these objects, which were placed loosely in a cell at the end of the instrument. When this idea was carried into execution, the kaleidoscope in its simple form was completed. The next and by far the most important step of the invention was, to employ a draw tube and lens, by means of which beautiful forms could be created from objects of all sizes, and at all distances from the observer. In this way, the power of the kaleidoscope was indefinitely extended, and every object in nature could be introduced into the picture, in the same manner as if these objects had been reduced in size, and actually placed at the end of the reflector.

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FERGUSON AND HIS WIFE.

James Ferguson and his wife led a cat-and-dog life, and she is not once alluded to in the philosopher's autobiography. About the year 1750, one evening, while he was delivering to a London audience a lecture on astronomy, his wife entered the room in a passion, and maliciously overturned several pieces of the apparatus; when all the notice Ferguson took of the catastrophe was the observation to the audience--"Ladies and gentlemen, I have the misfortune to be married to this woman."

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A DESCENT IN A DIVING-BELL.

Sir George Head, in his shrewdly humorous _Home Tour_, gives an amusing picture of a pair of operative divers whom he saw in the Hull docks. Sir George was passing as the workmen were raising the diving-bell, when he stepped into the lighter to observe the state of the labourers on their return from below. He had a remarkably good view of their features, at a time when they had no reason to expect any one was looking at them; for, as the bell was raised very slowly, he had an opportunity of seeing within it, by stooping, the moment its side was above the gunwale of the lighter. But, Sir George shall relate what he saw:--

"A pair of easy-going, careless fellows, each with a red nightcap on his head, sat opposite one another, by no means over-heated or exhausted, and apparently with no other want in the world than that of 'summut to drink;' they had been under water exactly two hours. I asked them what were their sensations on going down? They said that, before a man was used to it, it produced a feeling as if the ears were bursting; that, on the bell first dipping, they were in the habit of holding their noses; at the same time of breathing as gently as possible, and that thus they prevented any disagreeable effect: they added, the air below was hot, and made a man thirsty;--the latter observation, though in duty bound I received as a hint, I believe to be true; nevertheless, the service cannot be formidable, as the extra pay is only one shilling per day. Had there been any thing extraordinary to see below, I should have asked permission to go down; but the water was by no means clear, and the muddy bottom of the docks was not a sufficient recompence for the disagreeable sensation. Two men descend at a time, and four pump the air into the bell through the leathern hose; the bell is nearly a square, or rather an oblong, vessel of cast-iron, with ten bull's-eye lights at the top, which lights are fortified within by a lattice of strong iron wire, sufficient to resist an accidental blow of a crowbar, or other casualty.--Notwithstanding the great improvements made in diving-bells since their invention, after all precautions, a man in a diving-bell is, certainly, in a state of awful dependence upon human aid: in case of the slightest accident to the air-pump, or even a single stitch of the leathern hose giving way, long before the ponderous vessel could be raised to the surface, life must be extinct."

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SIR HUMPHRY DAVY AN ANGLER.

Laybach, in Styria, is interesting, for having been the retreat of Sir Humphry Davy not long before his death: he resided in an hotel here, and the pretty daughter of the hostess relates several anecdotes of him. He was a most indefatigable angler: his extraordinary success in transferring the trout to his basket procured for him the title of "the English wizard;" and the scared peasants, who could never understand by what artificial means he caught the fish, shunned him as if he had been his Satanic majesty. He spent the greater part of the day in angling, or in geologizing among the mountains; he generally passed his evenings in the company of his hostess' pretty daughter, who made his tea, and was his antagonist at écarté, or some other light game; and the maid of the inn played her cards so well, that she secured a handsome legacy from the philosopher in his will.

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MISS CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.

This very interesting lady died at Hanover on the 9th of January, 1848, in the 98th year of her age. She was the sister of Sir William Herschel; and consequently, aunt to Sir John Herschel, the present representative of this truly scientific family.

Miss Herschel was the constant companion of her brother, and sole assistant of his astronomical labours, to the success of which her indefatigable zeal, diligence, and singular accuracy of calculation, not a little contributed. From the first commencement of his astronomical pursuits, her attendance on both his daily labours and nightly watches was put in requisition; and was found so useful, that on Herschel's removal from Bath to Datchet, and subsequently to Slough, he being then occupied with the review of the heavens and other researches, she performed the whole of the arduous duties of his astronomical assistant; not only reading the clocks and noting down all the observations from dictation as an amanuensis, but subsequently executing the extensive and laborious numerical calculations necessary to render them available to science. For the performance of these duties, his majesty King George the Third was pleased to place her in the receipt of a salary sufficient for her singularly moderate wants and retired habits.

Arduous, however, as these occupations must appear, especially when it is considered that her brother's observations were always carried on (circumstances permitting) till daybreak, without regard to season, and indeed chiefly in winter, they proved insufficient to exhaust her activity. In the intervals, she found time both for astronomical observations of her own, and for the execution of more than one work of great extent and utility. The observations she made with a small Newtonian sweeper, constructed for her by her brother, with which she found no less than eight comets; and on five of these occasions her claim to the _first_ discovery is admitted. These sweeps also proved productive of the detection of several remarkable nebulæ and clusters of stars, previously unobserved.

On her brother's death, in 1822, Miss Herschel returned to Hanover, which she never again quitted; passing the last twenty-six years of her life in repose--enjoying the society, and cherished by the regard of, her remaining relatives and friends; gratified by the occasional visits of eminent astronomers, and honoured with many marks of favour and distinction on the part of the King of Hanover, the Crown Prince, and his amiable and illustrious consort. To within a very short period of her death, her health continued uninterrupted, her faculties perfect, and her memory (especially of the scenes and circumstances of former days) remarkably clear and distinct. Her end was tranquil and free from suffering--a simple cessation of life.

We append the following just and eloquent tribute to the merits of Miss Herschel, from Dr. Nichol's "Views of the Architecture of the Heavens:"--

"The astronomer (Sir William Herschel), during these engrossing nights, was constantly assisted in his labours by a devoted maiden sister, who braved with him the inclemency of the weather--who heroically shared his privations that she might participate in his delights--whose pen, we are told, committed to paper his notes of observations as they issued from his lips; 'she it was,' says the best of authorities, 'who, having passed the nights near the telescope, took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day, and produced a fair copy of the night's work on the ensuing morning; she it was who planned the labour of each succeeding night, who reduced every observation, made every calculation, and kept everything in systematic order;' she it was--Miss Caroline Herschel--who helped our astronomer to gather an imperishable name. This venerable lady has in one respect been more fortunate than her brother; she has lived to reap the full harvest of their joint glory. Some years ago, the gold medal of our Astronomical Society was transmitted to her at her native Hanover, whither she removed after Sir William's death; and the same learned Society has recently inscribed her name upon its roll: but she has been rewarded by yet more, by what she will value beyond all earthly pleasures; she has lived to see her favourite nephew, him who grew up under her eye unto an astronomer, gather around him the highest hopes of scientific Europe, and prove himself fully equal to tread in the footsteps of his father."

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TYCHO BRAHE'S CREDULITY.

This great astronomer strongly--and weakly--believed in the predictions of astrology. If, when he went abroad, he met an old woman, or a hare crossed his path, he would turn back, being persuaded that evil was threatened him.

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INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE, AND EARLY DISCOVERIES WITH IT.

It is singular that the epoch of the most extensive discoveries upon the surface of our planet was immediately succeeded by man's first taking possession of a considerable part of the celestial spaces by the telescope. The powers of this instrument have not yet reached their limit. The feeble commencement, however hardly magnifying as much as thirty-two times in linear dimension, enabled astronomers to penetrate into cosmical depths, before unknown. The accidental discovery of the space-penetrating power of the telescope was first made in Holland, probably as early as the close of 1608. According to the latest documentary investigations, this great invention may be claimed by Hans Lippershey, a native of Wesel and a spectacle-maker at Middelburg, who, on the 2nd of October, 1608, offered to the States-General certain instruments "with which one can see to a distance." Two other persons, Adrienz and Jansen, made a similar offer, nearly at the same time.

When the news of the Dutch invention reached Venice, Galileo was accidentally present; he at once divined what were the essential conditions of the construction, and immediately completed a telescope at Padua for his own use. He directed it first to the mountains in the moon; then examined with small magnifying powers the group of the Pleiades, the cluster of stars in Cancer, the Milky Way, and the group of stars in the head of Orion. Then followed in quick succession the great discovery of the four satellites of Jupiter, the two "handles" of Saturn, or his surrounding ring imperfectly seen, so that its true character was not at once recognised; the solar spots, and the crescent form of Venus. The occultations of the satellites, or their entrance into the shadow of Jupiter, led to the knowledge of the velocity of light; and led Galileo to perceive their importance in the determination of the longitude of places on land.

Galileo carried his first telescope to Venice, where his time for more than a month was employed in showing and explaining its nature to the different inhabitants. A ludicrous instance is related of the insatiable telescope mania which had seized on the people. Galileo went one day to the tower of St. Mark, in order to make observations on its summit, but the people espied him, and compelled him to hand a telescope which he had made for himself, from one to another, until all had gratified their curiosity by having a peep; and, after he had been detained several hours, he was not a little glad to regain his telescope, and return home. But this was not all: he heard them inquiring at what inn he lodged; and foreseeing the inconvenience of the celebrity which was beginning to attach to him, he left Venice early the next morning, to pursue his observations with greater privacy.

Melancholy is it to relate that these brilliant disclosures brought temporary disgrace and positive suffering upon their author. Galileo, at the age of seventy-seven, after having devoted his life to useful and valuable labours, was forced to abjure his philosophical opinions, and to declare, on his knees, that he believed his doctrines concerning the motion of the earth round the sun, the existence of solar spots, &c., to be false and pernicious. The moral firmness of the old man was not sufficient to make him brave the terrors of the Inquisition, and we must therefore look with a lenient eye at this abjuration of doctrines which at the very moment he firmly believed to be true: but what shall we say of those men, who, under the plea of religion, could subject so noble a mind to such humiliating degradation!

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IDENTITY OF BLACK AND GREEN TEA.

Green and Black Tea are produced from the same plant, though the botanists were long at issue about this matter. The idea of green tea being dried upon copper is proved to be a popular fallacy, for the tea would be flavoured and spoiled in the process; besides, the bloom can be given by harmless means. Dr. Lettsom, by the way, thought it was given by a vegetable process.

Mr. Ball, who has written a practical volume on "the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," describes an experiment made by him, proving that tea may be dried _black and green_, at once, in the same vessel and over the same fire: he divided the pan, and the leaves on one side he kept in motion, and the other quiet--when the latter became black, and the former green; thus proving the difference of colour to be not derived from any management of heat, but from manipulation, the heat being the same in both cases.

At the same time, certain Chinese rogues glaze our hysons most unscrupulously; and it has been proved by chemical analysis, that the Chinese green teas are artificially coloured, though not with indigo, as represented by the green tea merchants. We may add, that gunpowder tea is dried at the highest temperature, and pekoe at the lowest; and the chemical cause of black tea is its loss of tannin in its drying, previous to roasting, an opinion that is supported by the testimony of Liebig. Again, Mr. Ball thinks there may be one species of tea plant, but several varieties, and that all botanical difference is destroyed in the course of packing.

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PROTECTION BY RUST.

Rust is usually associated with decay. Professor Faraday, however, observes that, in some cases, it is curious to see how tin, a metal having a slight attraction for oxygen, protects other metals from oxidation or rust. In Canada, tin-plate is used for the roofs of houses, and you are dazzled by the lustre of the setting sun upon the roofs; whilst there, although it is exposed to the atmosphere year after year, it does not decay, because the superficial coat of oxide protects the tin and iron beneath.

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THE LION EATEN AS FOOD.

Captain C. Kennedy, in his "Journey through Algeria and Tunis," notes:--"We were anxious to know if there was any chance of another lion being found in the neighbourhood, and were informed that doubtless there were plenty; but such was the nature of the ground, that, unless their exact haunts were known (in which case they were generally killed), we might go out for a fortnight, and never encounter a single beast. The skins of all lions killed throughout the regency are sent to the Bey, who pays a handsome premium upon each. The flesh is eaten: contrary to our expectation, we found it excellent, and made a capital supper upon the ends of the ribs, stewed with a little salt and red pepper; it tasted like very young beef, and was neither tough nor strong flavoured."

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THE MOON SEEN THROUGH LORD ROSSE'S
TELESCOPE.

In 1846, the Rev. Dr. Scoresby had the gratification of observing the moon through the stupendous telescope constructed by Lord Rosse, at Parsonstown. It appeared like a globe of molten silver, and every object of the extent of one hundred yards was quite visible. Edifices, therefore, of the size of York Minster, or even of the ruins of Whitby Abbey, might be easily perceived, if they had existed. But there was no appearance of anything of that nature; neither was there any indication of the existence of water, or of an atmosphere. There were a great number of extinct volcanoes, several miles in breadth; through one of them there was a line of continuance about 150 miles in length, which ran in a straight direction, like a railway. The general appearance, however, was like one vast ruin of nature; and many of the pieces of rock driven out of the volcanoes, appeared to lie at various distances.

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LONGEVITY OF THE BEETLE.

Some facts recently stated to the British Association may, perhaps, shake faith in the "corporal sufferance" of the beetle, whose cause has been so eloquently pleaded by Shakspeare. Sir G. Richardson has exhibited a beetle found imbedded in some artificial concrete, where it must have been at least sixteen years; yet, when the animal was brought to him, it was alive, and lived for six weeks after--the ordinary duration of the life of this species of beetle being but two or three years. Mr. Darwin left one of the same kind of beetles in a covered vessel for a year, without its being killed; he also dropped upon one hydrocyanic acid, but it walked off, quite unaffected by the poison.

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TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

Sagua La Grande, on the island of Cuba, was the only place where total darkness was produced by the eclipse of the sun, on the 25th of July, 1846. The eclipse phenomenon commenced at 9h. 41m. 32s. a.m., sky clear. As the time of the total darkness approached, all animated nature gave signs of approaching night, man only excepted. Still, the mirth of the gay donnas and senoras soon ceased; the slaves abandoned their occupations, and many fell on their knees. The darkness came on gradually, and at 17 minutes past 11, the sun was totally obscured. There stood the moon, covering the whole face of the sun, and presenting the appearance of a great black ball in the heavens, with rays of light diverging from behind it. The rays gave out a pale, aurora-like reflection upon the earth, resembling that cast by the moon when half-full. This lasted only fifty seconds; and, at a little past 12, the eclipse ended.

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THE DIVING-BELL.

Was first used in Europe at Toledo, in Spain, in 1538, before Charles V. and 10,000 spectators. The experiment was made by two Greeks, who, taking a very large kettle suspended by ropes with the mouth downward, fixed planks in it, on which they placed themselves, and with a lighted candle gradually descended to a considerable depth.

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RATE OF BALLOON TRAVELLING.

Mr. Green relates some singular experiences of the variety of currents in our atmosphere, influencing the rate of his aërial travelling. He has found that at a great elevation, the north-west current generally prevails throughout the year, without reference to the direction of the wind near the earth; this constant current being at an elevation of from 13,000 to 14,000 feet. This upper current carries his balloon at the rate of six miles an hour; whilst the lower current wafts it at the rate of thirty miles an hour. He states, that in one of his ascents from Liverpool, he entered the constant current at an elevation of 14,000 feet, and descended into a lower south-east current at the height of 12,000 feet; the former carrying his balloon at the rate of five miles, and the latter at the rate of eighty miles an hour. He has travelled ninety-seven miles in fifty-eight minutes, and his speed has often been from sixty to eighty miles an hour.

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SAFE DESCENT IN A PARACHUTE.

This feat, of very rare occurrence, was accomplished in September, 1838, when Mr. Hampton ascended with a parachute attached to a gas balloon, from Cheltenham, to the height of 9000 feet. At this altitude, he cut the connecting-cord, when the balloon rose for some hundred feet, and burst; Mr. Hampton safely descending in the parachute, within thirteen minutes; the collapsed balloon having reached the earth before him.

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"FOSSIL RAIN."

In 1838, there was discovered at Liverpool, the impression of a fossil shower of rain upon sandstone. Dr. Buckland observes of the phenomenon:--"It could not be mistaken for ripple of the water, that was common enough: it had all the small-pox character, the pitted appearance, which a heavy shower of rain would leave, and which would be covered up by the next tide, and so preserved to future generations."

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MELTING OF A WATCH BY LIGHTNING.

During a violent thunder-storm in 1844, a fishing-boat, belonging to one of the Shetland Islands, was struck by lightning. The electric fluid came down the mast, which it tore into shivers; and melted a watch in the pocket of a man who was sitting close by the side of the mast, without injuring him. Not only was the man altogether unhurt, but his clothes also were uninjured; and he was not aware of what had taken place until, on taking out his watch, he found it was fused into a mass!

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THE INDIAN JUGGLERS' SECRET.

Lieutenant Hutton states, that the snakes which the Indian jugglers handle with impunity are drugged with opium, which renders them quiet and harmless. The effects of the drug will not wear off for a fortnight or three weeks; but a drugged snake which Lieutenant Hutton purchased, after the lapse of three weeks, flew at him unexpectedly, and nearly strangled him.

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THE ART OF STEREOTYPE.

The first person mentioned as practising the modern art of stereotype, was a Dutchman, Van der Mey, who resided at Leyden about the end of the sixteenth century. He printed four books from solid plates; but at his death the art of preparing solid blocks was lost, or wholly neglected. In 1725, however, Mr. Ged, a jeweller of Edinburgh, apparently without knowledge of Van der Mey's performances, devised the plan of printing from plates; and in 1729 he entered into partnership with three other persons, for the purpose of prosecuting the art. A privilege was obtained by the company, from the University of Cambridge, to print Bibles and Prayer-books; but one of Ged's partners was so averse to the success of the plan, that he engaged such people for the work as he thought most likely to spoil it. The compositors wilfully made errors in correcting, and the pressmen battered the plates when the masters were absent. In consequence, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates melted. Mr. Ged, with the help of his son, whom he had apprenticed to the printing trade, actually produced, in 1736, an 18mo edition of Sallust; and in 1742 another book was printed in Newcastle. But after the death of Ged and his son, the art again fell into disuse, till in 1780 it was revived by Mr. Tulloch of Glasgow, who practised it in partnership with Mr. Foulis, the University printer.

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"RAINING TREES."

During Sir John Herschel's residence at the Cape of Good Hope, he often observed that on the windward side of the Table Mountain the clouds were spread out and descended very low, but frequently without any rain falling; while, on the lee-side they poured over the precipitous face of the mountain, producing as they rolled out, the well-known phenomenon of the table-cloth. Sir John, however, found that as he walked under fir-trees in the neighbourhood, while the clouds were closely overhead, he was subjected to a copious shower; but on coming from beneath the trees it was fair. On inquiring into the cause of this, he ascertained that the cloud was condensed on the trees, and thus the umbrella-shaped tops of the firs acted a part quite the reverse of our umbrellas in this country, for they wetted the person beneath them, instead of keeping him dry.

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THE INVISIBLE DISPATCH.

The plan of writing with rice-water, to be rendered visible by the application of iodine, was practised with great success in the correspondence during the war in Affghanistan. The first letter of this kind was received from Jellalabad, concealed in a quill. On opening it, a small paper was unfolded, on which appeared only a single word, "iodine." The magic liquid was applied, and an important dispatch from Sir Robert Sale stood forth.

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TAME HYÆNA.

When the traveller, Ignatius Pallme, was at Kordofan, he saw in the court of a house at Lobeid, a hyæna running about quite domesticated. The children of the proprietor tamed it, took the meat thrown to it for food out of its jaws, and put their hands even to its throat without receiving the slightest injury. When the family sat down to dinner in the open air, the animal approached the table, and snapped up the pieces that were thrown to it, like a dog. A full-grown hyæna and her two cubs, on another occasion, were brought to our traveller for sale; the latter were carried in arms, as you might carry a lamb, and were not even muzzled. The old one, it is true, had a rope round her snout, but she had been led a distance of twelve miles by one man without offering the least resistance. The Africans do not even reckon the hyæna among the wild beasts of their country, for they are not afraid of it.

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NOVEL TRAVELLING CARRIAGE.

In 1838, a carriage was built for a gentleman at Kensington, which, for completeness, equalled Sir Samuel Morland's celebrated cooking-carriage, of the seventeenth century. It was divided into two apartments, an anti-room, and a drawing-room and bed-chamber with every comfort. The anti-room contained a table, drawers, and culinary utensils; and the drawing-room was furnished with sofas, sofa-bedstead, six chairs, table, cupboards, and a chandelier for nine lights; a stove and fuel. The length of the carriage was twenty-nine feet, and the breadth nine feet; and the length of the drawing-room twenty-feet. The whole weighed two tons and a half.

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ENEMIES OF THE OSTRICH.

The ostrich would appear to be a bird of many enemies, from the following statement in Sir J. E. Alexander's narrative of his Expedition of Discovery in South Africa:

"According to native testimony, the male ostrich sits on the nest (which is merely a hollow place scooped out in the sand) during the night, the better to defend the eggs from jackals and other nocturnal plunderers. Towards morning, he _brummels_, or utters a grumbling sound, for the female to come and take his place; and she sits on the eggs during the cool of the morning and evening. In the middle of the day, the pair, leaving the eggs in charge of the sun, and 'forgetting that the foot may crush them, or the wild beast break them,' employ themselves in feeding off the tops of bushes in the plain near the nest. Looking aloft at this time of day, a white Egyptian vulture may be seen, soaring in mid-air, with a large stone between his talons. Having carefully surveyed the ground below him, he suddenly lets fall the stone, and then follows it in rapid descent. Let the hunter run to the spot, and he will find a nest of, probably, a score of eggs, (each equal in size to twenty-four hen's eggs,) some of them broken by the vulture. The jackal, too, is said to roll the eggs together to break them; and the hyæna pushes them off with his nose, to bury them at a distance."

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FIRE-PROOF HOUSE ON PUTNEY HEATH.

Upon Putney Heath, by the road-side, stands an obelisk, to record the success of a discovery made in the last century, of the means of building a house which no ordinary application of ignited combustibles could be made to consume. The inventor was Mr. David Hartley, to whom the House of Commons voted 2,500_l._, to defray the expenses of the experimental building, which stood about one hundred yards from the obelisk. In 1774, King George the Third and Queen Charlotte took their breakfast in one of the rooms; while in the apartment beneath, fires were lighted on the floor, and various inflammable materials were ignited, to attest that the rooms above were fire-proof. Hartley's secret lay in the floors being double, and there being interposed between the two boards sheets of laminated iron and copper, not thicker than tinfoil or stout paper, which rendered the floor air-tight, and thereby intercepted the ascent of the heated air; so that, although the inferior boards were actually charred, the metal prevented the combustion taking place in the upper flooring.

Another experiment took place on the 110th anniversary of the great fire of London, when a patriotic lord mayor and the corporation of London witnessed the indestructible property of the structure. Yet, the invention was never carried into further practice. The house was, many years after, converted into a tasteful villa, although the obelisk records the success of the experiment.

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THE LAST OF THE ALCHEMISTS.

The last true believer in alchemy was, according to Mr. Brande, one Peter Woulfe, who occupied chambers in Barnard's Inn, Holborn, while in London, and usually spent the summer in Paris. He died in 1805. About the year 1801, another solitary adept lived, or rather starved, in London, in the person of an editor of an evening newspaper, who expected to compound the alkahest, if he could keep his materials digested in a lamp-furnace for the space of seven years. The lamp burnt brightly during six years eleven months, and some odd days besides; and then, unluckily, it went out. Why it went out, the adept could never guess; but he was certain that if the name could only have burnt to the end of the septenary cycle, his experiment must have succeeded.

In 1828, Sir Richard Phillips visited "an alchemist," named Kellerman, at the village of Lilley, midway between Luton and Hitchen; he was believed by some of his neighbours to have succeeded in discovering the Philosopher's Stone, and also the universal solvent. He had been a man of fashion, and an adventurer on the turf; but had for many years shut himself up at Lilley, and been inaccessible and invisible to the world; his house being barricaded, and the walls of his grounds protected by hurdles, with spring-guns, so planted as to resist intrusion in every direction. Sir Richard, however, obtained an interview with this strange being, and the account of his visit is very graphic:--

"The front-door was opened, and Mr. Kellerman presented himself. I lament that I have not the pencil of Hogarth, for a more original figure never was seen. He was about six feet high, and of athletic make. On his head was a white nightcap, and his dress consisted of a long great-coat, once green, and a sort of jockey waistcoat, with three tiers of pockets. His manner was extremely polite and graceful; but my attention was chiefly absorbed by his singular physiognomy. His complexion was deeply sallow, and his eyes large, black, and rolling. He conducted me into a very large parlour, with a window looking backward, and having locked the door and put the key into his pocket, he desired me to be seated in one of two large armchairs, covered with sheepskins. The room was a realization of the well-known picture of Teniers's Alchemist. The floor was strewed with retorts, crucibles, alembics, jars, and bottles of various shapes, intermingled with old books, the whole covered with dust and cobwebs. Different shelves were filled in the same manner; and on one side stood the Alchemist's bed. In a corner, somewhat shaded from the light, I beheld two heads, white, with dark wigs on them; I entertained no doubt, therefore, that, among other fancies, he was engaged in re making the brazen speaking head of Roger Bacon and Albertus."

"He then gave me a history of his studies, mentioned some men in London whom I happened to know, and who, he alleged, had assured him that they had made gold. That having, in consequence, examined the works of the ancient alchemists, and discovered the key which they had studiously concealed from the multitude, he had pursued their system under the influence of new lights; and, after suffering numerous disappointments, owing to the ambiguity with which they describe their processes, he had at length happily succeeded; had made gold, and could make as much more as he pleased, even to the extent of paying off the national debt in the coin of the realm."

"I yielded to the declaration, expressed my satisfaction at so extraordinary a discovery, and asked him to show me some of the precious metal which he had made."

"'Not so,' said he, 'I will show it to no one. I made Lord Liverpool the offer that, if he would introduce me to the King, I would show it to his Majesty; but Lord Liverpool insolently declined, on the ground that there was no precedent; and I am therefore determined that the secret shall die with me. It is true that, in order to avenge myself of such contempt, I made a communication to the French ambassador, Prince Polignac, and offered to go to France, and transfer to the French government the entire advantages of the discovery; but, after deluding me, and shuffling for some time, I found it necessary to treat him with the same contempt as the others. Every court in Europe,' he added, 'knows that I have made the discovery, and they are all in a confederacy against me; lest, by giving it to any one, I should make that country master of all the rest--the world, Sir,' he exclaimed with great emotion, 'is in my hands, and my power.'"

* * * * *

"I now inquired whether he had been alarmed by the ignorance of the people in the country, so as to shut himself up in this unusual manner?"

"'No,' he replied, 'not on their account wholly. They are ignorant and insolent enough; but it was to protect myself against the governments of Europe, who are determined to get possession of my secret by force. I have been,' he exclaimed, 'twice fired at through that window, and three times attempted to be poisoned. They believed I had written a book containing my secrets, and to get possession of this book has been their object. To baffle them, I burnt all that I had ever written; and I have so guarded the windows with spring-guns, and have such a collection of combustibles in the range of bottles which stand at your elbow, that I could destroy a whole regiment of soldiers if sent against me.' He then related that, as a further protection, he lived entirely in that room, and permitted no one to come into the house; while he had locked up every room except that with patent padlocks, and sealed the keyholes."

In a conversation of two or three hours with the narrator, Kellerman enlarged upon the merits of the ancient alchemists, and on the blunders and impertinent assumptions of modern chemists. He quoted Roger and Lord Bacon, Paracelsus, Boyle, Boerhaave, Woolfe, and others, to justify his pursuits. As to the term philosopher's stone, he alleged that it was a mere figure to deceive the vulgar. He appeared to give full credit to the silly story of Dee's assistant, Kelly, finding some of the powder of projection in the tomb of Roger Bacon, at Glastonbury, by means of which, as he said, Kelly for a length of time supported himself in princely splendour. Kellerman added, that he had discovered the blacker than black of Appolonius Tyanus: it was itself "the powder of projection for producing gold."

It further appeared he had lived in the premises at Lilley for twenty-three years, during fourteen of which he had pursued his alchemical studies with unremitting ardour; keeping eight assistants for the purpose of superintending his crucibles, two at a time, relieving each other every six hours: that he had exposed some preparations to intense heat for many months at a time, but that all except one crucible had burst--and that, Kellerman said, contained the true "blacker than black." One of his assistants, however, protested that no gold had ever been found, and that no mercury had ever been fixed, for he was quite sure Kellerman could not have concealed it from his assistants; while, on the contrary, they witnessed his severe disappointment at the result of his most elaborate experiments.

By the way, in the introduction to _Zanoni_, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton has given a clever sketch of an eccentric antiquarian bookseller, in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, who is said to have assembled "the most notable collection ever amassed by an enthusiast, of the works of alchemist, cabalist, and astrologer." The "vindictive glare and uneasy vigilance," and the frowning and groaning of the anti-bookseller (for it absolutely went to his heart when a customer entered his shop), are all very characteristic and life-like in this sketch. When free from such annoyance, he might be seen gloating over his musty, unsaleable treasures, on which he had, it was said, spent a fortune.

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CELEBRATED DIAMONDS.

We read marvellous records, (in modern books, too,) of the high prices realized for diamonds; but according to Dr. Ure, "it does not appear that any sum exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand pounds has ever been given for a diamond." This statement, made in the year 1820, has since received signal confirmation. On July 20, 1837, the Nassuck diamond was sold by auction in London, and realised only 7,200l., though it was estimated by the East India Company to be worth 30,000l. This diamond was among the spoils which were captured by the combined armies, under the command of the Marquis of Hastings, in the British conquest of India, and formed part of the "Deccan booty." This magnificent gem is as large as a good-sized walnut, weighs 357-1/2 grains, is of dazzling whiteness, and is as pure as a drop of dew. After the above sale, it was purchased by the Marquis of Westminster, who more than once wore it on the hilt of his court sword; it was presented by his lordship to the Marchioness of Westminster, on her birth-day, along with the Arcot diamond ear-rings, once belonging to Queen Charlotte, and disposed of at the above sale for 11,000l.

The Great Mogul's diamond, about the size of half a hen's egg, and the Pitt diamond, are well known. Among the crown jewels of Russia is a magnificent diamond, weighing 195 carats: it is the size of a small pigeon's egg, and was formerly the eye of a Brahminical idol, whence it was purloined by a French soldier; it passed through several hands, and was ultimately purchased by the Empress Catherine, for 90,000l. in ready money, and an annuity of 4,000l.

One of the largest diamonds in the world was found in the river Abaite, about 92 miles N. W. of the diamond district of Serro do Frio, in Brazil: it is of nearly an ounce in weight, and has been _estimated_ by Roma de l'Isle at the enormous sum of 300 millions. It is uncut; but the king of Portugal, to whom it belonged, had a hole bored through it, in order to wear it suspended about his neck on gala days. No sovereign possessed so fine a collection of diamonds as this prince.

In 1846, the Brazilian journals announced that a negro had found, in the diamond district of Bahia, a rough diamond weighing nearly an ounce. The approximative value was stated at 45,000l., but it was sold by the finder for 35l.

The most celebrated diamond of our times we, however, suspect to be that called "The Mountain of Light," (_Koh-i-noor_,) which belonged to Runjeet Sing, and now belongs to Queen Victoria. It was once valued at £3,000,000, is very brilliant, and without a flaw of any kind. Runjeet's string of pearls was, it is thought, if possible, even handsomer than the diamond; they were about three hundred in number, literally the size of small marbles, all picked pearls, and round, and perfect both in shape and colour. Two hours before he died, he sent for all his jewels, and gave the above diamond, said to be the largest in the world, to a Hindoo temple; his celebrated string of pearls to another; and his favourite fine horses, with all their jewelled trappings, worth 300,000l., to a third. "The Nizam's Diamond" is another wonderful gem: it was first seen in the hands of a native child in India, who was playing with it, ignorant of its value; and a considerable sum being offered for it, led to the discovery of its being a real diamond. In its rough state, it weighs 277 carats; and as the rough stones are usually taken to give but half of their weight when cut or polished, it would allow 138 carats.

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DR. DEE, THE NECROMANCER.

Dr. John Dee was a man who made a conspicuous figure in the 16th century. He was born in London in 1527: he was an eminent scholar and an indefatigable mathematician; when at Cambridge, he was mostly occupied eighteen hours out of the twenty-four in study. While here he superintended the exhibition of a Greek play of Aristophanes, among the machinery of which he introduced an artificial scarabæus, or beetle, which flew up to the palace of Jupiter with a man on his back, and a basket of provisions. The astonished spectators ascribed this feat to the arts of the magician; and Dee, annoyed by these suspicions, found it convenient to withdraw to the Continent.

Dee's principal study in early life lay in astrology; and accordingly, upon the accession of Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, her chief favourite, was sent to consult the doctor as to the aspect of the stars, that they might fix on an auspicious day for celebrating her coronation. Some years after, we find him again on the Continent; and in 1571, being taken ill at Louvaine, the queen sent over two physicians to attend him. Elizabeth afterwards visited him at his house at Mortlake, to view his collection of mathematical instruments and curiosities; and about this time employed him to defend her title to countries discovered in different parts of the globe. He says of himself, that he received the most advantageous offers from Charles V., Ferdinand, Maximilian II., and Rodolph, emperor of Germany; and from the czar of Muscovy an offer of 2000_l._ per annum, on condition that he would reside in his dominions. Had Dee gone no further than this, all would have been well; but he was ruined by his enthusiasm; he dreamed perpetually of the philosopher's stone, and was haunted with the belief of intercourse with spirits.

One day in November, 1582, he tells us that as he was at prayer, there appeared to him the angel Uriel at the west window of his museum, who gave him a translucent stone, or crystal, of a convex form, that presented apparitions, and even emitted sounds; so that the observer could hold conversations, ask questions, and receive answers from the figures he saw in this _mirror_.

With this speculum, black-stone, or show-stone, Dee used to "call his spirits," and Kelly, his associate, "did all his feats upon." Kelly, who acted as seer, reported what spirits he saw, and what they said; whilst Dee, who sat at a table, recorded the spiritual intelligence. A folio volume of their notes was published by Casaubon; and many more, containing the most unintelligible jargon, remain in MS. in the British Museum, together with the consecrated cakes of wax, marked with mathematical figures and hieroglyphics, used in their mummeries.

At length, Dee fell into disrepute; his chemical apparatus, and other stock in trade, were destroyed by the mob, who made an attack upon his house; but the mirror is stated to have been saved. It subsequently passed into the collection of the Mordaunts, Earls of Peterborough, in whose catalogue it is called _the black stone, into which Dr. Dee used to call his spirits_. From the Mordaunts it passed to Lady Elizabeth Germaine, and from her to John, Duke of Argyle, whose son, Lord Frederick Campbell, presented it to Horace Walpole; and on the breaking up of the collection at Strawberry Hill in 1842, this precious relic was sold: it was described in the catalogue as "a singularly interesting and curious relic of the superstition of our ancestors on the celebrated speculum of Kennel coal, highly polished, in a leathern case."

Bulwer, in his romance of _Zanoni_, introduces a mirror of this kind; and every tale of superstition has its magic glass. It is worth while to compare Dee's speculum with the celebrated ink mirror described in Lane's work on the _Modern Egyptians_; it may, at least, illustrate the curious inquiry upon coincident superstitions.

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VOYAGE OF MANUFACTURE.

The produce of our factories has preceded even our most enterprising travellers. Captain Clapperton saw at the court of the Sultan Bello, in the interior of Africa, pewter dishes with the London stamp, and had at the royal table a piece of meat served up on a white wash-hand basin of English manufacture. The cotton of India is conveyed by British ships round half our planet, to be woven by British skill in the factories of Lancashire. It is again set in motion by British capital, and transported to the very plains whereon it grew; and is repurchased by the lords of the soil which gave it birth, at a cheaper price than that at which their coarser machinery enables them to manufacture it themselves. At Calicut, (in the East Indies,) whence the cotton cloth called calico derives its name, the price of labour is a fraction of that in England, yet the market is supplied from British looms.

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SIR DAVID BREWSTER'S KALEIDOSCOPE.

The idea of this instrument, constructed for the purpose of creating and exhibiting a variety of beautiful and perfectly symmetrical forms, first occurred to Sir David Brewster in 1814, when he was engaged in experiments on the polarization of light, by successive reflections between plates of glass. The reflectors were, in some instances, inclined to each other; and he had occasion to remark the circular arrangement of the images of a candle round a centre, or the multiplication of the sectors formed by the extremities of the glass plates. In repeating, at a subsequent period, the experiments of M. Biot on the action of fluids upon light, Sir David Brewster placed the fluids in a trough, formed by two plates of glass, cemented together at an angle; and the eye being necessarily placed at one end, some of the cement, which had been pressed through between the plates, appeared to be arranged into a regular figure. The remarkable symmetry which it presented led to Dr. Brewster's investigation of the cause of this phenomenon; and in so doing, he discovered the leading principles of the kaleidoscope.

By the advice of his friends, Dr. Brewster took out a patent for his invention; in the specification of which he describes the kaleidoscope in two different forms. The instrument, however, having been shown to several opticians in London, became known before he could avail himself of his patent; and, being simple in principle, it was at once largely manufactured. It is calculated that not less than 200,000 kaleidoscopes were sold in three months in London and Paris; though, out of this number, Dr. Brewster says, not, perhaps, one thousand were constructed upon scientific principles, or were capable of giving anything like a correct idea of the power of his kaleidoscope.

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LORD ROSSE'S LEVIATHAN TELESCOPE.