_August 1852._
The great heat, which has been more talked about than anything else,
if it does not prove that the meteorologists, who predicted that this
summer was to bring a return of the warm cycle, were right in their
conclusions, at least coincides with their vaticinations. Not least
remarkable was the suddenness with which we plunged into it, as though
the cause which had produced a precisely similar effect in the United
States a month earlier, had slowly crossed the Atlantic for our
benefit.
It follows, when 'everybody' is going out of town, that the number of
those who stay behind to talk must be greatly diminished; and to see
that the things to be talked about undergo a collapse at this season,
it is only necessary to look at the newspapers. A new actor, or an
out-door place of amusement, is treated to a whole column of
criticism, whereas, at other times, they would be dismissed in a brief
paragraph. Penny-a-liners of lively imagination, find their reports
less subjected to curtailment. Emigration comes in for a considerable
share of notice, and the statements put forth of the numbers who sail
weekly for Australia and the 'Diggins,' must be taken as decided
evidence of a desire to better their condition on the part of a large
section of the population. It is easy to foresee that thousands will
be disappointed, if they are not made of that stuff which can brave
hardship, and triumph over the wild work of pioneer colonisation. Now
and then we see accounts of unsuspecting emigrants having been deluded
and robbed by a mock 'company,' whose ships are perhaps in the moon,
for they are never seen in terrestrial seas; but with so many
facilities as now exist for getting a passage in a straightforward,
business-like way, it is not easy to understand how it is that people
should persist in giving their money to swindlers. It would appear
that to some the _verbum sap._ never suffices. Means are not lacking
for putting the unwary on their guard, among which the conferences and
group-meetings held by the indefatigable Mrs Chisholm are especially
to be commended. At these meetings, those who desire to expatriate
themselves are informed of the most economical mode of effecting their
purpose, and counselled as to what they should do during the voyage.
Whatever be the result to those who go, there are indications that the
labour-market is bettered for those who stay; in connection with which
a noteworthy fact may be mentioned, which is, that in the southern,
western, and midland counties, scarcely an Irish labourer is to be
seen; and who is there that does not remember what troops of the
ragged peasantry used to come over for haymaking and the harvest?
The lovers of the picturesque, who are apt to become migratory at this
period of the year, will be glad to hear of Earl de Grey's
announcement to the Society of British Architects, that he has
repaired Fountains' Abbey--one of the beautiful ruins for which
Yorkshire is famous--without modernising its appearance or altering
its character. It is to be hoped that so praiseworthy an attempt to
preserve a relic of the olden time from decay will find many
imitators. Pilgrims will thank his lordship for many a generation to
come. And, to leave the past to the present; metropolitan promenaders
are about to have a cause of satisfaction, for the embankment of the
Thames from Vauxhall Bridge to Chelsea Gardens is at last to be
commenced; and London will cease to be the only capital in Europe
which cannot obtain a view of its river. If the authorities could be
persuaded to extend this beneficial work through the whole length of
the city, what popularity would be theirs!
An official notice from the Post-office states, that from the first of
the present month London is to be placed on the same footing, with
respect to letters, as the rest of the country--that is, they must
either be stamped before being posted, or sent unpaid. This is a
measure which will materially diminish the labour of keeping accounts
at the central office; and the more that labour is saved, the more
will there be left to facilitate postal communication. Books and
periodicals can now be sent to most of our colonies at the rate of a
shilling a pound--a fact which those who have hitherto sent their
parcels at any one's trouble and expense but their own, will do well
to bear in mind. Ocean Penny Postage is growing into favour, and is
talked about in such a way as to shew that the project will not be
left to take care of itself.
The French are going to send a new Scientific Exploring Expedition to
South America, chiefly for researches in Brazil and Paraguay. Perhaps
the veteran Bonpland, who was so long detained by the dictator
Francia, may be induced to come home in it, as he has written to
express his desire of returning to France. And something has been said
at Washington, about sending a couple of frigates to survey the great
river Amazon, in which, as the official document states, there is a
sufficient depth of water to float a large ship at the foot of the
Andes, 1500 miles from the sea. America will surely be well known some
day. Meanwhile, we are extending our knowledge of Africa; a map of
that country is about to be published, comprising the whole region
from the equator to 19 degrees of south latitude. In this the recent
discoveries will be laid down, and we shall see Mr Galton's route of
1600 miles from Walfish Bay to Odonga, near a large river named the
Nourse, and to the country of the Ovampo, described as an intelligent
tribe of natives. We shall find also, that the snow-peaked mountains
seen by the German missionaries, and considered to be the source of
the White Nile, are not more than about 300 miles distant from the
eastern coast; and it is said that no more promising enterprise could
be undertaken, than an attempt to ascend and explore them, starting
from Mombas. Barth and Overweg were at the eastern end of Lake Tchad
when last heard from; and we are told that the slave-traders, finding
their occupation decreasing on the western coast, have lately, for the
first time, penetrated to the interior, and tempted many of the
natives to sell their children for showy European goods. Lieutenant
Macleod, of the Royal Navy, proposes to ascend the Niger in a
steam-launch, and when up the country, to cross over to, and descend
the Gambia, with a view to discover new sources of trade; and Mr
Macgregor Laird is still ready to carry a vessel up any river of the
western coast to which government may please to send him. Besides the
travellers mentioned, there are others pushing their way in different
parts of the south; and the French are not idle in the north--they
have added to our information concerning Abyssinia, and the countries
bordering on the Great Desert. But in addition to African geography,
all these explorations have added to our knowledge of African geology.
A vast portion of the interior is supposed to have been an inland sea,
of which Ngami and other lakes are the remains; fossil bones of most
peculiar character have been found, but only of terrestrial and
fresh-water animals. A name is already given to a creature of a remote
secondary period; Professor Owen, from the examination of a few
relics, pronounces it to be a _Dicynodon_. According to Sir B.
Murchison, such have been the main features of Africa during countless
ages; 'for the old rocks which form her outer fringe, unquestionably
circled round an interior marshy or lacustrine country, in which the
dicynodon flourished at a time when not a single animal was similar to
any living thing which now inhabits the surface of our globe. The
present central and meridian zone of waters, whether lakes, rivers, or
marshes, extending from Lake Tchad to Lake Ngami, with hippopotami on
their banks, are, therefore, but the great modern, residual,
geographical phenomena of those of a mesozoic age.'
The publication of special scientific works is going on under the
auspices of different European governments. The Batavian Society of
Rotterdam have just issued an elaborate illustrated Report on the best
method of improving permanently the estuary of Goedereede--a question
of considerable moment to the merchants of Rotterdam. The French
government have had a new fount of Ethiopic types cast, to enable M.
d'Abbadie to prepare a catalogue of African manuscripts. And our
Secretary of State for the Home Department has presented various
libraries and public institutions with two portly folios, entitled
_Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniæ, or the Establishments of Ireland,
from the Nineteenth of King Stephen to the Seventh of George IV._,
which we may accept as an addition to the _Memorials of History_,
commenced two or three years since. Then, as a private enterprise, we
have a scheme for a new edition of Shakspeare, in twenty volumes
folio, which is to be completed in six years, with all that can be
required in the way of illustration, be it archæological,
philological, historical, or exegetical. Mr Halliwell is to be the
editor; and it is said that not more than 150 copies will be printed.
Another birth for the spirit of the dust that lies in the tomb at
Stratford.
Research is as active as ever in France. M. Bernard, who is well known
as a physiologist and anatomist, after a careful study of the salivary
glands, finds that each of the three, common to nearly all animals,
furnishes a different secretion. The saliva from the sublingual gland
is viscous and sticky, fit to moisten the surface of substances, but
not to penetrate them, giving them a coat which facilitates their
being swallowed. That from the parotid gland, on the contrary, is thin
and watery, easily penetrates substances taken into the mouth, and
thereby favours their assimilation; while the saliva from the
submaxillary gland is of a nature between these two. These facts were
verified by soaking portions of the membrane in water, as well as by
experiments on the living subject; the liquid in which they were
soaked presented the same character as that of the secretions.
The varying of the parotid secretion with the nature of the food
taken, is considered by M. Bernard to be a proof that this secretion
is especially intended to favour mastication. A horse kept on
perfectly dry food gives out a far greater quantity than when the food
is moistened. Experiments on the dog and rabbit supplied similar
results; and, extraordinary as it may appear, the gland will secrete
saliva in the course of an hour weighing eight or ten times as much as
its own tissue. A striking example this of the rapidity with which
saliva can be separated from the blood under certain circumstances,
and of the fallacy of founding conclusions on the quantity secreted
within the twenty-four hours.
The sublingual gland is inert during mastication, and only begins to
act as swallowing commences, when it envelops or lubricates the chewed
substance with a fluid that assists its passage to the stomach. The
function of the submaxillary has much to do with taste; the fluid
which it pours out dilutes and diminishes the pungent flavour of sapid
substances, and at the same time weakens the energy of their contact.
The three organs are identical in texture, though so different in
their secretions; 'each gland,' as M. Bernard says, 'having a special
act, its function is exercised under separate and independent
influences. Notwithstanding their discharging into and mixing in the
mouth, their use remains distinct,' as above stated. To complete this
brief summary of an interesting subject, it may be added, that birds
and reptiles have but one kind of saliva, answering to the viscous in
mammalia.
M. Vogt, in a communication to the Académie, adds to the proofs that
what is called the spontaneous generation of certain worms, is due to
natural causes. For instance, a worm, which has no reproductive
organs, is often found in the body of the stickle-back; this worm,
however, is known to breed, but it does so only when the stickle-back
happens to be eaten by a bird; the worm is then placed in the proper
condition for development, 'for it is then only that its segments
become filled with eggs, which, egested by the bird, pass into the
bodies of other fishes;' in a way more in accordance with natural
operations than spontaneous generation.
Again, of two kinds of worms which infest human beings, the
_Bothriocephalus_ is found among the Poles, Swiss, and Dutch, while
the _Tenia_, or tape-worm, is common among the French and Germans. If,
however, the latter reside in Switzerland, they also become infested
with the first-named worm, the reason given being, that in Switzerland
liquid _excretæ_ from cesspools are largely used for manuring
vegetables, and that, in the eating of these vegetables, the eggs of
the worms are taken into the body, and become hatched by means of the
intestinal warmth. These investigations, which are to be continued,
are important, seeing that they have a bearing on the phenomena of
health and disease.
There are some curious facts, too, concerning oysters. M. Dureau de la
Malle states, that 100,000,000 of these bivalves are collected
annually from a bank off the port of Granville; and that, by a proper
course of feeding, white oysters have been converted into a much
esteemed green sort, which sell at a high price. And further, a
physician at Morlaix has succeeded in crossing a big, tough species
with one that is small and delicate, and has obtained 'hybrids of
large size and of an excellent quality.'
M. Verdeil informs the Académie, that he has proved the chlorophyll,
or resinous green colouring-matter of plants, to be 'a mixture of a
perfectly colourless fat, capable of crystallising, and of a colouring
principle which presents the greatest analogies with the red colouring
principle of the blood, but which has never yet been obtained in a
perfectly pure state.' He has isolated a quantity for experiment and
examination by a chemical process, and has added another fact to the
list of those which shew a relation between animal and vegetable
functions. It has been known for some time, that certain functions of
the liver are similar to those of certain plants.
M. Marcel de Serres shews, that marine petrifactions are not
necessarily of ancient date, for they are formed at the present day in
existing seas; that shells are now being petrified in the
Mediterranean. All that is required for the result, is the presence of
certain calcareous salts in the water; repose even is not essential,
for the process goes on below, though the surface may be stormy. These
petrifactions are not, as some suppose, to be regarded as fossils, the
latter designation belonging only to 'those organic remains which are
found in geological deposits.'
Apropos of the burning of the _Amazon_: M. Dujardin relates, that a
fire broke out a short time since in a spinning-mill at Douai. It
penetrated to the carding-room; destruction seemed inevitable, and the
engines were sent for, when it was proposed to fill the blazing room
with steam. A steam tube traversed the apartment; it was broken by a
stroke with an axe, the steam rushed out, 'and in a few minutes the
conflagration was extinguished as if by enchantment.'
Attempts are still being made towards aërial navigation. M. Prosper
Meller, of Bordeaux, proposes to construct an aërial locomotive 200
mètres in length, 62 wide, and 60 high, the form to be cylindrical,
with cone-shaped ends, as best adapted for speed. The outer case is to
be varnished leather, which is to be filled with gas, and to contain
five spherical balloons. A net, which covers the whole, is to support
sixteen helices by ropes, eight on each side; and to these two
galleries are to be attached, one for the machinery, the other for
passengers. The affair looks well on paper; but there is little risk
in saying, that the days of flying machines are not yet come, neither
is the scheme for aërial railways--a series of cables stretched from
one high building to another--to be regarded as any more promising.