made a better man of him. It gave him firmer faith in his friends. It manifested what there was in him that it was possible for them to love. It made him happy and humble. He knew that those about him did not see all; but he strove ever after to be true to that gracious vision of himself.

IT is a pitiable thing for a man to base his idea of himself on a chance likeness to some famous person. I wonder how many lives have been wrecked on the rock of a personal resemblance to Edwin Booth. A fine young fellow from New York, who had "frequently been mistaken for Mr. Booth," made his début in Ourtown, a few years ago, in the character of Hamlet. Having heard something about him, I called upon him at the hotel during the afternoon preceding the first performance. His enthusiasm was beautiful. He had never rehearsed upon a stage, but he had gone through the play over and over again in his own room, using the chairs to represent Ophelia, Horatio, and the rest. He knew it was a bold venture, but he hadn't the slightest fear, he said.

Ghost of Shakespeare, what a Hamlet it was! I could not blame the gallery for insisting upon regarding the entertainment throughout as light comedy. The tragedy lay too deep for their ken.

Another Booth-bedeviled youth used to haunt in melancholy attitudes the corridors of the Winter Garden while his illustrious double was playing Hamlet there. After the tragedian cut his hair, and developed into a prosperous and cheerful-faced manager, the fellow must have looked more like Booth than Booth did himself.

Perhaps you have reason to remember that amiable young man, not unknown in this neighborhood, who was distracted from a useful and honorable career, by an unfortunate resemblance to the Chandos portrait. Ah me! there was an excellent-let me say tailor ruined to make a villainous poet. The last time I saw him was at the unvailing of Ward's wonderful statue at the Central Park. His hat was pushed back from his forehead, and (after he had run his fingers casually through his hair once or twice) the likeness to that noble bronze head was really remarkable. But I had a great pity for the young lady who was sitting by him, and to whom they say he is engaged.

A frightful example of the evil that may be wrought by personal resemblance, such as we have been noticing, is furnished by that ancient wandering mountebank whose indubitable likeness to most of the extant portraits of the Father of his Country leads the beholder to acknowledge a certain fitness in his anachronistic attire,-knee-breeches, cocked hat, canary

colored waistcoat, and all,—and to look with charity upon the assumption of the easily-suggested title'Spirit of '76.' But it is when the hoary-headed rogue adds to this patriotic cognomen that of the 'Great Matrimonial Promoter,' vends cheap photographs at excellent profits, and with his little electrical apparatus pretends to work miracles upon the human system, adding the beguilement of a 'free grab in the bag,' that you discover the Spirit of '72, and wonder how many of the old sinner's lies are to be laid at the door of his immaculate prototype.

It is fortunate that there are some who can master the illusions of resemblance. There is my friend Brown, the well-known publisher; notwithstanding he is constantly bowed to on Broadway and in the Park, under the supposition that it is none other than a certain illustrious statesman who shall be nameless, he steadfastly declines to consider himself a great man, and has gone no farther into politics than to allow his name to be used in a respectable list of forty vicepresidents at a late political demonstration.' An obscure Shakespeare of whom we wot, has never permitted himself so much as a sonnet, and to-day is making excellent cheese in a Western State; and a village Booth, of the genuine type, had the manliness to spoil the likeness by raising a moustache and entering upon the scientific cultivation of vegetables and small-fruits.

I SHOULD sincerely like to be famous, if it we only for a fortnight. I am sure that fame would not spoil me a bit. I would carry myself so unpretendingly, and with such thought for others, that men would say -behold the gentleness and simplicity of true greatness!

I do not think that famous men live up to their privileges. Remember how much pleasure they have it in their power to confer, to the sure enhancement of their own happiness. We do hear of Washington's occasionally taking Revolutionary babies into his lap, or patting small boys on the head; and I could name a noted person, still living, who makes a point of giving large apples to little children. But-in the matter of autographs for instance-how common it is to send nothing but one's name: how few of our great men preface even so little as Faithfully yours; and there is hardly one in a score who will copy a passage from his celebrated poem, or throw in a characteristic impromptu phrase.

Some of our rich men, by the way, do not get all the credit to which they are entitled. It strikes me as requiring no little heroism to refuse to take advantage of so many opportunities for making one's self happy by doing good to other people.

they make a gargle which soothes the toothache. White coral is very like teeth, therefore it helpeth infants to breed their teeth, their gums being rubbed therewith."

The Theory of Fermentation.

Is fermentation a process of Life or of Death? Liebig holds that it is a phenomenon connected with death, and that all substances, and especially those which are albuminoid, as albumen, fibrin, casein; or, liquids, as blood and milk, have the property in the presence of air of initiating such movements in the molecules of organic bodies as to cause them to take on new forms. According to Pasteur all fermentations are processes connected with life, and fermentable matter never undergoes fermentation without an incessant interchange of molecules between it and living cells, which grow or multiply in assimilating a portion of the fermentable matter itself.

In the souring of wine, M. Pasteur holds that a growth which he calls Mycoderma Aceti forms on the surface of the liquid. This little microscopic vege. table, he says, has the power of condensing the oxygen of the air after the fashion of platinum black, or of blood globules, and conveying it to the liquid on which it rests. Liebig denies this, saying that alcohol diluted with water does not contain the elements for the formation of the Mycoderma Aceti, and yet it is convertible into vinegar. Pasteur replies that the water used to dilute the alcohol contains everything necessary for the development of the vegetable, and reasserts the truth of his theory, adding that if the vessels in which acetification of alcoholic solutions occurs (as in wine and beer making) are steamed or filled with boiling water for a sufficient time, vinegar will not again form; at least not until a new crop of Mycoderma Aceti has been produced.

Aphasia.

THIS disease of the memory or impairment of the idea or power of expressing language may be illustrated by the following instances. A gentleman of seventy years, when wishing for anything, constantly employed some inappropriate word. If he desired bread, he asked for his boots, yet would be furious when these were brought. If he wished a tumbler to drink from, he would call for an utterly unsuitable vessel, and vice versa. Yet he was conscious that he used the wrong word, for if another person suggested the proper word he at once adopted it. Sometimes the substitution is applied to a single letter. An instance of this occurred in a learned patient of Dr. Crichton's who substituted the letter z for f, and, if he desired (Kaffee) or coffee, asked for (Katze) a cat. A singular case was that of Madame Hennert, who asked for a table when she wanted a chair, and for a book when she desired a glass, and even when the proper word was suggested she could not pronounce it, yet she conducted her household affairs with accuracy and regularity.

Not only does the defect in question affect the VOL. IV.-32

power of speech, but it also extends to the act of writing. The person may articulate fluently and rapidly, using strange words that he has coined, or substituting unsuitable words. He may even know that he is talking nonsense, yet when he attempts to express his ideas by writing he will either write his words in conformation to his use of them or he will write an unintelligible scrawl.

Among other odd examples of this defect is one related by Professor Hammond, in which the person always made the answer tois to any question implying the use of figures, though he would correct himself by holding up the right number of fingers. For example, if he meant two, he would say tois and hold up two fingers; if he meant seven, he would say tois and hold up seven fingers; if he meant eighty-four, he would say tois, hold up eight fingers and then four. Another gentleman could not recollect the names of his friends, but always designated them by their ages.

Human Equality.

PERHAPS of all the erroneous notions concerning mind which the science of metaphysics has engendered or abetted, there is none more fallacious than that which tacitly assumes or explicitly declares that men are born with equal original mental capacity, opportunities and educations determining the differences of subsequent development. The opinion is as cruel as it is false. What man can by taking thought add one cubit either to his mental or to his bodily stature? Multitudes of human beings come into the world weighted with a destiny against which they have neither the will nor the power to contend; they are the step-children of Nature, and groan under the worst of all tyrannies, the tyranny of a bad organization. Men differ, indeed, in the fundamental characters of their minds as they do in the features of their countenances or in the habits of their bodies; and between those who are born with the potentiality of a full and complete mental development, under favorable circumstances, and those who are born with an innate incapacity of mental development, under any circumstances, there exists every gradation. What teaching could ever raise the congenital idiot to the common. level of human intelligence? What teaching could ever keep the inspired mind of the man of genius at that level?

Photographing the Heart's Action.

THE movements of liquids in the Barometer and Thermometer, the passage of spots across the Sun, the indications of the Spectroscope, are registered daily by the photograph. We now add to the many other duties performed by this hand-maiden of Science, that of registering the action of the human heart.

The device by which this result is attained is the invention of Dr. Ozanam. It consists of a thin indiarubber bag to which a short glass tube is attached. Sufficient mercury is poured into the apparatus to fill the bag and a portion of the tube, and the instrument

is placed over the heart of the person to be examined. Thus arranged, every pulsation of the heart is indicated by a corresponding movement of the mercury in the tube, and by suitable photographic apparatus, provided with a moving sensitive slip of paper, a perfect registration of the extent and rate of the pulsations is obtained.

As an earnest of the discoveries this ingenious device is to yield, we are told that the photographic image thus obtained shows "that the column of mercury (representing, of course, the blood in the arteries) bounded with one leap to the top of the scale, and then descended again to its original level by three or four successive falls. Four descriptions of dicrotism have in this way been proved to exist, the fall of the pulse sometimes taking place in successive horizontal lines and sometimes in ascendant lines, the column reascending two or three times before falling altogether."

The Earth of Tantah.

TANTAH is a village on the delta of the Nile where for ages the inhabitants have constructed their dwellings out of the mud or ooze brought down by the river. As these mud huts have succumbed to the attacks of time, new habitations have been constructed on the débris of those that have fallen, until at last each hut is mounted on the apex of a small mound formed out of many generations of huts. The occupants of these primitive edifices have from time immemorial been the family of the builder, together with the cows, asses, and other animals that ministered to his wants. Living together thus in the closest communion, and differing but little in relative position in the scale of animality, all the occupants have discharged their excreta on the floor of the habitation until the earth composing it has become exceedingly rich in organic matter and highly valued as a fertilizer.

This fertilizing earth has been recently analyzed by Auguste Houzeau, who finds that though the earth at the surface contains almost precisely the same amount of nitrogen as that taken at a depth of many feet, they differ essentially in that the nitrogen is all in the form of nitrate of ammonia in the latter, while in the former it is in the condition of uric acid, urea, and similar organic substances. The organic matters have, therefore, in the slow lapse of time, been converted into nitric acid and ammonia by the agency of the air acting through a suitable medium; and though we may despise the lowly Egyptian and abhor the manner in which he lives, we must nevertheless give him credit for utilitarianism, since he has discovered the greater fertilizing power of the older deposits, and will never employ the new if he can obtain the old earth of Tantah.

Tea Drunkards.

DR. ARLIDGE, one of the Pottery Inspectors in Staffordshire, has put forth a sensible protest against a very pernicious custom which rarely receives sufficient attention either from the medical profession or from

the public. He says that the women of the working classes make tea a principal article of diet instead of an occasional beverage; they drink it several times a day, and the result is a lamentable amount of sickness. This is no doubt the case, and, as Dr. Arlidge remarks, a portion of the reforming zeal which keeps up such a lively warfare against intoxicating drinks might advantageously be diverted to the repression of this very serious evil of tea-tippling among the poorer classes. Tea in anything beyond moderate quantities is as dis tinctly a narcotic poison as is opium or alcohol. It is capable of ruining the digestion, of enfeebling and disordering the heart's action, and of generally shattering the nerves.

Comets and their Tails.

IN discussing these erratic bodies Professor Zöllner starts with the fact that fluids as water, mercury, and solids of nearly all kinds, give off vapor of low tension, though in too small a quantity to be recognized by any tests with which we are at present acquainted. It therefore follows that the masses of matter scattered throughout space are ultimately surrounded with an atmosphere of their own vapor. If the volume of such masses is too small to exert sufficient attractive force to retain this vapor, the whole mass ultimately assumes the vaporous state. Professor Zöllner thinks that many of the small comets are such masses of vapor, while others are fluid, consisting of water or perhaps of liquid hydrocarbons, an idea which is fortified by the character of the spectra of certain nebule as well as of some of the smaller comets.

Regarding the self-luminosity of comets and the formation of their trains, Professor Zöllner says, there are but two causes which can produce the first of these results, viz., elevation of temperature and electric ac tion. Setting the first aside as being utterly inadequate under the circumstances, the author thinks that the electricity developed by the solar rays, either in the process of evaporation or by the mechanical and molecular disturbances they produce, is amply sufficient to cause the luminosity and also to form the train. The explanation here given of the formation of the tails or trains of comets is exceedingly ingenious, for it not only applies in those instances in which the train is directed from the sun, acting under these circumstances by repulsion, but it also accounts for the fact that in some instances the tail is directed toward the sun, there being under these circumstances electrical attraction instead of repulsion.

Memoranda.

CONCERNING American asphaltum, Professor J. S. Newberry says: All my observations on asphalts have resulted in the conviction that, without exception, they are more or less perfectly solidified residual products of the spontaneous evaporation of petroleum. In many instances the process of the formation of asphalt may be witnessed as it takes place in nature, and in our oil-stills we are constantly producing varie

ties of asphalt. These are, in some instances, indistinguishable from the natural ones, and in general differ from them only because our rapid artificial distillation at a high temperature differs from the similar but far slower distillation that takes place spontaneously at a low temperature.

M.

The plague of flies at present raging in Paris, and which has been attributed by some to the great num. ber of bodies of animals and men that remained for long unburied during the siege, is now the subject of discussion among the French entomologists. Blanchard, of the Academy of Sciences, says they are vegetable and not animal feeders, and thinks their enormous increase is owing to the destruction during the siege of the birds that formerly fed on them and their eggs.

The salts of platinum and iridium furnish an indelible ink for writing or designing on paper, wood, or other similar surfaces, when used as follows: The writing or design, having been executed by a pen, is submitted to the action of vapor of mercury, which throws the metal into a state in which it resists all chemical agents except a few which would also destroy the organic surface on which the writing or design is executed. (A. Merget.)

The oxygen light of Tessie du Motay, which has been for some time past in operation upon some of the principal boulevards of Paris, has been found unsatisfactory in several particulars, and we are informed that the lights have been removed. In addition to the use of burning gas with oxygen, this process requires the introduction of a super-carburetting apparatus. It would seem that practical difficulties other than the cheap preparation of oxygen gas must be overcome before an oxygen light can be made successful.-(Journal of the Franklin Institute.)

The sweet exudation that appears on the leaves of the alder, maple, rose, and some other trees, has been examined by M. Boussingault, who finds that it is composed of about 55 per cent. of cane sugar, 25 of inverted sugar, and 20 of dextrine. In the healthy state the sugars elaborated by the leaves of these trees, under the influence of light and warmth, pass into the tissues of the plant by the descending sap, but in certain diseased conditions these saccharine products accumulate on the upper surface of the leaves, either because they are produced in excessive quantity, or because the movement of the sap is hindered by the presence of an excess of dextrine. This diseased state, M. Boussingault thinks, is not the result solely of meteorological conditions, though they exert a certain influence; neither is it produced by the puncture of the leaves by insects, since the most careful watching failed to detect their presence until after the exudation had commenced.

A gunpowder pile-driver has been used in the construction of a new wharf at League Island. From the account of its performances it appears to have

given perfect satisfaction. It is constructed in such a manner as to utilize both the projectile force and recoil.

A new and powerful thermo-electric battery has been invented by Noë, of Vienna. The alloys used are as yet kept secret. It is stated that ten of the elements of this battery are equal to one Daniell cell, and twenty equal one Bunsen cell. Seventy-two elements arranged for intensity decompose water rapidly, two series of thirty-six each operate a Ruhm. korff coil, and four series of eighteen produce pow. erful electro-magnets. If all that is said of it be true, we have at last arrived at the time when electricity may be turned on like steam, water, gas, or any other agent in common use.

A remarkable instance of tolerance by the human system of the excessive use of tobacco is afforded in the case of Mr. Klaës, of Rotterdam. This gentleman, who was known as the "King of Smokers," has just died in his eightieth year, and is said to have consumed during his long life more than four tons of tobacco. The ruling passion was apparent in the will of the deceased, and in his eccentric request that his oak coffin might be lined with the cedar of his old cigar-boxes, and that a box of French corporal and a package of old Dutch tobacco might be placed at its foot, and by the side of his body his favorite pipe, together with matches, flint and steel, and tinder.— (Lancet.)

Old iron ships are patched up with cements and thus made to appear as good as new, but fortunate is the voyager who lands safely from such a vessel when she is heavily laden.

A new mill has been invented by Mr. T. Carr of Bristol, England, for pulverizing various substances. It consists of a cylindrical iron box provided with a rotating axis to which projecting radii are attached. The material to be pulverized is dropped through the box, and in its transit, being frequently struck by these rapidly moving radii, it is broken into fine fragments or

powder just as a mass of dry earth is broken when we

toss it into the air and strike it with a stick as it falls.

The

Clays, ores, and various minerals are by this means pulverized to any required degree of fineness. machine has also been adapted to the manufacture of flour, which, is said to be superior to ordinary flour in that it is not "killed" by the squeezing and pressure to which it is submitted in an ordinary mill.

Lithofracteur is an improved form of dynamite in which the latter is mixed in certain proportions with other explosives, the character of which is not yet known.

At a recent meeting of the Anthropological Institute in London, Mr. J. Bononi exhibited and described a new instrument for measuring the proportions of the human body. The instrument is said to be specially applicable to the identification of criminals.