watch was disposed of in one part of the pile, the glass of the same watch in another, and the works in still another; an old purse, containing some silver, matches and tobacco; nearly all the small tools from the tool-closets, among them several large augers. "The ingenuity and skill displayed in the construction of this nest, and the curious taste for articles of iron, many of them heavy, struck me with surprise. The articles of value were, I think, stolen from the men who had broken into the house for temporary lodging, I have preserved a sketch of this iron-clad nest, which I think is unique in natural history." The Contact Theory of Electricity. In discussing the recently reviewed contact theory of Volta in the explanation of the origin of voltaic electricity, Mr. J. A. Fleming says: How does this fit in with those cases of electro-chemical inversions noticed by De la Rive, where the direction of the current in a cell is reversed by simply diluting the electrolyte? Thus zinc is negative to tin in strong nitric acid, and mercury negative to lead; but in weak nitric acid the positions are reversed. Hence, if couples be formed of these metals in strong nitric acid, and the acid be gradually diluted, the current first ceases and then is reversed in direction. Here, without altering the metallic junctions, we can at pleasure alter the direction of the current. Or we may again change the conditions, and notice that it is not sufficient to have merely two different metals and an electrolyte to form a cell. If plates of pure gold and platinum be placed in nitric acid, the most delicate galvanometer detects no current, and the same for many other pairs of metals and electrolytes. Here we have contact of different metals producing its difference, yet no current flows round "decomposing the electrolyte," as, according to the contact theory, it should do; but the instant we give play to chemical combination, the ordinary results ensue. If the extremities of the copper wires from a galvanometer be attached to iron plates, and these plunged into separate cups of dilute nitric acid, on making connection between the two cups by a bent iron plate dipping into each, no current is detected. On making one limb of the connecting plate passive and re-immersing, a strong current is visible, and we find that we have the direction of the current completely under command by making any of the four plates more or less acted on than the other three. If these experiments are to have any importance attached to them, it can scarcely.be doubted that they land us in conclusions similar to the others, namely, that we must look for the principal source of the electrical disturbance at that place where the greatest chemical activity is being brought into play. Cultivation of Pearls. THE "Messenger de Taïti," a paper published by the administration of the French settlements in Oceanica, gives an interesting account, by Lieutenant Mariat, of the culture of the pearl-bearing oyster on these shores. The choice of a locality appears to be the first consideration, one where there is a gentle current being preferable. A sandy bottom kills oysters; a stony one is better, but on it they develop slowly. A gravelly bottom is also good, but is subject to the same objection as the stony. The best that can be chosen is a bottom of living, branching corallines. On this they thrive; and if one cannot be found, it must be made artificially. Little bits of coral must be scattered over the place chosen, or, better still, little coral rocks, which fasten at once to the ground. The coral must not be left more than an hour out of the water, or it will be killed. It is to be surrounded by a wall of dry stones, and the young oysters distributed in compartments, their mouths turned upwards in the direction of the current, packed side by side, like books on a shelf. At the end of a year the oyster will have attained the size of a small plate, after which it will not increase in bulk but in weight. Three years suffice to produce good mother o' pearl. When the oyster has produced its young, it abandons them to the stream. They fix themselves to the sides of the stone walls. Care must be taken to protect them, as the corallines, so favorable to the development of the oyster, are most destructive to the young. The Blackness of the Firmament. THE balloon ascent of MM. Croce Spinelli and Sivel has yielded many facts of interest. Among these we may mention the following: The elevation reached was 7,800 meters. They found that the temperature steadily diminished, except when passing through clouds, and finally reached 22° C. At 4,500 meters, crystals of ice were visible floating between them and glistening in the sunshine. The lines in the solar spectrum, indicating the presence of vapor of water, disappeared when they reached the greatest altitude, thus proving that this vapor belongs to our atmosphere, and not to the sun. At 5,000 meters, sensations of discomfort were removed by the respiration of a mixture of forty parts of oxygen and sixty of nitrogen. At 6,000 meters the oxygen was increased seventy-five per cent., and in each instance the physical and mental weakness was restored, and the sky, which, previously to the inhalation, was of a dark hue, again became blue. M. Croce Spinelli has thus removed an old error, and has demonstrated that the blackness of the firmament observed at great heights is due solely to the effects of fatigue on the nervous system. Reflection of Sound by Flames. IN connection with Professor Tyndall's recent experiments on the reflection of sound by strata in the air, we may recall those made not long since by Mr. Cottrell on the division of sound by a layer of flame or heated gas into a reflected and transmitted portion. A vibrating bell, contained in a padded box, was directed so as to propogate a sound-wave through a tin tube, and its action rendered manifest by its causing a sensitive flame, placed at a distance in the direction of the sound-wave, to become violently agitated. The invisible heated layer immediately above the luminous portion of an ignited coal-gas flame, issuing from an ordinary bat's-wing burner, was allowed to stream upward across the end of the tin tube from which the sound-wave issued. A portion of the sound-wave from the latter was at once reflected at the limiting surfaces of the heated layer, only so small a portion passing through the flame as scarcely to agitate the sensitive flame. The bat's-wing burner was then placed in such a position that the heated layer formed an angle that sent the reflected portion of the sound-wave into a second tin tube, with a sensitive flame at its extremity. This was at once violently agitated whenever the flame of the reflecting layer formed a proper angle, and again became quiescent when the angle of the reflecting flame was changed. enon. The Transit of Venus. MR. GEORGE FORBES thus describes this phenomThe first evidence is the appearance of a slight notch in the contour of the sun's edge at a certain spot. This notch increases until the full form of the planet is seen. The first appearance of the notch is called the time of first external contact. But when the planet appears to be wholly on the sun, her black figure is still connected with the sun's limb by a sort of black ligament. When the whole of the planet is just inside the sun's edge, the time of first internal contact has arrived. The breaking of the ligament is a very definite occurrence, and was, until lately, taken to indicate the true moment of internal contact. The second internal and external contacts take place just as the planet leaves the sun. Memoranda. THE Dutch papers warn the public that the curious-looking nuts imported from Acheen are poisonous. These nuts have a fancied resemblance to the head of an ape, and are extensively sold as playthings for children. E. Reichardt proposes the use of the microscope in the determination of the quality of drinking water. For this purpose a few drops of the water are evaporated on a slip of glass, and the forms of the crystal obtained compared with those of known salts dissolved in water, and re-crystallized in the same manner. In this way one can detect with dispatch and certainty common salt, calc-spar, gypsum, niter, &c., and to a certain extent the relative quantities present. 759 It is an admitted fact, which physiologists may explain if they can, that women, whatever else they may be, are not inventive in the broadly scientific sense of the word. On this account we record with satisfaction the announcement that reaches us from San Francisco, of a lady of that city who has invented a new kind of needle, which has the ad, vantage of admitting of the insertion of a finer thread than ordinary needles, and making a proportionally smaller hole in the process of sewing. [“ Academy.”] According to H. Vogel, the colors of the solar spectrum differ as regards the intensity of their chemical action at various times. These variations he attributes to the action of the moisture in the air. A nugget of gold weighing 200 kilogrammes, and valued at 600,000 francs, was recently sent to Paris by one of the companies working the mines discovered a few years ago in the French colony of Guayana. It is now proposed to divert the waters of the river Oyapoch and its affluents from their present beds to obtain the gold contained therein. Another instance is reported in which a fertilizer, consisting of superphosphate, to which ammonium salts were added, proved injurious to the crop. The manure was found to contain sulphocyanide of ammonium. Herr August Kundt states that gutta-percha and; caoutchouc become dichroic by stretching, and exhibit a dark brown tint in one direction, and a straw yellow one in another. Aniline red is now employed to give a fresh appearance to sausages. It can easily be detected by a little alcohol or ether, either of which dissolves aniline, but not blood. Not only is aniline itself injurious, but from its method of preparation it not infrequently contains arsenic. coffee plant is A disease of the leaves of the troubling the planters of Ceylon. It is a fungus like a miniature mushroom that attaches itself to the under side of the leaf, and causes it to wither and die. Signor Eugenio Morpurgo has recently published, at Venice, a monograph on paper-making. In this it appears that the United States consumes more paper than England and France united. The average consumption is 17 lbs per capita. In RusItaly, 31⁄2 lbs; in France, 7 lbs; in Germany, 8 lbs sia, it is I lb; in Spain, 11⁄2 lbs; in Austria and and in England, 111⁄2 lbs. Dresden papers report seventeen experiments in which lamb's blood has been infused successfully into the human subject. In the case of a patient who had for long suffered from pulmonary disease, the immediate effect was to raise the pulse and impart a sense of greater strength. Dr. Peez writes that the ancients, in the time of Strabo, were obliged to combat the inroads of the Phylloxera on their vines. M. Raboteau states that, while the salts of thallium are not more poisonous than lead salts, they act more rapidly on account of their greater diffusibility. A new drug from Brazil has appeared in France. It is called Jaborandi and is a powerful diaphoretic. Mr. A. R. Leeds has shown that the majority of the salts of ammonia undergo dissociation at temperatures below 50° centigrade. M. Colladon, a Geneva physicist, proposes to utilize poplar trees as lightening-rods, by inserting an iron pin into the lower part of the trunk, and connecting this with the earth by a chain. One would think that the roots of the tree would make a better connection than that described. Mr. Ringway states that the cardinal bird has a finer song in Southern Illinois than in Maryland; and the Baltimore oriole sings better there than near Washington. Vogel confirms the observation of Runge, that camphor has a stimulating effect on the growth of plants. Professor Ranke shows that the charcoal result ing from the partial combustion of hay is prone to undergo spontaneous combustion. The conditions under which hay produces this charcoal have not been determined. Mineral cotton formed by blowing steam into the molten slag from iron furnaces is said to possess valuable non-conducting properties. Its exceeding brittleness will, however, limit its application to a very narrow compass. A little glycerine added to the gum used in attaching labels prevents them from curling up when written on. Mr. William Harris gives an account in the " Journal of the Franklin Institute" of the manner in which an artificial tin mine was prepared for examination and analysis by the chemist. Sir William Thomson states that the needles of mariner's compasses, as at present employed, are altogether too large. He recommends a needle onefourteenth of the length of that at present used in the English service. 46 ETCHINGS. THE clever people do not all live in Boston, though many Bostonians would have us think so, for occasionally a good thing is said in New York. "Where have you been lately?" was the inquiry addressed by one club man to another, who made some pretensions to literature. Haven't you heard? I've been to Boston to lecture." "I'm glad of that," replied the party of the first part; "I hate Boston." Another New Yorker, who is better known in Wall street than in literary circles, and who is a confirmed stutterer, tells a good story at his own expense. He was passing by a bird shop one day, when his attention was attracted by a parrot. Can he talk?" he finally managed to ask the shop-keeper. "If he couldn't talk better than you," was the reply, "I'd wring his neck." He walked away smiling, but his enemies say that he went back at night and bought the parrot, and made him his tutor! He was standing one afternoon, with a friend, on the steps of his club-house, when a certain great railroad financier, who was more conspicious for smartness than for honesty, came in sight. "Look, look," he exclaimed to his friend, "there's Astutus Sharp. It's very extraordinary!" "What is? I don't see anything different from usuál." "You don't? Why, don't you see that his hand is in his own pocket?" THERE are many bills besides doctors' bills which the average man pays with reluctance, and among these the world over are tax bills. It is not difficult to escape paying one's tradesmen, to bilk the doctor for medical services, to cheat the grocer, 'the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker;" but the tax-collector is quite another personage. He, or the Law which he represents, is powerful enough to compel payment. It is no wonder, therefore, that he is disliked, and that all sorts of subterfuges are resorted to, to lessen his exactions. Few ever consider these assessments just, and of these few not one in a hundred resides in the country. The influences which are sometimes brought to bear upon country assessors may be inferred from the following anecdote: Mr. B., an assessor of a small town on the sea-board of Massachusetts was one day waited upon at his house by a man who lived on the Neck, as it was called, whom he knew by sight, but whose name he could hardly be said to remember. He took a seat,-it was just about dinner, as he must have known,-and unburdened himself in this fashion: "Mr. B., I have called to pay you a debt I owe you." Whereunto Mr. B. replied: "You must be mistaken; you don't owe me anything." "Yes, I do. Don't you remember about eighteen years ago, when you had the ship-yard here?" "Yes." "Well, I wanted some tar one day, and I came over from the Neck to your yard, and got it." "I don't know anything " about it," said Mr. B., "and I don't think you owe me.” “Yes, I do," and taking out his pocketbook, he produced a bill, “and here's the money." It was a fifty cent stamp! He waited a few moments longer, and when he rose to go, remarked: "Mr. B., when you come down on the Neck I hope you'll make my taxes as light as you can." "That's been attended to. Captain P. has been down there, and he fixed the assessment yesterday." Clearly that fifty cent stamp was thrown away. ANOTHER anecdote, illustrative of the aversion of the American mind to taxes, is not without importance, because it concerns men of a different stamp from this commonplace, close-fisted farmer. They were philosophers, or reported to be such, and on one occasion, when they were dissatisfied with the state of affairs,-a chronic condition of mind with modern philosophers,-they both agreed that they would pay no more taxes. They would be martyrs to principle, and would rot in jail first. They were in earnest, no doubt, particularly Mr. A., whose impecuniosity was proverbial. The time came when they had to pay or be incarcerated, and Mr. E., who was not without shekels, weakened. Not so Mr. A.; he went to jail manfully, taking with him to console himself in his solitary hours, Plato, Porphyry, Plotinus, the Bhagavat Gheta, and other elementary works of philosophy. The next day he was visited by his friend, Mr. E., who peeped through the bars of the jail, and said: "Mr. A., what are you doing there?" He looked up quietly, and remembering the compact that they had made in regard to their respective taxes, he asked: "Mr. E., what are you doing there?" It was a pertinent question, which must have puzzled his fellow-philosopher to answer. How the matter was settled, we are not told; but it is certain that the Orphic dreamer and talker was released, and has since paid his small taxes regularly. wonderfully Eloisa's injunction," said Moore. "Do all things but forget.” Macaulay was fond of rummaging old bookstalls, and scarcely a dusty old book shop in any by-court or out of the way corner in London escaped his attention. He would mount a ladder, and scour the top shelves for pamphlets and curious relicts of a bygone age, and come down, after an hour's examination, covered with dust and cobwebs. He was not communicative to booksellers, and when any of them would hold up a book, although at the other end of the shop, he seemed to tell from the cover or by intuition what it was all about, and would say "No!" or "I have it already!" before the dealer could ask whether he would look at it. If he purchased any thing, he was so impatient to have it at home that he would tuck it under his arm, and act as his own porter. He was passing one day through the Seven Dials, where he bought a handful of ballads from a dealer who was bawling out their contents to a gaping audience Proceeding on his way home, he was astonished, on suddenly stopping, to find himself surrounded by a half a score of urchins, their faces beaming with expectation. "Now, then," said Macaulay, "what is it?" "Oh, that is a good un," replied the boys, "arter we've a-come all this way." "But what are you waiting for?" he asked, astonished at their familiarity. "Waiting for? Why to hear you sing, to be sure!" THE poet Rogers was rather unfortunate in his servants, one of whom, who had been a long time in his service, took it into his head to die. A kindhearted friend called to condole with the old man on his loss. "Well," exclaimed Rogers, after listening for some time to his expressions of sympathy, "I don't know that I feel his loss so very much after all. For the first seven years he was an obliging servant; for the second seven years he was an agreeable companion; but for the last seven he was a tyrannical master." On one occasion, when in the country, his favorite groom, with whom he used to drive every day, gave notice to leave. Rogers asked him why he was going, and what he had to complain of? "Nothing," replied the man ; "but you are so dull in the buggy?" THE late Lord Macaulay had a most extraordinary memory, and as he was all his life an enormous devourer of books on all sorts of subjects, and in many languages, he was qualified to talk down any man in England, and did talk down most of his acquaintances. His flashes of silence, like angel visits, were few and far between. We are told that he could repeat all the old Newgate literature, hanging ballads, last speeches, and dying confessions, while his memory of Milton was so accurate that if his poems were blotted out of existence, they might have been restored from his memory. Moore relates that breakfasting one morning with Monckton Milnes, to meet Hallam and Macaulay, the latter opened quite a new chap-glishman up the chimney!" ter of his marvelous memory, astonishing as much as amusing them, which was no other than his knowledge of the old Irish slang ballads, such as "The night before Larry was stretched," &c., many of which he repeated as glibly as Moore could in his boyhood. "He certainly obeys most ONE of Rogers's best stories was about a Frenchman and an Englishman that had to fight a duel. That they might have the better chance of missing one another, they were to fight in a dark room. The Englishman fired up the chimney, and he brought down the Frenchman! "6 When I tell the story in Paris," observed Rogers, "I put the En Rogers disliked writing letters of condolence, and when he had that melancholy duty to perform, he generally copied out of Cowper's. Lord Lansdowne once spoke to him in congratulatory terms about the marriage of a common friend. "I do not think it so desirable," observed Rogers. "No!" replied Lord Lansdowne; "why not? His friends approve of it." "Happy man," returned Rogers, "to satisfy all the world. His friends are pleased, and her enemies are delighted!" 46 Twiss, in his "Life of Lord Eldon," relates a story of Lord Erskine which, we think, would delight the tender heart of Mr. Bergh. On one occasion a ruffianly driver in the neighborhood of Hempstead Heath was punishing a miserable, bareboned hack horse. Lord Erskine's sympathy provoked him to a smart remonstrance. 'Why," said the fellow, "it's my own; mayn't I use it as I please?" And as he spoke he discharged a fresh shower of blows on the raw back of the beast. Lord Erskine, excessively irritated, laid his walking stick sharply over the shoulders of the offender, who, crouching and grumbling, asked him what business he had to touch him with his stick. "Why," replied Erskine, to whom the opportunity of a joke was irresistible, "it's my own; mayn't I use it as I please?" THE Life of the Rev. R. H. Barham, the author of "The Ingoldsby Legends," swarms with anecdotes of his acquaintances, who were among the most notable men of his time. Here is one in which Dr. Thomas Hume figures. He walked with Barham one day to the office of a morning paper, where he silently placed upon the counter an announcement of the death of some friend, together with five shillings, the usual charge for the insertion of such announcements. The clerk glanced at the paper, tossed it on one side, and said, gruffly, Seven and six." "I have frequently," replied Hume, "had occasion to publish these simple notices, and I have never before been charged more than five shillings." "Simple!" repeated the clerk, without looking up. "He's universally beloved and deeply regretted! Seven and six." Hume produced the additional half crown, and laid it deliberately by the others, observing, as he did so, with the solemnity of tone that he used throughout, "Congratulate yourself, sir, that this is an expense your executors will never be put to." Barham, who was full of mischief when a boy, had a companion named Diggle, who was, if anything, more mischievous than himself. He was fond of practical jokes, in one of which Barham was a sharer. The two boys having, in the course of their walk, discovered a Quaker meeting-house, forthwith procured a penny tart of a neighboring pastry-cook. Furnished with this, Diggle marched boldly into the building, and holding up the delicacy in the midst of the grave assembly, said, with perfect solemnity, "Whoever speaks first shall have this pie.” “Friend, go thy way," commenced a drab-colored gentleman, rising; "go thy way and The pie's yours, sir," said Master Diggle politely, and placing it before the astonished speaker, hastily effected his escape. In the Diary which Barham kept, he jotted down the amusing stories that he heard, and among others the following, his authority for it being Sir Walter Scott. A Scottish clergyman, whose name was not mentioned, was cited before the Ecclesiastical Assembly at Edinburgh to answer to a charge brought against him of great irreverence in religious matters, and Sir Walter was employed by him to arrange his defence. The principal fact alleged against him was his having asserted, in a letter which was produced, that "he considered Pontius Pilate to be a very ill-used man, as he had done more for Christianity than all the other nine apostles put together." The fact was proved, and suspension followed. A good pendant to this anecdote is the blunder that was committed by some noted English Judge, who, in airing his historic knowledge, spoke of the famous Roman Emperor Julian, who was so noted for his piety, that he was called Julian the Apostle! Scott, on a later visit to London, related another clerical story. It was about a minister near Dundee, who, in preaching on Jonah, said: "Ken ye, brethren, what fish it was swallowed him? Aiblins ye may think t'was a shark-nae, nae, my bretheren, it was nae shark; or aiblins ye may think it was a saumon-nae, nae, my bretheren, it was nae saumon; or aiblins ye may think it was a dolphinnae, nae, my bretheren, it was nae dolphin-” Here an old woman, thinking to help her pastor out of a dead lift, cried out: “Aiblins, sir, it was a dunter" (the vulgar name of a species of whale common to the Scotch coast). "Aiblins, madam, ye're an auld witch for takin' the word of God out of my mouth!" was the reply of the disappointed rhetorician. Another story told by Sir Walter was of a drunken old laird, who fell off his pony in the water while crossing a ford in Ettrick. "Eh, Jock," he cried to his man: "There's some puir body fa'en into the water; I heard a splash. Who is it, mon ?" "Troth, laird, I canna tell; forbye it's na yersell," said John, dragging him to the bank. The laird's wig, meanwhile, had fallen off into the stream, and John, in putting it on again, placed it inside out. This, and its being thoroughly soaked, annoyed the old gentleman, who refused to wear it. "Deil ha' my saul, it's nae my ain wig. What for do ye no get me my ain wig, ye ne'er-do-weel?" Eh then, laird, ye'll na get any other wig the night, so, sir, pit it on again. There's nae sic a wab of wigs in the bunie I jalouse." Barham has preserved for us a little story of Hook's. It was related of Sir George Warrender, who was once obliged to put off a dinner party in consequence of the death of a relative, and sat down to a haunch of venison by himself. While eating he said to the butler, "John, this will make a capital hash to-morrow." "Yes, Sir George, if you leave off now." Archbishop Whately used to tell the story of a traveler who, finding himself and his dog in a wild |