and mingling with the descending column, flows out with it through the escape-tube. The lecturer stated, in conclusion, that, from the result of his experiments, it was probable that the principle might, in certain cases, be economically applied to practical purposes. time very agreeable to the taste. This success, to render the experiment more striking, ascends, and the certitude which the known natural constitution of the soil affords for procuring the same quantity of water, and in as great abundance as may be desired, in all quarters of the capital, has given rise to the idea of carrying out the practice either by new independent companies, or by concurrence with those already existing, wherever a sufficient number of consumers may he found willing to contribute to the expense. From Chambers' Journal. VENT AT MALTA. BY A LADY. Professor Faraday stated that the water rent of VISIT TO THE CRYPT OF THE CAPUCHIN CON2000 houses would suffice for the practical carrying out of the plan, inclusive of the ornamental addition, already alluded to, of a public fountain. In Berkeley square a well has been sunk, from which water is lifted by a hand-pump, for the use of the inhabitants of that fashionable locality; but it was shown that an outlay of £3500 in the necessary machinery, &c., would have produced a supply of water for £350 annually, which now costs £700, without a fountain, that might have been embraced in the other scheme. pure water. "WILL you go on, or are you afraid?" These words were addressed to me by an old monk, as we stood together on the last step of the stair leading down to certain mysterious vaults which exist under the Capuchin convent of Malta. The monk was very decrepit, very ghastly-indeed, I may say, decidedly unearthly-looking-the voice was Considering the rapid spread of London, and the sepulchral, and the question not one to be answered eagerness with which new business enterprises are without serious consideration; for he held in his seized upon, it is not improbable that Artesian hand (and the hand was uncommonly like that of a wells may become common, and thus give to the skeleton) a great key, which was destined to open metropolis what its inhabitants so much require the ponderous iron door of a very singular charnelThe idea is not altogether new, for house. This convent is one of the very few, in it appears that "an endeavor was made in 1834-5 fact, I believe the only one of importance, now exto form a Metropolis Pure Soft Spring Water tant, excepting that of Palermo, where the monks Company,' to supply the existing companies with still retain the custom of preserving their dead their requisite quantities by Artesian wells of great unburied, and are yet in possession of the method magnitude; which failed rather through defects in by which they can keep the corpses of their breththe provisional committee, than through any de-ren entire, with all the appearance of life, for as monstrated impracticability in their views, which long a period as they choose. The secret of the had been entertained ten years previously, and process by which the order of the Capuchins have formed the subject of an unsuccessful company in thus learnt to cheat the grave of its lawful prey is 1825."* A remarkable objection has been made not exactly known: I believe it is some sort of to these undertakings, which can only be explained baking or boiling. They have always the number by the prevailing ignorance of the principles of of forty carefully preserved; and when a death their action. It was said that they would soon occurs in the monastery, the most ancient among drain the wells sunk in the London clay, which the dead bodies makes way for the new-comer, can only give back the water gained from the sur- and is buried. I had been told that the spectacle face; while the Artesian wells derive their sup- of these forty monks, so long departed from existplies from the chalk, where there is not the slight-ence, yet still unshrouded and uncoffined, was most est communication with the clay. Such was the curious, although sufficiently appalling to render prejudice in this particular, that a formal complaint it less frequently visited than it would doubtless was instituted against the new well of Trafalgar have otherwise been. For myself, however, it square, while in course of boring, as having had been my lot, in my various wanderings, to see drained the neighboring wells, even before it had death in so many different shapes, that I could yielded a single drop of water. hardly shrink from any new aspect under which it After his able exposition, Mr. Faraday exhibited might present itself, and I had therefore advanced a simple apparatus, designed to demonstrate a new thus far on my way to visit them. Still, I must property of the fluid vein. It is well known that own I was a long time of answering the pointed water, in escaping from an orifice of any form, question of my companion to tell the truth, there does not long retain that form, but varies with was something in his own appearance and manner more or less of irregularity: this is called the con- which awed me considerably; and I could not help traction of the vein. It occurred to the inventor of wondering what the dead monks must be, if their the apparatus that this contraction would be ac- living brother had so little the semblance of companied by a diminution of volume, which humanity. There was a dulness in his sunken would consequently determine, in a close vessel, a eye, a solemn expression on his livid face, half hid diminution of pressure sufficient to cause a smaller by the huge cowl, and something so mechanical in column of water to rise from below, under the or- his every movement, that it was scarce possible dinary pressure of the atmosphere. To effect not to fancy the soul itself was wanting. These this, water is made to descend in a tube opening were the first words he had uttered since he had into a glazed box, in communication, by means of suddenly appeared at my side, in obedience to the another tube, with a reservoir below. As soon as call of the superior; and now having spoken, he the valve which prevents the descent of the water closed his withered lips again, as though these is opened, the stream rushes into the box, contracts, hollow tones were to issue from them no more, and produces a certain vacuum, when it is immediately stood motionless till I mustered up courage to proBeen that the water from below, which was colored,nounce an emphatic Vado,' (I go,) when he instantly stalked silently along the dark, narrow *Journal, Statistical Society, vol. viii., p. 159. passage, and unlocked the massive portal of the chamber, whose silent inhabitants I was about to visit. The door rolled back heavily on its hinges; the ghostly monk stood back to let me pass; and as I crossed the threshold, I heard him close it behind me with a noise which echoed, as it seemed to me most ominously, from vault to vault. though, in this expressive look (the last trace of spirit petrified, as it were, on the dead face,) might be read not only the record of their dying moments, but also the history of their past lives; showing how the good man, humble and sincere, had departed in peace; and how the disappointed, ambitious soul had clung to a life which years of asceticism had vainly sought to render odious. It is sufficient, however, to look only once in their faces, to lose instantaneously the effect of the delusion, which is so striking at a first glance. The imitation of life, cunning as it is, fails altogether before this palpable evidence of their having undergone the last dread trial. The body nearest me, which was that of an old I found myself in a large hall, constructed entirely of the white Maltese stone, the roof rising in the shape of a dome. It was lighted only from the top, so that although every object was perfectly distinct, the day could only penetrate within it, tempered by a kind of twilight shade. The very first breath I drew in this dead-house, made me gasp and shiver. It was not precisely cold ; but there was a chill, and an indescribable heavi-man, had a countenance which would have told its ness on the air, which caused a most unpleasant tale clearly to the most careless observer. I felt, sensation. It was some minutes before this feel- as I gazed on his serene and placid face, that death ing could be shaken off; at last I determined had been to him a glad release: he had waited, he boldly to raise my eyes and look around. For a had wished for it; and when it came, he had remoment I could have fancied we had mistaken our signed himself to its power, as a child sinks to way, and returned to that part of the vast con- sleep on its mother's breast. The strong lines vent which was inhabited by the living, the scene round the shrivelled lips, the deeply-furrowed was so very similar to that I had just witnessed in brow, the hollow eye, all told of a weary conflict the chapel above, where the vesper service was past-of tears which had been very bitter, of that being performed. Standing upright, in niches cut long struggle with sorrow which can make existin the wall, the forty monks were ranged round ence a load most gladly laid aside. But there was the room, twenty on either side of me, clothed in a sublimity of repose upon that old man's face, the complete costume of their order. At a super- which life could never have known. And the ficial glance, they seemed all engaged in prayer; next! I wish I could forget the awful face of the and very still and quiet they were, with their next in order; but I know I never shall: the exheads, from which the dark cowl was thrown back, pression of that countenance will never cease to bent slightly over their clasped hands. Alongside haunt me! The fierce scowl on the forehead, the of each one was an inscription, giving his name, eyes starting from their sockets, the lips convuland the date of his death; and it really required sively drawn back, so as to show the sharp, white some such announcement to bring to my mind the teeth firmly clenched, all told an unwillingness to full conviction, that it was indeed on lifeless die-an utter dread of dissolution, which it is corpses I was gazing; for, except that all had the frightful to think of! Here were, indeed, again same uniform hue of dull, ghastly yellow, and the the traces of a conflict, but a conflict with death same fixity in the position of the eyes, there was itself. It was easy to see how madly, how wildly. nothing in their outward appearance to indicate he had struggled to retain his hold on life; and that they had not, each one of them, a living, when that life escaped, it had written on his face throbbing heart within his bosom. The flesh was the record of that last hour as one of most intense firm, the limbs retained their shape, the lips their despair. Assuredly this man must have been a color; the very eyelashes and nails were perfectly slave to the memory of some great crime, which preserved; and the eyes themselves, though fixed, made him so very a coward in presence of his inas I have said, did not look dead or rayless. It vincible foe; or else for he seemed too young for was a frightful mockery of life, because so fright-that-he may have had one of those morbid, restfully real. I could see no difference between those less spirits of inquiry which ever drove him to the mummies and their deathlike brethren up stairs; burial-places, that he might rifle the secrets of the whose long confinement in the cloister, and strict grave, to learn the details of the universal doom, adherence to the most severe of the monastic rules, till he was seized with a frantic horror for the indihave wasted their bodies, quenched the fire of their vidual corruption which awaited himself, such as I eyes, and banished all expression from their faces. have known men of imaginative minds to feel. But when I went nearer, in order to examine them Anyway, it was a fearful face. He had fought regularly one by one, I saw that the Capuchins, with the King of Terrors, and been subdued, but who have thus the secret of triumphing over cor- the struggle had been a dire one; and what renruption, and, outwardly at least, would seem to dered this yet more striking, was the mock resigset even death at defiance, had altogether failed in nation with which the hands had been folded one most important point. They had preserved together after death. I was glad to pass on, the bodies from decay; they had clothed them in though it was to look on a corpse which could only the garments they were wont to wear; they had inspire disgust; it was so evident that this one had marvellously banished the likeness of death; the died even as the beasts that perish. His heavy skin, the hair, the hands, were as those of living features were full of sottish indifference: he could beings; but, with all their art, they had been not have foreseen that his hour was come; or, if powerless to efface from the countenance of each he did, his must have been one of those narrow, one of these dead men the seal which the soul had grovelling minds, too completely filled with stamped thereon as it departed. All the faces daily occurrences of life to wake up and look wore the expression with which they had died; beyond it, and question eternity. Next to him lifferent according to their various temperament, was one who had expired in extreme suffering but fixed, immutable, unchangeably eloquent of from some terrible disease: his face told of nothing the exact frame of mind in which they had sepa-save bodily pain; but so expressive was it of this, rately met that awful hour. It even seemed as that it was scarce possible not to believe that hi was even then in great agony. Again-I could | pally remarkable from the strange sight I had withave looked forever on the face of him who stood nessed. As this order is one of the most rigorous, next in the line. Where the expression on the the brotherhood is composed, for the most part, of face of the dead is beautiful, it must be infinitely men who have committed some crime, and flown more so than it ever can be while living; and in thither for refuge from the vengeance of the law, the still eyes of this corpse, in the sweet smile or the yet sterner justice of their own conscience. that brightened even that livid mouth, there was a Judging from the countenances of those I saw, I fervor of hope and faith not to be mistaken. He should say they had sought all mental rest in vain : was very young, and had probably been cut off in but so indeed it must have been. It was scarcely the first enthusiasm of his vocation, ere time, or possible that the quiet of the cloister should have the imperishable craving for human sympathy, had any effect on them; for it is starting on a false quenched the ardent religious fervor, which is so principle to suppose that a man can ever escape sincerely felt by many young novices on their first from his own deed, be it what it may, good or bad. profession. I was very glad he died when he did, As soon as he has committed it, he has given it an it was so glorious a look of triumph! Strange to existence, an individuality which he can never say, the most unmeaning of all these faces was again destroy it becomes independent of him, and that of a man who had been murdered: there was goes out into the world to deal its influence in a mere vacant stare of surprise in his wide, glar- widening circles far beyond his ken. ing eyes. The spirit seemed to have been so suddenly expelled from her mortal tenement, that she had left no trace of her passage forth. Near to this ghastly corpse stood a young man, who appeared to have fallen gently asleep, with that expression of utter weariness which is the very stamp of a broken heart. When I had gone round about half the room, and had minutely examined the features of some twenty of this ghostly company, I was seized with a very strange hallucination. On entering into the presence of these forty monks, I had been fully aware, of course, that they were all dead, and I alone was living; and now I was equally conscious that there was some vast difference between the present state of my grisly hosts and my own; only, after I had gone from one to another, ever meeting the gaze of their meaning eyes, and gathering such volumes of eloquence from their still lips, I could almost have believed that they were all living, and I myself dead, or in a dream! It was quite time to hold some communication with the living when assailed by such fancies as these; and I turned to look for my guide, with a strong desire to enter into conversation with him. I looked round and round in vain. I counted fortyone monks, therefore the living man must be amongst them; but the exact similarity of dress, and the motionless attitude with which he had installed himself between two of his lifeless companions, made it no easy matter to distinguish him. When I did find him out, the question with which I addressed him would have been considered passably unfeeling in more polite society; it was, if he himself would one day take his place in this strange sepulchre ? Assuredly!" he answered, with more vivacity than he had yet displayed; "and this one must make way for me," he continued with a grim smile of satisfaction, at the same time dealing a light blow with his bunch of keys on the shoulder of one of the corpses, which caused the bones to rattle with a sound so horrible, that I flew to the door, and begged him to open it, that I might escape from this dreadful room. I had had quite enough of the society, certainly not enlivening, of the Capuchins, both living and dead: indeed, on the whole, I rather give the preference to the latter, for we claim no kindred with the dead. whereas, it must always be painful to come in contact with a fellow-creature so devoid of human feeling as this old man seemed to be. He afterwards conducted me through the whole of the convent, at least of that part of it to which strangers are admitted. It is very extensive, but princi RAILWAY TO ASIA. From the Union. As the Oregon question is now settled, we can view its position, and see what can be done with it. At the rate of 15 miles per hour, (as is proposed for the steamers to be built for our navy,) it requires but 84 days from England to New York, or other ports, but say 10 days. From New York to the Pacific, 3,000 miles by railroad, at 30 miles per hour, allowing one day for detentions On the Great Western road from London to Bristol, passengers travel daily at 50 miles per hour with perfect safety. From Oregon to Chang-hai, in China, From England, via New York, to From New York to Chang-hai But by sea voyage, as at present, either From England, via New York, to From New York to Australia nilla. From New York to Manilla 5 66 16 46 31 " 21 66 . 31 " From Chambers' Journal. DR. MANTELL ON ANIMALCULES. mass. animals of various shapes and magnitudes. Some are darting through the water with great rapidity, WE quote below the title of a recent volume by while others are pursuing and devouring creatures Dr. Mantell, the object of which is "to present a tached to the twig by long delicate threads; sev more infinitesimal than themselves. Many are atfamiliar exposition of the nature and habits of eral have their bodies enclosed in a transparent some of the invisible beings which people our tube, from one end of which the animal partly prolakes and streams." Invisible beings! and yet trudes, and then recedes; while numbers are covnot the creatures of superstition and dreamland, ered by an elegant shell or case. The minutest but actual, substantial existences, that, unseen by the eye of sense, perform, within a single drop of kinds-the monads-many of which are so small, water, the circle of an economy as perfect in its that millions might be contained in a single drop kind as is that of man himself. The object is in the of water-appear like mere animated globules, highest degree commendable. And the name of free, single, and of various colors, sporting about in every direction. Numerous species resemble the author is guarantee sufficient for its correct and agreeable treatment. There is no branch of pearly or opaline cups or vases, fringed round the science more interesting, none whose revelations margin with delicate fibres, that are in constant osare more wonderful, than that which unfolds the cillation. Some of these are attached by spiral forms and nature of the minute creatures which tendrils; others are united by a slender stem to people every stagnant pool, inhabit the leaves of one common trunk, appearing like a bunch of harebells; others are of a globular form, and grouped every forest, and which take up their abode even in the fluids and tissues of other living beings. cal membranous case for a certain period of their together in a definite pattern on a tabular or spheriNor is it a study the result of which is merely existence, and ultimately become detached and loamusement and wonder; for, like the minute par-comotive; while many are permanently clustered isitic vegetation whose growth absorbs the elements of decay, and which occasionally create together, and die, if separated from the parent such havoc among human food, and engender dis- to those of beasts, birds, or fishes, are observable No organs of progressive motion, similar ease and death, the myriad animalcules in nature in these beings; yet they traverse the water with may execute similar missions, sometimes repressing putridity, at others becoming the sources of the rapidity, without the aid of limbs or fins; and most loathsome and fatal diseases. It is, there- though many species are destitute of eyes, yet all fore, only by a knowledge of the nature of these possess an accurate perception of the presence of other bodies, and pursue and capture their prey creatures, and of the causes and sources of their 99 To the uninitiated this development, that man can call in their aid or must be a startling revelation; more wonderful, with unerring purpose." control their results, as his purposes may demand. because real, than all the multitudes with which So simple, moreover, and so easily discernible is the organization of many animalcules, that the superstition and fancy have peopled the realms above, beneath, and around us. physiological functions of their structure are fully exposed to view-functions which find their coun- the subjects of individual examination-there being terparts in the higher animals, but in whom the mode of operation is hopelessly obscured. Ap of water selected. The first and most conspicunearly a dozen different genera in the small phial parent as are the advantages resulting from a ous of these is the Hydra, or fresh-water polype, study of microscopic life, it must not be supposed that the little work before us either affords an when at rest, a mere globular speck of jelly, but, an animalcule visible to the naked eye, appearing, ample exposition, or adds new discoveries to the subject. All that is attempted, is a familiar de- when active, protruding into a funnel-shaped body, furnished with a number of long, delicate tentacula scription of a few common facts, a description or arms, by which it secures its prey. which will in some degree instruct the ordinary reader, and lead him-if he can be led at all-to polype is carnivorous in its habits, feeding on small worms and insects. "I have seen,' further investigation, while works of greater re-author, "a polype seize two worms at the same search and higher pretensions would have been un-instant; and to reach them, the arms were extendintelligible and forbidding. some 66 The animalcules above enumerated now become This says our ed to such a degree of tenuity, as scarcely to be Dr. Mantell's idea is a happy one he takes a little water from a neighboring pool, and confining perceptible without the aid of a lens; and the himself to the examination of this, describes, in worms, though very lively, and struggling violentsimple but attractive terms, what he sees, figuring struments, and escape, but in an instant were ly, were unable to break asunder these delicate inat the same time, with the greatest delicacy and struck motionless. This phenomenon strikingly elegance, the objects of his observation. • From water containing aquatic plants, collected and it is not improbable that the hydra, like that resembles the effect produced by the electric eel; from a pond on Clapham Common, I select," says fish, kills its prey by an electric shock." The he, a small twig, to which are attached a few fresh-water polypes are exceedingly prolific, sevdelicate flakes, apparently of slime or jelly; some eral hundreds of thousands springing from one paminute fibres, standing erect here and there on the rent stock in the course of a few months. twig, are also dimly visible to the naked eye. generation or mode of multiplication in the hydra This twig, with a drop or two of the water, we is one of its most striking peculiarities In its ordiwill put between two thin plates of glass, and place 66 The under the field of view of a microscope having lenses nary condition, this takes place by gemmation, or that magnify the image of an object two hundred buds, as in certain plants. A small protuberance times in linear dimensions. Upon looking through appears externally on some part of the body of the the instrument, we find the fluid swarming with polype, and gradually enlarges, and becomes elongated; arms speedily spring forth from the free *Thoughts on Animalcules; or a Glimpse of the In- extremity, and a miniature hydra is formed, which visible World Revealed by the Microscope. By Gideon in a short time separates from its parent, and asAlgernon Mantell, Esq., LL. D. London: Murray. sumes its individual existence. Nor is this all a 1846. : single hydra may be cut into several pieces, either of a series of globular stomachs-hence the term across its body, or longitudinally, and, what is polygastria-connected by a common tube, which wonderful, every section will in time become a allows entrance to the food, and exit to the effete polype, as perfect as the original of which it particles. The food is brought to the mouth by formed a part! Further, the animal may be the currents produced in the water by the cilia; turned inside out like a glove, and the original aëration is performed by the agency of the same outer surface will perform the function of diges- organs; and the increase of the species is effected tion, while the former lining of the stomach be- by spontaneous division, each part, like the severed comes the skin; and this without the creature ap- portions of the polype, growing into a perfect indiparently suffering any inconvenience. vidual." Besides these polygastric animalecules, From the examination of the hydra or polypes, which are the lowest of the Infusoria, there are in which are giants in comparison, Dr. Mantell passes the water under examination numerous species of to the consideration of the true Infusoria-those Rotifera, or wheel-bearing animalcules, so called minute animalcules which were sporting in the from the circular rows of cilia which fringe the drops of water between the plates of glass placed upper parts of their bodies, and which, when in the field of his microscope. "The existence of in motion, appear like wheels revolving round a these minute beings having been first detected in common axis. These are more highly organized water containing vegetable matter, such as hay, than the former class: "the digestive canal is a grass, &c., it was taken for granted that they were tube more or less straight, which in many genera peculiar to certain infusions; hence the term Infuso- is provided with jaws and teeth, which, like the ria, given to this class of animals, in allusion to masticatory organs in birds, are situated low down, their supposed origin. This name is still employed are very distinct, and present considerable diversity as a general designation, although it has long been of form and arrangement." Jaws and teeth in known that the presence of animalcules in infu- creatures invisible to the naked eye! Yet so it is: sions has no necessary relation to the vegetable in- like the miniature watch set in a finger-ring, its gredients, except as far as the decomposition of the wheels and springs are not less perfect because of latter may tend to the production of a proper me- their tiny dimensions. In the Rotifera there are dium for the development of the invisible eggs, indications of nerves, muscles, and punctiform or germs, of these creatures, which are everywhere eyes, all shadowing forth, as it were, the dawn present. The essential characters of the infusoria of higher existences. Some are oviparous, others -in other words, those points of organization in viviparous-the eggs in many species being in which they differ from all other animals-consist size equal to one third of the animalcule. These in their bodies being destitute of any true articu- ova "retain their vitality for almost an unlimited lated or jointed limbs, and locomotive members or period, and are transported by the water and feet; their varied movements being performed by wafted by the winds-for, whether dry or moist, means of processes or filaments, which are always they remain uninjured-till, thrown into the conin motion, and are termed cilia, from their sup-ditions suitable to their organization, they become posed resemblance to the eyelashes. The cilia, in developed, and the apparently pure waters teem many species of the Infusoria, are more or less with myriads of highly-organized beings. Even generally distributed over the surface of the body; the adult animals of some species-the common in others they are disposed in one or more circles Rotifers, for instance-after being apparently dried around the mouth or aperture of the digestive or- up for several years, will start into life upon the gans; and in some, are arranged in zones on one addition of a few drops of water, and throw their or more circular or semicircular projections on the rotary organs into full play, as if roused from a upper part of the body." The examination of refreshing slumber." these minute creatures requires great tact and patience. From the original drop of water a particular species is first selected; it is then removed, transferred to a drop of pure water, and placed under the field of the microscope-the observer beginning with low powers, till he obtain a general knowledge of the form and appearance of the species, and afterwards examining the several parts of the body with the most powerful glasses. By such a scrutiny, Dr. Mantell detects, in the original glass of water, a number of species of the most beautiful forms, and of the most curious economy. Among these are Monads, animated spherules of various colors, little more than the thousandth part of a line in diameter; and yet each exhibits an individual activity, feeding, disporting, and propagating its kind with inconceivable rapidity. The floating colored slime which sometimes appears in the water of stagnant pools, is an aggregation of countless myriads of these beings-not individually distinct, but visible only in the mass. There are also Vorticella, or bell-shaped animals, and Stentors, or those of trumpet shapes-fixed singly, or in clusters, by the narrow extremity, and waving in the water their wider extremities, fringed with cilia, like so many animated harebells of astonishing minuteness. The digestive organs of these tiny creatures "consist Of these Rotifera, Dr. Mantell detects several genera: some flower-shaped, Floscularia; some crown-shaped, Stephanoceros; the common wheelanimalcule, Rotifer; and other species covered with siliceous shells and spines, Brachionus. These last are perhaps the most wonderful, as they are, geologically speaking, the most important of their class. "Their cases or shells consist either of lime, silex, (flint,) or iron; and these retain their form and structure for unlimited periods of time. From the inconceivable numbers of these shell-animalcules, which swarm in every body of water, whether fresh or salt, and the immense rapidity with which the species increase-by spontaneous fissuration, germination, and ova-extensive deposits, or strata of their cases, are constantly forming at the bottom of lakes, rivers, and seas. Hence have originated the layers of white calcareous earth common in peat-bogs and morasses, the tripoli, or polishing-slate of Bilin,* consisting wholly of the siliceous cases of animalcules, and the bog iron, composed of the ferruginous shields of other forms. In short, the extensive and im *The polishing-slate of Bilin, in Prussia, forms a posed of the siliceous shields of Infusoria, of such extreme series of strata fourteen feet thick, and is entirely comminuteness, that a cubic inch of the stone contains fortyone thousand millions of distinct organisms. |