vigorous, and vivid style; the same picturesqueness of treatment; and the same ripe and generous culture. It is hard to find fault with a book which is so pleasant to read; and we do not allow ourselves to forget that the very qualities which we are disposed to criticise, are precisely the ones that will secure for the volume a wider circle of readers. GERMAN POLITICAL LEADERS, By Herbert The gentlemen whom Mr. Tuttle selects as representative German political leaders, are nineteen in number and are classified as follows: "The Chancellor," Prince Bismarck; Ministers," Dr. Falk, President Delbruck, and Herr Camphausen ; the "Diplomatic Service," Prince Hohenlohe and Count von Arnim; the "Parliamentarians," Herr von Bennigsen and Dr. Simson; Party Leaders," Herr Lasker, Herr Windthorst, Dr. Loewe, Herr Schulze-Delitzch, Herr Jacoby, Herr Hasselmann, and Herr Sonnemann;" Scholars in Politics." Professor Gneist, Professor Virchow, Professor Treitschke, and Professor von Sybel. As remarked by Mr. Tuttle in his preface, the fame and authority of Prince Bismarck are so overshadowing that the greater number of the men described in the volume are here introduced to American readers for the first time; and this very fact, which is unquestionably true, demonstrates the need of just such a book. In fact, all students of current European history have good reason to be grateful to Mr. Tuttle, for he not only acquaints us with the character and career of some of the men who are most prominent in the “making" of this history, but gives us a remarkably clear idea of the practical working during the past few years of Germany's experiment in constitutional government. Mr. Tuttle has resided for several years in Berlin, and is otherwise well qualified for his task. He is well-informed and scholarly, is evidently keenly interested in political questions, is a skilful and practised writer, and has the advantage of knowing both the men of whom he treats and the audience he addresses. His book is the best that has yet appeared in the "Brief Biography Series," and may be recommended as both interesting and instructive. FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES. MR. ROBERT BUCHANAN has in the press a new poem, said to be the most ambitious he has ever written. LIEUTENANT CAMERON will shortly publish a full account of his expedition, in a volume to be entitled "Across Africa." The work is in course of preparation. MR. A. H. HUTH, one of two, feilowtravellers of the late Mr. Buckle, who accompanied him from the beginning of his tour, and was with him when he died, is writing a life of the historian. THE Monument erected to Schiller at Marbach, his native place, was unveiled on the 9th of May. The ceremony seems to have excited only a local interest, few people even from Stuttgart being present. HARDLY has the correspondence of Goethe with the brothers Humboldt appeared, than the conscientious editor of that interesting volume, Herr Bratranek, has brought out some more of the treasures hidden by the poet's descendants. This is Goethe's correspondence with Aug. W. and Friedrich Schlegel, Tieck, and others. A HISTORY of that important branch of the folbearing, in the connection, the more accurate lowers of Wesley, vulgarly called Ranters, but designation of Primitive Methodists-a section tality since 1810-has been commenced by Mr. of the main body, which has had a separate viW. H. Yarrow, who has accumulated considerable materials concerning the London district, its circuits, and its members. THE Rev. E. R. Hodges is bringing out a new and enlarged edition of Cory's "Ancient Fragments," which will contain an introduction on "The Origin, Progress, and Results ment," as well as one on "Phoenician Literaof Hieroglyphic and Cuneiform Decipherture." New extracts will be included in the Hecatæus volume from Trogus Pompeius, Agathias, of Abdera, Agatharcides of Cnidus, Nicolas of Damascus, and others, and the book will be dedicated to Dr. Birch. THE veteran author of "Philip van Artevelde" has been writing his autobiography. His dramas show, combined with true poetic feeling, the broad views and knowledge of human nature which have illustrated his long and useful official career; while, owing to a union of rare personal qualities, he has enjoyed the intimacy of many of the most distinguished men and women of two generations. His " Memoirs," therefore, which, it is to be hoped, may be given to the world during his lifetime, should be of more than ordinary interest. SCIENCE AND ART. THE ROTATION OF THE SUN.-The observations of positions of sun-spots made by Carrington's method at the Toulouse Obser vatory, in 1874 and 1875, have been discussed by M. Tisserand, who has deduced the time of rotation of the sun given by each spot, and compared his results with the values found for corresponding latitudes by Carrington and Spoerer respectively. It was one of the most important results of Carrington's splendid series of observations that, independently of minor irregularities, there appeared to be a well-marked drift in the sun-spots, varying with the distance from the sun's equator, so that the greater the latitude of the spot the more it would lag behind. The time of rotation of a spot in latitude 45° would thus be more than a day longer than that of one on the equator, a fact which at once accounted for the very discordant values of the sun's rotation deduced by different observers. M. Tisserand's observations agree well both with Carrington's and Spoerer's results, the average discordance being about one hour in the period of the sun's rotation. There appear, however, great irregularities in the motions of some of the less permanent spots, and M. Tisserand instances one in particular, which appeared to drift more and more rapidly in the opposite direction to that of the sun's ro◄ tation, so that after six days its daily motion had diminished by one tenth, on account of its more rapid drift backwards. As we have no means of knowing what the drift of any particular spot really is with reference to the body of the sun, the accurate determination of the rotation of the sun itself is a very difficult matter, though it is tolerably certain that it lies between twenty-five and twenty-six days. EFFECT OF THE SEASONS ON THE BODY.The curious fact has recently been pointed out by Dr. B. W. Richardson that the changes of the seasons have a potent physical influence upon the body. Some years ago, in a convict establishment in England, a number of men were confined amid surroundings (of clothing, room, food, etc.) practically the same for each individual. The medical superintendent of the gaol undertook investigations, extended over some nine years, and during which over 4000 individuals were weighed. It was found that during the months of winter the body wastes, the loss of weight varying in increasing ratio: that during summer, the body gains, the gain varying in an increasing ratio: and that the changes from gain to loss and from loss to gain are abrupt, and take place, the first at the beginning of September, and the second at the beginning of April. This is shown in the following figures, indicating the ratio of loss or gain: Loss: January, 0.14; February, 0.24; March, 0.95. Gain: April, 0.03; May, 0.01; June, 0.52; July, 0.08; August, 0.70. Loss: September, 0.21; October, 0.10; November (exception), a slight gain; December, o.03. THE VALUE OF A MAN.-No animal (ob. serves the Medical Press and Circular) works harder than man, and as a working or dohas made some curious and interesting calcumestic animal man may be valued. Dr. Farr lations as to the value of the agricultural classes. The calculations are not made to correspond to the working years of man, but allowance is made for the infant and child, who, though not able to work, are valued prospectively; and so, again, in old age, when the labor period is passed, and, as an animal, he consumes more than he produces, his value is considered a minus quantity. The calculations are based upon the Norfolk agricultural classes, in which county the infant labor is worth, at the time of birth, £5. When he has survived the first dangers of infancy, and has advanced five years nearer the time at which he will become a productive agent, his price rises to no less than £56; and this, again, in five years more, is something more than doubled. At the age of twenty-five years, he has attained his maximum value, £246; and he declines afterward steadily but slowly, down to £138 at fifty-five years of age, and £1 at the age of seventy. After this age he produces little or nothing, but still he consumes, and when he is eighty years old, he is valued at minus £41. THE AURORA BOREALIS.-By plunging the negative wire of a powerful induction-coil in a vessel of water, and bringing the positive wire into contact with the surface of the water, or slightly below it, M. Planté has succeeded in reproducing the most marked phenomena of the aurora, especially the streamers and the dark arc round the electrode; and he concludes from this that the aurora is produced by a flow of positive electricity (since no streamers are seen round the negative pole) through the upper regions of the atmosphere into planetary space, the fact that lightning and electrical phenomena are not so frequent at the Polar regions showing that the discharge is not towards the earth. M. Planté holds that all the planets are charged with positive electricity, and that the electricity flows out from the neighborhood of the magnetic poles, either in the form of obscure rays when no resistance is interposed, or as an aurora when it encounters masses of water, whether liquid or solid, in either case vaporising the water with a loud noise and precipitating it in the form of rain or snow. PHENOMENA OF EARTHQUAKES.-Professor Perrey, of Toulouse, has devoted many years to the study of earthquakes, and has communicated the results to the Académie des Sciences at Paris. In his last Report he states that there are more shocks at new and full moon than at the quadratures, and that, of the earthquakes reported between 1843 and 1872, 3290 occurred when the moon was nearest to, and 3015 when she was farthest from, the earth. INFLUENCE OF THE SUN AND MOON ON THE EARTH'S MAGNETISM.-Mr. J. A. Broun, F.R.S., has been investigating the effect of the sun's rotation and the moon's revolution on the earth's magnetism. The effect is variable, and depends on the position of the moon, as well as on the movement of the sun. Cases have occurred of large and sudden diminutions of the earth's magnetic force, and these are found to fall at intervals of twenty-six days, which is about the time of the sun's rotation on its axis. Mr. Broun thinks that there is some ray-like emanation from the sun, which causes these changes in the earth's magnetism; and he finds that the moon has something to do with them, for they occur mostly when she is farthest from the equator. STRANGE NATURAL CISTERNS.-In the rough granite country back from Mossamedes, on the west coast of Africa, are some very remarkable natural cisterns. The country itself is peculiar, huge single rocks rising out of the nearly level plain in some piaces, and in others hills of rock, in several of which deposits of water are found at the very top. A recent traveller visited one of these, and describes it as a natural tank with a narrow entrance, containing some three or four hundred gallons of exquisitely clear and cool water. It was covered by vast slabs of granite, from which the rain drained into it during the rainy season, shading the water so that it could not be seen without a torch, and so protecting it that the sun can not evaporate it during the dry season. Thus a bountiful store of excellent water is preserved while there is not a drop to be had elsewhere for miles. A still more remarkable cistern of this sort is that of the Pedra Grande, or Big Stone, some thirty miles from Mossamedes, a huge rounded mass of granite rising out of the sandy plain. On the smooth side of this rock, 20 or 30 feet above the plain, is a circular pit about 10 feet deep and 6 feet across. The rainfall on the rock above the pit drains into it, filling it completely every rainy season. The walls of the pit-which is shaped like a crucible, narrowing gently to the bottom-are perfectly smooth and regular, the enclosing granite being of the closest and hardest description. The cistern will hold several thousand gallons of water. Near by are smaller pits of similar character. Their formation is unexplained. The water of this strange well furnishes the natives and travellers with an abundant supply during the dry season; consequently it is a noted haltingplace. HERMIT CRABS.-Professor Alexander Agassiz records a series of observations on hermit crabs, which may be interesting to general readers. He reared a few of the creatures from their youngest stages to the time when they require a shell for their protection and further development, and took pains to watch their behavior when shells were first placed in the glass dish in which they were living. "Scarcely," says the Professor, "had the shells reached the bottom before the crabs made a rush for them, turned them round and round. carefully examining them, invariably at the mouth, and soon a couple of the crabs decided to venture in, which they did with remarkable alacrity; and after stretching backward and forward, they settled down into their shells with immense satisfaction." Others of the shells contained a living mollusc, and the crabs which could not find an empty shell waited till the molluscs died, when they tore them out, devoured them, and immediately took possession of the shells. Professor Agassiz questions whether this is to be regarded as a case of instinct. THE PLANTS OF GUADALOUPE ISLAND.—Ât a recent meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr. S. Watson presented a paper on a collection of plants recently made by Dr. E. Palmer, in Guadaloupe Island, off Lower California. It was found to contain 119 species, including twenty-one belonging to the higher cryptogamic orders, besides a dozen of probably recent introduction. The number of new species is twenty-two, with two new genera, almost all nearly allied to Californian species and genera. Of those before known, all are Californian, and most have a wide range through that State. The flora of Mexico is scarcely represented; but on the other handsome fresh indications are found of a connection between our western flora and that of South America. THE LOCUST PLAGUE.-Last year, Switzerland was afflicted by swarms of locusts; and a learned professor who surveyed the scene of their devastations recommended the government to use all available means to destroy the young which are deposited in the ground, and if left undisturbed come forth with voracious appetite in the following summer. Spain, as we learn by recent advices, is suffering from a visitation of the devourers in some of the southern provinces, and there, in like manner, the eggs are hatched in the earth, and with marvellous quickness. It is said that if a packet of the eggs be carried in a man's pocket, the heat of his body will hatch them in twelve hours. The Spanish government has sent soldiers into the threatened districts with orders to dig and destroy. They must be active, for the numbers of the enemy are almost incredible. It is on record that two years ago a train was stopped by masses of locusts piled up, like driven snow, along the railway. A Frenchman has discovered that pounded locusts squeezed up into round lumps are an attractive bait for fish. VARIETIES. FAMILY LIKENESSES AND VITALITY.-In spite of certain alterations, the typical features peculiar to the houses of Guise and Lorraine were transmitted to all their descendants through a long series of generations. The Bourbon countenance, the Condés' aquiline nose, the thick and protruding lower lip bequeathed to the house of Austria by a Polish princess, are well-known instances. We have only to look at a coin of our George III. to be reminded of our present royal family. During Addison's short ministry Mrs. Clarke, who solicited his favor, had been requested to bring with her the papers proving that she was Milton's daughter. But as soon as she entered his cabinet Addison said, "Madam, I require no further evidence. Your resemblance to your illustrious father is the best of all." The Comte de Pont, who died in 1867, at nearly a hundred, told Dr. Froissac that during the Restoration he often met in the salons of M. Desmousseaux de Givre, prefect of Arras, a man at whose approach he shuddered as he would at the sight of an apparition, so wonderfully was he like Robespierre. M. de Pont confided his impression to the prefect, who told him, smiling at his prejudice, that the person in question passed for Robespierre's natural son; that, in fact, it was a matter of notoriety. Next to family likenesses vitality or the duration of life is the most important character transmitted by inheritance. The two daughters of Victor Amadeus II., the Duchess of Burgundy and her sister Marie Louise, married to Philip V., both remarkable for their beauty, died at twenty-six. In the Turgot family fifty years was the usual limit of life. The great minister, on the approach of that term, although in good health, remarked to his friends that it was time to put his affairs in order; and he died, in fact, at fifty-three. In the house of Romanoff, the duration of life is short, inde pendent of the fact that several of its members met with violent deaths. The head of this illustrious race, Michael Federovitch, died at forty-nine; Peter the Great was scarcely fifty-three. The Empress Anne died at forty-seven; the tender-hearted Elizabeth at fifty-one. Of Paul's four sons, Alexander died at forty-eight, Constantine at forty-two, Nicholas at fifty-nine, and the Grand Duke Michael at fifty-one. In the houses of Saxony and Prussia, on the contrary, examples of longevity are far from rare. Frederick the Great, in spite of his continual wars and his frequent excesses at table, was seventy-four; Frederick William III. was seventy; the Emperor William, in his seventy-ninth year, is still hale and hearty. In all the countries of Europe, families of octogenarians, nonogenarians, and centenarians may be cited. On the 1st of April, 1716, there died in Paris a saddler of Doulevant, in Champagne, more than a hundred years old. To inspire Louis XIV. with the flattering hope of living as long, he was made, two years previously, to present that monarch with a bouquet on St. Louis' day. His father had lived one hundred and thirteen years, his grandfather one hundred and twelve. Jean Surrington, a farmer in the environs of Berghem, lived to be one hundred and sixty. The day before his death, in complete possession of his mental faculties, he divided his property among his children; the eldest was one hundred and three, and, what is still more extraordinary, the youngest was only nine. Jean Golembiewski (the oldest man in the French army, if still alive), who accompanied King Stanis las Leczinski into France, belonged to a family of centenarians. His father lived to be one hundred and thirty.-All the Year Round. hundred and twenty-one, his grandmother one THE SECRET OF MACAULAY'S POPULARITY. The first and most obvious secret of Macaulay's place on popular bookshelves is that he has a true genius for narration, and narration will always in the eyes not only of our squatters in the Australian bush, but of the many all over the world, stand first among literary gifts. The common run of plain men, as has been noticed since the beginning of the world, are as eager as children for a story, and like children they will embrace the man who will tell them a story, with abundance of details and plenty of color, and a realistic assurance that it is no mere make-believe. Macaulay never stops to brood over an incident or a character, with an inner eye intent on penetrating to the lowest depth of motive and cause, to the furthest complexity of impulse, calculation, and subtle incentive. The spirit of analysis is not in him, and the divine spirit of meditation is not in him. His whole mind runs in action and movement; it busies itself with eager interest in all objective particulars. He is seized by the external and the superfic. ial, and revels in every detail that appeals to the five senses. "The brilliant Macaulay,' said Emerson, with slight exaggeration, "who expresses the tone of the English governing classes of the day, explicitly teaches that good means good to eat, good to wear, material commodity." So ready a faculty of exultation in the exceeding great glories of taste and touch, of loud sound and glittering spectacle, is a gift of the utmost service to the narrator who craves immense audiences. Let it be said that if Macaulay exults in the details that go to our five senses, his sensuousness is always clean, manly, and fit for honest daylight and the summer sun. There is none of that curious odor of autumnal decay that clings to the passion of a more modern school for color and flavor and the enumerated treasures of subtle indulgence. The Fortnightly Review. HOW TO BREATHE PROPERLY.-Most people breathe properly, often more by accident or instinct than by design; but, on the other hand, hundreds of thousands do not breathe properly, while many thousands at this present moment are suffering from more or less severe affections of the lungs or throat, owing to a faulty mode of respiration-in other words, because they breathe through the mouth instead of through the nostrils. The mouth has its own functions to perform in connection with eating, drinking, and speaking; and the nostrils have theirs-namely, smelling and breathing. In summer-time the error of respiring through the mouth is not so evident as at the present season, when it is undoubtedly fraught with danger to the person who commits this mistake. If any one breathes through the natural channel, the nostrils, the air passing over the mucous membrane lining the various chambers of the nose becomes warmed to the temperature of the body before reaching the lungs; but if he takes in air between the lips and through the mouth, the cold air comes in contact with the delicate lining membrane of the throat and lungs, and gives rise to a local chill, frequently ending in inflammation. Many persons, without knowing the reason why they are benefited, wear respirators over the mouth in winter, if they happen to go out of doors. By doing this they diminish the amount of air which enters between the lips, and virtually compel themselves to breathe through the nostrils. But they could attain just the same result by keeping the lips closed, a habit which is easily acquired, and conduces to the proper and natural way of breathing. We believe that if people would only adopt this simple habit-in other words, if they would take for their rule in breathing, "Shut your mouth!" there would be an immense diminution in the two classes of affections— namely, those of the lungs and throat, which count many thousands of victims in this country in the course of a single year. Man is the only animal which has acquired the pernicious and often fatal habit of breathing through the mouth. It commences in childhood, and becomes confirmed in adult life, often engendering consumption, chronic bronchitis, relaxed sore throat, or some other disease of the lungs or throat, which is set down usually to a different cause altogether. In concluding this short article, we venture to ask our readers to judge for themselves. When they step out in the morning into the fresh but cold air, let them try the difference of feeling arising from the two modes of breathing-through the nostrils and between the lips. In the former case, they will find that they can breathe easily and freely, yet with comfort, while the fresh air, warmed to the temperature of the body by its contact with the nasal mucous membrane, is agreeable to the lungs; in the other case, if they draw in a few inspirations between the parted lips, the cold air, rushing in direct to the lungs, creates a feeling of coldness and discomfort, and an attack of coughing often comes on.-Public Health. TWO SONNETS. 1.-WINTER SORROW. A GREY and leaden sky, without a break, To miss the babbling of the ice-bound brook. To bid them drop their burden to the ground. The drift lies deeply piled before my door, My little garden, touched by winter's breath, Laid cold and smooth beneath his icy hand, Looks stark and changeless as the bed of death. 'Tis thus, my Heart, thy desolation chill Holds me, like cruel Winter, dumb and still. II. SPRING SORROW. Spare me that clear, triumphant song of praise, Ye opening buds, ye sounds and scents of spring, And bring the bitter memories thronging fast. Because my life is left me dark and cold; Only while earth and sky such joy express, I fain would turn me from their loveliness. A. E. J. |