INTERESTING TO ANTIQUARIANS.-A'discovery of interest to antiquarians has just been made at. Athens. Some years ago a rich Greek, by name Zeppa, died in Wallachia, bequeathing a large sum of money for the revival of the Olympian games, which were to be adapted to the requirements of modern society and civilization. After much controversy it was decided to erect an institution for this purpose in the large plot of land lying between the Palace Gardens and the Temple of Jupiter Olympus. About twelve years since several patches of mosaic of the Roman period, and some walls built of common stone and mortar, and of an apparently modern period, were accidentally unearthed at this very spot: but their nature was not such as to incite further excavations. Lately, however, while levelling the land for the site of the Olympian Exhibition building, the workmen found more remains of ancient constructions; and, after a few cart-loads of earth had been removed, the trunks of two statues larger than life were discovered. The statues were lying at a depth of only four feet at a spot where the ground rises gently into an almost imperceptible hillock-one is of a male, and the other of a female figure, and both are evidently of the Roman epoch. Their hands and arms are missing, but enough remains of them to deter mine the deities represented. These are Æsculapius and Hygeia. The legs of Esculapius were found broken off, also three fragments of the arm of Hygeia, holding a cup, into which the serpent descending from her left shoulder dips its head. Of this serpent five pieces also have been dug up.

PROFESSOR AGASSIZ: A CORRECTION.-Too late for the paragraph to be withdrawn, Professor Agassiz published a letter repudiating the sentiments attributed to him in our item of last month headed "The Anatomy of the Negro." We had noticed the item in the newspapers some time ago, but declined to give it currency until it had ap peared in leading English scientific journals, and until ample time had elapsed for such correction as might be needful. Following is the letter:

CAMBRIDGE, May 6, 1873-7 o'clock P.M. DEAR SIR: I am truly grateful to you for calling upon me and giving me an opportunity of rebuking anew a slander which has already been several times brought up against me, notwithstanding my positive denial of the charge. Some six or seven years ago I delivered a lecture upon the races of men, a burlesque report of which appeared in some paper, from which it was wholly copied. While in Washington, applying to Congress for relief from taxation for alcohol used for scientific purposes, the absurd statements of that report were brought against me in the Senate, when I requested our Senator, the Hon. Henry Wilson, to read a written answer I then made

against these ridiculous imputations. The very same story is now brought up of my having said that "the blood of the negro is chemically a very different fluid from that which flows in the veins of white men," and other nonsense. Every educated man in the country knows that I am not a chemist, and that for me to make such an assertion would simply make me the laughing stock of the learned world. Other parts of the report, about bones, etc., are quite as absurd. These insinuations, however, had an object with those who made them, and I cannot better meet the whole than by stating that I have been wishing all my life for the better education of all my fellow-creatures, men and women, without regard to color or to position in society. I believe that there are few men who have educated gratuitously as many of their fellow-men as I have, and I can afford to despise the wild and malicious remarks which in this respect are circulated against me.

Very respectfully yours, LS. AGASSIZ.

To the Hon. Joshua B. Smith, member of the House of Representatives.

ON THE POINTED EAR IN MAN.-Professor

L. Meyer, of Göttingen, criticises the assumption that the pointed ear in man is a relic of a lower species. In Darwin's book on the Descent of Man there is a paragraph, illustrated by a woodcut, in which he asserts that certain processes which occasionally occur in the ears of men, are of a similar nature to the points in the ears of apes. These pointed processes are situated, says the British Medical Journal, on the anterior margin of the helix, near its upper part. The author of the present paper points out, however, that in most human ears there are irregularities in the development of the helix, especially at this part. In some cases the helix is almost entirely wanting, in some there are greater or smaller gaps in it; and what Darwin looks on as points of processes, are really produced not by an outgrowth from the helix, but by gaps existing on each side of the apparent process. A case is given where the helix was absent, but at intervals there were small knobs, three in number, which were all that represented the rudimentary helix. It is, therefore, concluded that Darwin's pointed car is no indication of a return to the ape-like form.

A SUBSTITUTE FOR COAL.-Sheffield, it is said, is about to give to the world a greater benefactor than Watts. The price of coal has been one of the great questions of the hour, and the probable exhaustion of the coal-fields has made those interested in posterity very uncomfortable. Now we are to get a substitute, and one, too, of which there is an unlimited supply. If air, as is proposed, can be used as fuel, neither colliers, nor coal-owners, nor railway companies will have us at their mercy, and our tempers will, as a matter of course, be much improved. Mr. Wright's

invention for warming and lighting is already patented. In passing through a charged battery atmospheric air is carbonized, and thus combustible air is produced, which burns brighter than coal-gas, and when mixed with air has a heating power which can melt copper wire. The price of the gas would 6d. for every 1,000 cubic feet, but as the consumption is more rapid the actual cost would be 9d. Should this idea be brought into successful operation, the world will be a much happier place to live in, and Mr. Wright will no doubt be made a baronet.

one.

VARIETIES.

SNEEZING. The custom of invoking a blessing upon persons who sneeze is, says Dr. Seguin in a recent article on sneezing, a most interesting Several old medical authors state that the custom dates back from the time of a severe epidemic (in which sneezing was a bad sign) during the pontificate of Gregory the Great. Brand, however, and the author of an article in "Rees's Cyclopædia," state that the phrase "God bless you," as addresed to persons having sneezed, is much more ancient, being old in the days of Aristotle. The Greeks appear to have traced it back to the mythical days of Prometheus, who is reported to have blessed his man of clay when he sneezed. In Brand the rabbinical account is given, that the phrase originated in the alleged fact that it was only through Jacob's struggle with the angel that sneezing ceased to be an act fatal to man. In many countries, sneezing has been the subject of congratulations and of hopeful augury. In Mesopotamia and some African towns, the populace is reported to have shouted when their monarchs sneezed. Sometimes, moreover, it is very important not to sneeze; and Dr. Seguin has discovered what had been discovered before, but is insufficiently known, that sneezing may be prevented by forcibly rubbing the skin below and on either side of the nose. And on this observation of himself, and of Marshall Hall, Diday, and the world generally before them, he bases an exceedingly interesting study of the physiology of sneezing in health and disease.-London Medical Record.

FLOWERS AND HEALTH.-There have not been wanting plenty of alarmists as to the perils of sleeping in rooms where large quantities of particular kinds of flowers have been temporarily deposited; sometimes, no doubt, with good reason, for it has been proved by experience that certain individuals are affected seriously by certain odors, the odoriferous matter being not a mere invisible aura, but a substantial exhalation, capable of being taken up after the same manner as the gases produced by sundry chemical experiments. The narcissus, the wall-flower, and several others, appear to have furnished definite

cases of this nature. Similar charges have been brought, more or less justly, against certain trees, shrubs, and even herbaceous plants, invisible emanations from which are reputed to cause nausea, insensibility, and even death, the famous fable of the Upas having a fractional amount of truthful realization. The Manchineel tree of the West Indies, and certain American species of Rhus are generally understood to be capable of thus vitiating and even poisoning the atmosphere that immediately envelops them, though the effects are manifested only in persons who are predisposed to suffer from malaria. These statements rest, no doubt, upon a certain basis of fact, but more numerous observations, and greater precision in determining how much is bonâ fide cause, and how much is veritable effect, are still degree to which plants can injure man seriously needed in order to a right apprehension of the through his nostrils. Simple unpleasantness of odor is of course quite another thing, often a matter merely of fancy or education, and cannot be in any degree associated with deleterious qualities in the plant affording it, since we have noisome scents in some of the harmless labiatæ, such as the Stachys sylvatica and the Ballota nigra, the very name of which last, facetiously derived from ballien, to "cast away," is intended to imply its unanimous rejection by respectable noses, or at all events by the average nose of civilized vicious properties that afford scent truly delicious Europe, while, per contra, there are plants of -as, for example, the common mezereon. With modern science to give us lessons, we find, however, that the ill effects produced by the odors of one set of plants and flowers are balanced, perhaps quite overmatched, by the good effects of other sets. Most of us have heard of "ozone." It is one of those capital ingredients of the world that have existed from the beginning, but which have only of late years been actually recognized, and consists, in plain English, of highly electrified oxygen, the gas, when so electrified, acquiring specially good qualities in regard to the general health of mankind. Professor Montegazza, of Padua, states that certain plants and flowers, upon exposure to the rays of the sun, cause so large an increase in the quantity of ozone round about, as to be eminently conducive to a better condition of the atmosphere, of course with the understanding that there is proper ventilation, such as will carry off the excess of purely odorous matter that may arise from them. Among these ozone manufacturers of the botanical world are the cherry laurel (poisonous in its leaves and kernels), the clove, lavender, mint, fennel, the lemon tree, and others; also the narcissus, the heliotrope, the hyacinth, and mignonette. Certain prepared perfumes, similarly exposed to the sunshine, add further to the atmospheric stock of ozone, the well-known Eau-de-Cologne, for instance, oil of bergamot, ex

tract of mille-fleurs, essence of lavender, and some of the aromatic tinctures. The oxidation of certain essential oils obtained from plants and flowers, such as the oils of nutmeg, aniseed, thyme, and peppermint, is likewise indicated by the professor as a source of ozone, though the supply of this pleasant aërial condiment is in the case of these less considerable. Dr. Mantegazza recommends accordingly the large and sedulous cultivation of ozone-producing plants in all districts and localities where the atmosphere is liable to be corrupted, marshy places in particular, in which last, according to Dr. Cornelius Fox, in his recent comprehensive work upon ozone, it is impossible for any better sanitary agent to be introduced than the common sunflower. This plant, happily able to make itself quite at home in the poorest cottage backyard, has been shown not only to purify the atmosphere of marshy places, removing a very decided amount of the miasmata ordinarily there engendered, but to confer the positive benefit of augmenting the quantity of ozone. People are recommended often to the seaside, or to special marine watering-places, for the sake of their reputed wealth in ozone. Should we not move a vote of thanks to the man who has shown us how to arrange for supplies upon our own premises?—The Garden.

GENERAL LEE AS A COMMANDER.-Is it therefore asserted that Lee as a commander was faultless? Far from it. We say it with all humility, but without any doubt, that from first to last he committed most grave errors-errors which only his other high qualities prevented from being fatal to his reputation. Chief of these was his permitting the continuance of the laxity of discipline which throughout the war clogged the movements of the Confederates, and robbed their most brilliant victories of their reward. The fatal habit of straggling from the ranks on the least pretext; the hardly less fatal habit of allowing each man to load himself with any superfluous arms or clothes he chose to carry; the general want of subordination to trifling orders, which was the inheritance of their volunteer origin: these evils Lee found in full existence when he took command before Richmond, and he never strove to check them. Add to this, that though never careless of the good of his soldiers, he failed altogether to enforce on the Confederate Government the vital necessity of bringing the supply of their wants more directly under the control of those who commanded them; so that at the last they were absolutely starving in Richmond, whilst the War Department there, uninspired by the proper energy for its task, had left large supplies scattered on the line of railroad leading to the Carolinas. And, lastly, there must rest on him the grave responsibility, shared certainly by, but not wholly falling on his favorite cavalry commander, of misusing the limited supplies of horseflesh at his disposal in repeating brilliant but unserviceable marches; so that in the

last campaign the Confederates were left almost destitute of that most necessary arm. These are

grave charges. But the errors cited all plainly sprang from one flaw in Lee's character-the too yielding generosity of his nature, which made him reluctant to enforce upon others that self-denial he never forgot in his own person. Trifling matters they seemed at the first. The very modesty of temperament which prevented his correcting them might, in another situation, have won him fresh admiration. But as the war went on, the rifts caused by indiscipline and carelessness in the Confederate armor widened more and more, and in the end these faults were hardly less fatal to the fortunes of the South than the greater material resources of her adversary.-Edinburgh Review.

CHINESE LADIES.-How do they marry in China, and what is the position of woman? These vital and interesting questions are answered in this way-matches are made by the parents of the parties, not by the parties themselves. "Making love," as we call it, therefore, is not a fine art in Peking. Children are sometimes betrothed at a very early age. There are cases where brokers or go-betweens are made use of, and marriage is the result. The rule is one wife; and she is the legal wife, and presides over the household. But other wives are permitted, which may be termed illegal or left-handed; these rarely exceed one in number, but sometimes are two or three. It is not highly reputable, and is excused when the first wife proves barren. The great desire of every Chinese is to have children to sweep his grave and venerate his memory. The children of the second wives, however, are legal, and have precisely the same rights as those of the first. These second wives are sometimes bought for money, and are sometimes taken out of the public houses of courtezans, when their beauty or charms have fascinated a man. The sons who marry bring the wives to the father's house, where they have their own rooms, but make one household. It is understood that women do not quariel in Peking, but the fact needs verification. Most women do not read, nor is promiscuous visiting allowed. They go out attended by their sons, or by some male relative. Nor do they go to the theatres with their husbands; but they may and do have special entertainments. Accomplishments, such as dancing and singing, being some of the arts of public women, it is not reputable for ladies to do these things. They use white and red paint on their faces freely, which does not improve them in the eyes of Europeans. These women are said to be amiable, cheerful, and industrious: such virtues their education requires, and such their habits of life seem to produce. These virtues, it is expected, we shall receive in large measure, in return for sewing-machines, india-rubber shoes, and lucifer matches.-Dublin University Maga

zine.