equal it, or convince us that she had equalled it, on a second trial. It is a Compared, however, not with its author's previous work, but with the current novels which along with it claim public attention, "Hero Carthew" shows its really fine qualities. strong, healthful, invigorating, and suggestive story; a genuine study in human nature, and not a mere string of adventures or fantastically intri cate mystery. With the simplest and apparently the most commonplace materials Mrs. Parr constructs a story which holds the interest from beginning to end, and it is a tribute to the genuineness of her art that Combe-Mallett becomes a real place to us, and that the characters on its little stage develop before us each after its kind as gradually and as logically as in real life, and far more clearly. "Hero Carthew" is not a great novel, such as Mrs. Parr may one day write, but it comes up to a high standard in all respects, and will insure the reader some hours of very pleasant and very wholesome entertainment. I Go A-FISHING. By W. C. Prime. NewYork: Harper & Bros. We have found it considerably harder to classify this book than to read it, and are in doubt still whether to speak of it as a fishing manual, a novel, a book of travel, a collection of essays, or an autobiography. It belongs in part to all these branches of literature, is every thing by turns and nothing long, and leaves the reader at last with the impression that he has been on an excursion filled with contrasts and surprises and apparent incongruities, but with a certain underlying method and system in all its eccentricity. Practical information for amateur fishermen, Biblical and literary criticism, tales of romance and adventure, lively character-sketches, and fine descriptions of natural scenery, are brought together in promiscuous succession; and the whole forms a genuine summer book, eminently readable and entertaining, and suggestive of the moods which come over one who "goes a fishing" for the love of it. ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES. By William Cullen Bryant. New-York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. This volume will be cordially welcomed by all Mr. Bryant's admirers-in other words, by the entire body of educated American readers. It preserves in handsome and appropriate style all the more important orations and addresses which Bryant has delivered during his long career; and contains what we think is beyond question his best prose work. The Orations are five in number, and among them are the admirable eulogies on Thomas Cole, Cooper, and Washington Irving, the latter of which has never been surpassed in its way, and still remains the most appreciative estimate that we have of Irving's character and work. There are fourteen of the shorter Addresses, all of them showing the same catholic spirit of genial and yet discriminating admiration for all that is good in literature or in art. The best perhaps are the one delivered at the Press Banquet to Kossuth, the Plea for the Better Culture of Native Fruits, and the address advocating the establishment of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; but all will repay reading, and most of them recall to the reader's mind important incidents in the literary and artistic growth of the nation. APPLETON'S AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1872. New-York: D. Appleton & Co. The issue of the "Annual Cyclopedia" for 1872 presents all those features which have caused previous volumes to be recognised as the best accessible work of its kind, as the only one in fact which is at once comprehensive enough and reliable enough to meet the wants of the student. All the important events of the year are duly recorded under their appropriate heads; biogra phies are given of all noted men whose death fell within its limits; literary progress both at home and abroad is critically examined; and there ar very complete statistics on all matters, political, industrial, and commercial. Perhaps the most valuable feature of the work is its "Public Documents,' ," which are always given in full, and which in the present volume appear to be unusually copious and noteworthy. There are finely-engraved portraits of Mr. Greeley, Alexander H. Stephens, and Prof. S. F. B. Morse; and the volume altogether is one which no library or student can dispense with. FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES. THE Welsh are about to erect a statue, at Bala, to Charles of Bala, one of the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society. M. VICTOR HUGO has just finished the book upon which he has been engaged since last summer. It will, be entitled "Quatrevingttreize," with, as the first series, "La Guerre Civile." THE French Academy has decided to fill up, on the first Thursday in November, the fauteuils vacant through the deaths of MM. SaintMarc Girardin, Lebrun, and Louis Vitet. A PENSION of 300 per annum has been conferred on Dr. Livingstone, in recognition of the value of his researches in Central Africa. During Livingstone's absence the pension will be paid into the hands of trustees. THE Daily News understands that the autobiography which Mr. Mill has left behind him, with instructions for its immediate publication, is comprised within very narrow limits, and will make a volume not much larger than his essay "On Liberty." WE learn from Nature that M. Thiers is now busy studying geology for the purpose of writing an essay on the destiny of mankind. He will take an anti-Darwinian view of the question. M. Daubree is his teacher for geology. He was taught in astronomy ten years ago by M. Leverrier, and in natural philosophy by M. Mascart, lecturer at the Collège de France. MR. CLEMENTS MARKHAM is about to publish, in London, a work on the subject of Arctic Ex ploration, entitled 'The Threshold of the Unknown Region,' in which he will relate the events connected with all the principal voyages which have touched the boundary of the region as yet unexplored around the North Pole. He will also discuss the best route by which the unvisited area may be examined, and describe the important scientific results to be derived from Arctic exploration. THE Trustees of the British Museum have purchased the correspondence which formed the basis of Mr. J. L. Cherry's recently-published Life of John Clare,' "the Northamptonshire 6 Peasant Poet." There are more than eleven hundred letters, and among the writers were Charles Lamb, Thomas Hood, Allan Cunningham, Admiral Lord Radstock, Sir Charles Elton, Cary, the translator of Dante,' Hilton the painter, Behnes the sculptor, and many others. THE third volume of the Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston,' by the late Lord Dalling, will appear in the autumn. Contrary to what was at one time intended, a fourth volume is in preparation, the materials for which will be supplied by the Right Hon. W. F. CowperTemple. It will, it is believed, be edited by the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, who was for some years Private Secretary to Lord Palmerston. Lord Dalling's Sketches of Sir R. Peel, Lord Melbourne, and Lafayette will also be published before very long. THE Tabard Inn, London, the scene of Chau works. Once in possession of a literary rarity he could scarcely be induced to part with it, and often purposely put on it an extravagant price, to prevent purchasers depriving him of the custody of his cherished treasure. In 1834 M. Techener started the Bulletin du Bibliophile, a monthly periodical, well known in the literary world, and in which he wrote some interesting bibliographical papers. As a publisher we have to thank him for elegant and accurate reprints of a great many curious books which otherwise would have been lost or undeservedly forgotten. THE correspondence of the late Mr. John Stuart Mill was extensive and various, and can not be too soon or too carefully collected and collated. The executors of the late Mr. John Sterling must be in the possession of many valuable letters. Mr. John Robertson, who was editor of the London and Westminster Review when Mr. Mill was the proprietor, received many notes and Lord Ashburton and Lord letters from him. Overstone are likely to have several valuable letters in their archives. But the most curious correspondence, perhaps, in which John Stuart Mill was ever engaged, was a discussion, which he carried on for some months, in French (a language which he talked and wrote fluently and admirably), with Auguste Comte, respecting women. The exalted opinion which Mill held of the sex is well known, and Comte controverted it by maintaining that "the intelligence of women amounted at best to only a small instantaneous sagacity." THE extensive library of the late M. Serge Sobolewski, of Moscow, was sold at Leipzig on the 14th of July, and following days. M. Sobolewski was well known as an eminent collector of bibliographical, literary, and especially geographi cal works, in all the European languages. He was a great traveller, constantly on the wing; but while travelling in Germany, France, England, Italy, or Spain, his chief aim was ever to enrich his already large collection. His complete set of De Bry's Grands et Petits Voyages,' in Latin and German, may be said to be almost unique; the 85 parts, bound in 55 vols., being very seldom, if ever, met with in good condition. this subject, M. Sobolewski wrote to M. J. Ch. Brunet an interesting letter, which was inserted in the first volume of the last edition of the rable and historical building would have long of geography and travels included in the Manuel du Libraire.' Among the early books cer's "Canterbury Pilgrims," has been brought to the hammer, but the highest bid procurable for the premises and space of 29,000 feet which they cover being only £21,000, the property was bought in for the proprietors. This, however, is but a momentary respite, for the chances are that the property will, by private contract, change hands. In a letter to the Times, Lord Ronald Gower says "In any other country such a vene since been cared for by the State-it would have been converted into a place like the Hôtel Cluny, at Paris. Is there not enough enterprise in this town to preserve such a landmark of old England from destruction?" On the ninth of June died, in Paris, M. Techener, the well-known bookseller, who, since 1817, was the successful discoverer of many scarce and curious books, autographs, and palæographical ་ On sale, we may quote, 'Itinerarium Portugallensium,' Milan, 1508; Ruchamer's 'Newe Unbekannte Landte,' Nürenberg, 1508; another, until now unknown, edition of the same book, in "Plattdeutsch," translated by H. Ghetelen, and likewise printed in the same year by G. Stuchs; 'Berlinghieri Geographia,' Firenze, circa 1480: Mandeville's Travels, in Italian, Bononiæ, 1488: a German translation of the same book, Strass burg, J. Prüssz, 1483; 'Isolario de B. Zamberto' but the ingenious Frenchman employs his maVenezia, circa 1477, &c. WE understand, says the Athenæum, that a volume of very great interest has recently been acquired for the Library of the British Museum, namely, one of the rarest works of Tyndale, the great Reformer, and first translator of the New Testament into modern English. It is entitled, 'The Exposition of the Fyrste Epistle of Seynt Jhon, with a Prologge before it by W. T.’ There is no place of imprint mentioned, but there is every reason to believe that it was printed at Antwerp, and the date of publication is given at the end as "the yere of our lorde, 1531, in September." Tyndale was then living at Antwerp, and a copy of this very work fell into the hands of one Vaughan, who had been commissioned by the English Government to watch over Tyndale's movements, and, if possible, inveigle him to return to England. Vaughan sent the book to Cromwell, requesting him to lay it before the King, which we presume was done. In the following year it was strictly prohibited, and Sir Thomas More, in his Confutacyon of Tyndale's Answere,' alludes to it in the following sarcastic and bitter terms: "Then have we fro Tyndale the fyrste pystle of Saynte John in suche wyse expowned, that I dare say that blessed Apostle rather then his holy wordes were in suche a sense byleved of all Crysten people hadde lever his pystle hadde never been put in wrytynge." The animosity shown by Sir Thomas More towards Tyndale was of the most intense kind, and he used every exertion to get him into his power with a view to having him burnt as a heretic, to such lengths was the odium theologicum carried in those days! The copy of Tyndale's work thus secured for our great public library is of the first edition, and is believed to be unique. Copies of a later edition are in the Bodleian and the Cathedral Library at St. Paul's, but there was no copy of either in the British Museum until the recent purchase was effected. SCIENCE AND ART. chine on a small scale to do all the work in what UTILIZING "WASTE COAL."-The Iron and Steel Institute have held a meeting in London, where they gave a good account of their progress; and Mr. T. R. Crampton, C.E., showed that the important problem-How to utilize coal-dust? had been satisfactorily solved. A puddling furnace has been set up at Woolwich. When this furnace is in operation, a stream of air and coaldust is blown in; the combustion is perfect; there is no smoke; and the iron is of much better quality than that puddled in the ordinary way. The same method is applicable to all kinds of furnaces, and thus it would appear at last that there will no longer be what is called 'waste coal.' The heaps of waste' in the mining districts will now fetch a good price; and owners of steamships will find that powdered coal is better than lumps. Mr. Crampton remarked, in concluding his discourse, that his main object was to subserve higher purposes by effectually utilizing refuse coal;' and that he hoped to see the day when, on the departure of the great mail-steamers, 'the stream of fuel would be turned on Southampton, and not turned off till the vessel reached India.' Another important fact made known to the meeting was a contrivance by which the ponderous rollers of a rolling-mill can be made to reverse their direction without shock and SOME SCIENTIFIC NOVELTIES.-Among scientific novelties we hear of improvements in telegraphy, without stopping the engine. by which from four hundred to six hundred words can be flashed along the wires in a minute-Of a chemical preparation of tar, which, at a very trifling cost, adds enormously to the insulating properties of gutta-percha, and consequently facilitates the transmission of messages. From this it may be inferred that in the course of the next few years the achievements of telegraphy will border on the wonderful-Of magneto-electricity for purposes of illumination, to be tried on a grand scale on the clock-tower of the Houses of Parliament, where the machine will be driven by a four-horse power steam-engine. This is Mons. Gramme's invention applied on a great scale; at THE RAINFALL IN SWITZERLAND.-The Swiss government has published meteorological reports about the rainfall of Switzerland, which contain particulars of much interest to meteorologists everywhere, and especially to those of western Europe. The average rainfall in the year for the whole of Switzerland is about four feet. Contrary to what has been observed in our own Lake district, the average fall at all the stations below 1200 metres in height is somewhat more than at those at a higher elevation. But there are stations where the quantity is almost incredible, the most noteworthy being the Bernardin, shown by a fall of more than 64 feet of rain in 1871. The Grim sel ranks next in order, and almost equals the Bernardin. It is supposed that when the returns for 1872 are made up, the Bernardin will show a rainfall of twenty feet at least. A TESTING-MACHINE.-A new form of testingmachine has been constructed in the United States for testing the tensile strength of bridge-bolts, chains, ropes, whether of metal or hemp, in any length, and boiler-plates. And it is so arranged as to test the resistance of metal or stone by crushing, which will be recognised as important by practical men, who know that a compression test is often as essential as a pulling test. Transverse strain and torsion in any material can also be tested by this new machine, which is so contrived that the weighing levers are at one end, and the power, consisting of a hydraulic pump and jack that run upon wheels, at the other. A one-pound weight placed in the disk suspended from the beam will apply a strain of one thousand pounds. From the description, it appears that the machine is in equipoise before the specimen is in place, and is so nicely adjusted, that when a strain of fifty or seventy-five tons is being made, a half ounce weight will immediately turn the beam, and break the specimen if the necessary strain has been reached. A NEW KIND OF MAGNET.-One difficulty in the way of using magneto-electric machines is the weight of the magnets, especially when high power is required. This difficulty has been overcome by Mr. Jamin, a distinguished French physicist, who constructs his magnets of a large number of thin steel plates, instead of a few thick ones. Each plate is thoroughly magnetised beforehand, so that when the mass is brought together, a magnet is produced which will carry twenty-two times its own weight. This result is as satisfactory as it is surprising, and will no doubt be turned to good account by the makers of magnetoelectric instruments. A REAL "SAFETY-LAMP."-Mr. Teale, of Manchester, has invented a new safety-lamp for the use of miners. It gives double the light of the lamp at present in use, at one half of the cost; and if the miner attempts to tamper with it, the light at once goes out. The oil which feeds the light is contained in a sponge, consequently there can be no spilling of oil by an upset. We learn too that in the Harecastle collieries, a new lock for safety-lamps has been in use for about three years. It is a lock which locks itself, but can be unlocked only by a powerful magnet. This mag. net is kept in a strong box under charge of a trustworthy keeper; and thus it would be impossible for a miner to open his lamp, and incur the danger of an explosion, while at work. AN ELECTRO-STATIC UNIT OF MEASUREMENT. -Among the papers with which the Royal Society brought their session to a close was one by Mr. M'Kichan, of Glasgow, not easy to explain popularly, but of high importance to men of science. In applications of electricity it is essential to have some measure of its velocity and force; and after much experiment, electricians have devised an instrument, and established a certain unit' as a standard. They have an elec. tro-static unit, and an electro-magnetic-unit, and to determine the relation between the two in absolute measure is one of the nicest and most interesting problems in the science of the day. The paper above mentioned is a valuable help towards the much-desired determination; but more than this, it has a relative value, as may be explained in a few words. If we could determine absolutely the velocity of electricity, we should have an infallible standard to which men of science could if it were demonstrated that the velocity of elec refer as long as the world endures. For example, tricity is a given number of feet in a second, that velocity being a law of nature, would remain unaltered. Then suppose thousands of ages hence it became a question: What was the length of the foot in 1873? the savants of that far future day could easily answer the question by an experiment on the velocity of electricity in a second of time Nature's standard would enable them to test all other standards. As connected with this subject, we may mention that present investigations point towards a proof that the velocity of light and of electricity are the same. SIZE OF THE HUMAN HEAD.-We find in the Revue Scientifique a very interesting lecture delivered by Dr. Broca at a late sitting of the Anthropological Society of Paris. The learned physiologist stated that in 1861 he had had his attention called to the subject of the influence of education on the development of the human head, and that, being surgeon at Bicêtre at the time, he had measured the heads of the servants and the medical students at that establishment. About 1836, Parchappe had effected the measurement of the heads of ten workmen, and as many men of distinguished learning, and he found those of the latter to be much more voluminous than the others, and especially distinguishable by a great development of the frontal region. These results were the more remarkable because of the author's known antipathy to Gall's system of phrenology; but Dr. Broca thought them insufficient, inasmuch as they did not exactly show whether the difference was owing to education or merely to natural intellectual superiority. His measures being especially taken with this view, his ultimate conclusion is that the cultivation of the mind exercises brain, and that this action particularly tends to a special influence on the development of the increase the volume of the frontal lobes, which are considered to be the seat of the higher intellectual faculties. This view is corroborated by a very curious result he obtains from a comparison of Parchappe's measure of his learned men with those of the unlearned; in the case of the former the frontal development was considerable, while in the case of the latter it was the posterior part of the brain that had grown more than the anterior. PRESERVATION OF ARTICLES OF FOOD.-Some striking illustrations of the value of applying a low temperature in the preservation of articles of food has been recently recorded by M. Boussingault, whose paper is published in the Comptes Rendus for January 27. He has found that beeftea, submitted to a temperature of 4° F. for several hours, has remained in a perfectly good condition for eight years. Samples of sugar-cane juice, similarly treated, have also been found in an excellent state of preservation after being kept for years. Both the sugar juice and the beeftea had been kept in carefully closed vessels. PROFESSOR MARSH'S DISCOVERY: A NEW GROUP OF FOSSIL BIRDS.-A new sub-class of fossil birds with biconcave vertebræ has been quite recently discovered by Prof. O. C. Marsh. The fossils were described some time before; but the discoverer says that they prove on further investigation to possess some additional characters, which separate them still more widely from all known recent and fossil forms. The type species of this group (Ichthyornis dispar, Marsh) has well-developed teeth in both jaws. These teeth were quite numerous, and implanted in distinct sockets. They are small, compressed and pointed, and all of those preserved are similar. Those in the lower jaws number about twenty in each ramus, and are all more or less inclined backward. The series extends over the entire upper margin of the dentary bone, the front tooth being very near the extremity. The maxillary teeth appear to have been equally numerous, and essentially the same as those in the mandible. The skull is of moderate size, and the eyes were placed well forward. The lower jaws are long and slender, and the rami were not closely united at the symphysis. They are abruptly truncated just behind the articulation for the quadrate. This extremity, and especially its articulation, is very similar to that in some recent aquatic birds. The jaws were apparently not encased in a horny sheath. The scapular arch, and the bones of the wings and legs, all conform closely to the true ornithic type. The sternum has a prominent keel, and elongated grooves for the expanded coracoids. The wings were large in proportion to the legs, and the humerus had an extended radial crest. The metacarpals are united, as in ordinary birds. The bones of the posterior extremities resemble those in swimming birds. The vertebræ are all biconcave, the concavities at each end of the centra being distinct, and nearly alike. Whether the tail was elongated cannot at present be determined, but the last vertebra of the sacrum was unusually large. This bird was fully adult, and about as large as a pigeon. With the exception of the skull, the bones do not appear to have been pneumatic, although most of them are hollow. The species was carnivorous, and probably aquatic. The bird belongs to the new sub-class Odontornithes, and to the new order Ichthyornithes. PREVENTION OF WASTE IN MANUFACTURE. In the economy of trade and manufactures, there is nothing more interesting than the prevention of waste, or the discovery of a way by which waste materials may be turned to profitable uses. A remarkable case in point has recently occurred. In the manufacture of the beautiful blue and violet dyes that make silken textures and the wearers thereof look so beautiful, there has always been produced a large quantity of a dark-colored substance, known among chemists as "Hofmann's gum." In some aniline dye-works, the accumulation of this refuse amounts to hundreds of tons, and has long been a hideous burden. But recently, Mr. J. Spiller, a member of the Chemical Society, has discovered that by the process which chemists describe as "destructive distillation," blue and violet dyes, quite as good as those extracted in the first instance, can be got out of this waste gum; and so, as if by magic, the hideous heaps now lying in the outskirts of many chemical works in this country and on the continent become valuable as gold mines, and enterprising chemists reap the reward. Another instance is reported from Cornwall. The drainage of certain mines there is discharged from a great adit, and flows into the sea. A few enterprising individuals rented a piece of waste land at the outfall, dug a few catch-pits, into which the water poured, and threw down a sediment, ere it finally escaped. This sediment is ochre, useful for paint and many other purposes, and the quantity collected in this simple way in one year was about two thousand tons, worth from eleven to twenty-five shillings a ton. These economisers, however, have let some of their profit slip, for a keen contriver dug a pit to intercept their waste water, and in the same year got three hundred pounds' worth of ochre as the reward of his inSouthern Italy, where the people squeeze oil from genuity. One more example comes to us from olives in common wooden presses, and burn the husks as fuel. A Frenchman from Marseilles twenty francs a ton; shipped them to France, went among them, and bought the husks at where, after treating them chemically, he squeezed them in a steam-press, and extracted therefrom twenty per cent of oil. NEW BASIS FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH.-Dentists are now making use of celluloid, a new substance composed of gun-cotton, as a basis for the fixing of artificial teeth. It is a substitute for india-rubber; and being light, strong, elastic, and free from mineral ingredients, is an excellent ma terial for the purpose, and can be kept in the mouth without unpleasant or hurtful conse. |