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 beef

tea 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

quences. Another advantage is that, when colored, it is a perfect imitation of the gums.

VARIETIES.

THE KOO-TOO.-The performance of the kootoo or kow-tow, a degrading ceremonial on being formally presented to the emperor of China, has been a fertile source of discord, few embassadors from any European court being willing to submit to so very odious an act of abasement. Lord Macartney, in 1793, condescended to go through the ceremony in a perfunctory way, which was accepted as sufficient. Lord Amherst, however, in 1816, declined to do even so much; and it is doubtful if any English ambassador will ever again be expected to perform the koo-too in proper style. Any one wishing to know what the ceremony really is, may satisfy his curiosity by perusing the account given of the reception of an ambassador from the Czar Peter of Russia, in 1719, the writer being John Bell of Autremoney, a Scottish gentleman attached to the Russian

court.

On the day,' says this amusing chronicler, 'appointed for the publick audience of the emperor, horses were brought to our lodgings for the ambassador and his retinue; the emperor being then at a country house, called Tzanshuyang, about six miles westward from Pekin. We mounted at eight in the morning, and about ten arrived at court; where we alighted at the gate, which was guarded by a strong party of soldiers. The commanding officers conducted us into a large room, where we drank tea, and staid about half an hour till the emperor was ready to receive us. We then entered a spacious court, inclosed with high brick walls, and regularly planted with several rows of forest-trees, about eight inches diameter, which I took to be limes. The walks are spread with small gravel; and the great walk is terminated by the hall of audience, behind which are the emperor's private apart

ments.

On each side of the great walk are flowerplots and canals. As we advanced, we found all the ministers of state, and officers belonging to the court, seated upon fur cushions, cross-legged, before the hall, in the open air; among these, places were appointed for the ambassador and his retinue; and in this situation we remained, in a cold frosty morning, till the emperor came into the hall. During this interval, there were only two or three servants in the hall, and not the least noise was heard from any quarter. The entry to the hall is by seven marble steps, the whole length of the building. The floor is finely paved with a neat checker-work of white and black marble. The edifice is quite open to the south; and the roof supported by a row of handsome wooden pillars, octangular, and finely polished; before which is hung a large canvas, as a shelter from the heat of the sun or inclemencies of the weather.

'After we had waited about a quarter of an hour, the emperor entered the hall at the backdoor, and seated himself upon the throne; upon which all the company stood. The master of the ceremonies now desired the ambassador, who was at some distance from the rest, to walk into the hall; and conducted him by one hand, while he held his credentials in the other. Having ascended the steps, the letter was laid on a table placed for that purpose, as had been previously agreed; but the emperor beckoned to the ambassador, and directed him to approach; which he no sooner perceived, than he took up the credentials, and attended by Aloy, walked up to the throne and, kneeling, laid them before the emperor, who touched them with his hand, and inquired after his Czarish majesty's health. He then told the ambassador that the love and friendship he entertained for his majesty were such that he had even dispensed with an established custom of the empire in receiving his letter.

'During this part of the ceremony, which was not long, the retinue continued standing without the hall; and we imagined, the letter being delivered, all was over. But the master of the ceremonies brought back the ambassador, and then ordered all the company to kneel and make obeisance nine times to the emperor. At every third time we stood up and kneeled again. Great pains were taken to avoid this piece of homage, but without success.

The master of the ceremo

nies stood by and delivered his orders in the Tartar language, by pronouncing the words Morgu and boss; the first meaning to bow, and the other to stand; two words which I cannot soon forget.'-Chambers's Journal.

POWER OF TALKING.-Johnson, perhaps, set the fashion of estimating the capacities of a man by his colloquial powers. His opinion of Burke was, that you could not talk with him for five minutes without saying, “This is an extraordinary man." Johnson honored a man who fairly put his mind to his. If we pass in review the most eminent of those who are remembered as conversationists, I doubt whether we shall find a single name that can be for a moment opposed to Johnson. Curran, as a converser, was infinitely Burke's superior. As a converser, Curran was, indeed, the first man of his day-of a day of intellectual giants. Horne Tooke, with all his repect and friendship for Grattan, allowed Curran to be superior in wit to Grattan.

"Curran's the

man who struck me most," wrote Lord Byron. "The riches of his Irish imagination were exhaustless. I have heard that man speak more poetry than ever I have seen written." George Selwyn achieved his reputation as a wit rather than a talker. As a wit, he stood in the first rank. If he was not always as sparkling, he was always less premeditated than Sheridan. Walpole, who praises nobody but himself, praises Selwyn. The pearls that Selwyn carelessly threw from

him, Walpole carefully collected and reset in his correspondence. He was eminently and wholly

a man of fashion. He luxuriated away a life of seventy-two years in clubs and conversation, in the House of Commons, and the card-rooms at Arthur's. Lord Holland knew his worth as a friend, when, on his being confined to his bed, he heard that George Selwyn had called. "The next time Mr. Selwyn calls," said his lordship, "show him up. If I am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; if I am dead, he'll be delighted to see me."-From Colburn's New Monthly Magazine.

CLASS DISTINCTIONS.-One effect of education and breeding is to make their possessor shrink from intimate contact with those so beneath him in rank as to retain their rough natures; and hence the cold and exclusive bearing of the general mass of educated Englishmen-Englishmen more especially than Irishmen or Scotchmen; for among the latter there still exists a sort of feudal respect for rank and birth, which is only partially represented in our counties, and in our towns not at all. Thus it is that the Englishman intrenches himself within his reserve: the social equality which prevails in France, and even in more aristocratic countries, being among us unknown. In France, even under a Republic, there is less political liberty than in England; but there is a far greater amount of social liberty, and the people, in consequence, are more free and more self-respecting. Take, as a general example, the manner in which nearly all classes in France meet, if they do not mix, in their ordinary lifein their recreations especially. Along the boulevards you will see ouvriers taking their bocks of beer next to some of the most pretentious dandies in Paris-men of rank perhaps, of position certainly and nobody is so exclusive as to be annoyed by their presence. Inside the restaurant or café there is the same mingling; and there also you may see-not perhaps, ladies in the society sense of the term, but sufficiently respectable members of the sex, to which the most exclusive ladies must belong-who are not at all discomposed by the presence of their humbler neighbors, who play their cards and dominoes in a saloon full of mirrors and gilding, and consume their cheap refreshments with a full sense of having as much right to be there as anybody else. Consider what would happen in London, in say, St. James's Hall, if a couple of British workmen took possession of a table next to a party of ladies and gentlemen eating Neapolitan ices-called for two half pints of beer, and proceeded to discuss that beverage in the interval of discussion of an oral kind. Supposing that the waiter served them -which he certainly would not-the ladies and gentlemen would feel highly scandalized and annoyed, and would leave the house as soon as possible. And not only would their sense of the

outward proprieties be invaded, but they would be influenced somewhat by a dread of the consequences. For a couple of Englishmen of the class in question would, I am sorry to say, not be quite safe company for ladies, even at another table. All workingmen do not get drunk, but some of them do; and it would be quite on the cards that there would be more beer ordered, and more after that, and that the tone of the conversation would not be suitable for ears polite. The British workman is a fine, manly, honest fellow, but he has a broad way of expressing himself, particularly after a little beer, and he is very apt to use words, in a perfectly harmless sense, of a very offensive character. In this respect he has his representative among French workmen-the least civilized of whom do not venture into mixed society-but it will be certainly found that the class generally in France have great social superiority over the class generally in England. — From The Gentleman's Magazine.

THE ART OF QUARRELLING. Savages and barbarians may quarrel without much skill in the art of doing so. They need not disagree very often nor at all elaborately. But for anything like polished life, where quarrelling has to go on nearly perpetually, more ability is needed. A few cases there are of persons so gifted by nature that they can quarrel, as it were, by instinct. The very smallest provocation will serve their purpose. They can prolong an occasion to the uttermost; and end the affair triumphantly. But ordinary people cannot trust to their unaided capacities in that way; they need helps, rules, ascertained modes. It is shameful that after all these ages of practice, and in spite of a new special department-that of theological controversy -we can scarcely be said to have a smattering even of the right principles of such an art. The only thing persons in general do as badly as quarrelling is being amiable. There are those who in displaying affection are more awkward, excessive, and ludicrous, than in managing their differences. But for that there is some excuse. We have not so much practice in being friendly; and, taken altogether, it is of much less importance than quarrelling.-Chambers's Journal.

MEMORY.

How oft, in silence, secretly, alone,

We wander back along the travelled road Of life which lies behind us! There we strode With buoyant step; and there, with many a groan, We picked a painful way from stone to stone,

Which barred our path: one while a weary hill Defeated ardor; then, again, a rill In brightness cheered us. All are past and gone, But not forgotten. Standing, as we seem, Beside the wall which hides futurity, The long-lost past behind us gives a hope And faithful promise of security, But none of ease; or else there were no scope For trust in God, and life were but a dream.