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aurora, and opens a new field in the study of the physical condition of the earth. A further telegram has been received, in which Professor Lemström states that experiments with the aurora borealis made December 29th, in Enare, near Kultala, on the hill of Pietarintunturi, confirm the results of those at Oratunturi. On that date a straight beam of aurora was seen over the galvanic apparatus. It also appears from the magnetic observations that the terrestrial current ceases below the aurora arc, while the atmospheric current rapidly increases but depends on the area of the galvanic apparatus to which it seems to be proportional. The professor regrets that with. the means at his disposal further experiments cannot be made, and that he intended, on the 13th ult. to withdraw the apparatus.

THE SOLAR CORONA.-In the accounts of the result of scientific researches during the year 1882 a very important discovery by Dr. Huggins, of Tulse Hill, has been unanimously

omitted. The zealous observer informed the members of the Royal Society, at the last

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meeting, that he had succeeded in photographing the solar corona, which has hitherto proved a bar to the extension of our knowledge of solar physics, as it was only visible during total eclipses. Professor Young, in his work, The Sun," says: Unless some means be found for bringing out the structures round the sun, which are hidden by the glare of our atmosphere, the progress of our knowledge must be very slow, for the corona is visible for only about eight days in a century in the aggregate, and then only over narrow strips of the earth's surface, and but from one to five minutes at a time to any one observer." It will be seen, therefore, how valuable is Dr. Huggins's discovery, for there is every probabil ity that the corona will be observed daily, as have the rosy prominences on the sun's edge since Messrs. Janssen and Lockyer found, in 1868, that they were observable without the intervention of an eclipse. It will be remembered that during the solar eclipse of May 17th last the observers stationed near Thebes succeeded in obtaining a photograph of the specirum of the corona; this photograph showed that the coronal light was most intense in the violet part of the spectrum between G and H; hence, Dr. Huggins considered that, by absorbing all but this portion, the glare of sunlight could be subdued and the corona observed. Previous experience caused him not to attempt eye observations, but to rely solely on photography, on account of its extreme sensitiveness in the discrimination of minute differences of illumination, and also the enormous value of permanent records of the most complex forms from instantaneous exposure." With a

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Newtonian reflector, using violet glass, he obtained a series of twenty photographs extending from June to September 20th, in all of which the characteristic rays and structure of the corona are apparent, and in the most successful plates the definition is sufficiently clear to admit of measurement and drawing from. In the plates taken with a short exposure only the inner corona is visible, but its outline is clearly traceable; in those exposed for a longer period the inner corona is lost in the outer, which shows the distinctly curved rifts and rays peculiar to it. When the plate was exposed longer still the images of the sun and corona are reversed. In this case the corona is white and is more readily distinguished than where the sun only is reversed and the corona appears dark. Professor Stokes, on seeing Dr. Huggins's plates, expressed the opinion that the corona had been photographed and not the glare round the sun. This opinion has since been confirmed by comparison with the photographs of the corona obtained in Egypt during the eclipse, for the agreement as to the details of the rifts and streamers is very marked. Dr.

Huggins believes that, with an elevated sky and pure atmosphere, daily photographs may be obtained; this will enable scientists to extend their knowledge of the physical conditions of the sun, and will also allow the valuable moments at totality of an eclipse to be devoted to other important observations.-Daily Telegraph.

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SULPHUR AND MALARIA. Academy lately, some curious and interesting notes relative to sulphur-fumes as a preventive of malaria were read by M. d'Abbadie. He stated that some elephant-hunters, from plateaux with comparatively cool climate can go into the hottest and most deleterious Ethiopian regions without being attacked by fever, and that they attribute their safety to the daily practice of fumigating their naked bodies with sulphur. He also quoted cases where sulphurmines were free from disease, while the inhabitants of villages near at hand were constantly attacked by fever.

LOCUSTS IN CYPRUS.--The island of Cyprus has the unenviable possession of a description of locust found nowhere else. Its vast numbers raise it to the position of a plague, which, like that of old Egypt, would eat up every green thing in the land, if measures were not taken for its destruction. The government reward of what would be in our currency one halfpenny a pound for locust eggs, which was trebled as the eggs became scarcer, resulted in the collection of nearly fourteen hundred tons in seven months. The payment of these rewards, together with the expense of constructing traps

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and screens to intercept the insect army, cost altogether more than one fifth the total revenue of the island.

MISCELLANY.

THE OCTOPUS AND ITS ENEMIES.-"It is a

not uncommon occurrence," says Mr. Henry Lee, "that when an octopus is caught, it is found to have one or more of its arms shorter than the rest, and showing marks of having been amputated, and of the formation of a new growth from the old cicatrix. Several such specimens have been brought to the Brighton Aquarium, one of which was particularly interesting. Two of its arms had evidently been bitten off about four inches from their base; and out from the end of each healed stump grew a slender little piece of newly-formed arm, about as large as a lady's stiletto, or a small button-hook-in fact, just the equivalent of worthy Captain Cuttle's iron hook, which did duty for his lost hand. There lingers still among the fishermen of the Mediterranean a very ancient belief that the octopus, when pushed by hunger, will gnaw and devour portions of its own arm. Aristotle knew of this, and positively contradicted it; but a fallacy once planted is hard to eradicate. The fact is, that the larger predatory fishes regard the octopus as very acceptable food, and there is no better bait for many of them than a portion of one of its arms. Among the worst enemies of the octopus in British waters is the conger. They are both rock-dwellers, and if the voracious fish come upon his cephalopod neighbor unseen, he makes a meal of him, or, failing to drag him from his hold, bites off as much of one or two of his arms as he can conveniently obtain. The conger, therefore, is generally the author of the injury which the octopus has been unfairly accused of inflicting on itself. The curator of the Havre Aquarium describes an attack by congers on an octopus which he had thrown into their tank. As soon as the latter touched the bottom it examined every corner of the stonework. The moment it perceived a conger it seemed to feel in stinctively the danger which menaced it, and endeavored to conceal its presence by stretching itself along a rock, the color of which it immediately assumed. Finding this useless, and seeing that it was discovered, it changed its tactics, and shot backward, in quick retreat, leaving behind it a long black trail of turbid water, formed by the discharge of its ink. Then it fixed itself to a rock, with all its arms surrounding and protecting its body, and presenting on all exposed sides a surface furnished with suckers. In this position it awaited the attack of its enemies. A conger approached,

searched with its snout for a vulnerable place, and having found one, seized with its teeth a mouthful of the living flesh. Then, straightening itself out in the water, it turned round and round with giddy rapidity until the arm was, with a violent wrench, torn away from the body of the victim. Each bite of the conger cost the unfortunate creature a limb, and, at length, nothing remained but its dismembered body, which was finally devoured, some dogfishes, attracted by the fray, partaking of the feast. An octopus was once placed in the Brighton Aquarium with some nursehounds,' stellare); for a while, they seemed to dwell or 'larger spotted dog-fishes' (Scyllium together as peaceably as the 'happy family' of animals that used to be exhibited in a travel

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ling cage at the foot of Waterloo Bridge, the octopus usually remaining within the 'cottageby-the-sea' which he had built for himself in dog-fish apparently taking no notice of him. the form of a grotto of living oysters, and the But one fatal day the 'devil-fish' was missing, and it was seen that one of the companions of his solitude' was inordinately distended. A thrill of horror ran through the corridors. There was suspicion of crime and dire disaster. The corpulent nursehound was taken into custody, lynched and disembowelled, and his guilt made manifest. For there, within his capacious stomach, unmutilated and entire, lay the poor octopus who had delighted thousands during the Christmas holidays. It had been swallowed whole, and very recently, but life was extinct.-Cassell's Natural History.

EGYPTIAN WOMEN.-The women of Egypt are, perhaps, as well bred and as busy as the women of Europe. It is absurd to contrast an average Englishwoman with the favorites of a pasha's harem, but a middle-class Egyptian wife does very much the same thing that the wife of an ordinary Englishman of business does. In Egypt there is cooking, washing, mending, housekeeping, to be done as well as elsewhere, and it is the wife who has to do or direct it all. A good deal of her time is spent in needlework, embroidery, and spinning; and these domestic employments are deemed the most praiseworthy for awoman :

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an hour at the distaff," said the Prophet, "is better than a year's worship." She has her amusements, too, and can sing and play and dance sometimes; she is fond of gossip, and makes and receives prodigious calls. The women of a set have their private réunions, to which no husband dare enter; and the proceedings are childishly boisterous and joyous. The children naturally learn little work, learning from the women among whom their early years are spent. In truth, it is little of any kind they learn at home, except manners and

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the rudiments of religion. . . . In manners, the Egyptian boy of the middle and upper classes is singularly graceful and courteous, and his deference to his father and elders is a striking feature in Egyptian family life. . . . In spite of a certain formality in their relations, parents and children are generally strongly bound together in love, and no parent fears poverty or an infirm old age while there is a son to work for him.-Month.

THE COW-TREE.-Sir Joseph Hooker, in his report on Kew Gardens, gives a sketch of a most interesting botanical curiosity, the Palo de vaca, or cow tree. This tree grows in forests at the foot of certain mountain ranges in Venezuela, and attains a height of 100 feet, and frequently the trunk reaches to 70 feet without a branch. The remarkable characteristic of the tree is the milk which exudes from the trunk when an incision is made. . The flavor is of sweet cream with a slightly balsamic taste, but it is very wholesome and nourishing, the composition being said to approach very near the milk of the cow. From the fact that the milk is somewhat glutinous it would seem that the tree is of the caoutchouc order. Seeds which have been sent to Bombay and the Colonies are said to be thriving well. It is noteworthy, as an example of the law of compensation traceable in nature generally, that this cow-tree seems originally to have been a native of a country where milk-giving animals were formerly totally unknown.

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BALFE'S "MAID OF ARTOIS."-In June, 1836, appeared The Maid of Artois, the bare announcement of which, coupled with the promise of Malibran's appearance in it, created an immense sensation. This opera, although inferior to The Siege of Rochelle, was ceived with the greatest delight and enthusiasm. Special praise was awarded to Malibran's aria, With rapture dwelling," of which an amusing anecdote is told. The present rondo finale did not appear originally, but was added as an improvement upon the first, the notes of the new air having suggested themselves to Balfe as he lay awake thinking of it in the middle of the night. He committed them to paper, and by eight o'clock in the morning, as Mr. Kenney tells, Balfe, all impatience, reached Conduit Street, where Malibran and her husband then resided. De Beriot was practising on his violin, his wife was in bed and asleep in her carefully-darkened room. Balfe played the new air to him, and he was delighted. Malibran was awakened and refused to rise. The old rondo was, she said, in every way satisfactory, and not to be improved. In vain her husband urged her to rise, and lauded the superiority of the new

rondo. She was obstinate, and not to be convinced. But De Beriot was determined. Since the mountain would not come, etc. (you know the old, old saying). Between them Balfe and De Beriot carried upstairs, from the drawing-room into the lady's bedchamber, a small cottage piano. The window shutters and curtains were thrown open; the bed-curtains drawn aside, despite the great vocalist's angry and indignant protests; and amid her vehement utterance the air was commenced, and she was compelled to listen. It conquered, and she gave in her adherence with as much eager glee as she had just before expressed indignant anger. This was the air Balfe heard the Grand Duchess Constantine whistling so charmingly when he was the guest of the Russian Emperor at St. Petersburg.- Tinsleys' Magazine.

THE CAUSES AND CURE OF OLD AGE.-L. Langer has recently been engaged in the comparative analysis of human fat at different ages. He finds that infant fat is harder than that of adults or old men, that there are oil globules in our fat but none in that of babies ; the microscope shows one or two oil globules in every fat cell of the adult, while very few have fat crystals. The fat cells of the infant contain no oil globules, and nearly every cell contains fat crystals. "Infant fat forms a homogeneous, white, solid, tallow-like mass, and melts at 45 deg. C., white adult fat standing in a warm room separates into two layers; the lighter and larger is a transparent yellow liquid which solidifies below the freezing-point of water, the lower layer is a granular crystalline mass melting at 36 deg. C. Infant fat contains 67 75 per cent, of oleic acid, adult fat Infant fat contains 28 97 per cent, of 89.80. palmitic acid, against 8.16 in the adult, and 3'28 of stearic acid against 2:04. These latter, the palmitic and stearic acids, are the harder and less fusible, while the oleic acid is the softer and more fusible, constituent of fats. No attempt is made to explain the reason of these differences, or to suggest any means by which we may reharden or repalmitize our fat, and thus regain our infantine chubbiness. Old age is evidently due to changes of this kind, not only of the fat, but also of the other materials of the body. The first step toward the discovery of the elixir of life, the " aurum potabile" of the alchemist, is to determine the nature of these changes, the next to ascertain their causes, and then to remove them. If, as we are so often told, there can be no effect without a cause, there must be causes for the organic changes constituting decay and old age. Remove these, and we live forever. The theory is beautifully simple.-Gentleman's Magazine.

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ONE day early in the spring of the year 1590, while Spain was still bleeding from the destruction of the Great Armada, mass was being sung in the church of the Dominican convent at Madrid. The candles were burning, the organ was pealing, the acolytes were swinging the censers, and the king's confessor was before the altar in his robes, when a woman, meanly dressed, rushed forward amid the fumes of the incense. Turning to the priest, she said: Justice! I demand justice; I demand that you hear me ! Are you deaf, that I come so often to you and you will not listen? Then I appeal to One who will listen; I appeal to thee my God who art here present; I call on God to be my witness and my judge; He knows the wrongs which I suffer. Let Him punish yonder man who is my oppressor."

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The confessor turned pale as death. NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXXVII., No. 6

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He stood speechless for a few moments. He then beckoned to the attendants.

Bid the lady prioress come hither, he said, "and the sisterhood, and this woman's sister, who is one of them. Say I require their presence.'

The lady mother came fluttering with her flock behind her. They gathered to the grating which divided the chancel from the convent precincts.

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"Holy mother," the confessor said, this lady here present charges me on my soul and conscience. She calls on God to judge her cause, and she clamors for redress. I do not wonder; I should wonder rather if she held her peace. But what can I do that I have left undone? I have told the king that it is his duty to dispatch the business of the lady's husband and restore him to his family; what would she have from me more?''

"I would have this much more, 46

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The girl did not seem daunted by the presence in which she stood. "Your lordship," she said, has promised us this, that, and the other; you tell us one day that something shall be done on the morrow, and then the next, and the next, as if a last morrow' there would never be. You have brought our home to desolation. You have deceived a girl like me, and you think it a grand victory, a glorious distinction. You thirst, it seems, for our blood; well, then, you shall have it. Old men, it is said, go again to the breast for milk to keep the life in them. require blood, fresh from the veins of its owners. We had rather not be swallowed piecemeal, so we are come all to you together. You perhaps would prefer to linger over us, but we cannot wait. Let your lordship make an end with us. Here we are.

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take our blood, and let our souls depart from this miserable prison."

These two incidents, if the children's father wrote the truth, happened precisely as I have described them, and are as literal facts as usually pass for history. Perhaps they are not exaggerated at all. The priest in the Dominican conven was Diego de Chaves, spiritual adviser to Philip the Second. The woman before the altar was Juana de Coello, wife of Antonio Perez, His Majesty's Secretary of State and confidential minister. The girl was his daughter Doña Gregoria, and the little ones were her brothers and sister.

What strange cause could have wrought a mother and child into a state of passion so unnatural ?

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For three centuries after the Reformation, Philip the Second was the evil demon of Protestant tradition. Every action which could be traced to him was ascribed to the darkest motives. was like some ogre or black enchanter sitting in his den in the Escurial, weaving plots for the misery of mankind, in close communion and correspondence with his master the Antichrist of Rome. He was the sworn enemy of the light which was rising over Europe; he was the assassin of his subjects abroad; he was a tyrant at home, and even in his own household; he was believed universally to have murdered his own son, and if not to have murdered his wife, to have driven her to death with a broken heart. The Inquisition was his favorite instrument, and his name has been handed down through modern history. by the side of the most detestable monsters who ever disgraced a throne.

All this violence of censure was perfectly natural. Men engaged in a deadly struggle for what they regard as a sacred cause are seldom charitable to their adversaries. It was the Spanish power indisputably which stemmed the Reformation, which more than once was near extinguishing it. The conflict was desperate and at last savage, and deeds were done which have left a stain on all who were concerned in them.

But as time has gone on, and as it has appeared that neither Lutheranism nor Calvinism nor Anglicanism can be regarded as a final revelation, we have been able

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