tific Series" maintains the high character marked out by the two previous issues, and is of even greater practical utility. No subject could be more important or of more universal interest, and medical and literary quacks have so befogged the public mind about it of late that it is quite time for science to undertake its treatment. We think Dr. Smith's work will be accepted as entirely satisfactory both to the scientific student and the practical housekeeper. Under a simple classification into solid, liquid, and gaseous, and a subdivision of these into nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, it treats of every food known to man, not excepting water and atmospheric air; explain. ing their properties, tracing their effects when absorbed into the animal economy, and indicating their relation to all the other foods with which they are usually associated. The author has no hobby to ride or theory to enforce; he deals with his subject in a purely scientific spirit, and the conclusions he puts down are the demonstrated results of experimental analysis and rigid induction. It is refreshing to see a subject on which there has been so much crude and reckless theorizing, reclaimed for its proper position among the practical sciences; and the wide circulation which Dr. Smith's treatise deserves would at least pave the way for more intelligent feeding than Americans are now accustomed to put up with. Dr. Smith has in hand a supplementary volume on "Diets," which will apply the principles laid down in the present work, and which will probably be even more directly useful. A PAIR OF BLUE EYES. By Thomas Hardy. Leisure Hour Series. New-York: Henry Holt & Co. Mr. Hardy, the author of this story, has written but three books in all, and those in pretty rapid succession; yet we think it can be said of him already that he has earned a distinct place for himself in the first rank of contemporary novelists. Each of his novels has shown a marked advance of both creative power and literary skill, and "A Pair of Blue Eyes" is not only much the best of recent English novels, but will bear comparison with the standard works of standard authors in this field. Its merits, moreever, are not of that type with which readers of later English fiction are familiar, consisting of a more or less close approximation to some one of the recognized literary masters. It is neither imitative nor refractive (if we may be allowed to borrow a word from the scientific vocabulary), but both in conception and in literary treatment is entirely individual and characteristic. More than most novels, even of the better sort, it can be regarded simply as a work of art; for the author has no theory to propound or moral to exemplify, and contents himself in his work with merely holding the mirror up to the more picturesque aspects of nature and human nature. It is only in the selection of these aspects that his own personality comes in, and "A Pair of Blue Eyes," like his previous story, "Under the Greenwood Tree," reveals a singularly poetic, receptive, and subjective temperament. We have not space to analyze the story, but we may say that the heroine-the owner of the pair of blue eyes-is inexpressibly charming, and charming by means of just those superlatively feminine qualities which have confused the judg ments and bewildered the consciences of men in all ages. The magic of her personality, indeed, has bewitched her own creator; for, while we can not but condemn a character whose end, as depicted here, is the natural and necessary result of its previous manifestations, it can not be denied that Mr. Hardy carries all our sympathies with her from first to last. Henry Knight, the essayist and reviewer, is a new accession to the portrait gallery of fiction; Mr. Swancourt, the typical rector who is wordly-minded as any man-abouttown, though not in a vicious way, is an entirely fresh outcome of a familiar pattern; and all the characters, in fact, from .day-laborer to Lord Luxellian, are drawn with the skill of a master and the precision of an artist. For the rest, Mr. Hardy's literary style is singularly graceful and spirited; his descriptions of natural scenery are fine, sympathetic, and various; and in incidental touches here and there, without display or affectation, he reveals a disciplined mind and wide general acquirements. CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. By T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S. New-York: D. Appleton & Co. 1873. This volume, like the "Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Lectures" published two or three years ago, contains the addresses which Prof. Huxley has delivered since 1870, together with the more important papers that he has contributed to the various magazines. It deals, of course, chiefly with scientific and philosophical questions, but also, to greater extent than usual, with those pertaining to education. The author's official connection with the London School Board gives these latter an especially practical character, and it need not be said that they are among the most valuable of recent contributions to the discussion of popular education from the scientific point of view. Every one interested in the subject should read them, for though they were called forth by local and temporary incidents, they discuss aspects of the subject which are of all but universal application and importance. In the preface, Professor Huxley crosses swords with some of his critics-among them Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Mivart-and amplifies some of the points which are touched upon in the succeeding papers. "THE PEOPLE'S PICTORIAL ATLAS" (New. York: J. David Williams) may truthfully be said to meet a "long-felt want." Both in contents and in price it is essentially an atlas for the people, and it ought to find its way into every household where even the news of the day is read with intelligence. We have examined it carefully, and there is no doubt in our mind that for popular use-for the use of that great majority of readers who want only the most important information in the briefest possible space, in the most convenient shape, and at the lowest possible price-it is much the best atlas that we have yet seen. The maps are for the most part excellent, and the reading matter combines the advantages of the cyclopedia and the ordinary atlas; while nothing comparable to it in the way of cheapness has hitherto been published. Sold only by subscription. THE "ALUMNI RECORD OF WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, OF MIDDLETOWN, CT.," is a handsome pamphlet of 308 pages, forming an admirable pioneer in a work which ought to be performed for every one of our leading educational institutions. It gives not only a complete history of Wesleyan University, but a biographical sketch in brief of each one of its alumni, containing an epitome of his career since leaving the college. Such a record is not merely of interest to Wesleyan's alumni and patrons, but is the sort of raw material out of which the Social Science of the future will construct its most lasting and most important principles. "Wesleyan" is comparatively a new institution, and its older rivals should act upon this example. FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES. MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD is about to bring out a work on Higher Schools and Universities of Germany. LORD RAVENSWORTH, who has translated the "Eneid" of Virgil, is about to publish (in an appendix) an estimate of the lapse of time necessary for the action and events of the last six books of the poem. M. LITTRE'S great 'Dictionnaire de la Langue Française' is being re-issued, in a hundred and ten weekly parts, at a franc each. The work is, of course, stereotyped, and the publishers are right in trying to extend its circulation as widely as possible. MR. BLANCHARD JERROLD is engaged, with the special sanction of the Empress Eugénie, on The Life and Times of Napoleon the Third,' the first part of which, illustrated with portraits from the family collection, will appear about the end of the year. THE French Academy has just awarded one of its annual grand prizes to M. Edouard Fournier for his writings on the stage in France prior to Molière's time. M. Fournier obtained, six years ago, the Halphen prize for his general historical works. THE number of students at the University of Berlin continues to decline rapidly. In the winter session of 1871-72, according to the Allge meine Zeitung, the number of matriculated students was 2,603; in the summer of 1872, 1,990; in the winter of 1872-73, 1,918; and in the present summer, only 1,590. THE Spanish novelist, Señor Perez Galdós, has in the press an original historical novel, entitled, 'La Córte de Carlos IV.' ('The Court of Charles the Fourth'). It is said that the personages who influenced Spanish politics at that period, 1788 to 1808, are drawn with historical accuracy, and with a masterly hand. A NEW fac-simile of the 1623 Folio of Shakspeare's Plays, under the direct supervision of Mr. Howard Staunton, will be shortly issued in London. The fac-simile is a reproduction of the splendid copy in the library of the Earl of Ellesmere, at Bridgewater House; supplemented, where any pages of that volume are defective, by the fine copy in the Grenville Library of the British Museum. AFTER thirty years' planning and altering, the Turks are slowly and steadily getting their Uni. versity system into order. They first started at the had the sense to abandon the buildings, and devote top with a Constantinople University, but they their energies to primary and secondary education. They have just held an examination for the Bachelor of Science degree, at the Imperial Lyceum, at Galata Serai, when eleven passed, one Turk, two Greeks, and eight Armenians. The latter. from the part they are taking in the industrial development of the country, best appreciate the value of scientific instruction. ON the 9th of July 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 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. DR. CHAPLIN writes to the Athenæum from Jerusalem, June 26, 1873:-"The workmen engaged in repairing the dome of the rock, recently uncovered the rafters of the roof of the outer corridor, and discovered upon one of them some Cufic writting. It is very neatly done, in black paint, and is in remarkably good preservation. Its purport is that it (what?) was made for Jafr El-Muklader, Emir of the faithful, by the order of THE history of the Revolution of 1848 has until now been told only by actors of the drama, such as MM. Louis Blanc, Lamartine, Garnier-Pagès, &c. It, of course, was not to be expected that they should give us narratives perfectly free from personal bias. Now, however, a young debutant in the literary world, M. H. Gradis, has produced a complete History of 1848,' published in Paris, by Michel Levy. The moment is scarcely well chosen for impartiality. It is impossible, indeed, not to compare 1872 with 1848, and not to side with one or other of the great political parties which divide France. M. Gradis's hero is Lamartine, the unconscious conspirator against the monarchy of July, to whom the knowing ones MM. Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, &c., are pitilessly sacrificed. But EVERYBODY, says the Saturday Review, has a tolerably distinct idea of Dr. Johnson's style, but this does not prove that the world has an equally distinct acquaintance with the writings on which that idea is founded. The Rambler is talked of, laughed at, treated as part of the common stock of literature which we know as Englishmen. is it read? As we much doubt whether it is, we are glad to see a new edition (Tegg) which may find its way into libraries, and give the rising generation an opportunity of acquainting itself at first hand with the thoughts and periods of the last century's sage-not at all like the moralist of our day, but a preacher notwithstanding, who had a way of embodying moralities in very impressive and lasting language. No style suits Johnson's vein of thought but his own. In his own words, his reflections on life, without starting any new theories, make their way to our heart and understanding, not merely as abstractions, but weighted with the force and vividness of a very extraordinary nature. No writing can possibly be more characteristic of the writer than these essays of the Rambler. As far as he could show himself in monologue they show him. His sonorous periods take sound and life as we read, and some echoes reach us of the "strong emphatic voice" which was Boswell's dearest music. precision and pomp of diction which distinguished his talk from all others is here immortalized in print. As we read these balanced sentences and listen to their rhythm we perceive that he thought in periods. The vocabulary of our language lay open to him-not simply as a figure of speech, for he was engaged upon his Dictionary during the whole time the Rambler was coming out-the longest words pressing forward for selection as That most consonant with voice and manner, and with that vast bulk of body and mind which dominates over the reader as a presence. It would have cost Johnson a most intolerable amount of labor to simplify his style. It is called labored, but, as we know that he composed at full speed, that these essays were "struck off at a heat with rapid exertion," and that he rarely corrected his first manuscript, it only means that the style natural to him is laborious to imitators, and ill adapted for a model. SCIENCE AND ART. AMERICAN PREPARATIONS FOR THE APPROACHING TRANSIT.-The following is extracted from a letter addressed by Rear-Admiral Sands to the Astronomer Royal on the subject of American preparations for observing the transit of 1874: "The favorable Northern stations will all be selected on the coast of China, Japan, and Siberia; one probably at Wladiwostok (Lat. 43° 7'; Long. 8h. 48m.); one at or near Yokohama; one near Pekin, or between Pekin and the coast; and the fourth somewhere in Japan, China, or the adjacent islands. In the Southern hemisphere satisfactory stations are much more difficult to find. Our choice seems to be confined to Kerguelen Land, Tasmania, Southern New Zealand, and Auckland or Chatham Island, subject to the consent of the British Government. The most favorable of these stations is probably Kerguelen Land, which you mention among those you purpose to occupy yourself, and which I believe the Germans also intend to occupy. It is a delicate question whether there are not very grave objec tions to having so many stations together, the answer to which must mainly depend on whether similar methods of observations are to be employed by the different parties. The force of the objection is greatly diminished by the circumstance that our method of photographing is not to be employed by any other nation. Still the comparative inaccessibility of that point allows me to speak with little confidence of our ability to occupy it. In addition to these photographic stations, it is our wish to comply with your desire that we should occupy a contact station in the Pacific. Here we prefer one of the Sandwich Islands, as distant as possible from the point which you may select. The objection to occupy. ing a station so near yours seems to be counterbalanced by the very favorable conditions of that group, both astronomically and meteorologically, and by its accessibility from our western coast. As both contacts will be visible from all the photographic stations, it is intended to observe them with 5-inch equatoreals, with clock-work and micrometer for measuring cusps, one of which will be sent to each station. As the factor for 'ingress accelerated' will be about as great at Wladiwo. stok and at Yokohama as it will be at Tahiti, it does not seem necessary to occupy the latter sta tion in addition, and besides, only one contact can be seen either at Tahiti or Marquesas, while the Asiatic stations are about equally favorable for both contacts. Each station will also be fur. nished with a portable transit, accompanied by clock and chronograph, for the determination of local time. This transit will be supplied with a fine spirit-level and declination micrometer for use as a 'zenith telescope.' For longitude, we shall probably depend mainly on occultations of small stars to be observed with the 5-inch telescopes. It is hoped by careful watching to observe eight or ten occultations per month, mostly when the Moon is near her conjunction, and while she is passing the Milky Way. It is believed that occultations are much more free from systematic errors than Moon-culminations. The numerous old determinations of the Transatlantic longitudes by the latter method, most of which may be found in Gould's paper, do not encourage us to rely upon it." CHANGE IN THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR OBSERVING THE APPROACHING TRANSIT OF VENUS.The Astronomer Royal has at length yielded to the pressing arguments which have been urged in favor of an extension of the arrangements for observing the approaching transit of Venus. It has for some time been known that Prof. Adams, the discoverer of Neptune, had taken Mr. Proctor's view of the subject; and we believe we are right in saying that Prof. Adams had been for some weeks in correspondence with Mr. Proctor on the one hand and the Astronomer Royal on the other, with the object of effecting a change in the proposed schemes. This correspondence bore fruit at the recent visitation of the Royal Observatory, when Prof. Adams proposed to the Board of Visitors that the Government be requested to provide the means of organising some parties of observers in the southern hemisphere, to employ Halley's method. This was carried unanimously, and the Astronomer Royal expressed his perfect acquiescence in the result. The final decision will rest with the Admiralty and the Government. Thus has been brought to a close, so far at least as scientific resolutions are concerned, a contest which had long been strenuously maintained by argument on one side, and by a somewhat persistent silence on the other.-Science Review. THE NEW MAGNET.-In our last month's notes, we mentioned that Mr. Jamin, of Paris, had discovered a way of largely increasing the power of a magnet. To that brief notice we now add a few particulars. The power of a steel plate increases with its thickness, but not indefinitely. But a plate one inch thick is less powerful than two half-inch plates, and these again than four quarter-inch plates; and the same holds good of further subdivision. Hence it may be said of a magnet-the more plates the more power. Carrying this out, Mr. Jamin makes his magnets of ribands of steel,' and diminishes the weight The increase is such, while increasing the force. that one of his magnets will carry twenty times its own weight, and ere long we may have to announce that this limit has been exceeded. SUSPENDED ANIMATION.-A few weeks ago a lecture was delivered before the Royal Society, wherein the lecturer, Dr. B. W. Richardson, described experiments in which he had kept animals in a state of suspended animation for many days by the application of certain chemical compounds. The consequent phenomena have been compared with phenomena observed, in a few rare instances, in the human subject after death; and Dr. Richardson gave an account of his various attempts to preserve blood in such a condition that it would restore reduced irritability,' which means, restore the phenomena of life. Here is a grand question. In the endeavor to work it out, valuable physiological discoveries may be made, though it may stop short of keeping people alive by artificial blood. POISONOUS INOCULATION WITH DEAD BLOOD. -The "Lens," in a recent number, quotes M. Davaine's experiments on] this subject. It is well known that medical men are often seriously injured by accidentally cutting themselves with instruments that have been recently used for dissecting purposes. The wounded part swells, and mortification often ensues, necessitating amputation and sometimes causing death. In order to determine the poisonous properties of this putrid blood, M. Davaine communicates the result of several experiments upon rabbits. The liquid used was the blood of an ox that had been ten days slaughtered. This, by subcutaneous injection, he administered to his subjects in varying quantities, obtaining by successive dilutions with water the most infinitesimal attenuations. ing one animal, he would take its infected blood and force the same into the veins of another, and so on until he reached what he terms the twentyfifth generation. On this last experiment he says: "Four rabbbits received respectively one trillionth, one ten-trillionth, one hundred-trillionth, and one quadrillionth of a drop of blood from a rabbit belonging to the preceding generation that had died from the effects of a one-trillionth dose. Of the four, but one animal died-that which received the one ten-trillionth.-It appears then, that the limit of transmissibility of the poison in the rabbit reaches the one-trillionth part of a drop of decayed blood." Kill EXPERIMENTS ON A GUILLOTINED SUBJECT.— The French "Gazette Hebdomadaire" contains an account of M. Onimus' experiments, detailed this year to the Paris "Société de Biologie :" M. Onimus mentioned that he had had an opportunity to verify several physiological facts on the body of a man who had been guillotined. The external intercostals raise the ribs, the internal intercostals lower them, demonstrating the correctness of Bamberger's theory. The peronæus longus brings down the internal edge of the foot, at the same time acting to some extent as an extensor and abductor, as Duchenne has shown. The loss of contractility in the muscles takes place in the following order: The muscles of the tongue, the fail to react to electric excitement, though the diaphragm, and those of the face, are the first to masseter holds out a long time; in the limbs the extensors fail before the flexors; the muscles which preserve their excitability longest are those of the trunk. The form of muscular contraction varies as the contractility lessens. It is interesting to remark that the order in which the muscles become inactive is analogous to that of lead-paralysis. THE IMMENSE COAL-AREA OF THE UNITED STATES.-Professor Hitchcock gives in the "Geological Magazine" a good sketch of the vast coal deposits of America. He states that the total area amounts to 230,659 square miles; no notice being taken of any coals which do not belong to the Carboniferous system. There are many others of commercial importance, as the Triassic of Virginia, the Cretaceous of the Territories west of the Missouri River, an immense amount in California, Alaska, &c. These facts will afford data for those who are interested in estimating the amount of coal in different countries by the number of cubic miles or tons. The statements are too brief to permit any notice of the best or of the inferior coal. RELICS OF A STONE-AGE HOMESTEAD.-Dr. Charles C. Abbot has written an able paper on this subject in the "American Naturalist" for May, in which he describes some very interesting relics recently found by him. These were met with in a circumscribed spot of about thirty feet in diameter, and some twenty inches below the surface of the ground. The floor of this "homestead," as we have called it, was very hard and compact; the soil being of a darker color than the superincumbent earth, and well mixed with small oval gravel stones, of a noticeably uniform size. At one side of the nearly circular spot was a well-defined fireplace, marked by a circle of oval white stones, six to eight inches in length, and half that in thickness. Within this circle was a layer of ashes and charcoal, seven inches deep in the centre, and three at the margin of the fire-place. This coal and ash deposit showed, on careful examinaion, a considerable percentage of minute fragments of mussel shell, and of small fragments of bones, too much splintered to identify, but ap. parently the long bones of wading birds and of the larger fishes. Several other remains were also found, and have been well described by the author, who, in conclusion, asked the following question:-" Whence came the people who once occupied this spot, and left these abundant traces of their sojourn here? Marking the degree of civilisation, or rather, of its absence, as estimated by these relics, does it, indeed, seem possible, as sketched by Haeckel, that from hypothetical Lemuria, in the Indian Ocean, a being worthy then to be called a man, could finally, after many ages, reach North-west America, and then cross our broad continent, to reach the Atlantic coast, in a state of advancement only equal to the production of such rude stone implements as we have described? We do not doubt the correctness of the theory of the evolution of man from creatures not men, but that the ancestors of the American red-skin lived nearer home than the Indian Ocean, we cannot but think." HABITS OF ANTS DISPLAYING CONSIDERABLE INTELLIGENCE.-Mr. Darwin has received a letter from J. D. Hague, which, as it contains facts of interest, he has sent to "Nature" for publication. Among other points of interest in the communication is the following account :-"One day I observed a number of ants, perhaps thirty or forty, on the shelf at the foot of the vase. Thinking to kill them I struck them lightly with the end of my finger, killing some and disabling the rest. The effect of this was immediate and unexpected. As soon as those ants that were approaching arrived near to where their fellows lay dead and suffering, they turned and fled with all possible haste. In half an hour the wall above the mantelshelf was cleared of ants. During the space of an hour or two the colony from below continued to ascend, until reaching the lower bevelled edge of the shelf, at which point the more timid individuals, although unable to see the vase, somehow became aware of trouble and turned about without further investigation; while the more daring advanced hesitatingly just to the upper edge of the shelf, where, extending their antennæ and stretching their necks, they seemed to peep cautiously over the edge until beholding their suffering companions, when they too turned and followed the others, expressing by their beAn hour or havior great excitement and terror. two later the path or trail leading from the lower colony to the vase was almost entirely free from ants. I killed one or two ants on their path, striking them with my finger, but leaving no visible trace. The effect of this was that as soon as an ant ascending towards the shelf reached the spot where one had been killed, it gave signs immediately of great disturbance, and returned directly at the highest speed possible. A curious and invariable feature of their behavior was, that when such an ant, returning in fright, met another approaching, the two would always communicate, but each would pursue its own way: the second ant continuing its journey to the spot where the first had turned about, and then follow ing that example." ARE HOT-AIR STOVES INJURIOUS TO HEALTH? -This question is answered by the "Scientific Press," of San Francisco, which alleges that they are when made of cast-iron. It says, "Furnaces for heating dwellings should never be made of |