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pears in the highest of these apes-the Orangsto have a tendency to atrophy.-Vide a paper read before the French Academy.

New Lens-An optician in Philadelphia has recently introduced a new lens, for which he claims many qualities of no small importance, namely, a flat field, wide aperture, and unusual clearness and sharpness in the images produced. It consists of two achromatic lenses, one 24 inches in diameter, with a focus of 44 inches; the other, an achromatic negative lens, similar in construction to that of the well-known orthoscopic combination. If the claims advanced are well founded, this new lens will be a welcome addition to our photographic appliances.-Popular Science. How do Flies Walk upon Smooth Vertical Surfaces?-In regard to this question, which has from time to time been answered in all manner of ways, Mr. Blackwall announced his views to a meeting of the Linnean Society, held during the present session. From several experiments and observations carried out by this gentleman during the past summer, he arrives at the conclusion that these insects are not enabled to maintain their position by means of suckers which exhaust the air between the foot and the surface (pane of glass, etc.) to which it is applied. To prove the truth of this view, he employed the air-pump, and abstracted the air from a chamber in which some flies were confined, when he found that they maintained their positions as easily as before. He appears inclined to think that their power of adhering to vertical smooth surfaces is due to a gelatinous fluid which is secreted by the foot-pad.

Imperial Observatory of Paris.-The illustrious savant, M. Leverrier, who directs this establishment, has founded a scientific association designed to popularize and advance the interesting studies of astronomy, physical forces, and meteorology. Each associate pays an annual subscription of ten francs (8s. 4d.). He assists at the réunions, which take place the second Monday in every month. The members are received on the evening of that day, on the terrace of the observatory, and instruments are placed at their disposal for studying the most favorable aspects of the moon. Those members who live in the provinces, and find it impossible to be present at these séances, receive a report of each of the meetings. Ladies are admitted. This society, although founded only last year, already numbers over 1800 members.-Le Grand Journal.

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the administration of physic and the application of the process known as Faradisation, for a period of two months, she became worse. The facial muscles were attacked with spasms which were more severe upon the right than on the paralyzed side. The memory was so much impaired that the patient was incapable of describing even the details of her disease. The day after the "constant current" had been allowed to travel through the cervical ganglion of the left sympathetic, there was a decided improvement observed, for the convulsions had in great measure abated. This application of the current was repeated (in the presence of Herr Remak's pupils) three times a week for a period of about three months, and at the end of that period a complete transformation was found to have taken place; her mental powers were restored, the convulsions had ceased, and the faculty of sensation was recalled.-Vide Comptes Rendus, LIX., No. 11.

Flint Weapons beneath the Skull of Rhinoceros hemitachus !-In M. Lartet's memoir on the ossiferous cave of the Périgord, a serious mis-statement has been made, which in some measure affects the reputation of one of our distinguished geologists, Dr. Falconer. M. Lartet states that in "the cavern of Long Hole, several flint weapons were found under the head of this latter Rhinoceros." In a previous passage he alludes to the discovery of certain fossils in this cavern by Messrs. Wood and Falconer, and hence the latter gentleman becomes associated with the assertion. Dr. Falconer now emphatically denies that there were any flint weapons found beneath the skull of R. hemitachus. He writes to the editor of Annals of Natural History as follows: "No skull of R. hemitachus above flint knives was ever discovered by my friend and fellow-laborer, Col. Wood, in Long Hole cave, nor was any skull of that extinct species ever found in it. The flint implements which he found there, together with the immediately associated fossil remains, were at the time transmitted to me for investigation, and out of my hands they have never passed." . "A detached shell of a milk-molar was among the number; hence, probably, the origin of the assertion about the skull—a small milk-molar having been exalted into a skull, found above flint implements, doubtless from inadvertence, misconception, or error of recollection." It would appear that M. Lartet's assertion was founded upon the authority of Sir Charles Lyell, who, strange to say, in his appendix to the third edition of his Antiquity of Man asserts that Colonel Wood "detected flint knives beneath the skull of Rhinoceros hemitœchus.”

Electricity as a Means of Cure.-There can be little doubt that galvanism will eventually hold a high position among therapeutic agents, notwithstanding the great discouragement which its ad--Popular Science Review.

vocates have from time to time received at the hands of the majority of the profession. Herr Remak, of Berlin, has been instituting some very interesting experiments on neuralgic patients, with a view to ascertain the really curative effects of electricity. The results arrived at have certainly been surprising, as the following case will show: Some time ago (May 11th, 1861) a woman, aged forty, applied to Herr Remak under these circumstances: Fifteen months before she had been attacked with complete facial paralysis of the left side, followed by acute pain, anesthesia of the ramifications of the trigeminal nerve, and very marked diminution of the mental powers. Despite

Contents of Skull Mounds in Keiss, in Caithness. -At a meeting of the Anthropological Society, held on Tuesday, December 6th, Mr. Laing read a paper on the organic remains found in a kist near Kiess. In the lowest stratum of the mounds were discovered, mingled with the skulls of limpets and periwinkles (which appear to have constituted the principal articles of food of the people of those times), some bones of oxen, horses, and pigs, and stone implements of the rudest possible kind. In continuing his explorations, Mr. Laing came upon some kists, which consisted of a slab of stone, just large enough to hold the body of a man, and inside, covered with sand, he

discovered the skeletons of those who had been
interred. Most of them were very short, not be-
ing more than five feet four inches long, and in
these kists no implements of any kind were found;
but in two instances he discovered kists of a much
larger size, in which the skeletons measured six
feet and six feet four inches. These were pre-
sumed to have been the chiefs of the race; and,
buried with one of them, were fifteen stone imple-
ments of small size, and of the rudest character,
exhibiting a lower degree of art than the flint
implements found with the bones of extinct ani-
mals in tertiary geological deposits. Mr. Laing
regarded some of the skulls as presenting the
character of those of Ancient Britons, and others
as being of negro type; but Professor Owen, who
was present, said that the skulls differed in sev-
eral essential particulars from the form of the
Ethiopian skull: one of them might be mistaken
from part of its configuration for that of an Aus-
tralian, but the small size of the molar teeth
showed that it was of a different type. In com-
menting upon a child's jaw-bone, which Mr. Laing
exhibited, the Professor observed that he was
well acquainted with the marks made by savages
on the jaws of animals they devoured as food, and
he feared the evidence which the child's jaw
afforded tended to prove that our progenitors,
who inhabited Scotland at a remote period, must
have been cannibals. The dental cavity is filled
with nerve-pulp, which savages relish, and the To be rendered freely thus:
child's jaw-bone indicated that it had been broken
to extract that substance.-Popular Science Re-
view.

tween £8000 and £9000 sterling. The writer
winds up with the remark, "En France on peient
mieux et à plus juste prix."-Under Marshal Vail-
lant and the Count de Nieurkerke's dispensation,
which has superseded the old academy, reforms
are in progress of realization in the Ecole des
Beaux Arts. One of these was surely wanted.
Under the effete academic arrangement, there
were twelve professors who guided the evening
studies of the more advanced class of scholars.
The consequence was that each month brought a
new master and all manner of conflicting sys-
tems, by which the youths were seriously per-
plexed and annoyed. This is now set aside, and
the whole responsibility of directing the tuition
is thrown upon the shoulders of M. Yvon, whose
great military illustrations have proved him to be
at the least a most accomplished draughtsman.
The measure has given satisfaction to all, except
the devoted adherents of the antagonistic acad-
emy.-Madame Pompadour, the bright particu-
lar star of Louis XV., was, in addition to her
other great accomplishments, a devoted adnirer
of Art, and, moreover, herself an artist of no
ordinary skill. This won for her the following
tribute from the pen of Voltaire :

ART.

Art in Paris.-Something like an apotheosis of Delacroix notified the last month of the past year. A considerable collection of the works of that great master was exhibited in the exten sive saloons of the Boulevard des Italiens, and two appropriate tributes have been further paid therein to his merits and his memory. One of these was in the form of a lecture given by the veteran Dumas, who happened to have enjoyed the intimate friendship of the painter, and who, in rich strain of colloquy, rather than less formal and ungenial disquisition, pictured forth his vigorous and various peculiarities of character. So greatly was this outpouring of the author of Monte Christo relished, that its repetition became expedient. The other tribute took the form of a réunion of artists at a dinner in the same quarter, under the presidency of the well-known critic, Theophile Gautier. This also passed off effectively. The reputation, however, of Delacroix now rests, not upon the eulogistic advocacy of friends, but upon the verdict which the present and the future will mete out to the canvases which crowded the walls of that locale where these two scenes took place.-Apropos of French Art, and the modest self-sufficiency of its adherents, it is amusing, to say the least, to find in one of the favorite publications devoted to it-in a notice of one of your London sales of native works of Art-an expression of surprise at the high prices which some dozen pictures realized, amounting altogether to 210,300 francs, or be

"Pompadour, ton crayon divin,
Devait dessiner ton visage.
Jamais une plus belle main
N'auvait fait un plus bel ouvrage."

"From no other pencil but thine,
Pompadour, should thy portrait be given;
And then-what a work all divine

We should have from a hand fair as heaven." --Art Journal. Nuremberg, according to a statement in the Builder, "promises a monument to Stonewall Jackson. The way in which Nuremberg has come to promise it is rather curious. A young man from Nuremberg, named Volk, emigrated to America as a journeyman cooper. After arriving there his early passion for Art grew stronger; he made sketches for illustrated papers, and gradually became a self-taught artist. The war found him at Baltimore, whence he wandered South, and was engaged as draughtsman on the staff of one of the Southern generals. He made a bust of Stonewall Jackson from a mask which he took from the dead face; and when the monument was put up to competition by the Southern government, the young German artist won the prize. But even then he had to find means for executing his work, and for this he ran a ship laden with cotton through the blockade, and brought it to Europe, where the sale of the cotton gave him the funds required. The monument represents the general on horseback; a fine Arabian steed from Stuttgart serving as a model for the horse."-Art Journal.

A group, consisting of statues of the Counts D' Egmont and De Horn, has just been inaugurated in the great square at Brussels. The ministers of the interior and of foreign affairs, with the municipal councils and several thousand spectators, were present, and an address appropriate to the occasion was delivered by the burgomaster. The monument consists of a pedestal, forming a fountain, surmounted by a group representing the two victims of the Duke of Alva. Count Egmont embraces Count Horn with his left arm,

and the attitude of both is expressive of firmness and resignation. On the lower part of the pedestal is the following inscription, in French and Flemish, on an unburnished gold ground: "To Counts Egmont and Horn, condemned by an unjust sentence of the Duke of Alva, and beheaded on this spot on the 5th of June, 1568."

The Dublin Exhibition.-Active exertions are being made in various quarters, official and photographic, to secure an unusually creditable display of photographic art at the Dublin International Exhibition, which is to be opened in May, 1865. The committee intrusted with the management of this department announce the fine art claims of photography as thoroughly recognized, and describe a system of classification very superior to that adopted by the Commissioners of 1862.

The Charivari publishes a wood-cut, in which 1864 is giving instructions to 1865, both represented under the guise of young women. In front of them is to be seen a tremendously fat Prussian soldier, walking about with great selfcomplacency. "If that customer," says 1864, should call for anything be sure not to serve him, for ever since I have been here he has done nothing but help himself."

The Edinburgh statue of Prof. John Wilson, executed in bronze by Mr. Steel, is described as a most beautiful work of art. It will probably be inaugurated on the same day as the marble statue of Allan Ramsay, by the same sculptor, the site of the first being in East Princess-street Garden, corresponding to the site of the latter in West Garden.

Potsdam.-A copy, in marble, of "The Angel of the Resurrection," in the church of St. Maria da Gloria, at Rome, has been placed over the vault containing the body of Frederick William IV., King of Prussia, in Friedenskirche. The copy was executed by Tenerani, of Rome.

VARIETIES.

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Shakspeare and Musical Composers. Shakspeare's relation to music forms the subject of an essay in the Vienna Recensionen, from which we extract the following items: Instrumental music is found in connection with Shakspeare's works in the dead march (act i., scene 1) of "Henry IV.;" further, in the Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Tempest;" in "Henry VIII" (act i., scene 1) and "As You Like It" (act v., scene 4.) No less frequently does vocal music occur. Witness the songs of Ophelia, the duet between Guiderius and Arviragus in "Cymbeline," the song in "Much Ado About Nothing," those in "As You Like It," the duet in "The Merchant of Venice," (act iii., scene 2,) etc. That Shaks pearian pieces have been used as librettos for operas is well known, for example: "Romeo and Juliet," by Zingarelli, Vaccai, and Bellini; "Othello," by Rossini; "Macbeth," by Chelard, Verdi, and Taubert; "The Merry Wives of Windsor," by Nicolai, Balfe, ("Falstaff,") Adam, and previously by Salieri ("Falstaff o le trè burle";) "Coriolanus," by Nicolini; "Hamlet," by Buzzola (even as a ballet!); "The Tempest," by Reichardt, Zumstæg, Jullien, Sullivan. Besides these, there were composed "musics" to

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Macbeth" by Locke (1657;) and choruses to the same by Gallus. Arne (1750) wrote music to "The Merchant of Venice" and "Tempest," Mendelssohn to "Midsummer Night's Dream," Taubert to the "Tempest," Tausch and André to "As You Like It." Of orchestral works founded on Shakspeare we mention "Romeo and Juliet," a dramatic symphony, by H. Berlioz; overtures to the same by Steibelt and Ilinski. There are overtures to "Hamlet" by Gade, Liszt, and Joachim, and a march by Pierson. To the Tempest" overtures have been written by Rietz, Hager, and Vierling, to Macbeth" by Spohr and Pearsall, for "King Lear" by Berlioz, for "Julius Cæsar" by Schumann, for the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" by Street, for "King John" by Radecke, for "Coriolanus" by B. A. Weber, (Beethoven's overture of the same title was intended for Collins's piece,) for "Othello' by C. Müller, etc. Entr'actes and "battlemusic to several of the pieces were done by Emil Titl, and Kuhlau, finally, denominated an overture "William Shakspeare."-The Reader.

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Chinese Visiting Cards. They pay visits in China just as the thing is done in Europe; and, when they do not find the person at home to whom the visit is made, they leave a card. The use of these cards among the Chinese dates back, it is said, for more than a thousand years, and it would appear that our European fashion, in that respect, is taken from the Celestial Empire: only the size of these articles with us has much diminished from its original proportions. Thus, the Chinese use a sheet of paper, in the middle of which is written the name, surname, and so on, of the holder, with his rank appended; and this sheet is augmented or diminished in size according to the importance of the person visited, or to the respect with which the visitor desires to address him. Also, the color of his card varies according to circumstances connected with the position of its owner. Thus, one of the principal persons attached to our expedition-now in the country-has forwarded to us a visiting card left at his door by a mandarin, on the eve of his departure. It is a roll of paper of a reddish purple tint, and of a size big enough, with other cards of a similar character, to be adopted for the purposes of papering a room.

Penmanship.-Babbitt & Wilt, Principals of Miami Commercial College, Ohio, have published the system of Penmanship which is used in that institution, and known as the "Babbitonian.” It consists of a chart and ninety copies, illustrated by sixty fine wood-cuts. It seems to be well adapted to the purposes of self-instruction, and could be used with advantage in schools.

Photographic Art.-There is a marked difference in the artistic skill and taste with which photographers copy the human face and form. Some operators seem to make anything but good portraits. Without making comparisons, we wish to invite attention to the admirable skill with which Jordan & Co., No. 229 Greenwich-street, New-York, bring out into life-like expression the lineaments of the human face and features. We are not informed if they make the portraits capable of talking, but some of them look as if they were about to open their lips. We recommend to our friends to make trial and proof of the skill of Jordan & Co. in copying their faces.

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Dublin University Magazine. CHARLES LAMB, HIS FRIENDS AND

BOOKS.

ABOUT this unique and delightful being there has been plenty written in a loving, but official way. His ways and manner of life have been woven for us into a piece, and as we go over it carefully we find but few threads dropped. Some of these, and of very small importance indeed, may be thought worth while picking up. Anything, surely, will be welcome that helps, even in a small way, to bring us in contact with this engaging writer. As we might fancy ourselves in his room after his death, taking up his inkstand his pen-the book he last read, with the leaf turned down-the folios; "my midnight darlings," he called them, half pathetically-"huge armfuls"-even his forsworn pipe, (and with what reverence and delicacy we would lay our hands on such relics); so we might relish these little "odds and ends," gathered up out of by-ways and out of cornersNEW SERIES-VOL. I., No. 5.

1

Old Series Complete in 63 vols.

little shreds and patches of no great quality beyond having a reference to this arch-essayist, and most delightful man. For a writer so unique in his kind, where the species, as he himself said of a book, is the whole genus, surprisingly little has been said. Yet he might be studied over and over again-lectured and commented on by the hour and by the volume. It is pleasant to think that one so nice and dainty in palate as he was about the "dressing" of books-so sensitive and epicurean as regards typography, paper, and editions, should, in his own works, have been gratified by all the little elegances of typography. To be a dandy, or petit maitre, in such things is very pardonable; and there is a fond and delicate homage in the offering of fine type, broad margin, and toned paper, to a writer that we love, almost akin to the flowers and draperies with which the altar of a patron saint is dressed. Charles Lamb would have looked down the line of his own books with fond admiration. They harmonize prettily.

33

One year Mr. Edward Moxon, whose that mean, straitened suit, many name, someway, always chimes in a sort of "third" with that of Lamb-the man whom Leigh Hunt called the "bookseller of the poets, and with no disparagement to him from the antithesis, a poet among booksellers"-starting in business, was anxious to show the public with what elegance he would equip his books. "You were desirous," said his friend, Lamb, to him, "of exhibiting a specimen of the manner in which publications intrusted to your care would appear. They are simply advertisement And thus was introduced this pretty little volume, "Album Verses, with a few others," by Charles Lamb; an inviting title-page, with a graceful vignette of a "pastoral boy" busily writing. A bright, gay little volume, printed by Bradbury and Evans, now tolerably rare, and not to be seen on the stalls.

verses."

After all, there is a sort of fanciful luxury in reading the book we love in the original shape." Very few have had in their hands the first collected edition of the immortal essays-a small, bright volume, entitled "Elia," not "The Essays of Elia," as they were to become later. Someway there is an aroma about these original books. It was the shape the author's own eye rested on and approved. It is a link between him and us; just as Charles Lamb, I believe, used by a sort of chain of “ 'handshakings' comically fancy he might have indirectly shaken Shakspeare's hand. The delightful paper on books and editions lets us into a hundred little whims and minauderies of this sort which the book collector will comprehend. "On the contrary, I cannot read Beaumont and Fletcher but in folio; the octavo editions are painful to look at." But there are "things in books' clothing" which make one writhe and shiver, and which distress the eye;-the well-meant compromise between meanness and abundance-between cheapness and good measure-between "nastiness" and a "good armful" notion, which takes the shape of the "complete works" in "one vol.," with double columns. "I know nothing," says Lamb, "more heartless than the reprint of the Anatomy of Melancholy."" But he little dreamed he himself should be taken, packed, and compressed into

sizes too

small, like some predecessor's livery, all straitened, without a fold, or even a wrinkle. This seems a cruel and wanton degradation for one who has gloried in fine clothes, and who could stretch his arms with freedom. As he said of Burton, so it might be said to Mr. Moxon, "what need was there of unearthing the bones of that fantastic, old, great man, to expose them in a winding-sheet of the newest fashion?" Yet never were the "shabby genteel" double columns so fined and polished, or given in such rich material-best of type and paper; but still nothing can carry off the cut and pattern. Had this abomination fairly taken root in the days of "Elia," what a pleasant protest he would have given against the well-meaning but grovelling fashion.

The original "Elia," now open before me, is at the sign of Taylor and Hessey, 95 Fleet-street, (we hear Charles Lamb telling how a copy was waiting for a friend "penes Taylor and Hessey"). It is tolerably rare. At the end is a good analysis of that famous London magazine in which they first appeared, requesting the attention of the public "particularly" to the six hundred original articles written by "gentlemen of the first talents;" and first in order among these contributions is placed "The Essays of Elia." How rich those six volumes were, may be conceived when they contained "The Opium Eater;" Allan Cunningham's "Scottish Traditions;" poetry by Montgomery, Keats, Clare, and Barry Cornwall; and a pleasant class of paper now unhappily dropped out of magazine province, on such subjects as Specimens of the Early French Poets;" additions to Walpole's "Royal and Noble Authors;" additions to "Johnson's Lives;" "Tabletalk;" "Speculations on Richter and the Germans."

66

Pursuing this bibliographical review, I have before me now a little volume, in rather mean dress, dated 1796, being the "Poems on Various Subjects, by S. T. Coleridge, late of Jesus College, Cambridge," printed by Robinson of London, and Cottle of Bristol. It is curious that Talfourd should not have noticed the appearance of three of Lamb's sonnets in this collection, which was a year previous

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