time of Tacitus, whose treatise on the manners of the Germans was written about the end of the first century of the Christian era, beer was their common drink. Pliny mentions it as being used in Spain, under the name of calia and ceria; and in Gaul, under that of cerevisia; he then proceeds to explain, that almost every species of corn has been used for the manufacture of beer. In Europe it is usually made from barley; in India from rice; in the interior of Africa, according to Mungo Park, from the seeds of the holcus spicatus, spiked or eared wall-hardy. These observations are corroborated by other authors of antiquity; and the cerevisia of Pliny evidently takes its name from Ceres, the goddess of corn-lexicographers doubting whether it ought not to be written cererisia. Plautus more minutely calls it Cerealis liquor; that is, liquor used at the solemn feasts in honour of that goddess --the harvest home; and both he and Columella a famous writer on agriculture, who flourished in the reign of Claudius, and whose work is therefore coeval with the invasion of Britain by that emperor-called this liquor zythum, which, if traced back to its Greek origin, is interpreted "drink from barley." Many operative brewers, in some of the largest town establishments, even now ridicule and despise the idea of chemistry being in any way connected with the art of brewing. Such ignorant prejudices only perpetuate bigotry, and cause an enormous waste of property; the progress of useful art is impeded; and its promoters are ungenerously maligned by a spirit which knows not the limited range of its own capacity. WATER. Perhaps nothing in nature is more variable in character than this apparently simple fluid, which is not the aqua pura which it seems, and which many believe it to be, but a heterogeneous mixture of alkaline and metallic salts, acids, gases, and occa sionally even animal and vegetable matter, some being held in chemical union, and others in mechanical sus pension. Pure water, or oxide of hydrogen, is attainable only by art. HOPS. The medicinal properties of hops are numerous. The odorous emanations arising from them possess marked narcotic properties. Hence a pillow of the cones has often been prescribed to promote sleep, in cases where the administration of opium could not be effected, or would have been objectionable. Both infusion and tincture of hops are mild and agreeable aromatic tonics. They sometimes manifest diuretic, or, when the skin is kept warm, sudorific qualities. Their sedative, soporific, and anodyne properties are very uncertain. a There is no department of the arts and manufactures where chemistry has exerted a more decided influence than in brewing. In a state of society like the present, when philosophy and enterprise travel with giant strides, and when every branch of technology calls The editor does not attach much aloud for scientific aid, exact theo importance to the assertion that hops retical information cannot be too widely are narcotic, and that their influence diffused. Notwithstanding the trite upon the frame is wonderful, especially, saying which has existed from time im- when they are used in pillows, as he memorial, that any old woman can considers that the imagination plays brew, it is worthy of remark that few most important part in all such matters old women, even in literature, are che-vide spirit rapping, table turning, et mists, fewer chemists are brewers, and fewer still are the brewers who, by attention to chemical transformation, have been able to increase the quantity of the useful extract from malt, and to reject the errors, both in theory and in practice, that eventually reduce the labour of the old-woman brewer to futility and loss. cetera. The properties of hops in brewing are important, but may be given in a few words. All the medical qualities are to some degree exerted by the liquors in which they are employed. They render the beer more stimulant and cordial, and the bitter principle overcomes the dis agreeable sweetness arising from the malt, and which, if unneutralised, might be offensive, if not injurious, to persons having weak digestive organs. LAGOONS OF TUSCANY. They are unique in Europe, if not in the world; and their produce has become an article of equal importance to Great Britain as an import, and to Tuscany as to export. They are spread overasurface of 30 miles, and exhibit, from the distance, columns of vapour, more or less according to the season of the year and state of the weather, which rise in large volumes among the recesses of the mountains. As one approaches, the lagoons, the earth seems to pour out boiling water, as if from volcanoes of various sizes, in a variety of soil, but principally of chalk and sand. The heat in the immediate vicinity is intolerable, and one is drenched by the vapour, which impregnates the atmosphere with a strong and somewhat sulphurous smell. The whole scene is one of terrible violence and confusion the noisy outbreak of the boiling stream; the rugged and agitated surface; the volumes of steam; the impregnated atmosphere; the rush of waters among bleak and solitary mountains. The ground, which burns and shakes beneath the feet, is covered with beautiful crystallisations of sulphur, &c. The character beneath the surface of Monte Cerboli is that of a black marl, striated with carbonate of lime, giving it, at a short distance, the appearance of variegated marble. Formerly the place was regarded by the rustics as the entrance of hell, a superstition derived, no doubt, from very ancient times; for the principal of the lagoons, and the neighbouring volcano, still bear the name of Monte Cerboli-Mons. Cerberi. The peasantry never passed by the spot without terror, counting their beads and imploring the protection of the virgin. The lagoons have been brought into their present profitable action within a very few years. Scattered over an extensive district, they have become the property of Count Larderel, to whom they are a source of wealth more valuable, perhaps, and certainly less capricious, than any mine of silver that Mexico or Peru possesses. That these lagoons, so valuable to the proprietor and to other nations, in the commercial importance of their productions, should have been permitted to discharge their enormous yield of boracic acid unheeded into the atmosphere-that they should have been so frequently visited by scientific men, to none of whom, for ages at least, did the thought occur that they contained in them mines of wealth, is a curious phenomenon: nor is it less remarkable, that it was left for a man whose name and occupation are wholly dissociated from science to convert these fugitive vapours indirectly into gold, by processes which, though simple, are never theless eminently chemical. This BREAD.-Nations from the earliest periods, as they approached civilisation, became, as it were, instinctively aware of the necessity of providing a more certain means of satisfying the cravings of appetite than the chase could afford; hence the introduction of agriculture has been one of the most effectual of human means to bring about that conversion from barbarism inherent in man, when left only to batten on a moor. art is one of the conditions imposed upon man in consequence of his fall; and it continues to be the mainstay of human existence. It is observed that of all the material interests influencing humanity, there is none which so completely and tyrannically fetters the individual as the care for his daily bread; and though this great feature is evinced by different pursuits in life, yet these, like so many tributary streams and rivulets, are continually meandering till they terminate in the all-absorbing ocean of agriculture, which is the soul of all the other branches of industry invented in modern ages; without it, none other can stand. It is that art on which a thousand millions of men are dependent for their very life; in the prosecution of which about nine-tenths of the fixed capital of civilised nations are embarked; and upon which more than two hundred millions of human beings expend their diurnal labour; the parent and forerunner of all the other arts. In every clime, then, at every epoch, the investigation of the principles on which the rational practice of this art is founded ought to have commanded the attention of the greatest minds; and to no other object could they have been more beneficially directed. Is it not strange that those engaged in the cultivation of the land are, as a body, amongst the most unscientific in the industrial pursuits of ancient and modern times? A paramount obstacle to scientific agriculture in the farmer is the great difficulty which the solution of natural science always presents to the investigator; and as nature's operations lie at the foundation of agriculture, the philosopher can, in numerous instances, go no further in offering an explanation than the humble husband man. BAKING POWDER. Bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid, mixed in equal proportions, are other substitutes for yeast. The result of their action is the same as the preceding; instead of chloride of sodium, however, tartrate of soda is formed. This mixture of bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid is retailed by druggists under the name baking powder.' In preparing a dough with this compound, it is thoroughly mixed with the flour by agitation and sifting; the usual quantity of water is then added, and the whole quickly stirred and mixed up into the form of the loaf; as soon as the water comes in contact with the flour with which the mixture has been incorporatod carbonaic acid is liberated, on account of the chemical action consequent upon the solution. In making this kind of dough the hands cannot be conveniently used in the usual way, as the moist four adheres to them; and therefore a mechanical agitator, or wooden spatula is employed; and when the mass has acquired sufficient consistency, without any lumps of dry flour being allowed to remain, it is shaped, put into the moulds or other. wise, and baked as speedily as possible. About a teaspoonful of the baking powder is sufficient for each pound of flour. FANCY BISCUIT BAKING.-This branch which was heretofore confined to reta confectioners, has latterly acquired an importance entitling it to be ranked among the minor staple commodities of the kingdom; for not only does the home demand absorb thousands of tons weight annually, but large quantities are exported to the colonies and foreign countries. This change, like many others of modern date, has been brought about by means of the manufacturing system: which, by its subdivision of la bour, the skilful adaptation of machinery, and capabilities of production on an extended scale, has so diminished the cost as to place within reach of the million what was till of late years a luxury for the opulent. The production of fancy biscuits on the large scale mentioned is confined to some half dozen localities. In this department one is struck with the variety of form and names of the products. So numerous are these that no fewer than sixty sorts are made, all reputed to be different; and what is most singular, every new kind seems for a season to take the place of its predecessors. This, if it augurs nothing else, at least indicates a love of novelty, which the trade tampers with to a vast extent, for large sums are yearly expended in procuring designs, as well in the form as in the manner in which the the biscuits are presented to the public. BUTTER.-Though butter may be considered as one of the most common of all ordinary things, yet the ancients were nearly, if not entirely, ignorant of its existence. The older translators of Hebrew seemed to think that they had met with it in Scripture, but most modern Biblical critics agree that what was formerly interpreted butter signi fied milk or cream, or, more properly, sour thick milk. The word referred to plainly alludes to a liquid, as it appears that the substance meant was used for washing the feet, and that it was im bibed, and had an intoxicating influence. It is well known that mares' milk, when sour, has a similar effect. 80. REFRANGIBILITY OF LIGHT.-If you hold your finger in a perpendicular direction very near your eye, that is to say, at the distance of a few inches at most, and look at a candle in such a manner that the edge of your finger shall appear to be very near the flame, you will see the border of the flame coloured red. If you then move the edge of your finger before the flame, so as to suffer only the other border of it to be seen, this border will appear tinged with blue, while the edge of your finger will be coloured red. If the same experiment be tried with an opaque body surrounded by a luminous medium, such, for example, as the upright bar of a sash window, the colours will appear in a contrary order. When a thread of light only remains between your finger and the bar, the edge of your finger will be tinged red, and the edge next the bar will be bordered with blue; but when you bring the edge of your finger near the second edge of the bar, so that it shall be entirely concealed, this second edge will be tinged red, and the edge of the finger would doubtless appear to be coloured blue, were it possible that this dark colour could be seen in an obscure and brown ground. 81. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.-To tell a man to his face to mind his own business, would be considered about equal to knocking him down. And yet it is one of the simplest rules of right conduct, and the most useful that mankind can adopt in their intercourse with each other. There is a great deal of the Paul Pry spirit in the human heart, or wonderful inquisitiveness in regard to the personal and private affairs of friends and neighbours. This spirit makes more mischief in the community than almost any other cause, and creates more malice, envy, and jealousy, than can be overcome in a century. Let every man mind his own business, and there will not be half the trouble in the world that there is at present. 82. FLIES.—A fly lays four times during the summer, each time eighty eggs, which makes 320; half of these are supposed to be females, so that each of the four broods produces 40.-1. First eight, or the 40 females of the first brood, also lay four times in the course of the summer, which makes 12,800; the first eight of these, or 1,600 females, three times, 384,000; the second eight twice, 250,000; the third and fourth eight, at least once each, 230,000.-2. The second eight, or the 40 females of the second brood, lay three times, the produce of which is 9,600; one-sixth of these, or 1,600 females, three times, 384,000; the second sixth twice, 256,000; the third six once, 123,000. -3. The third eight, or the 40 females of the third brood, lay twice, and produce 6,400; one-fourth of these, or 1,600 females, lay twice more, 256,000. 4. The fourth eight, or 40 females of the fourth brood, once, 2,200; half of these, or 1,600 females, at least once, 128,000.-Total produce of a single fly in one summer: 2,080,320! 83. BREVITY.-We must impress upon our correspondents generally the importance of brevity in their communications. A long letter, containing frequent repetitions of the same subject, however good the purport may be, is often laid aside, from want of leisure to examine and simplify the details. Brevity is not only the soul of wit, but it is the hinge of business, and an indispensable requisite in letter-writing. None valued this quality more highly than Dr. Abernethy, who could also appreciate it in another, as the following anecdote proves :-A woman, having burnt her hand, called at his office. Showing him her hand, she said burn." A poultice," quietly answered the learned doctor. The next day the woman returned and said "Better." "Continue the poultice." In a week, she made her last call, and her speech was lengthened to three monosyllables: "Well; your fee?" "Nothing!" said the pleased physician; "you are the most sensible woman I ever saw !" 66 "A 84. HINTS TO MOTHERS.-If you wish to cultivate a gossiping, meddling, censorious spirit in your children, be sure when they come home from church, a visit, or any other place where you do not accompany them, to ply them with questions concerning what everybody wore, how everybody looked, and what everybody said and did-and if you find anything in all this to censure, always do it in their hearing. You may rest assured, if you pursue a course of this kind, they will not return to you unladen with intelligence; and, rather than it should be uninteresting, they will by degrees learn to embellish in such a manner as shall not fail to call forth remarks and expressions of wonder from you. You will, by this course, render the spirit of curiositywhich is so early visible in children, and which, if rightly directed, may be made the instrument of enriching and enlarging their minds - a vehicle of mischief, which shall serve only to narrow them. 85. MORNING PLEASURES. Whoever is found in bed after six o'clock, from May-day till Michaelmas, cannot, in any conscience, expect to be free from some ailment or other, dependent on relaxed nerves, stuffed lungs, disordered bile, or impaired digestion. Nothing can be done-absolutely nothing-if you do not rise early, except drugging you with draughts -a luxury which the indolent morning sleeper must prepare himself to purchase dearly. We give him joy of his choice-bid him good bye, and springing out into the sunny air, we gather health from every breeze, and become young again among the glittering May dew, and laughing May flowers. "What a luxury do the sons of sloth lose?” says Harvey, in his Flowery Reflections on a Flower Garden, "little, ah! little, is the sluggard sensible how great a pleasure he foregoes, for the poorest of all animal gratifications!" Be per suaded; make an effort to shake off the pernicious habit. "Go forth," as King Solomon says, "to the fields-lodge in the villages-get up early to the vineyards;" mark the budding flowers listen to the joyous birds-in a word, cultivate morning pleasures, and health and vigour will certainly follow. 86. DON'T TALK ABOUT YOURSELF. Never introduce your own affairs for the amusement of a com pany; it shows a sad want of mental cultivation, excessive weakness of intellect, or a sort of vanity, always repulsive. Some folks cannot tell a story, relate an anecdote, or speak upon any subject, without using the significant pronoun I-as, when I was a boy, I was at the head of my class, and I never was surpassed-I can dive deeper, I can stay under longer, and I can come up dryer-I can, than anybody else I ever saw-I can. I-I think I am rather keen, I do I do. Reader, what think you of such a specimen ? 87. RESIN. It is said that a small piece of resin dipped in the water which is placed in a vessel on a stove (not an open fireplace), will add a peculiar property to the atmosphere of the room, which will give great relief to persons troubled with a cough. The heat of the stove is sufficient to throw off the aroma of the resin, and gives the same relief that is afforded by the combustion, because the evaporation is more durable. The same resin may be used for weeks. 88. THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.-A free exposure to the light and to the sun's influence has a great effect in diminishing the tendency to disease. The sunny side of the street should always be chosen as a residence, from its superior healthiness. It has been found in public buildings, &c., that those are always the most healthy which are the lightest and sunniestIn some barracks in Russia, it was found that in a wing where no sun penetrated, there occurred three cases of sickness, for every single case which happened on that side of the building exposed to the sun's rays. All other circumstances were equal-such as ventilation, size of apartments, number of inmates, diet, &c.-so that no other cause for this disproportion seemed to exist. In the Italian cities, this practical hint is well known. Malaria seldom attacks the set of apartments or houses which are freely open to the sun, while on the opposite side of the street, the summer and autumn are very unhealthy, and even dangerous. 89. COKE AS FUEL FOR DOMES |