same water that has again and again been evaporated from the ocean surface and recondensed as rain.

COM

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

COMMANDER CHEYNE has gone to America to seek the modest equipment that his own countrymen are unable to supply. He proposes now that his expedition shall be "AngloAmerican." I have been asked to join an Arctic Council, to cooperate on this side, and have refused on anti-patriotic grounds. As a member of the former Arctic Committee, I was so much disgusted with the parsimony of our millionaires and the anti-geographical conduct of the Savile Row Mutual Admiration Society, that I heartily wish that in this matter our American grandchildren may "lick the Britishers quite complete." It will do us much good.

My views, expressed in the Gentleman's Magazine of July 1880, remain unchanged except in the direction of confirmation and development. I still believe that an enthusiastic, practically trained, sturdy Arctic veteran, who has endured hardship both at home and abroad, whose craving eagerness to reach the Pole amounts to a positive. monomania, who lives for this object alone, and is ready to die for it, who will work at it purely for the work's sake-will be the right man in the right place when at the head of a modestly but efficiently equipped polar expedition, especially if Lieutenant Schwatka is his second in command.

They will not require luxurious saloons, nor many cases of champagne; they will care but little for amateur theatricals; they will follow the naval traditions of the old British "sea-dogs" rather than those of our modern naval lap-dogs, and will not turn back after a first struggle with the cruel Arctic ice, even though they should suppose it to be "paleocrystic."

SCIENT

MR. WALTER POWELL.

CIENTIFIC aërostation has lost its most promising expert by the untimely death of Walter Powell. He was not a mere sensational ballooner, nor one of those dreamers who imagine they can invent flying machines, or steer balloons against the wind by mysterious electrical devices or by mechanical paddles, fan wheels, or rudders.

He perfectly understood that a balloon is at the mercy of atmospheric currents and must drift with them, but nevertheless he regarded

it as a most promising instrument for geographical research. I had a long conference with him on the subject in August last, when he told me that the main objects of the ascents he had already made, and should be making for some little time forward, were the acquisition of practical skill, and of further knowledge of atmospheric currents; after which he should make a dash at the Atlantic with the intent of crossing to America.

On my part, I repeated with further argument what I have already urged on page 113 of the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1880, viz., the primary necessity of systematic experimental investigation of the rate of exosmosis (oozing out) of the gas from balloons made of different materials and variously varnished.

Professor Graham demonstrated that this molecular permeation of gases and liquids through membranes mechanically air-tight, depends upon the adhesive affinities of particular solids for other particular fluids, and these affinities vary immensely, their variations depending on chemical differences rather than upon mechanical impermeability. My project to attach captive balloons of small size to the roof of the Polytechnic Institution, holding them by a steelyard that should indicate the pull due to their ascending power, and the rate of its decline according to the composition of the membrane, was heartily approved by Mr. Powell, and, had the Polytechnic survived, would have been carried out, as it would have served the double purpose of scientific investigation and of sensational advertisement for the outside public.

If the aëronaut were quite clear on this point- could calculate accurately how long his balloon would float-he might venture with deliberate calculation on journeys that without such knowledge are mere exploits of blind daring.

The varnishes at present used are all permeable by hydrogen gas and hydro-carbon coal gas, as might be expected, à priori, from the fact that they are themselves solid hydro-carbons, soluble in other liquid or gaseous hydro-carbons. Nothing, as far as I can learn, has yet been done with siliceous or boracic varnishes, which are theoretically impermeable by hydrogen and its carbon compounds; but whether they are practically so under ballooning conditions, and can be made sufficiently pliable and continuous, are questions only to be solved by practical experiments of the kind above named. Now that the best man for making these experiments is gone, somebody else should undertake them. Unfortunately, they must of necessity be rather expensive.

W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS.

253

C

TABLE TALK.

TAMPERING WITH NATIONAL DOCUMENTS.

ONSTANT complaints of the manner in which manuscripts of national importance have been tampered with find their way into print. In a recent number of Notes and Queries, Dr. C. M. Ingleby writes: "It is now thirteen years since, by the kindness of Dr. Carver, I spent parts of two days in the examination of the diary and account-book of Philip Henslowe. . . . . The conclusion I arrived at was that some dishonest person had taken advantage of the blanks, not infrequently left by Henslowe, for the purpose of writing pseudoantique entries, evidently with the view of supporting unauthorised statements by adducing the purport of these false entries." Five entries in the same book have recently been branded as forgeries by Mr. George F. Warner, of the Department of MSS. of the British Museum. These, Dr. Ingleby states, do not include all the forgeries in the volume. What is true of Henslowe's diary is also true of many other works of even greater importance. When blanks do not exist, the indefatigable forger has carefully erased portions of MSS., and filled in passages bearing upon subjects on which public interest may well be felt. Those whose professional duties lead them to consult MS. records are well aware to what an extent this atrocious system has been carried. Meanwhile, though protest after protest has been uttered, no one dares to mention the man upon whom rests the burden of suspicion, or, according to some opinions, of certainty. I am not going to put myself forward and bring charges against individuals which, without the aid of others, perhaps even with the aid of others, I cannot prove. This much, however, I feel bound to say the late Deputy-Keeper of the Records had no doubt as to whose was the guilt. In my hearing, he deliberately and emphatically named the man, and he used these words, which, coming from one in his position, are not likely to be forgotten by me: "There are few national collections in which traces of that man's slime are not to be found." Not one to speak rashly was my dear friend Sir Thomas Hardy, and I for one accept with full conviction the charges against a living man

which he did not hesitate to bring. Some day or other the name, which for obvious reasons I cannot mention, will be made public.

As

THE LATEST TRICK OF THE DOG-STEALER.

STORY which I am about to tell is perhaps scarcely suited to the Gentleman's, but it is interesting in itself, and may serve a purpose. A lady, looking out of a window in Eaton Square, saw a man, apparently a milkman, wearing a white smock, and carrying the customary pails. Exactly in front of where she stood this worthy was passed by a lady with three or four small dogs. Instanter one of these which lagged behind was snapped up, dropped into a can, and covered with the lid. This will explain the mysterious manner in which valuable dogs disappear. When asked if he has seen a dog, our bucolic-looking friend is ready with a reply that he saw one running in a direction the opposite of that he is himself taking.

IN

A MINOR STAR IN THE SHAKESPEARIAN GALAXY.

Na privately printed edition of the works of John Day, the dramatist, of which one hundred and fifty copies have been issued, I have made what is practically my first acquaintance with a delightful and characteristically English writer. Day belongs to the great roll of Shakespearian dramatists. He is one of the smallest of the number. It must, however, be remembered that, to employ the words of one of the same race,—

The very lees of such millions of rates
Exceed the wine of others.

I am well contented to add the name of John Day to the number of stars in that immortal galaxy. What most strikes me in reading his works is the fact that, while he is altogether unlike his fellows, it is yet evident that the same blood which pours down their veins warms his heart. Day, so far as I recall, is the very first to preach the lesson of kindness to animals. Concerning the cruelty of field sports he writes in a style that would delight Mr. Frederic Harrison, and he anticipates, feebly enough it may be, but distinctly, the arraignment of the higher powers by Mr. Swinburne in denouncing as cruel the creation that requires for the maintenance of existence the continuous sacrifice of life. It is always pleasant to see one more of our Elizabethan worthies rescued from the risk of destruction.

A

A COMPLAINT FROM AMERICA.

COMPLAINT has been heard from the United States concerning a falling off in the number of volumes issued by the public libraries. So far as this is attributable to the supplanting of the book by the newspaper, it may be a source of regret. A man

who attempts to keep au courant with the best portion of periodical literature will probably have little time for more serious reading. Few among those most earnest in pursuit of scholarship can spare half the time to solid reading which they admit to be desirable. I am inclined to ascribe to a more satisfactory cause the falling off in question. In the United States, good books can be bought at a price so low that the artisan or the labourer, instead of getting them from the library, is tempted to purchase for himself. I wish the same symptoms were more prevalent here. I have again and again pointed out how little real love of books exists in England, and how few shelves, in a middle-class house, are required to hold the volumes a man would feel ashamed to be without. Books are in this country, as in America, among the cheapest of luxuries or of necessities, and the money spent in obtaining greasy volumes from small libraries might, with advantage, be saved for the purchase of works which will be a source of enduring delight.

INCREASE IN THE CONSUMPTION OF FRUIT.

O those whose recollections, like my own, go back to a period considerably earlier than the middle of the century, it is pleasant to contemplate the change that has come over our habits with regard to eating fruit. A generation ago, apples, pears, nuts, and oranges were all the fresh fruits obtainable after the period of strawberries and that of stone fruit had passed. At the present time our shops and markets show a variety for which all quarters of the world have been ransacked. Fruits, the names of which not long ago suggested the idea of tropical travel, are now hawked about the streets by our costermongers. I venture to assert that London is

at the present moment better off, as regards the supply of fruit, than any city on the Mediterranean. The price of fruit brought from abroad is naturally higher than it is at the place of production, the cost of carriage and the loss by decay having to be made up. Ten years ago, the value of the fruits, excluding oranges and lemons, imported into England was less than a million pounds. It now stands at two and a half millions. We still eat too little fruit, but the advance that has been witnessed is remarkable. In Paris, meanwhile, what are called les quatre mendiants, namely, raisins, figs, almonds, and nuts, are still served, under the name of dessert, at second-class restaurants and hotels. When fruits and green vegetables form a still larger portion of our daily food, our national disease of dyspepsia will be in a fair way of disappearance, and with it may perhaps go that tendency to spleen by which, in the estimate of foreigners, we are constantly beset.