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contest for union was going on. A foreign war fused them all for the time, and we should gather no hint from Waldfried that they were not composed in permanent peace. If he is silent upon the conflict between latent communism and traditional mediævalism, it may be because it is easier to explain than to predict the leadings of the unknown power that guides events. And if the strife now raging between Protestantism and Catholicism passes unmentioned, it is because he regards it only as an incident of progress-a stage in the contest to which alone he gives seriousness in these pages between theology and morality.

In the connection of his own family circle with these great movements of public interests, Waldfried finds an ample field for illustrating the opposing work of principle and of passion. Active heroism and simple goodness, the eagerness of selfishness, the punishment of ungoverned passion, the acquiescence of commonplace people, and the baseness of ignoble ones, all find their part to play on the greater stage of political development. There is a singular distinctness in the chief characters, and in the subordinate ones no little humor and freshness. The touch of German peculiarities clearly marks the localities, and manners, and the modifications of these in the members of the family who came into it from a foreign stock, or return to it with foreign experience, are nicely shaded. One of these at least, Martella, is the picture of an original never before drawn—a wildling of nature, springing up among settled and trim surroundings, and in her outright vehemence and frank sacrifice of everything to self, a true savage, only tamed by the love that she follows as a thing of course, to her death on the battlefield, where she finds and joins at last her lost lover.

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Jules Verne.

A WRITER who follows Daniel De Foe or Dean Swift in the invention of realistic fiction must be bold indeed. To produce anything that shall be as life-like as "Robinson Crusoe," or as ingeniously deceptive as Gulliver's Travels," seems now impossible. Nevertheless, M. Jules Verne has admirably succeeded in beguiling the reading world with his skillful and amusing tales of travel and adventure. Few writers of modern times are comparable with him for fertility of resource, ingenuity and versatility. His inventive powers seem inexhaustible; his pen is as prolific as his fancy. 'Verne's peculiar vein is that of the improbable-probable. Given, a locality of which we know nothing, Verne fills it with living, breathing figures, clothes it with vivid natural characteristics, and presents it to us with all the minute detail of a photograph, and with the color of an accomplished artist.

This apparent fidelity to detail, which is only a conscientious attention to all the elements of deception, is the chief charm of Verne's work. It is his care for seemingly irrelevant points in the nar

rative that gives such stereoscopic completeness to the whole. His work is never hazy nor raveled about the edges. He has mastered the art of making fiction appear like recorded fact; it is by turning his attention to the reproduction of what the painters call "the accessories." He describes like a botanist. His stories of adventure with wild animals read like a page of Buffon. Indeed, the only wearisome part of Jules Verne's books is that in which he lets the encyclopedia get the better of his fancy. So long as he gives his imagination full play he is delightful reading; we yawn only when we strike the evidences of his "cramming."

Verne has evidently selected several branches of science for illustration. In his "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea," for example, he professes to explore the wonders of the deep. His submarine machine is a possibility of mechanical science; but he fills his tale with marvels of marine monsters, with phenomena and mystery of the sea. In his "Around the World in Eighty Days," he invades geography, making time-tables and steam-lines minister to the requirements of his eccentric Englishman, who wins a wager and puts a girdle around the world inside of the prescribed eighty days. It is easy to see how the commonplaces of travel may be made romantic by the novelty of the adventure, and the imminence of failure. And the vraisemblance is possible when the story-teller has absorbed the impressions of men who have gone upon the same route, and have published their own story. African adventure and travel form the basis of another deceptive fiction in "Meridiana," (published by Scribner, Armstrong & Co.) In this book we have the story of three Englishmen and three Russians, who, measuring an arc of meridian in South Africa, bring us vivid souvenirs of various travelers from the time of Bruce to that of Schweinfurth. Of course, there is enough astronomy and mathematics thrown in to relieve the book of a superfluity of geography. Chemistry has unique illustration in "Dr. Ox" (published by J. R. Osgood & Co.), a story of an experimenter who introduced oxygen into a phlegmatic Dutch town, on pretence of furnishing a cheap gas for illumination. The effects of an excess of oxygen on human, animal and vegetable life are only exaggerated enough to make an amusing sketch.

Science and researches therein form the staples of "A Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "From the Earth to the Moon;" but in "The Mysterious Island," now in process of publication in this magazine, the author evidently proposes to gather up the results of a great variety of scientific observation. He has begun with erostatics, meterology and geography, with a slight dash of natural history. It is evident that he proposes to show how a party of men may live happily on a desert island, destitute of the appliances of civilized life, by making use of mechanical and scientific knowledge.

It is, probable, that as the story develops, it will continue more fascinating than it now appears.

Naturally critics are asking if semi-scientific stories like these of Verne's are of real value. It may be said that the fictitious element destroys the science, which is nothing if not accurate; and that the airing of so much erudition is a bore where one seeks amusement in story-reading. There is some justice in this criticism. It must be confessed that Verne's geography is sometimes shaky, as, for example, when he gives his travelers a snow-storm where one was never possibly known; and his facts do sometimes hitch loosely to his imagination, which runs far ahead of the verities. Nevertheless the great popularity of Verne's works is sufficient answer to any who may urge that these objections are fatal to the interest at least. His "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" was a new revelation to the book-devouring boy of the period. Its first editions were exhausted as soon as issued; and from the time of its appearance until now the demand for Verne's works has steadily increased. And if, to take an extreme illustration,-certain of those who have the interests of literature at heart are content to let Sylvanus Cobb serve as a steppingstone for "the masses" to Thackeray; why may not some such a view hold good in science?

Lange on the Minor Prophets.

THE volume of Lange's commentary which is devoted to the Minor Prophets (and which is the latest contribution of the publishers toward the completion of their great enterprise), is made especially valuable by a general introduction by Professor Elliot, of Chicago, in which the subject of prophecy is discussed with much learning and ability, and in a spirit of candor and fairness which will command general respect. The commentary is marked by the same general characteristics which have secured for this series of volumes such wide

spread popularity and usefulness. It is to be remarked, however, that the commentary on the books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi is not a

translation from the German, but the direct and independent work of Dr. Schaff's accomplished assistants, Mr. McCurdy, of Princeton, Dr. Chambers, of New York, and Dr. Packard, of Alexandria, Va.

Thackeray and Dickens.

THE second volume in the "Bric-a-Brac Series" of Scribner, Armstrong and Co., is devoted to “. Anecdote Biographies of Thackeray and Dickens." It is not less interesting than the first of the series; perhaps, indeed, the interest is greater, because the two heroes are nearer and more familiar to us. The two heroes, we say, yet the reader will feel that Thackeray is the real hero of the book. There is much more about him here than about the other; and if we should judge merely from this collection of ana, we should judge his to be the more subtile, refined, frank and noble nature of the two. It was, we suppose, difficult to obtain fresh material concerning Dickens, and so the reader is not kept long enough in his company to know how good it is; to understand fully the potent charm of his hand-pressure and fellowship. If the enthusiast charge Stoddard, the editor, with partiality, he should acknowledge that Stoddard, the poet, has done equal justice. At any rate, there is suggestive criticism in the two poems by him, preserved among the memorial verses of this collection. The ghost of Thackeray is greeted to the sacred place where the greatest dead abide—grand old Homer, the awful Florentine, sweet Cervantes, quaint Montaigne, Goethe, the only Shakespeare. But in the “Gad's Hill ” “In Memoriam," when the shade of Dickens reaches that sacred place, we do not see Homer or Dante move to welcome him. Shakespeare makes room for him, indeed; but it is Shakes peare, the humorist.

"Nay, Shakespeare's self was not his peer
In that humane and happy art
To wake at once the smile and tear,
And captive hold the heart!
Make room, then, Shakespeare, this is he
Hath taken the throne of mirth from thee."

NATURE AND SCIENCE.

The Pressure of Sap in Plants.

A REPORT on this matter by Prof. W. S. Clarke, of Amherst, presents points of great interest from an agricultural point of view. From it we make the following extracts:

A mercurial pressure gauge was attached to a sugar-maple, March 31st, which was three days after the maximum flow of sap for this species. Of the record made, the following facts are especially

interesting: First, the mercury was subject to constant and singular oscillations, standing usually in the morning below zero, which indicated a powerful suction into the tree. With the rise of the sun this changed to a pressure in the opposite direction, which after a time sustained a column of water many feet in height. Thus, at 7 A. M., April 21st, there was a suction into the tree sufficient to raise a column of water nearly twenty-six feet. As soon as the morning sun began to shine on the tree, the mercury

suddenly began to rise, and at 9.15 A. M. the pressure outward was enough to sustain a column of water over eighteen feet high, a change represented by more than forty-four feet of water. On the morning of April 22d the change was still greater, requiring for its representation over forty-seven feet of water. These extraordinary fluctuations were not attended by any peculiar state of the weather, and happened twelve days before there were any indications of growth to be detected in the buds.

The maximum was over thirty-one feet on April II. After April 29th the mercury remained constantly below zero both day and night. During May there was a uniform suction equal to about eight feet of water, and the unaccountable feature of this fact is, that though apparently produced by exhalation from the expanding leaves, it remained the same, day and night, for several weeks. In June the suction gradually lessened, and finally disappeared, the mercury standing steadily at zero.

On the 20th April, two gauges were attached to a large black birch, one at the ground, and the other thirty feet higher. The next morning, at six o'clock, the lower gauge indicated the astonishing pressure of 56 65 feet of water, and the upper one of 26'74 feet. The difference between the indications of the two guages was 29.92 feet, while the actual distance between them was 30.20 feet. The upper gauge was then raised twelve feet higher, with the effect of changing the difference in the indications of the two gauges, exactly the same amount. On April 21st, a hole was bored into the tree on the side opposite to the lower gauge, and at the same level. Both gauges at once began to show diminished pressure, while sap issued freely from the orifice. In fifteen minutes, one pound of sap having escaped, it was found that both gauges had fallen equal to 19:27 feet of water. Upon closing the hole the gauges rose in ten minutes to their previous level, showing that the rootlets had re-absorbed in that brief period the sap which had escaped from the tree, nothwithstanding the enormous pressure already existing.

A stop cock was then inserted into the lower hole, when it was found that the communication between it and the two gauges was almost instantaneous, which proves that the tree was entirely filled with sap, exerting its pressure in all directions as freely as if standing in a cylindrical vessel more than sixty feet in height. The sap pressure continued to increase, until on the 11th day of May it represented a column of water nearly eighty-five feet in height. The buds now began to expand, the pressure of the sap to diminish, and first the upper and afterwards the lower gauge gradually approached the zero point.

To determine whether any other force than the vital action of the roots was necessary to produce the extraordinary phenomena described, a gauge was attached to the root of a black birch, as follows: The tree stood in moist ground, at the foot of the south slope of a ravine, in such a situation that the earth around it was shaded by the overhanging

bank from the sun. A root was then followed from the trunk to the distance of ten feet, where it was carefully cut off one foot below the surface. The end of the root thus entirely detached from the tree, and lying in a horizontal position at the depth of one foot, in the cold, damp earth, unreached by the sunshine, and, for the most part, unaffected by the temperature of the atmosphere, measured about one inch in diameter. To this a mercurial gauge was carefully attached April 26th. The pressure at once became evident, and rose constantly with very slight fluctuations, until, at noon on the 30th of April, it had attained the unequalled height of 85.80 feet of water.

The California Wood-Rat.

IN a letter to Prof. Silliman, Mr. A. W. Chase, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey, gives the following account of a singular habit of this creature: "It is a little larger than an ordinary Norway rat, dark brown in color, with large, lustrous eyes, and a tail covered with thin hairs. I should call it intermediate between the squirrel and the rat. This creature builds its nest in the woods, sometimes on the ground, more frequently in the lower branches of trees. It accumulates a surprising quantity of dried twigs, which are interlaced to form a domeshaped structure, often ten or twelve feet high and six or eight feet in diameter.

"Openings in the mass lead to the center, where the nest is found, consisting of the finely-divided inner bark of trees, dried grass, &c. But it is to a peculiar thievish propensity of this little creature that I wish to call attention.

"To make my story intelligible, I would first state that I am partial owner of some property on the Oregon coast, on which a saw-mill had been placed, but which, owing to various causes, has never been in operation. On this property was a dwellinghouse for the hands, in which, on work being discontinued, were stored a quantity of stuff, tools, packing for the engine, six or seven kegs of large spikes; in the closets, knives, forks, spoons, &c. A large cooking-stove was left in one of the rooms.

"This house was left uninhabited for two years, and being at some distance from the little settlement, it was frequently broken into by tramps who sought a shelter for the night. When I entered this house I was astonished to see an immense rat's nest on the empty stove. On examining this nest, which was about five feet in height, and occupied the whole top of the stove (a large range), I found the outside was composed entirely of spikes, all laid with symmetry, so as to present the points of the nails outwards. In the center of this mass was the nest, composed of finely divided fibres of the hemp packing. Interlaced with the spikes, we found the following About three dozen knives, forks and spoons, all the butcher knives, three in number, a large carving knife, fork and steel, several large plugs of tobacco; the outside casing of a silver

watch was disposed of in one part of the pile, the glass of the same watch in another, and the works in still another; an old purse, containing some silver, matches and tobacco; nearly all the small tools from the tool-closets, among them several large augers.

"The ingenuity and skill displayed in the construction of this nest, and the curious taste for articles of iron, many of them heavy, struck me with surprise. The articles of value were, I think, stolen from the men who had broken into the house for temporary lodging. I have preserved a sketch of this iron-clad nest, which I think is unique in natural history."

The Contact Theory of Electricity.

In discussing the recently reviewed contact theory of Volta in the explanation of the origin of voltaic electricity, Mr. J. A. Fleming says: How does this fit in with those cases of electro-chemical inversions noticed by De la Rive, where the direction of the current in a cell is reversed by simply diluting the electrolyte? Thus zinc is negative to tin in strong nitric acid, and mercury negative to lead; but in weak nitric acid the positions are reversed. Hence, if couples be formed of these metals in strong nitric acid, and the acid be gradually diluted, the current first ceases and then is reversed in direction. Here, without altering the metallic junctions, we can at pleasure alter the direction of the current.

Or we may again change the conditions, and notice that it is not sufficient to have merely two different metals and an electrolyte to form a cell. If plates of pure gold and platinum be placed in nitric acid, the most delicate galvanometer detects no current, and the same for many other pairs of metals and electrolytes.

Here we have contact of different metals producing its difference, yet no current flows round "decomposing the electrolyte,” as, according to the contact theory, it should do; but the instant we give play to chemical combination, the ordinary results ensue. If the extremities of the copper wires from a galvanometer be attached to iron plates, and these plunged into separate cups of dilute nitric acid, on making connection between the two cups by a bent iron plate dipping into each, no current is detected. On making one limb of the connecting plate passive and re-immersing, a strong current is visible, and we find that we have the direction of the current completely under command by making any of the four plates more or less acted on than the other three.

If these experiments are to have any importance attached to them, it can scarcely be doubted that they land us in conclusions similar to the others, namely, that we must look for the principal source of the electrical disturbance at that place where the greatest chemical activity is being brought into play.

Cultivation of Pearls.

THE "Messenger de Taiti," a paper published by the administration of the French settlements in Oceanica, gives an interesting account, by Lieutenant Mariat, of the culture of the pearl-bearing oyster on these shores. The choice of a locality appears to be the first consideration, one where there is a gentle current being preferable. A sandy bottom kills oysters; a stony one is better, but on it they develop slowly. A gravelly bottom is also good, but is subject to the same objection as the stony. The best that can be chosen is a bottom of living, branching corallines. On this they thrive; and if one cannot be found, it must be made artificially. Little bits of coral must be scattered over the place chosen, or, better still, little coral rocks, which fasten at once to the ground. The coral must not be left more than an hour out of the water, or it will be killed. It is to be surrounded by a wall of dry stones, and the young oysters distributed in compartments, their mouths turned upwards in the direction of the current, packed side by side, like books on a shelf. At the end of a year the oyster will have attained the size of a small plate, after which it will not increase in bulk but in weight. Three years suffice to produce good mother o' pearl. When the oyster has produced its young, it abandons them to the stream. They fix themselves to the sides of the stone walls. Care must be taken to protect them, as the corallines, so favorable to the development of the oyster, are most destructive to the young.

The Blackness of the Firmament.

THE balloon ascent of MM. Croce Spinelli and Sivel has yielded many facts of interest. Among these we may mention the following: The elevation reached was 7,800 meters. They found that the temperature steadily diminished, except when pass ing through clouds, and finally reached 22° C. At 4,500 meters, crystals of ice were visible floating between them and glistening in the sunshine. The lines in the solar spectrum, indicating the presence of vapor of water, disappeared when they reached the greatest altitude, thus proving that this vapor belongs to our atmosphere, and not to the sun. At 5,000 meters, sensations of discomfort were removed by the respiration of a mixture of forty parts of oxygen and sixty of nitrogen. At 6,000 meters the oxygen was increased seventy-five per cent., and in each instance the physical and mental weakness was restored, and the sky, which, previously to the inhalation, was of a dark hue, again became blue. M. Croce Spinelli has thus removed an old error, and has demonstrated that the blackness of the firmament observed at great heights is due solely to the effects of fatigue on the nervous system.

Reflection of Sound by Flames,

IN connection with Professor Tyndall's recent ex periments on the reflection of sound by strata in the

air, we may recall those made not long since by Mr. Cottrell on the division of sound by a layer of flame or heated gas into a reflected and transmitted portion.

A vibrating bell, contained in a padded box, was directed so as to propogate a sound-wave through a tin tube, and its action rendered manifest by its causing a sensitive flame, placed at a distance in the direction of the sound-wave, to become violently agitated. The invisible heated layer immediately above the luminous portion of an ignited coal-gas flame, issuing from an ordinary bat's-wing burner, was allowed to stream upward across the end of the tin tube from which the sound-wave issued. A portion of the sound-wave from the latter was at once reflected at the limiting surfaces of the heated layer, only so small a portion passing through the flame as scarcely to agitate the sensitive flame.

The bat's-wing burner was then placed in such a position that the heated layer formed an angle that sent the reflected portion of the sound-wave into a second tin tube, with a sensitive flame at its extremity. This was at once violently agitated whenever the flame of the reflecting layer formed a proper angle, and again became quiescent when the angle of the reflecting flame was changed.

enon.

The Transit of Venus.

MR. GEORGE FORBES thus describes this phenomThe first evidence is the appearance of a slight notch in the contour of the sun's edge at a certain spot. This notch increases until the full form of the planet is seen. The first appearance

of the notch is called the time of first external contact. But when the planet appears to be wholly on the sun, her black figure is still connected with the sun's limb by a sort of black ligament. When the whole of the planet is just inside the sun's edge, the time of first internal contact has arrived. The breaking of the ligament is a very definite occurrence, and was, until lately, taken to indicate the true moment of internal contact. The second internal and external contacts take place just as the planet leaves the sun.

Memoranda.

THE Dutch papers warn the public that the curious-looking nuts imported from Acheen are poisonous. These nuts have a fancied resemblance to the head of an ape, and are extensively sold as playthings for children.

E. Reichardt proposes the use of the microscope in the determination of the quality of drinking water. For this purpose a few drops of the water are evaporated on a slip of glass, and the forms of the crystal obtained compared with those of known salts dissolved in water, and re-crystallized in the same manner. In this way one can detect with dispatch and certainty common salt, calc-spar, gypsum, niter, &c., and to a certain extent the relative quantities present.

It is an admitted fact, which physiologists may explain if they can, that women, whatever else they may be, are not inventive in the broadly scientific sense of the word. On this account we record with satisfaction the announcement that reaches us from San Francisco, of a lady of that city who has invented a new kind of needle, which has the ad, vantage of admitting of the insertion of a finer thread than ordinary needles, and making a proportionally smaller hole in the process of sewing. [" Academy."]

According to H. Vogel, the colors of the solar spectrum differ as regards the intensity of their chemical action at various times. These variations he attributes to the action of the moisture in the air.

A nugget of gold weighing 200 kilogrammes, and valued at 600,000 francs, was recently sent to Paris by one of the companies working the mines discovered a few years ago in the French colony of Guayana. It is now proposed to divert the waters of the river Oyapoch and its affluents from their present beds to obtain the gold contained therein.

Another instance is reported in which a fertilizer, consisting of superphosphate, to which ammonium salts were added, proved injurious to the crop. The manure was found to contain sulphocyanide of ammonium.

Herr August Kundt states that gutta-percha and; caoutchouc become dichroic by stretching, and exhibit a dark brown tint in one direction, and a straw yellow one in another.

Aniline red is now employed to give a fresh appearance to sausages. It can easily be detected by a little alcohol or ether, either of which dissolves aniline, but not blood. Not only is aniline itself injurious, but from its method of preparation it not infrequently contains arsenic.

A disease of the leaves of the coffee plant is troubling the planters of Ceylon. It is a fungus like a miniature mushroom that attaches itself to the under side of the leaf, and causes it to wither and die.

Signor Eugenio Morpurgo has recently published, at Venice, a monograph on paper-making. In this it appears that the United States consumes more paper than England and France united. The average consumption is 17 lbs per capita. In Russia, it is 1 lb; in Spain, 11⁄2 lbs; in Austria and Italy, 31⁄2 lbs; in France, 7 lbs; in Germany, 8 lbs and in England, 111⁄2 lbs.

Dresden papers report seventeen experiments in which lamb's blood has been infused successfully into the human subject. In the case of a patient who had for long suffered from pulmonary disease, the immediate effect was to raise the pulse and impart a sense of greater strength.

Dr. Peez writes that the ancients, in the time of

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