instance, the cable has been coiled on board the Agamemnon and Niagara, with all needful carefulness; and an almost self-acting paying-out machine or break has been constructed, which is to obviate all the shocks and plunges a ship encounters on a rolling sea. Mr Appold has applied to this break the principle of his crank, so much detested by prisoners condemned to hard labour, as much for its utter unprofitableness, as for its distressing monotony. Henceforth, the unlucky wind-grinders will have the satisfaction of remembering that for once the crank has done noble service. The two vessels are to steam away to the centre of the Atlantic, where the two lengths of cable will be united, and then Agamemnon will make the best of her way to Newfoundland, and Niagara to Valentia Bay, and each thus having the shortest possible voyage, we may hope that the grand experiment will be crowned with the success it so eminently deserves. The interest it has excited may be judged of from the fact that the institution of Civil Engineers spent four evenings of their ordinary meetings in a discussion as to the best method of sinking the cable to the bottom of the sea, and of preserving it there. It was generally thought that a coat of concrete would form round the cable, and give sufficient protection.

The Crystal Palace, besides certain desirable improvements in the interior arrangements, has now, in the second gallery of the great transept, an excellent collection of natural products and manufactures, forming an instructive technological museum. It has been arranged and classified by Dr Price; and now, with this and the museums at Kensington and the British Museum, it will be the Londoners' own fault if they become not well informed on common things, and uncommon things too.

As regards the metropolitan drainage-question, a new report has been drawn up, shewing that the former estimated cost may be reduced in amount: it recommends that the outfalls should be placed on each bank of the Thames between Woolwich and Erith; and asserts-what has long been known by those best acquainted with the subject-that the statements so often made as to the noxious influence of the Thames is an exaggeration. A tidal river must necessarily be muddy; the water in its recurrent flow produces no ill effects; it is the mud-banks only which taint the air. Hence, by carrying the outfalls down to the locality proposed, and by embanking the stream in its passage through the metropolis, the deposition of mud will be prevented, and the bottom will never be left dry at low-water. The most harmful condition of river-water is when mixed with seawater, as near the mouth. The report insists upon the embankments, not only for the improvement of the channel, but also for the architectural embellishment of the city, and the recreation of the inhabitants. And are not open spaces for recreation indispensable in a city where, as in the week ending March 13, a child is born every five minutes? There is to be a new park of forty acres in the neighbourhood of the Kensington Museum; why not lay out Smithfield as playground for the benefit of those who do not live at Kensington? Play favours physical development; hence London and Londoners would alike be gainers.

Papers have been read and discussed before the Society of Arts, on the progress of the electric telegraph-on iron-and the progress and present state of British mining; the last no unimportant subject, seeing that our metalliferous products are valued at L.35,000,000 a year. One of the results of the war with Russia was a marked improvement in the manufacture of iron, and this has suggested the way for further improvements. Bessemer's process is still being experimented on, with a view to perfection; and there is another kind of interest attaching to

mining subjects: a plan has been laid before the Scottish Society of Arts by Mr Robert Aytoun, for working coal-mines in a way that renders explosions impossible; and he suggests that in mines worked on the present system, 'rooms of refuge' should be established, to which, in case of explosion, the -miners might fly from the effects of the after-damp. Mr Mallet has returned from Naples with a full report of the terrible, yet interesting phenomena of the earthquakes which occurred in that kingdom a few months ago. He found that the particulars hitherto published concerning the catastrophe are by no means exaggerated. Whole districts are literally ruined, turned upside down, as it were; and one of the towns through which he passed-a place as large as Tamworth-was, to use his own figure of speech, reduced to powder. He explored the effects of the shocks as far as they were visible in all directions, and has arrived at many important conclusions as to earthquake phenomena generally; all of which, as well as details of his journey, and pictures of the havoc, will appear in due time in a scientific journal. The journey, made in a severe season, exposed him to much privation; and besides witnessing the frightful destitution, he was attacked by fever, and delayed thereby for three weeks.

In France, M. Beclard has made some curious experiments on the Influence of Light on Animals, and finds that those creatures which breathe from the skin, and have neither lungs nor branchiæ, undergo remarkable modifications under different coloured rays. He exposed the eggs of flies (Musca carnaria) under bell-glasses of six different colours: little maggots were hatched from all; but those under the blue and violet rays were more than a third larger than those under the green. Frogs, which by reason of their naked skin, are very sensitive to light, give off half as much more carbonic acid in a given time under the green ray as under the red; but if the frogs are skinned, and the experiment is repeated, the excess is then with those under the red ray. Frogs placed in a dark chamber lose one-half less of moisture by evaporation, than when placed in common daylight. Hence it appears that these poor amphibia, which some physiologists believe were created for experimental purposes, after having furnished data as to the phenomena of the muscular and nervous systems, the effect of poisons on both, and thereby advancing the science of physiology, are now to be tortured into manifestations of the influence of light, for the benefit of humanity.-M. de la Rive, in the third volume of his Treatise on Electricity, just published, reviews the whole science of electrophysiology; and reminds practitioners that, as the difference between the electricity of the muscles and of the nerves is now clearly established, so must they be careful in applying their remedies, not to waste on the muscles, which are the best conductors, the electric currents intended solely for the nerves.

The Geological Society have had a paper on 'Changes of Level in Sicily, Wales, and Scotland;' and one on the 'Natural Origin of Rock Basins'-a question which, it might be thought, had been decided long ago in favour of nature. Sir Charles Lyell is busily employed on the important subject of volcanic geology; and it appears, to the no small pride and encouragement of geologists, that the more discoveries are made in their favourite science, the more do there appear still to make. Mr Henwood, while considering the numerous observations he has made on the temperature of mines, sets on foot the inquiry: whether the heat below the surface is caused by central fire, or by the simple juxtaposition of different rocks? And talking of mines, there is something to wonder at in the returns from the Burra Burra copper-mines, South Australia. The first excavations were made

in September 1845, by twelve miners; now the number of miners is more than a thousand, the ore hitherto dug has yielded 28,000 tons of copper; and a settlement numbering 5000 souls is established in the neighbourhood.-By news from Bahia we learn that about eighty leagues from that city, near the San Francisco river, a great natural deposit of nitrate of soda has been discovered, extending for sixteen miles along a valley.—Mr Colquhoun Grant, in a paper published by the Geographical Society, gives a description of Vancouver's Island, well worthy of consideration, seeing how much has been said concerning that island as a field for emigration. It is 270 miles long, and from 40 to 50 miles wide on the average, with but comparatively a small proportion of land available for cultivation, which is found upon the coast. The interior is described as hopelessly barren and dreary. The settlement of Victoria, founded in 1843 by the Hudson's Bay Company, is one of the pleasantest sites. But worst of all is the climate; nothing but snow and rain from October to March, and parching heat for the rest of the year. In the words of the Jesuit missionary-'huit mois d'hiver, et quatre mois d'enfer.'

Another fact connected with geology is the composition of building sandstones, on which some important information has recently been laid before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Mr Bloxam made experiments on sandstone taken from Craigleith quarry and other places near Edinburgh, and finds, as one of the causes of disintegration, that even pure water will dissolve something out; carbonic acid more; and free mineral acids, such as are found in the rain-water of towns, most. The absorbent power is astonishingly great: a block of stone, submitted to a drying process, lost nearly six fluid ounces to the cubic foot; another block, soaked in water, gained more than three pints and a half to the cubic foot. Remarking on these properties, Dr George Wilson truly says, 'the error of those who hope to render buildings dry, by constructing their walls of solid sandstone, will be sufficiently apparent.' Architects and builders will do well to bear these facts in mind when drawing plans for new houses, or when examining the specimens of building-stone from Scotland in the Crystal Palace.

An inquiry instituted by the Belgian government merits attention. For some years, a notion had grown into a belief that certain manufactories were prejudicial to health and vegetation, and so much disquiet arose thereupon, especially in the province of Ñamur, that the governor reported it to the home department at Brussels. A commission was appointed, two chemists and two botanists, who, commencing their inquiry in June 1855, pursued it carefully for several months, confining themselves to factories in which sulphuric acid, soda, copperas, and chloride of lime were made. The two chemists watched the processes, and noted the escape of gases from the chimneys. They consider soda-factories to be the most noxious, and tall chimneys more hurtful than short ones, because of the greater surface over which they diffuse the vapours; and tall chimneys, by quickening the draught, discharge gases which otherwise would be absorbed in the passage. Hence, contrary to the commonly received opinion in this country, they hold that there is less dispersion of deleterious vapours with a short chimney than a tall one.

The botanists on their part shew, as might be anticipated, that the effect on vegetation is most shewn in the direction of the prevalent winds, and more during rains and fogs than in clear weather. They establish beyond a doubt the hurtful influence of smoke, due to the presence of hydrochloric and sulphuric acid, and they find that the greatest

distance at which the mischief is observable is 2009 metres (a little over an English mile); the least 600 metres. They enumerate thirty-four kinds of trees which appear to be most susceptible of harm, beginning with the common hornbeam (Carpinus Betulus) and ending with the alder; and between these two occur, in sequence, beech, sycamore, lime, poplar, apple, rose, and hop. As regards the effect on the : health of men and animals, the commission find the proportion of deaths per cent. to be lower now in the surrounding population than before the factories were established: from 1 in 58 it has fallen to 1 in 65 One reason for this improvement may consist in the better means of living arising out of the wages earned in the factories. However, the commission wind up their report with an assurance that health, either of men or horses, suffers nothing from the factories, and vegetation so little, that farmers and graziers may dismiss their fear, and the government refrain from interfering.

The Academy of Sciences at Vienna is actively engaged in multiplying stations for meteorological observation throughout the Austrian empire. - In Upper Canada, the education office at Toronto has made arrangements whereby certain senior grammarschools all over the province shall be furnished with trustworthy instruments made in England for taking complete series of observations; from all of which we may hope for valuable results.-There are, again, certain curious weather-facts to record: on the 21st of April it was hotter in Turin-65 degrees-than in any of the stations in correspondence with Paris, two of which are Algiers and Madrid; but here in London on the 16th of the same month, the temperature rose to 76 degrees, and the day ended with a heavy thunder-storm.

Lovers of ancient art will be gratified to hear that a considerable collection of the Budrum antiquities are now in the British Museum. They are believed to be of the age of Mausolus.-The postmaster-general's report shews that the number of letters delivered within the United Kingdom in 1857 was 504,000,000, an increase of 26 million over 1856. As many letters pass through the Manchester post-office alone as were delivered in the whole of Russia in 1855-namely, 16 million. The average distribution of that astounding number of letters was 21 to every person in England, 16 in Scotland, and 9 in Ireland.

DR ELIZABETH BLAGKWELL IT is not customary for one periodical work to make extracts from another; but there may be instances in which a breach of the rule will be held as justified. We find, in the second number of a new monthly magazine, styled the English Woman's Journal, a piece of actual life-history of a most heroic and touching character. By presenting some parts of it to a wider circle of readers, we believe we shall be at once improving the hearts of our friends by a profoundly interesting story, and making known to them a clever and promising aspirant of the periodical press, having specially in view the advancement of the interests fessional education of a young Englishwoman residing in of womankind. The narrative is an account of the proAmerica, who has somewhat astonished the world by becoming a regular diplomaed physician, and settling in that capacity in New York. The narrative is the production of

an admiring and sympathising sister. Elizabeth Blackwell was the eldest of a family of seven, thrown with their mother on the world by the early death of their father in embarrassed circumstances. She had a severe struggle for some years, striving to maintain herself and help the junior branches by teaching. At length, having by inconceivable self-denial saved a little money, she entered upon a course of education for the profession of a physician, being of opinion that women are fitted to become medical practitioners, and that she would be doing her

sex some service by shewing them the way.
It will be
found in the ensuing extract, what difficulties, in addition
to those of poverty, she had to overcome before the
attainment of her wishes.

'In May 1847, after three years of incessant application, during which the closest study had occupied every moment not engaged in teaching, she left Charleston, and went to Philadelphia, where she endeavoured to obtain admittance to the medical schools, but without success. The physicians at their head were either shocked or angry at her request, and the doors of all those schools were closed against so unprecedented an application; and finding it impossible to avail herself of the facilities provided for students of the other sex, she now entered upon a course of private anatomical study and dissection with Professor Allen, and of midwifery with Dr Warrington of Philadelphia. But although she could undoubtedly learn much from the private lessons of competent instructors, she felt that so fragmentary a mode of study could not give her the solid medical education resulting from a regular collegiate course; and, moreover, as it was her 1 aim not to incite ignorant or half-educated female pretenders to an unauthorised assumption of the physician's office, but, on the contrary, to procure the opening of the legitimate approaches of the medical career to women seriously desirous to qualify themselves for the worthy discharge of its duties, by passing through the course of preparation prescribed to men, her admission to a regular medical college, and the acquisition of the medical diploma -as a sanction for her own course and a precedent for other women-were essential to the carrying out of her plans. She therefore procured a list of all the medical colleges in existence in the United States, and proceeded to address an application for admission to each of them in succession.

""I am sending out arrows in every direction, uncertain which may hit the mark," she remarks in a letter written at this time.

'Her application, though accompanied by a certificate of her having gone through the requisite preparatory study under Dr Dickson, was refused by twelve medical colleges. In some cases, the refusal was couched in the shape of a homily on the subordinate position assigned to woman by nature and society, and her presumption in wishing to enter a sphere reserved to the nobler sex; or an exposition of the impropriety and indelicacy implied in a woman's attempting to learn the nature and laws of her own physical organisation. For several months it appeared as though even her tenacity of purpose would fail to break through the barriers of prejudice and routine opposed to her on every side. But at length her path, so long obstructed, began to grow clearer.

'Among the applications she had made throughout the length and breadth of the United States, one had been addressed to the Medical College of the University of Geneva, in the state of New York. The faculty of that institution having considered her request, agreed that they saw no reason why a woman, possessed of the requisite preparatory acquirements, should not be admitted; but feeling that the question was one whose decision must rest, practically, with the students themselves as it would have been easy for them, if so disposed, to render a place in the amphitheatre untenable by a lady-they determined to refer the matter to them, and, having called them together, left the application with them for examination and decision. The students, having discussed the subject, decided unanimously in favour of the new applicant; and a "preamble" and "resolutions" were drawn up and voted by them, inviting her to enter the college, and pledging themselves "individually and collectively, that, should she do so, no word or act of theirs should ever cause her to regret the step."

'A copy of these "resolutions," accompanied by a letter of invitation from themselves, having been transmitted to her by the faculty of the university, she went to Geneva in November of that year, was entered on the college books as "No. 417," and threw herself into the study of the various branches of medical learning thus opened to her, with an ardour proportioned to the

difficulties she had had to overcome in gaining access to them.

'But the position she had striven so hard to attain was not without certain inconveniences, inseparable from the nature of the case; and though she had weighed, and was prepared to endure them, for the sake of the knowledge that she could obtain in no other way, it will be readily understood that a young and sensitive woman could not find herself placed in so novel a situation, and assist at all the demonstrations involved in a complete course of medical exposition, without occasional severe trial to her feelings. Aware that the possibility of her going through with such a course depended on her being able, by her unmoved deportment, to cause her presence there to be regarded, by those around her, not as that of a woman among men, but of one student among five hundred: confronted only with the truth and dignity of natural law, she restricted herself, for some time after her entrance into the college, to a diet so rigid as almost to trench upon starvation, in order that no involuntary change of colour might betray the feeling of embarrassment occasionally created by the necessary plain-speaking of scientific analysis. How far the attainment of a self-command which rendered her countenance as impassible as that of a statute can be attributed to the effect of such a diet, may be doubtful; but her adoption of such an expedient is too characteristic to be omitted here.

From her first admission into the college until she left it, she also made it an invariable rule to pass in and out without taking any notice of the students; going straight to her seat, and never looking in any other direction than to the professor, and on her note-book.

'How necessary was her circumspection to the prosecution of the arduous task she had assumed, may be inferred from an incident which occurred during the lecture in the amphitheatre, a short time after her admission. The subject of the lesson happened to be a particularly trying one; and while the lecturer was proceeding with his demonstration, a folded paperevidently a note-was thrown down by somebody in one of the upper tiers behind her, and fell upon her arm, where it lay, conspicuously white, upon the sleeve of her black dress. She felt, instinctively, that this note contained some gross impertinence, that every eye in the building was upon her, and that, if she meant to remain in the college, she must repel the insult, then and there, in such a way as to preclude the occurrence of any similar act. Without moving, or raising her eyes from her note-book, she continued to write, as though she had not perceived the paper; and when she had finished her notes, she slowly lifted the arm on which it lay, until she had brought it clearly within view of every one in the building, and then, with the slightest possible turn of the wrist, she caused the offensive missive to drop upon the floor. Her action, at once a protest and an appeal, was perfectly understood by the students; and, in an instant, the amphitheatre rang with their energetic applause, mingled with hisses directed against her cowardly assailant. Throughout this scene she kept her eyes constantly fixed upon her note-book, taking no more apparent notice of this welcome demonstration than she had done of the unwelcome aggression which had called it forth. But her position in the college was made from that moment; and not the slightest annoyance of any kind was ever again attempted throughout her stay. On the contrary, a sincere regard at once kindly and respectful, was thenceforward evinced towards her by her fellow-students; and though, for obvious reasons, she still continued to hold herself aloof from social intercourse with them, yet, whenever the opportunity of so doing presented itself in the course of their common studies, they always shewed themselves ready and anxious to render her any good offices in their power, and some of them are among her truest friends at this day.

The feeling of embarrassment which had caused her so much pain on her first appearance among her fellowstudents was, however, soon modified by familiarity with

topics forming the subject of daily study, and was at length entirely absorbed in the growing interest and admiration excited by the wonderful and beautiful mechanism of the human frame. But the suffering it had caused her, on her entrance into the college, suggested to her the desirability of providing a first-class medical school for the reception of female students only-an institution which she hopes to establish in the course of time.

"But though the "lady-student" had thus made good her position within the walls of the college, the suspicious and hostile curiosity with which she was regarded in the little town was long in subsiding. She could not, at first, obtain admission to a suitable boarding-house; the heads of those establishments having been threatened with the desertion of their "best" inmates if she were received. As she went through the streets, on her way to and from the college, audible whispers of "Here she comes!" or rude cries of "Come on, Bill, let's have a good look at the lady-doctor!" would meet her ears; and not only idle boys, but well-dressed men and women, would place themselves before her, or draw up in little knots along the pavement, to see her go by, as though she had been some strange animal from another planet. But the passage of the quiet-looking little figure, dressed with the utmost simplicity, taking no notice of the rude people about her, and looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, gradually ceased to excite remark; and when she had been called upon by the wives of some of the professors, the most "respectable" of the boardinghouses consented to receive her as an inmate. . . . .

'From the time when she had first resolved to enter upon the study of medicine, until a very recent period, she pursued a system of self-denial in every branch of personal expenditure so rigid that it would be hardly credible to those who had not witnessed its details, and involving privations that only her exceptional temperament could have enabled her to undergo. Her arrangements were invariably made on the most inexpensive scale; she put up with the simplest accommodations, dressed with more than Quaker plainness, went about on foot in all weathers to the utmost limit of her strength, and resolutely denied herself everything, without exception, that it was possible for her to do without. Her refusing herself a little bottle of eau de Cologne, which she could have bought for fourpence-half-penny, and to which, being very fond of scents, she happened one day to take such an especial fancy that she was haunted for years with occasional visions of that same little bottle, was in accordance with the invariable rule she had marked out for herself. Acts of rare generosity on her part towards others during this period might be cited; but with regard to herself-although additional resources were placed at her disposal by her relatives in Englandher self-denial was inexorable; every farthing thus economised being regarded by her as so much gained for the exigencies of future study, and treasured accordingly. Such having been her mode of action from the beginning of her student's career, it was not without an almost heroic effort that, as her course of study drew towards its close, she compelled herself to purchase a handsome black silk dress for the grand affair of her graduation. In a letter written at that time, she says: "I am working hard for the parchment, which I suppose will come in due time; but I have still an immense amount of dry reading to get through with and to beat into my memory. I have been obliged to have a dress made for the graduation ceremony; and meanwhile it lies quietly in my trunk, biding its time. It is a rich black silk, with a cape, trimmed with black silk fringe, and some narrow white lace round the neck and cuffs. I could not avoid the expense, though a grievous one for a poor student; for the affair will take place in a crowded church; I shall have to mount to a platform, on which sits the president of the university in gown and triangular hat, surrounded by rows of reverend professors; and of course I can neither disgrace womankind, the college, nor the Blackwells, by presenting myself in a shabby gown."

'In January 1849, the ceremony in question took

place, as just described. The church was crowded to suffocation; an immense number of ladies being present, attracted from every point of the compass, from twenty miles round, by the desire to witness the presentation of the first medical diploma ever bestowed on a woman; and among the crowd were some of her own family, who had come to Geneva to be present on the occasion. When the preliminary ceremonial had been gone through with, and various addresses had been delivered, the wearer of the black silk dress ascended to the platform with a number of her brother-students, and received from the hands of Dr Lee, the venerable president of the university, the much-desired diploma, which with its seal and blue ribbon, and the word Dominus changed to Domina, admitted her into the ranks of the medical fraternity, hitherto closed against her sex. Each student, on receiving the diploma, returned a few words of thanks. On receiving hers, Dr Elizabeth replied, in a low voice, but amidst a hush of curiosity and interest so intense that the words were audible throughout the building:

""I thank you, Mr President, for the sanction given to my studies by the institution of which you are the head. With the help of the Most High, it shall be the endeavour of my life to do honour to the diploma you have conferred upon me."

66

"The president, in his concluding address, alluded to the presence of a lady-student during the collegiate course then closing, as an innovation that had been in every way a fortunate one;" and stated that "the zeal and energy she had displayed in the acquisition of science had offered a brilliant example to the whole class;" that "her presence had exercised a beneficial influence upon her fellow-students in all respects;" that "the average attainments and general conduct of the students during the period she had passed among them were of a higher character than those of any class that had been assembled in the college since he had been connected with the institution;" and that "the most cordial good wishes of her instructors would go with her in her future career."'

Dr Elizabeth Blackwell is now a highly successful doctor at New York, where she has been latterly joined by a junior sister, Dr Emily Blackwell, who has passed through the same professional education with equal éclat, but under greatly less difficulty.

DEEDS, NOT WORDS.
WHEREFORE bid me say I love you?
Nay-appeal you to the past;
If my deeds no tale have told you,
Words may to the winds be cast;
These, though every hour repeated,
Ne'er had held your heart so fast.
Years ago I would not bind you,

Though your pledge you bade me take;
Lest some future day should find you,
For your honour's, not my sake,
Riveting, before God's altar,

Chains you rather longed to break.
Think not that your love I doubted
Even in its earliest spring;
But I asked myself the question:

What will years of waiting bring?
God be thanked-the trial ended,
Both our hearts the closer cling.
Why, then, bid me say 'I love you ;'
Look into the past, and see

If each thought of mine and labour, Were not for us-not for me. Deeds, not words, have bound us-may we Still by them united be. Grimsby.

RUTH BUCK.

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