The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

25,1857. THE NEW READING•ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. THIS magnificent building, completed within three years, has necessarily, from the secluded nature of its site in the centre of the interior quadrangle of the Museum, been hitherto concealed from the public eye. On the Bth of May next it will, for the first time, be opened to the public for an entire week, after which it will he devoted to the readers, under the usual regulations. The building is circular. It does not occupy the entire quadrangle, there being unavoidably a clear interval of from 27 to 50 feet all round, to give light and air to the surrounding buildings, and as a guard against possible destruction by fire from the outer parts of th.; Museum. The dome is 140 feet in diameter, its height being 109 feet. In this dimen• sion of diameter it is only interior to the Pantheon of Rome by 2 feet; St. Peter's being only 139; St. Maria in Florence, 139 ; the Tomb of Mahomet, Bejapore, 135 ; St. Paul's, 112 ; St. Sophie, Con stantinople, 107; and the Church at Darmstadt, 105. In other particulars our new dome is far superior. The new &ading•room contains 1,250,000 cubic feet of space ; its " suburbs," or surrounding libraries, 750,000. The building is constructed principally of iron, with brick arches between the main ribs, sup ported by 20 iron piers, having a sectional area of 10 superficial feet to each, including the prick casing, or 200 feet in all. This saving of space by the use of iron is remarkable, the piers of support on which our dome rests only thus occupying 200 feet, whereas the piers of the Pantheon of Rome fill 7,477 feet of area, and those of the Tomb of Mahomet 5,593. Upwards of 2,000 tons of iron have been used in the construction. The weight of the materials used in the dome is about 4,200 tons—viz., upwards of 200 tons on each pier. This vast dome contains ample and comfortable accommodation for 300 readers. Each person will have a separate table, 4 feet 3 inches long. lie . is screened from the opposite occupant by a longi tudinal division, which is fitted with a hinged desk graduated on sloping racks, and a folding shelf for spare books. In the space between the two, which is recessed, an inkstand is fixed, having suitable penholders. Thus the whole table-top is free from writing implements or other embarrassments, and every precaution is taken to preserve the books if the readers will but use common care. The framework of each table is of iron, forming air-distributing channels, which are contrived so that the air may be delivered at the top of the longi• tudinal screen division, above the level of the heads of the readers, or, if desired, only at each end pedestal of the tables, all the outlets being under the control of valves. A tubular footrail also passes from end to end of each table, which may have a current of warm water passed through it at pleasure, and be used as a footwartner if the reader have a slow circulation, or perchance there comes a Moscow winter. The ventilation, it is said, will be perfect. The supply of fresh air is obtained from a shaft 60 feet high, built on the north side of the north win; about 300 feet distant, communicating with a tunnel or sub-way which has branches or " loop lines" fitted with valves for diverting the current either wholly through the heating apparatus, or through the cold air flues, or partly through either, as occasion may require. The air-channels are of sufficient capacity to admit a supply of fresh air for 500 persons at the rate of 10 cubic feet per minute, and at a velocity not exceeding 1.0 foot per second. For summer ventilation steam-pipes, placed at the summit of the roofs and dome, will be heated, and extract the foul air when the external and internal temperature is unfavourable for the purpose. In the decoration of the dome, light colours and the purest gilding have been preferred. The great room, therefore, notwithstanding its circular shape, has au illuminated and elegant aspect. The decora tive work may be shortly described :—The inner surface of the dome is divided into 20 compartments by moulded ribs, which are gilded with leaf prepared from pure gold, the sotlites being in ornamental patterns, and the edges touching the adjoining mar gins fringed with a leaf-pattern scolloped edge. Each compartment contains a circular-headed win dow, 27 feet high and 12 feet wide, with three panels above, the central one being medallion-shaped, the whole bordered with gilt mouldings and lines, and the field of the panels finished in encaustic azure blue, the surrounding margins being of a warm cream colour. Tue details of the windows are treated in like manner—the spandril panels blue; the enriched column and pilaster caps, the central flowers, the border moulding and lines being gilded ; the margins cream colour throughout upon the tops of the main ribs' rests. The mould rim of the lan tern-light, which is gilded and overcoated to core THE PRESS. respond, is 40 feet diameter. The sash is formed of gilt moulded ribs of a lay-like pattern, emanating from a central medallion, in which the royal mono gram is alternated with the Imperial crown. The under cornice, from which the dome springs, is suitably massive and almost wholly gilded, the fringe being formed into panels bounded by lines terminating at the ends with a gilt fret ornament. Each compartment of the cornice is marked by a bold enriched gilt console, which forms at once the support of the main rib and a base for statuary. The feet of these ribs are designed for colossal marble statues. Between the cornice and the floor the space is filled with the bookcases and galleries of access, the cornice, standards, and railings of which are whol►y gilded, the panels of the softites of the latter being blue, having gilded ornaments therein. The main entrance into the new reading-room is direct from the Great Hall, and there are secondary entrances via the King's Library and the Great Nor• them Library rooms. THE MURRAIN. THE spread of a cattle plague on the Continent is exciting such lively apprehensions in this country that every fact connected with the nature of the disease is of consequence to cattle proprietors. A recent letter from Vienna published in the Times contains a full and detailed description of the symp toms of the cattle diseases on the Continent. There are three complaints which are popularly called " Vieh.seuche" (cattle plagues). The first is a catarrhal affection of the lungs; the second a pul. monary complaint with typhoid symptoms ; and the third a highly contagious typhus (typhus bovum con tagiosus). In letters which have appeared in the Times Mr. Redcliffe speaks of the pulmonary com plaint with typhoid symptoms; Mr. Gamgee of the contagious typhus, which is the real cattle plague (Rinder pest), or murrain of the Steppe; and 1)r. Greenhow of the "lung disease," which may mean either the simple catarrhal affection of the lungs or the pulmonary complaint with typhoid symptoms. The symptoms of the simple catarrhal affection of the lungs are well known. It is only under unfa vourable circumstances or injudicious treatment that they end fatally. The " lung disease," combined with typhus, may be divided into three periods. The symptoms of the first period, during which there is no fever, are—sadness and prostration of strength; secondly, drooping head and pendulous ears ; thirdly, eyes fixed, without loss either of lustre or of colour (in vigorous animals the (yes are often red and fiery, but dry); fourthly, the skin of the nostrils pale and the inside of the mouth " slimy ;" fifth, the tempera ture of the body low, with horns, ears, and feet cool ; sixth, the skin dry and tense (stretched), the hair lustreless, rough, and bristly, and erected along the spine ; seventh, breathing ditticult. The first period sometimes lasts a fortnight or three weeks ; the second, or feverish period, lasts three or four days while the third period commonly ends in death. The exhaustion of the animal during the progress of the disease in the second period is very great. The teeth are loose, the sensitiveness of pressure on the loins acute, while the pain in the chest is so great that the animal seldom lies down, or only on the side of the affected lung. If both lungs are diseased, the animal rests on its breastbone, with its legs under its body, and its head and neck stretched out. The real cattle plague, the contagious typhus, pre sents four distinct periods. The first usually begins about the fifth day after infection, and the animal is either unusually vicious, or languid and insensible to outward impressions. Then, when it rises from the ground, it does not stretch itself like healthy animals, and " arches," instead of sinks, its back. Twitch ings are perceptible on the skin ; the hair in some parts becomes rough ; the eye is congested and lustrous; the loins susceptible of pressure; a cough begins about the eighth day; and the plague is declared. Aguish paroxysms are frequent; the mouth and gums sviell, the incisors become loose, and a single (not continuous) violent, hollow, and convulsive cough sets in. During the third period, which commences about the tenth day, these symp toms increase in virulence. The animal becomes weak and sad, the emaciation is extreme, and a dis charge issues from the eyes and nostrils. About the fourteenth day the fourth period is reached, when the poor creature can scarcely stand ; the discharge increases, the animal suffers great pain, and about the seventeenth day dies. The proper treatment for the two first diseases is well established ; for the fatal " Loser Durre," as it is called in Austria, there is nothing for it but instant death. It is n quite certain which of the three murrains is now raging on the Continent ; but, from its rapid spread and infectious nature, it is much to be feared that the real " User Darre," the contagious typhus, is the disease. 401 DR.VAUGHAN UPON MILITARY EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. DR. VAI:CattN, Head Master of Harrow, has ad dressed a letter to a general officer upon the above subject. Dr. Vaughan objects, first, to any prema ture withdrawal of boys from public schools in order to subject them to a special and private course of preparation for the army, upon the ground that a pulllic•school education is the best preparation for the discipline of the army, and that it is important that such education should not end too early : Its chief benefits are found in its later stages. So far as knowledge is concerned, no one will doubt this. But it is true in other and even more important respects. Habits of self-control in point of language and manner, of deference to authority and consideration for equals, not to mention what I consider to be of the utmost im• portance in reference to the training of officers—the re• aponsibility thrown upon the elder boys cf a public school with regard to the conduct of their juniors —are all ac quired gradually, and often slowly; and a boy who leaves school at a low point in it will probably have failed to gain them. Secondly, Dr. Vaughan objects to the formation in public schools of an isolated military section : If boys (observes Dr. Vaughan) destined for the army are to stay at a public school till they go up for examina tion for their commissions, they ought to stay there as Lona fide participants in the education as well es society of the school, and not be put into a position of marked difference—a school within a school, for example (as some times proposed), into a separate boarding• house, under a separate tutor, with a totally distinct department of study, arc. The advantage of their remaining at a public school is dependent upon their being mixed up in all its compe titions and associations, though there may be no Farm in their having some private instruction (out of school hours) on special subjects suitable to their future profession, superadded to that which forms the staple work of the school. From these two considerations, Dr. Vaughan maintains that, with respect to the examination for commissions, it follows that the preliminary exami nation must either (t) be fixed at a very low stan dard, or else (2) be made general enough to embrace all the ordinary studies of a public school. To the first alternative there is a serious objection : It gives a contemptible aspect to the qualifications for the army. It encourages early idleness and late cram ming, It makes boys neglect the studies of school, and rely upon a brief special effort to carry them through at last. It is entirely fallacious Rs a test of capacity or of diligence. and destroys all stimulus to high proficiency. I can understand, indeed, !hat it may be necessary to men tion certain things in which entire failure would I e a disqualification in litnine for a commission. Bad spelling, bad grammar, very bad writing, ignorance of arithmetic— perhaps of the elements of algebra, and of a book or two of Euclid—might come under this head. These things are easily defined, and would never be construed into more than negative conditions. This is a very different thing from professing to define generally the minimum of know ledge required for a pass. It is one thing to say, " Certain things are fatal," and quite another thing to say, " Certain things are enough." The second alternative, which is "to open wide the subjects of examination, so as to embrace, with equal favour, all those on which a public schoolboy has professedly spent Lis time," Dr. Vaughan has no hesitation in preferring, on the ground principally that a boy who has been good at classics may "more often than " succeed in mathematics or military science when his attention is turned to that study. " At all events," observes Dr. Vaughan, " one who has well used the means of improvement which he has had is more likely to make a good officer, or a gocd anything, than one who has not, even though the latter may have contrived by a brief course of cramming to reach a certain modicum of marks in a special subject or two of examination." Under the present system he maintains that the military pupils are usually found low in schoolmarks, for this very reason, that, a knowledge of classics not being required, they calculate upon a few weeks' "cram" to carry them through their military examina tions : It would be a great gain to the army and to themselves (continues Dr. Vaughan) if it were known that what is required for a commission is a diligent and well•spent boyhood; the army would then be officered, in part at least, by the best instead of by the worst of our public school pupils; and I doubt not they would be found in two years after passing for their commission at least as good, even in their special professional attainments, as other young men who had made these at an earlier age their one object. Let, then, the topics of the first examination range themselves under the most general beads of classics, mathematics, modern languages, and history ; to which, if it be thought desirable, might be added some elementary trial in drawing and in the principles of fortification, to such an extent as a boy at school might be supposed capable of pursuing these two last-named subjects as an accomplishment rather than a business. Let the candi dates do what they can in each of these branches of examination, it being provided that in each there be ele mentary as well as more advanced questions. Let the total number of marks obtained by each candidate in each