The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND ART.

PROPERTIES OF PURE WATER.—Many of the pro-
perties which water possesses are wonderfully condu-
cive to our comfort, to the supply of our daily wants,
and to the maintenance of the existing condition of
things. Thus, even the unheeded property of its
freedom from smell and taste is important to animal
comfort. Sweet odours are grateful to our nostrils at
times, and pleasant savours give a relish to our rarer
kinds of food. But health fails in an atmosphere
which is ever loaded with incense and perfumes, or
where the palate is daily pampered with high-seasoned
dishes and constant sweets. The nerves of smell and
taste do not bear patiently a constant irritation, and
the whole body suffers when a single nerve is con-
tinually jarred. Hence it is that water and air, which
have to enter so often into the animal body,
and to penetrate to its most delicate and most
sensitive organs and tissues, are made so destitute
of sensible properties that they can come and go
to any part of the frame without being perceived.
Noiselessly, as it were, they glide over the most
touchy nerves ; and, so long as they are tolerably
pure, they may make a thousand visits to the ex-
treruest parts of the body without producing the
most momentary irritation or sense of pain. Exter-
nally, also, they can be applied to the most delicate,
inflamed, or skinless parts of the body, not only with-
out irritating, but generally with the most grateful
and soothing effects. These negative properties,
which are common both to air and water—though, as
I have said, they are rarely thought of—are neverthe-
less most essential to our daily comfort. —Johnston .

ART AND TASTE IN PARIS.—Much of the French
furniture is very indifferent in taste (all praise, never-
theless, to many beautiful exceptions), carpets covered
with sprawling flowers of Brobdignagian aspect, and
paper-hangings full of very violent contrasts. In the
Palace of the Fine Arts, the cold, leadeny tones of the
majority of the French painters (more eminent in
design and drawing) give increased value to the co-
louring of the English school, which there shows
itself with a power which the most prejudiced Briton
could scarcely have hoped for. A walk through the
English department is like going through a flower
garden ; and notwithstanding the pooh-poohs and
qualifications of the local critics, it is quite evident
that they feel it so too. Passing up to the gallery—
the French architects have omitted to illustrate the
present advanced state of practical architecture in
France, having confined themselves to academic studies
of existing monuments and designs for restorations.
Many of these are set forth in drawings of exquisite
beauty, which should obtain the attention of our archi-
tectural students. If, to continue our reactionary
observations, we seek out of doors for specimens of bad
taste in restoration, we may look at the work done at
St. Denis, a few years ago, including most of the
modern glass ; and as to new buildings, the details
of the church of St. Clotilde are very indifferent, and
the ornament on the front of the "Bibliotheque Impe-
riale du Louvre," opposite the Palais Royale, has a
barbaric richness which Visconti could scarcely have
designed. Even in the new street, the elongated Rue
de Rivoli, wherein this front plays a part, we may ask
why there should be no departure from the elevation
which formely prevailed there,—the only feature in
which is the balcony on modillions to the windows of
the first-floor P A mile of this will be more than
enough, nevertheless it will be a noble street. And
many, many other noble things are there in Paris,---
Paris ancient, and Paris modern,---to some of which
we shall hereafter refer. We are not afraid that our
observations in the present article will be misunder-
stood. We have already shown, in the short series of
papers on the Universal Exhibition of 1855, how
highly we estimate its importance and beauty, and we
have during many years borne willing testimony to
the skill of our allies, the advantages they derive from
early cultivation in art, and the good results which
the capital exhibits. But we do, nevertheless, feel it
right to protest against the indiscriminate praise of
everything French now heard, as compared with what
is done in England, tending, as it does, to increase
vanity, already sufficiently great, and to justify the
opinion, founded in ignorance, which has been ex-
pressed by one of their popular writers, that in matters
of art we are still but " varnished barbarians." Paris
is a wonderful city, and the inhabitants are a clever
people ; but they have still a vast deal to learn and to do.