The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

stientt nb i'itentutt Prroatr.

MURAL PAINTING.—NEW INVENTIONSL—The desire
to possess some means of preserving mural pictures
from atmospheric influence, and of which fresco
painting is still subject to decay, especially in
northern climates, has been the cause of many expe•
riments made of late, of which the Munich stereo-
chromy has been one of the principal. In the present
Paris Exhibition of Fine Arts, however, M. )levers, of
Turin, a former pupil of Jollivet, Ary Schetter, and
Picot, has placed a large picture executed with
enamel paste on burnt clay (pate &email ear terre
cuite). It is of large dimensions, 54 by 44 metres,
and is composed of iS pieces. The brilliancy of this
picture, representing " Three Guardian Angels
Watching the Sleep of a Babe," is great ; still there
is some inequality of colour in it, as the want of
greater means prevented the artist from using an
adequate furnace for baking the single tablets of
clay ; and he was unable to burn more than sixteen
at a time, which operation be had to repeat with the
whole three times over. The execution of this vast
enamel has cost M. I►evers one year's labour,
and an outlay of 10,000 francs. Stereochromy has
been also used by M. Portaels on the walls of the
Church of St. Jacques sur Caudenberg in Brussels.
It is certainly a procedure more durable than the
old Italian fresco. Still it is to be supposed that
stereuchromy, as practised at Munich anti Brussels,

JULY 2, 1853.

will not be able to compete with tablets which, like
those of M. Devers, have been exposed three times
to the action of fire in a furnace. Other analogous
experiments have been made at the Church of St.
Vincent de Paul at Paris by M. Joßivet, who has
executed his frescos on tablets of lava from Volic.
The latter are not subject, like those of baked clay,
to warp by the influence of fire, and can be made of
a smoother surface. As, however, lava tablets are
not to be obtained everywhere, the procedure of M.
Pevers deserves every trial and encouragement. Be-
sides the painting in the Paris Exhibition, he has pre-
viously made similar pictures for the palace of the
King of Sardinia and the Church of St. Leu in
France.
ALEXANDRE DURAS, who lives with his family at
Brussels, in great style, is now translating the come-
dies of Kotzebue, most of them long ago exploded in
tlermany. But, as Dumas understands not a word of
that language, it is said that the pieces are read to
him by a native in a translated form, from which
they are transferred to the French.
AT the fortification works now in progress at Bel-
grade (Bielograd) a large quantity of Homan bricks
and stonework has been found. They have been
carefully collected and preserved by order of the
Pacha of Belgrade.
THE secretary of the Academia Olimpica in Man-
tua, M. I. Cabianca, has published the announcement
of an invention which is important, if true. It consists
of a contrivance by which any telegraphic message
may be despatched and received under the seal of
absolute secrecy. The machine is said to be of great
regularity and accuracy, to be very simple and cheap,
and easily used by any person.
HUHDoLDT ON "WOOD-MOVING."—III letter ad-
dressed to Professor Rosenkranz, at Konigsberg,
Humboldt speaks of " those who now seek for some
superior nourishment of their mystic appetite in the
spiritualisation of pine, and the oracles of inspired
legs of tables."
WOOD-GAS ILLUMINATION.—Recent experiments at
Bavaria have shown that carburetted hydrogen gas
obtained from wood is not only equally efficacious to
that from coal, but is much cheaper, at all events, in
countries where forests are abundant. Several of the
Bavarian towns have added a clause to their contracts
with the coal-gas companies to the effect that the
bond will become invalid if gas can be obtained at a
cheaper rate from any other source.
FRENCH INSTITUTE.—The annual public meeting
of this institution was held on the 25th ult. After
the proclamation of the different prize decisions for
the years 1852 and 1853, M. Mignot, the secretary,
read a biographical notice of Youffmy. The follow-
ing prizes (open to the whole world) have been pro-
posed by the Academy for the year 1855 :—" On
sleep, in a physiological point of view. What are
the mind's faculties which are preserved, and what
are those which are suspended, or considerably mo-
dified, during sleep? What essential difference is
there between dream and sleep r The prize is
1,500 francs. For the same year, and of the same
value, is the following prize-question :—" To explain
the system which, in ancient and modern times, had
for object to give states the right, and to impose on
them the obligation, of ensuring the well-being of
their subjects individually, and which thus transfers
to society the responsibility for evils which are in-
herent in the condition, or are the consequence of
the vices and errors, of men."

i nibersit ntelUgence.

OXFORD.

The Margaret. Professorship having become vacant by
the death of 1)r. Faussett on Tuesday, the following cand►-
dates are announced for the chair:—The Rev. Edmund S.
Foulkes, 8.D., Fellow of Jesus College ; the Rev. C. A.
Heurtley, 8.D., late Fellow of Corpus Christi College,
Canon of Worcester, and Rector of Fenny Compton, War-
wickshire ; the Rev E. H. Hansen. 8.D., late Fellow
andsiTutor of Magdalen College, and the Rev. H. A. Wood-
gate, of St. John's College. The election is vested in the
graduates of divinity, whose number in the University is
:t1!. It will take place this day (Saturday) at Oxford.
Messrs. Walter Jervoise Scott and John Stratford l►ug-
dale, both educated at Etun, have been elected exhibitiuners
of Merton College, on the Jackson foundation.
In St. John's College, on Monday, Mr. Charles Frede-
rick Cumber West, from Reading School, was elected a
scholar on the Reading foundation : Messrs. Charles Ma-
thison and Montague Hughes Cookson, I►robationary fel-
lows, were admitted actual fellows : and Messrs. Alexander
Israel M'Caul, Arthur Stough Graham, and Charles Fran-
cis Addison, from Merchant Tailors School, were admitted
Andrews's exhibitioners.

Theological disputations, previous to proceeding to thy•
degree of bachelor of divinity, will be held in the Divinity
School on Thursday and Friday next, between the Rev.
William Monkhouse, M.A., and the Rev. John Barrow,
MA , fellows of Queen's College, on the following subject'. :
—" An certa hint signa sive testimonia externs, quibus
Scripturam Sacram Verbuin Dei esse dignusci possit."
•• An recte statuatur Confirmationem pro Sacramento

Erangelico non esse habentlam." " Pares Nicaeni Filium
osatia.ov esw ,r?.; IrlaTEI in Symbol° statuentes nnllum
auvum Fidel articulum intulerunt." "Ali Baptisnauset
Laic° alugaistratu.s ait vaitlus.7