The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

• Obtained number of marks quakitylog for Scholarship.

IMPROVEMENTS IN MINIMUM THERMOMETERS.-
At • meeting of the lffetereological Society on Wed-
nesday last, Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., in the chair,
Mr. 41cland, of the firm of Horne andThornthwaite,
read a paper on the above subject. The author pointed
out the well known fact that in making an alcohol ther-
mometer if we select a tube of uniform bore, that in
giving it certain fixed points corresponding to an equal
number of degrees between each point, the spaces so
obtained are each diminishing in length se we descend,
hence the ordinary mode of subdividing equally between
the acontained points will give erroneous results and
afford an explanation of the inaccuracies of the usual
thermometer employed for low temperatures. Mr.
Ulnae; having Maki Mr. Ackland's attention to this
defeat, and offered certain suggestions for its removal, the
latter gentleman devised an entirely new form of dividing
engine, which, used together with a mechanical computer,
enables the manufacturer at once to "interpolate" between
the given points, so that each division shall be in its true
pontoon, as required by the varying expansion of the
alcohol employed. The chairman in commenting on this
invention mentioned the fact that the mathematical
principles involved had been investigated by him and
found accurate, and that he hoped we should have no more
complaints of thermometers hereafter differing from each
other two or three degrees at the zero point.
DANOEHOUS STSTE OF CITY CHURCHES.-MT.
W. H. Kemm, who has been engaged in taking down the
oak carvings, timbers, Ice., of St. Bent"'Church, Grace-
church-nesse, in course of removal under the Bishop of
London's Union of Benefices Act, states that he has
bean forcibly struck with the rottenness of the joists and
rafters in the floor of the gallery, which was only held up
by lath and plaster, the rafters falling to duet on being
touched. He says it is fortunate that the congregations
had not been large of late years, for he feels convinced
that if any extraordinary weight' had been placed on the
I galleries mane deplorable calamity most have occurred.
The tower was even worse. Some of the lead that covered
I the dome had fallen in many places several inches, and on
I its removal the wood on which it rested crumbled away.
j The men had to exercise the greatest care in its removal
to preventita giving way altogether. How it remained up
**long without accident seems almost miraculous. Mr.
Klemm adds that in many of the City churches much lead
j his been used, and that it has never been repaired since
their erection.

TH7I.IS;;IBUSZA AND THE NEW TRAFFIC ACT.-
At Guildhall yesterday, Alderman Lusk, M.P., said
that sine. the new Traffic Act bad come into operatics be
bad had a great many omniboa drivers before him for not
drawing up as dose as might be to the near side of the
road to take up and set down paasengers, and in every in-
stance they had pleaded ignorance of the law. He had
therefore fined them very lightly, although he strongly
impeded they were not so ignorant as they pretended to
bee. He had since noticed particularly the operation of
that portion of the act, and he was struck with the excel-
lance of its working. There was now no stopping a line
of traffic in the middle of the road for the sake of one
omnibus man maintaining the lead and keeping all the
other vehicles under his control behind him, for he was
by the new act obliged to pull into the near side of the
road and let the ordinary traffic go past him. The result
was that the roads were now free from blockage, and the
trails went smoothly and rapidly on. He wu therefore
determined, in all future cases that came before him, to
enforce the provisions of the new act with a rigour that
would enforce obedience. - .

A NOTORIOUS SW INDLERCONVICTSD. —The Carlisle
Journal recognises in John Hall. who pleaded guilty to a
charge of forgery and false pretences at the Middlesex
semitone last Monday, the man who, in oonjunction with
the Irish " poet " Young, was nominated by Lord Derby
for a grant of 50/. from the Royal Bounty Fend. The
applications made a good deal of noise at the time, and
after the cheque had actually been signed it was discovered
that Hall, who had represented himself as a literary man
in distress, was not "a deserving person." Hall raided in
Carlisle three or four years, end tried various modes of
swindling. One of these was to write to gentlemen whose
death had just been announced, making fictitious claims
upon them, either for goods supplied or for money owing, in
hopes of obtaining money from executors. A few days after
the death of the late Sir Gilbert East was announced in
the Timm Hall sent in a claim for 571. 18.., under the
name of Henderson, for some alleged transaction between
them. A similar fictitious claim was made upon the late
Lady Alvanley. Another mode of operation was to write
under another name directing attention to the condition
of " poor Hall," as a person to whom the recipient of the
letter should send money, in order to make him some
reparation for an injustice or injury done to him in years
gone by. He left Carlisle not long after the attempted
fraud upon Lord Derby was discovered and exposed, and
thence be appears to have come to London, where, by
forging the names of Lord Vivian, Lord Riche, and others,
he attempted to obtain goods under false pretences.
Having pleaded guilty on Monday, sentence was de-
ferred until inquiries could be made concerning his pre.
view history.
DEATH FROM HYDROPHOBIA.—Yesterday infor-
mation was forwarded to Mr. W. Carter, the coroner for
East Surrey, as to the death of Mr. James Wells, aged
67, of Olney-street, Walworth.road, engineer, who expired
in St. Thomas's Hospital ou Sunday evening, having been
received on the previous day by Mr. Dobson, the Louse
surgeon, suffering from hydrophobia. It will he probably
recollected, from notices which appeared in this journal,
that on the morning of the 13th August last a largo re-
triever dog, supposed at that time to he in a rabid condi-
tion, was discovered rushing about in an excited state
between Myatt's.fields, near the Camberwell New-rood,
and thence to the Walworth-road station of the London,
Chatham, and Dover line ; that from this spot it proceeded
up the line as far as Blackfriars station, and, after return-
ing to Camberwell, ran through Peckham to the Half-way
Haim in the Old Kent-road, near which spot the animal
was killed by • butcher. On the route amend persons
were bitten, and amongst them the deceased, James Wells.
At that time he became a patient at St. Thomas's Hospital,
where he continued to attend as an out-patient until be
was eventually confined to his house, erysipelas having set
in, and ultimately he was seized with hydrophobia, and in
consequence was admitted on Saturday as an in-patient.
Actions against the owner of the animal are pending from
the several parties injured.
EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAOE.—An extraordinary
Crime has just been committed at St. lernier, near Gre-
noble (Istre). Two men armed with hatchets and iron
bare three nights back broke into the residence of the cure,
N. Jacquemet, with whom lives his mother, aged 70. The
men first attacked the lady, and after striking her several
heavy blows on the heed left her for dead. The cure, who
had been aroused by the noise, then came forward, when
the assailants rushed upon biro, and a violent struggle earned
during which M. Jacquemet sou struck down, having re-
ceived two blows, one on the head and one in the side.
The men then made off. No robbery was committed, and
the motive for this outrage remains a mystery. The
wounds of the cure are not serious, but time. Jacquerset
is not likely to recover.
" NON-F0a81110.78" BELAYING Ur.—Tho confe-
rence of prelates held at Buda hes just given a striking ex-
ample of the conciliatory spirit .1 the Hungarian clergy.
They have frankly accepted tho action of the lay authority,
within the limits of the law, in the administration of eccle-
siastical affairs. Concerning the relations of the school
with the church, the bishops have declared themselves
disposed to lend their aid to the reforms required by the
spirit of the age. As to civil marriage, the conference has
decided that, although such onions could not be approved
of by the church, there would be an inadvisability to route
an agitation against the Chamber of Deputies for the rea-
son that " any pressure would provoke a movement in so
opposite sense.
CRYSTAL PALACE. ONE SHILLING DAY.—
MONDAY, Nov. 25.—Admissions on payment, 453; ditto
by season tickets, 849. Total visitors, 1,302.
The moat wholesome breakfast is made of Du
Bazar'. RivALMITA CHOOOLATI YoirnrJP., in tins of 12 cups,
23. ; 24 cups, 3s ed.: 48 cups. fns.: 250 cups, SOs. ; 57A cups, 58st
It is more delicious, digestible, und nourishing than the his.
concentrated beef. Also adapt° dto rear Infants with.—Du Barry
and Co., 77, Regent quadrant W., London.—jAdvertiasinent]