The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-05 00:00:00

any great exploits by the British Navy. That
they will repel any attack is certain. But some-
thing of a more active description has been looked
for by those who place confidence in our "wooden
walls," and are accustomed to indulge in the fond
delusion that Britannia really " rules the waves."

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon, at
the Foreign-office, Downing-street. It was attended by
Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Gran-
ville, the Duke of Argyll, Sir George Grey, the Earl of
Clarendon, Sir William Molesworth, Lord Panmure,
Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon. Vernon Smith, and
the Earl of Hari owby. The council sat three hours.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-office yester-
day to the Governors of the Australian colonies.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester will
remain at the Ranger's Lodge, Richmond Park, until
the Ist proximo, when the Royal Duchess returns to
Gloucester House for a short period, after which her
Royal Highness will repair to Brighton for a residence
of three weeks or a month.
Her Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duchess
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, accompanied by her youthful
family, will close her visit to the Duchess of Cambridge
in a few days, and take her departure for Germany.
The Duke and Duchess of Hamilton have left Hamil-
ton Palace, Lanarkshire, for Brodick Castle, Arran,
where the noble duke and duchess will entertain a suc-
cession of distinguished visitors during the shooting
season.
The Duke and Duchess of Bedford, who have been
on visits to the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, at Car-
ton House, Maynooth, and the Earl of Carlisle, in Dub-
lin, arrived at Woburn Abbey, Beds, yesterday, from
Holyhead. Next month the noble alike and duchess
commence to see company at Woburn Abbey, and will
receive a constant succession of guests until after Christ-
mas.

We shall then look forward anxiously for news
from the Crimea, and for the indications at home
whichmay enable us to form tolerably correct
gues sea as to the nature of the coming intelli-
gence. To permit the operations above alluded to,
to be properly carried out, ample reinforcements
should be despatched from France and England.
The exertions made by the Russian Government
to meet the exigencies of the war should be ri-
valled by those of the Allied Powers. No means
should be spared to conquer the peace that is so
desirable, if it can be obtained on honourable
terms, and with a reasonable prospect of perma-
nency.

If the clergy, and we include the ministers of
every creed, had their own way we should have a
prettily governed country of it. Accustomed to
pronounce on subjects of the highest moment,
and, in most cases, to meet with unqualified as-
sent, the delusion of individual infallibility too
often steals over them, and leads them to pronounce
with equal confidence on matters in which the
laity are better judges than themselves. And it
is remarkable, when they do so, how ready they
are to look to the secular power for the enforce-
ment of their views—views which, generally
speaking, lag far behind the spirit of the age.
This, for obvious reasons, has been peculiarly
observable in the clergy of the Establishment, and
as a case in point, we would call attention to the
deliverance of a Committee of Convocation on the
question of Church Rates. Now, this impost is
generally deemed impolitic, as everybody knows
has no sanction in Scripture, and, as many be-
lieve, is opposed to its spirit. This much is cer-
tain, that it has disturbed the peace of a thousand
parishes, and occasioned an infinite amount of ill-
will, while its actual enforcement has hauled
many an honest man to prison, confiscated a vast
amount of hard-earned property, brought misery
to many a well-ordered home, cooled the zeal of
many a Churchman, and s•wn an iiveterate
hatred among others to the establishment whose
interest the impost was designed to serve. It is
hardly possible that the clergy, as a body, could
be ignorant of all this.

The Duchess of Buccleuch has arrived at Montague
House, Whitehall, from Carlsbad, in, we are happy to
learn, greatly improved health. The Earl of Dalkeith,
M.P., came to London from Scotland to meet the
duchess on her arrival from the continent. The duchess,
accompanied by the earl, leaves in a few days for Dal-
keith Palace, near Edinburgh.
The police books show that 741,374 foreigners visited
Paris during the Queen's stay.
Mdlle. Rachel and her troupe have arrived in New
York.

The Grand Opera, it is said, contemplates the revival
of Roeini's Moise, in honour of the illustrious composer,
now in Paris.
M. Billetta's new opera, the rehearsals of which were
for some time interrupted, have been resumed at the
Grand Opera, where it stands for the first novelty.
Among other marks of consideration of which Mme.
Ri3tori has been the object in Paris, lshe bad the honour
to receive a special invitation for the late ball given to
her Majesty Queen Victoria at the Hotel de Ville.
Mme. Plessy is suffering from indisposition, happily
slight, but yet sufficiently severe to retard her appear-
ance at the Frangais for some little time.
M. Thalberg, says an Italian paper, is at present at
Rio Janeiro ; where by the last advices he was about to
give a series of six concerts.
The Piedmontese Gazette states that the soldiers of
the Anglo-Swiss legion have sent 300 f. to the authorities
of the canton of Valais, for the relief of the sufferers by
the earthquakes.
REMINISCENCES OF HANoo.—Many of the shot and
shell thrown into the fortress of Sweaborg were marked
" Hancro" by the sailors, who were bent on revenging
that unlawful massacre.
The cholera is so violent at Cataneo, in Sicily, that
there is a regular panic. Every one is escaping into the
open country or woods, and trade is completely stagnant.
The Midland Counties' Illustrated News, a newspaper
started in Birmingham a few weeks ago, price 2d., ceased
to exist on Saturday last.
THE VACANT PROVOSTSHIP OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE,
OXFORD.—It is rumoured that the Rev. W. Thomson,
M.A., Rector of All Saints, St. Marylebone, is likely to
succeed the late Rev. Dr. Fox, in the Headship of
Queen's College, Oxford.
SUDDEN DEATH OF A CLERGYMAN.—Yesterday morn-
ing (Tues lay) intelligence reached Oxford of the awfully
sudden death of the Rev. George Riggs, M.A., and late
Fellow of Queen's College, who expired at the rectory,
Charlton-on-Otmoor, near Oxford, on the previous day.
It is stated that a guard of honour from the Royal
Perthshire Rifles is to be despatched to Balmoral, on the
occasion of her Majesty's visit to her Highland resi-
dence, and to be stationed there during her stay.
THE CONVICT HACKETT._lnformation was received
on Monday, in the City, of the execution of this notori-
ous convict, for stabbing the turnkey at the gaol in New
York, where he was undergoing a long term of imprison-
ment for burglary.
GRAVESEND REGATTA.—Some thousands of persons
assembled yesterday at Gravesend, to witness the annual
contest there for a handsome new coat, and other prizes,
given by the nobility and gentry, inhabitants of Graves.
end, Milton, and its vicinity. The coat was won by
Thomas Marshall.
THE RAJAH OF SARAWAK.—A large quantity of arms
has very recently been forwarded to Sir James Brooke,
K.C.8., Rajah of Sarawak. It may be inferred, there-
fore, that something of importance will soon be heard
from that quarter.
The Hon. Adolphus Chichester died a few days since,
at the early age of thirty. He was the brother of Lord
Templemore, and grandson to the late Lord Anglesea.
THE NEW NAVAL UNIFORM.—We understand that no
decision has as yet been come to in reference to the new
naval dre-s, but it is thought that a very extensive change
will take place. There will be a reduction, if not a total
abolition of lace, as in the army.
OUR AMBASSADOR AT VIENNA.— Voss',3 Gazette of
Berlin, under date of Berlin, 29th ult., says :—" The
Countess of Westmoreland returned here the day before
yesterday from Ischyl. The- Earl has given up his in-
tention of retiring from public life, and will shortly re-
sumo his post at Vienna."
The cost of the lighting of Versailles during the
splendid fete given to her Majesty was 6,520/. The ball
given at the Hotel-de-Ville cost 12,000/,
A MORMON "SAINT" AND HIS WlVES._Orson Hyde,
one of the Mormon saints, was lately in St. Louis for
the purpose of marrying 12 more wives to whom he is
affianced.
DEATH OF SIR RICHARD BURTON.—This venerable
knight died on Monday last, the 3d, at his re-idence,
Sackett 's-hill House, Margate, in the Isle of Thanet.
Sir Richard Burton was son of Sir S. Burton, Knt., of
Wakefield, Yorkshire, and was born in 1773. He mar-
ried, in 1802, the only daughter of the late R. Cr dts.
Eeq., of Dumpton House, near Broadstairs, Is!e of
Thanet.
A FRANK REQUEST.—On her reeent visit to France,
one of the very first things Victoria asked the Emperor
was, to enable her to visit the ruins of Neuilly, and also
the Chapelle St. Ferdinand, containing the tomb of the
Due d'Orleans, adding, frankly and nobly, that it was a
promise she had made to Queen Marie Ainelie before
leaving England. The desire was of course acceded to,
the Emperor himself accompanying her to Neuilly.
MR. JUSTICE WlLLES.—Yesterday Mr. Justice Willes
"sat the chambers, and, as on the other days of his at-
tendance, disposed of a good many summonses. Mr.
Baron Martin was the vacation judge, and was relieved
by Mr. Justice Willes on the termination of his circuit.
Although this period of the year is called " the long
s a,cation," there is a good deal of common law business,
and the summonses taken out related to causes in pro-
gress. Mr. Justice Willes will take his seat on the
bench at Westminster Hall, for the first time, at the
commencement of the ensuing Michaelmas term.
The ceremony of laying the first stone of the Mus4e
Napoleon, at Amiens, took place on Sunday. Count de
Beaumont, senator, had been deputed by the Emperor
to preside at the ceremony, at which were also present
the Prefect of the Somme, the Bishop of Amiens, the
authorities, the members of the Society of Antiquaries
'of Picardy, and a number of the principal inhabitants of
the city and neighbourhood. Several appropriate
speeches were delivered on the occasion, after which an
inscription, commemorative of the event, and a number
of coins of the present year were sealed up in a leaden
box, and placed beneath the foundation stone, which
received the usual benediction of the clergy.—Galignani.
THE LATH MURDER AT THE BRISTOL lIOTWELLS.
BRISTOL, Sept. 4.—A rumour was current this morning
in several quarters of the city, that the police had suc-
ceeded in tracing out the author of the murder of the
unfortunate girl Melinda Payne, of whose melancholy
and mysterious death we have already, from time to
time, given particulars. The statement of the arrest of
the murderer is premature, but it is true that a circum-
stance has been brought to light which, although in it-
self comparatively trifling, will, it is hoped, lead to im-
portant results.
UNION OF MALTA WITH THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA BY
MEANS OF THE SUBMARINE ELECTRIC WIRE.—A pro-
ject has been submitted by Signor Bonelli, of Turin, to
his Excellency the Governor of Malta, and by him to
the British Government, to execute in two months, at
the expense of 10,0001., the junction of Malta with
Cagliari by one of the telegraph cables of his own con-
struction. Lord Panmure has received the proposal
most favourably, and has requested the governor to be
informed, without loss of time, what portion of the esti-
mated amount would be contributed by the island Trea-
sury, in the event of the proposal being sanctioned by
the authorities at home. Signor Bonelli has also pro-
posed a more extendtal plan of operations by continuing
the chain to Candia, and from thence two branch lines
—the one to the Dardanelles, the other to Alexandria
in Egypt. This latter course would, it is estimated, re-
quire 60,0001., and 6 months' time.
ATTEMPT TO UPSET A MAIL TRAIN.—Yesterday
(Tuesday) William Cooper, a platelayer, in the service of
the Midland Railway Company, was brought before J.
G. Cottingham, Esq., one of the magistrates for the
county of Derby, at the Municipal Hall, Chesterfield,
charged with having maliciously attempted to displace a
rail on the above line about 300 yards south of the Ches-
terfield station. It was shown in evidence that on Fri-
day afternoon, about ten minutes past four o'clock, the
prisoner went into a siding box on the line occupied by
a pointsman named George Gilberthorpe, and obtained
possession of a connecting rod, a bar of iron perhaps 6
or 7 feet long, with which he went up the line and shortly
afterwards returned it, not being applicable for his pur-
pose. He then got possession of a long iron crowbar
used for raising the sleeper 4, and prooeeded up the line
with it. He was shortly afterwards observed striking at
the rails by the pointsman Gilberthorpe, who called out
to a labourer who was working at the Wingerworth iron
works, and they both went up to the prisoner, when
the
breari ti
sh o
tor pteh,
ews- hl
eoe
pe r
s lobservedlying
soenv etrha key
el
ground,
n d, which
asked
tastes
the
prisoner what he was doing, the other man (Hall) seizing
the crowbar from him. The prisoner said he wanted to
tthhee
keys
e tyask
ceodnu idni
ttbhoe custody.ou replaced
i
and it permed over the rails at full.
Tknhoeemkaail
tproaiinntcaomute.
s'to be done." The
thing ; I only wish I bad, but it .
beforeuplie was
for this outrageous
only reason the prisoner could give
dent. The prisoner afterwards shaaidsP`lel have done no-
thingaccident
casting reflections on him, and that an oc-
curred,re in an improper state, the
attempt to upset a train was that the. gauger had been
and the rails we
blame would rest on the gauger and not on him. The

Let us see how they are affected by the know-
ledge, and what the recommendation of a Com-
mittee, which may fairly be taken to represent
Convocation, is on this matter—one, let it be re-
membered, that does not merely affect church-
people only, but the entire community. Graciously
limiting the scope of church-rates to the mainte-
nance of the fabric and the church-yard in decent
orderand substantial repair, the committee, having
" bowels of mercy" of course for all men—with
apostolic simplicity and charity, pronounce that—
" In order to enforce the payment of rates so
limited, it is expedient to adopt the course of pro-
ceeding recommended in the Report of the Royal
Commission appointed in 1830." Enforce ! of
course by kindly persuasion and the authority of
apostolic devotion and self-sacrifice. Not exactly.
The churchwarden was to make his estimate, and
ask for his rate, and if the vestry refused it he
was to appeal to Quarter Sessions, who might
make it in spite of the vestry ; and if the vestry
made the rate, any ratepayer might appeal against
it, the ultimate fixing and ordering of the rate ii, ,
any case resting on Quarter Sessions, on whose
authority it was to be collected on the same
assessment, and enforced by the same means
and remedies as poor-rates ! Everybody knows
what these are. Well might Sir GEORGE GREY
refuse to grant the canon necessary for the
reconstruction of the Lower House of Convoca-
tion with such a prozf of the utter incompetency
of that body for wholesome legislation ! Justice,
conscientious scruples, the expression of popular
feeling, the BRAINTREE case, all the mischief,
spoliation, and misery hitherto inflicted and likely
to ensue, everything connected with the impost—
that by Christian men and patriotic citizens ought
to have been regarded—coolly ignored, and an
invidious and more compulsory law recommended
—one that will convert a recusant into an offender
against the State ! From such a spectacle we
turn away in almost as much pity as disgust,
those memorable words all the while ringing in
our ears, " My kingdom is not of this world," and
"My house shall be called a house of prayer, but
ye have made it a den of thieves." HEAVEN save
us from Convocation and all parsonic legislation !

A FRIENDLY LOAN OF ONE .HUNDRED
MILLION RUBLES TO RUSSIA.

The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post, in hie
letter dated yesterday evening, says :—" Having drainer
the country by every means, direct and indirect, the
Government of St. Petersburg has despatched agents v.
get up a sort of secret loan of 100 millions of rubles. The
headquarters of those agents appears to be at Berlin,
and, if my information be correct, the' loan will be
assisted by certain Governments friendly to Russia.
Royal personages, it is said, have contributed from their
nriv ate purse. This is not remarkable, for the cause of
Russia is the cause of many small European Sovereigns.
who see their own destruction in the fall of Russiar,
prestige.

DEATH OF THE " BELFAST CHRONICLE.""—This old
paper died on Friday last.
It will have been noticed that Prince G-ortschakoff,
while admitting in his report that the loss upon his side
on the 16th was severe, omits to return the numbers.
The Military Gazette of Vienna, a journal not likely to
overstate the Russian reverse, says that besides the
three generals killed, the Russian army lost 1,451 killed,
including 45 officers, and 4,875 wounded.
THE QUEEN AND THE LAPDOG.-011 leaving Boulogne
the Queen suddenly perceived she had left behind a fa-
vourite little lap dog, and expreved her very great re-
gret thereat. No notice was taken apparently beyond
sympathy, but electricity and steam were made to per-
form their seemingly impossible feats, and, when the
Queen entered her boudoir at St. Cloud, the first thing
,he saw was her lapdog, that jumped forward to meet
her. _

Sr. BARTHOLOMEW'S FAIR.—On Monday, after an
existence of many centuries, the once renowned fair of
St. Bartholomew expired. No.proclamation took place,
nor was the ancient court of peed pouclre for the hearing
and determining disputes arising in the fair held ; the
" Saints' Bell," in Old St. Bartholomew's Church, which
has for time immemorial sounded only on the proclama-
tion of the fair, was silent, and its occupation is now
gone.
ADVANCE IN THE PRICE OF CANDLES, SUGAR, &c.—A
general metropolitan advance in the price of white and
brown sugar, and also candles, took place on Monday.
For the latter article, which has hitherto been at 61d.
per lb., an advance of ld. has taken place, and for brown
and white sugar the increase has been ld. per lb. ;
added to this, intimation has been given to shopkeepers
that an advance will take place in that most valuable
commodity—salt.
Tui MAlLS.—Southampton, Tuesday. —The Peninsu-
lar and Oriental Company's steam ship Euxine, Captain
Joy, left this day with the East India and China mails, a
general cargo, and 72 passengers, amongst whom were
Major Tapp, Col. Lage, Brigadier General Mayne, Lieu t.
Colonel Ryle, Capt. Smith, Ensign Hunter, &c. Tip
Euxine takes out the following amount of specie—for
India and China, 524,4611. ; for Alexandria, 25,1201.
for Malta, 50,000/.—Total, 599,5811.
THE CIOLERA IN SOIITHWA.RIC. —ln consequence of
several cases of bowel complaint and diarrhcea, the first
symptoms of Asiatic cholera, having been made known
to the guardians of the St. Saviour's Union, yeste:-
day bills were posted throughout the whole of the
Union, notifying that medical gentlemen had been
appointed in each district, to whom all persons were
earnestly
such( symptom,
to apply on the first appearance of
without the slightest delay.
UR NAVAL AND MILITARY EXPENDITURE IN 1854.—A
return moved for by Mr. Wilson gives detailed accounts
p tandex pseenrvdiicteuarefnfro navy,rthe
ea army, rtmyt, h commis3i. t
goaf
rti
ah
te c, raen de i
ordnancef
March, 1854. It shows that the
exypendiotureefors theo
navy amounted to 7,197,8041., being 77,0991- in excess
sef the estimates ; for the army, -6,503,750/ , being
218,2901. under the estimates ; for the commissariat
serviced, 617,0271., and for the ordnanceservices
3,053,5671., being 61,582/. leas than the sum granted.'
The items of these accounts in detail cover a space of
nearly 90 pages.

prisoner has also stated that he was drunk, but this was

not believed. The prisoner was committed for trial at
the ensuing county sessions at Derb in October nest.

TRE SUN, LONDON, WED NES A Y SEPTEMBER 5, 1855

sidered as a thing decided on. It is stated that before
his marriage the Prince Regent will be invested with
all the rights of his elder brother, who continues ill,
and will also take the title of Grand Duke of Baden.
The negotiations which have been going on for years
past at Rome fur the purchase of the Caffarelli Palace
for the Prussian Legation have just been concluded. It
is intended to construct in this building a chapel for the
use of the Protestants sojourning at Rome. The young
Prince Frederic-William of Prussia, the heir presump-
tive to the Crown, has just been made a Colon?l. The
mancvuvres of the guard having terminated to-day, the
men who have accomplished their period of service are
about to be dismissed ; but this will make ❑o difference
in the effective strength of the army, as those who are
discharged will be immediately replaced by the new re-
cruitment. The Prussian cloth manufacturers of the
province of Saxony have lately received extensive order■
on account of the Ottoman Government."

LITERATURE.

The Chemistry of Common Life. 2 vols. By James
F. W. Johnston. Blackwood and Sons.

Professor Johnston we have come to look upon—
(luring the course of our attentive and delighted
perusal of these two beautiful volumes of popu-
larised philosophy —with those mingled senti-
ments of admiration and gratitude which are
the meed of a national benefactor. For, as
to our view, it is peculiarly to works
of this elevated and instructive character that we
may look the most confidently, as to the surest
means for the more general diffusion of knowledge
among the population. The learned author, of
what he has happily designated, upon his title-
page, " The Chemistry of Common Life," has as-
sumed, in truth, by this single publication,
a prominent position among those emi-
nent men of whom we took occasion to speak
only the other day as sages deserving well of
their country— philosophers who have de-
scended from the porch into the marketplace for
the purpose of scattering broadcast among the
multitude, the largesaof wisdom, those pearls and
precious stones of Truth which have fallen to their
possession from the lips of the Divine Goddess,
as of old, around her footsteps, from the fabled
mouth of the Arabian Princess. Illustrious
among these self-appointed instructors of the
people are men of mark and genius, no less distin-
guished in their several departments than those
eminent masters of learning whose names have
become, as it were, synonymous with one or other of
the higher branches of erudition—names associated
indissolubly with one or other of the loftier among
the fruit-bearing boughs of the tree of knowledge.
In this manner, Electricity has by no one been more
signally advanced as a science than by Michael
Faraday, while by no one have its abstruse prin-
ciples been brought home with more exquisite
lucidity to the grasp of the popular apprehension.
Precisely the same may be said in reference to
the intellectual labours applied by David Brewster
to the study of optics—by John Hind to that of
astronomy—by Richard Whateley to that of logic
—by William Whewell to that of mathematics—
by Richard Owen to anatomy—by Charles Lyell
to geology—by Southwood Smith to pathology—
and so likewise by other celebrities yet happily
numbered in the ample catalogue of still surviving
contemporaries. Conspicuous in this catalogue may
now be ranked the name of James Johnston, as that
of the writer of these charming and brilliant chapters
upon chemistry—" The Chemistry of Common
Life"—henceforth, we conjecture, to be regarded
as the recognised and authoritative manual upon
subjects either chemical or physiological.
Nothing could well be more singularly felicitous
besides than the scheme of the whole work, as it has
been here planned out by the hand of Professor
Johnston. It assumes no lofty tone as an esoteric
medium for exoteric instruction. It undertakes to
speak of some among the more extraordinary of the
wonders of nature, not grandiously, not didacti-
cally, but with the utmost simplicity, and, so to
express it, even colloquially. In one chapter, for
example, it tells us of "The Air we Breathe, and
the Water we Drink;" in another Lf "The Soil we
Cultivate, and the Plant we Rear" ; in another of
" The Bread we Eat, and the Beef we Cook" ; in
another of "The Odours we Enjoy, and the Smells
we Dislike." Several distinct chapters again, re-
lating to " The Beverages we Infuse"—ac-
quaint us with the multifarious peculiarities ofi
the teas, the cocoas, and the coffees. "The sweetswe
Extract," refer successively to the grape and cane,
the manna and milk sugars. " The Liquors we Fer-
ment," to the beers, the wines, and the brandies.
" The Narcotics we indulge in," to coca, and to-
bacco, to the poppy and the lettuce, to the hop and
its substitutes, to the betel nuts and the pepper.
worts, to Indian hemp, the thorn apples, and the
Siberian fungus, to sweet gale, and the rhododen-
drons, to common henbane, the emetic-holly, and
the deadly nightshad Apart from all which, or
rather perhaps it should be said more accurately, in
continuation and direct elucidation of all which,
our author explains to us with incomparable luci-
dity—" The Body we Cherish," in all its involved
and complicated mechanism, defining with infinite
precision " What we Breathe and what we Breathe
For," as well as " What, How, and Why we Di-
gest," crowning his high intellectual labours with
a masterly solution of the great problem of " The
Circulation of Matter," a problem here solved
through the medium of the two concluding essays
entitled "A Recapitulation."
It would be difficult for any one but the merest,
dullard to peruse the thirtieth chapter (vol. ii.) of
" The Chemistry of Cctuunon Life," beginning with
page 359 and terminating with page 364, without
acquiring from those few graphic sentences a per-
fectly clear appreciation of the whole of the elabo •
rate process of digestion, and through that an
accurate notion of the great leading points to be
borne in mind by the physiological investigator.
Any one, so inclined, may afterwards extend his
knowledge upon the subject of our human ana-
tomy, very readily and very delightfully, by an ex-
amination of that exquisite little anatomical
treatise, published originally, we believe, in
the United States, but reprinted by Messrs.
Parker and Son, of West Strand, in the
accessible and portable form of a cheap
little pocket-volume, quaintly entitled, " The
House I live in." As a preliminary to the perusal
of that charming treatise, however, commend us,
and let us in our turn commend others, to the
chapter already mentioned as adorning the second
volume of Professor Johnston's "Chemistry of
Common Life," a chapter preceded and followed by
others of a kindred character—from the reading of
which may be derived a mass of valuable and cu-
rious information. Regarding bread and meat as
the staples of oar ordinary nutriment, it will pro-
bably be matter of surprise to the uninitiated to
know that from each of those apparently very
dissimilar substances the same kinds of nourish-
ments are extracted by the organs of digestion—the
bread consisting of gluten, starch or fat, and saline
matter, the beef of fibrin, fat and saline matter—
both of them being gradually reduced, after being
swallowed, first of all to a greyish, gruel-like,
slightly acid food-pulp, called chyme, and ultimately
to a milky fluid termed chyle, the material employed
for the reparation of all the wear and tear con-
stantly going on, more or less rapidly, throughout
the whole of our intricate framework. Conveyed
down the gullet or oesophagus, after being duly im-
pregnated with the warm saline liquid expressed
from the salivary glands by the muscular move-
ment produced in the process of mastication, the
food, whether animal or vegetable, is known to be
prepared for the more important organs of diges-
tion by the influence of a peculiar organic com-
pound contained in the saliva, a compound called
the property of changing ptyalin, possessingthe
starch of the food into sugar. Constituting as it does
only 1-500th part of the entire weight of the
saliva, not more than from fifteen to twenty
grains of this subtle and potent ptyalin are swal-
lowed within the twenty-four hours. Neverthe-
less, so important an element is it in the process of
digestion, that too much stress can hardly be laid
upon the advisability of careful mastication, so
that every mouthful of nourishment may be pro-
perly saturated with this wondrous mixture of
saliva and ptyalin before its passage down the
oesophagus. Conveyed- by means of this channel
into the stomach, the food already prepared by
mastication, broken up by the teeth and softened
by the saliva and ptyalin, is still further advanced
in the process of digestion by the solvent influence
of the gastric juice, which is to the stomach itself
what the saliva is to the mouth, and which contains
within it a peculiar organic substance called pepsin,
analogous in its action to that carried on as we
have seen at an earlier stage by the ptyalin. About
60 or 80 ounces of this gastric juice mixed with its
proportion of pepine, are presumed to be poured
into the stomach of a well-fed grown man within

the 24 hours. Reduced by its action to the greyish
pulp already mentioned as chyme, the food in that
form passes out of the stomach through the aper-
ture named the pylorus into the first portion of
the intestines, a portion designated (from its length
being about 12 inches) the duodenum. Here the
chyme becomes perfected into chyle by admixture
with bile conveyed through a small tube from the
liver into the intestine : with the pancreatic juice
conveyed thither by a similar means from the sweet-
bread : and with a half liquid slimy mucus
exuding from the surface of the intestine itself,
a fluid exudation called the intestinal juice, or suc-
cus entericus. Intermingled with these three liquids
Yniee as it passes onward from the stomach,
It,leie c
o chyme,
metamorphosed from a greyish pulp into
cm
a milky fluid, the chyle, which is then carried on
from the duodenum into the jejunum, and along
the whole intervolved channel of the smaller in-
testines--during its passage along which its nutri
tive portions are taken up by a multiplicity of
absorbent vessels, the lacteals, and the lymphatics.
The lac teals, or milk-bearers gradually uniting
together as they ascend, terminate in the thoracic
duct—a vessel, in man, about
as large as a goose-
quill—emptying their pearly contents through the
thoracic duct into the jugular vein, where the
chyle, united with the blood, flows into the right
auricle of the heart (an organ acting
neously as a pump and as a churn, as a main-
spring simulta-
neously
as a pendulum) whence, passing into
the right ventricle, it is forced into the lungs for
the purpose of purification by being brought into
direct contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere.
Returning from the lungs, the newly oxygenised
Flood passes into the left auricle, thence into the
left ventricle, and so through the grand channel of
the aorta, on from the heart to the extremities.
In a full-grown man the blood weighing from