The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-19 00:00:00

I-1W 42W POLICE.

A FALSE COMIIirsiorSAIRE. —A t Ifarlboconz, h s tree t
Police-court, a man named William Butler, was charged
with assuming the dress of the corps of Commissionaires.
lie had formerly belonged to the corps, and as this was
the first time he had been charged,the magistrate inflicted
fine of 20s. only, and costs.
FORGERY BY A MERCHANT.—At the Central Criminal
Court, on Wednesday, Robert Salisbury Saltmarsh
pleaded guilty to indictments which charged him with
forging two bills of exchenge. The prisoner said be had
1 een in great difficulties, and when he forged one of the
bills his father was lying dead, and he had no money to
bury him with. The Recorder passed a sentence of five
rears' penal servitude.

REAVY DAMAGES IN A BREACH OF

PROMISE' CASE.

~~

7.11 E POTVILL COLORADO EXPE-TITION.

The two stories so circumstantially rel c,l of the
Powell Colorado Expedition arc now ascertained to
be wholly false. It is an extraordinary phenomenon
that two men could be found to invent untruths

A breach of promise case, in which heavy damages
were obtained, has been tried at the Liverpool Assizes.
The plaintiff was Miss Kate Fleming, a young lady
20 years cf age, the second daughter of the late Mr.
Tleming, of Glasgow, a well-known accountant, who
died in 1866. The defendant was Mr. James Elliott
trhompson, the son of the eminent shipbuilder of Sun-
derland, and was 24 years of age. While Mr. Fleming's
life lasted his means were good, and his daughter
%vas consequently sent to a good school in Edinburgh,
where she was a schoolfellow of the defendant's sister, who
there became her intimate Mend. She was, therefore,
Invited to stay at the Thompsons' house at Sunderland,
land spent Christmas of 1865 there, and made the acquaint-
ance there of the defendant. In the summer of 1867 she
vas asked by her friend's family to join a Continental trip,
but her father having died in the meanwhile, and, con-
trary to expectation, having left his family in
somewhat embarrassed circumstances, she was corn-
relied to decline the invitation from a failure
of means. In the meantime she had been
qt.ffered a home by her sister and her husband, a gentle-
man, named Acheson, and she lived with them at a
residence called Windsor Lodge, near Dubiin, and some-
times at a shooting-box which he rented, called Kippua
Park, in the county of Wicklow. Shp visited the
Thcmpsons, however, again at the Christmas of 1567,
spending several weeks with them there, and then it was
that her engagement with the defendant occurred. She
returned home in the spring of 1868, and obtained her
brother-in-law's consent to the engagement, and the cor-
respondence then commenced. It was very voluminous,
ext,ndiog into the February of the present year, and con-
tained in all 111 letters, but comparatively few of them
evere used in court. They began in the usual gushing
style, and went on so until the defendant wished to have
the marriage day settled in November. But the plaintiff
'would have it put off until February. After that the cor-
respondence on the plaintiff's side was a trifle cooler.
.133, and by the time came for buying the furniture; and
in the letters between the couple on this subject the
plaintiff charged his "darling Kate" with being uncon-
cerned about the future. She replied that she was not so.
;11e was not so enthusiastic about getting the linen—bed
or table—as he had expected. What he would seem to
have wanted was to have produced a coolness on Miss
ffleming's side such as existed on his own part. In this,
however, he was not successful. She declared her wil-
)ingness to do what she could, and charged him with being
cool towards her. By and by he brought matters to a
consummation by a letter, in which Le said---" I re-
ceived your two letters, also one from Acheson. 1
am sorry to say that I am disappointed in the way this
engagement of ours has turned out. I think 1 have been
.deceived about many things. In linen" (there was
here again much laughter, as the learned counsel read
the letter) I understood you bad the greater portion
-of it, and it now turns nut that everything except
table napkins would have to be bought. The list of
silver you have sent would not be sufficient. Acheson
'and you gave me to understand that you had the whole
of it, and you have often told my sisters that you got
the whole your father had, and I know he bad a great deal.
How about antimacassars, &c.? (Great laughter.) You
do not say anything about them, and these things you
could have worked yourself had you felt at all inclined.
Had I known you were making no effort to do things for
yourself, I might have got my sisters to have worked
them. Was it Acheson who told you to ask me for
X5O to buy linen and spend tho rea aincler on
yourself ? if be did he ought to think shame
cif himself. I am thoroughly disgusted. I was not
aware until lately that I was expected to provide cloth-
ring for the lady before marriage. I cannot express to
you how much I- am disappointed, and I think it better
for both parties if this marriage were broken off. I regret
)t very much, and cannot see any prospect of happiness
for the future. You ought to have dealt candidly with
me." Upon this letter both Mr. Acheson anti his proteg
e
wrote protesting against the defendant's cruelty.
Thompson wrote back asking Miss Hening whether
she did not think it better under the eircuin-
stances for the engagement to be broken. She

refused to consent. Ile then admitted that he La
cooled down considerably, and rtfuEed to marry the
laintiff, marrying, Ft, mi after, another lady instead. rot
the defence it was urged that the defendant had not. actec
so as to incur the necessity for great damages. The
plaintiff vas still young, and would soon get a husband.
After the summing up of his lordship, the jury deliberated
for some time, and returned a verdict for the plaintiff.
'with £1,,500 damages.

The Pall Mall Gazette contradicts the report
I has been published in several journals that Sir Jan Tulle•
fliteclao Sinclair intends to oppose lir. Traill in Caithness•

calculated to cause grief and consternation without
affording any visible gain or pleasure to themselves;
yet many in America have been taxing their inge-
nuity with these tales, comparing them, showing their

contradictions, their improbabilities, and the inter-

nal evidence proving them to be untrue. The facts
are that Colonel Powell, with his party, left Green
River city on the 24th of May, encamping about

seven miles down the river, after carefully subdi-
viding the loads of the boats so that each might have
a portion of every requisite, whereby, without great
inconvenience, they could afford to lose one. Hav-
ing ascertained that they were not overloaded, but
quite manageable, they proceeded on the expedition.
The names of these composing the play we gave in
our is ue of July 21. About 20 miles from Henry's
Fork, Colonel Powell, from whom news up to June
29 has been received, entered a brilliant red gorge,
the commencement of the mountain range, which he
named the Flaming Gorge. By a range is not meant
a line of peaks, but a broad platform, cut into moun-
tains by the action of water, steep, narrow canyons
hewn from the otherwise level upland. Such cliffs
walled in the Green River over 1,200 ft. high, and as
the boat swiftly glided between thesa natural walls
it passed gulches, ravines, canyons in every direction,
some widening out into beautiful valleys at varying
elevations. The river continued to work its way
through such a country, and the boats glided on, their
occupants camping by the bank at night. The travel-
lers were rushing through an unknown land, borne on
an unknown body of water, with the pleasing inse-
curity that the next turn might be over a Niagara or
down a foaming, raging; roafing rapid. 'As the
voyagers were carried wi h speed by the banks, every
ear listened, and every eye was fixed ahead, and
many must have been the exciting moments when
the river rushed sharply round the bends, rolling in
great waves ere it recovered its equilibrium, and then
gliding quietly into the broad smooth stream, where
it traversed an open valley. When the rapids were
rendered dangerous by the water surging over
huge rocks, the explorers took to the banks, and
with lines let their boats drop down, and once, when
in such a positi ,n, it was found that they were on
the wrong side, and had to cross above the danger.
One of the boats was more expressly adapted for
such work, and she was empl.yed in carrying cargo
after cargo, but on a larger boat being manned and
taken across, in spite of hard rowing she was swept
almost into the rapids ere she gained the opposite
side. Colonel Powell describes the speed of one
day as that of a locomotive ; the river had got be-
tween narrow perpendicular walls, everything being
swept from its course, leaving the channel free and
uninterrupted to the swift current, except that the
rocks at the sides rolled the water into waves to-
wards the centre from the friction, over which the
boats jumped and tossed as they were borne along,
waking, with stoppages included, upwards of 12
miles an hour. Suddenly a point was turned, and
from this exciting scene the river subsided into a
calm, smoothly gliding stream, and the giant cliffs
which hedged them in opened out ; but the air was
filled with an ominous roar, which grew louder as
they proceeded, and they knew that they were ap-
proaching a waterfall. There they had to make a
portage, unloading and carrying their equipment
down, but it required some ingenuity to get the

shire

Josh. Billings says, " When a young man ain't
good for anything else, I like tew see Lim carry a gold.
headed cane. If he can't buy a cane, let him part hie
,hair in the middle."

ACONITE FOR BILANDY.—A young man was
fatally poisoned in Chicago a short time age, by the care
lessuess of a druggist, who gave him aconite for brandy, to
relieve him of a sudden fit of illness. He died an hour
after taking the aconite.

heavier boats into the lower stream. Two lines
were attached, the one to the bow and placed in the
hands of six men on the bank, the other at the stern,
which was made fast below the falla, and qn.the boat
)eing unmoored, down site went checked as far as
he strength of the six on the bank could do it, and
caught below the falls by the other rope. On a
rock by the trail the party made when carrying
lown their luggage was written, Ashley, the date
being indistinct, some thinking it 1825 others 1855,
and this recalle.l to Powell's mind a story current
among the mountaineers that a party had been lost
by the swamping of their boat in a canyon below
these falls, and that a man named Ashley was among
the number, a reminiscence calculated to inspire can-
, tion. On 4th June the party reached Brown's Hole,
where a spur of the Red Mountain stretches across
the river, which is cut by it as if divided by a knife,
the sides being verticle, and perhaps fur this reason
chosen by numberless swallows to build their nest?, on.
By the 29th June Colonel Powell reached the iinc-
tiou of the Uin tall, having run through four canyons
of about 25 miles each, with walk ranging from
2,000 to 2,800 feet in height. Frequently they

had been compelled to make portages of rations,.
And to let their bolts down dangerous rapids and
ills with lines as before describ-d. Nor was it
possible to do this without accident, however care-
ful. One boat was totally wrecked, and about a
third of the supplies and a part of the instruments
!ost, and in it were the colonel's papers, who was
then compelled to use plant dryers to write on.

There were duplicates of the instruments, but the
loss of the rations would shorten the time at the dis-

posal of the party. The boat wreck had arisen through
misapprehending the signals, whereby she was kept
too far out in the river and being unable to reach
the bank above the falls, was drifted over, bat
none of the men were drowned. The boats have
been found well adap' el to the work, otherwise they
would have sunk when repeatedly filled with water,
the waves in the turmoil of their agitation leaping
over the gunwales ; but although the provisions
were saturated, the light cabins at the ends acted as
buoys, keeping the bolttlt Ant Colonel 'Powell re-
presents his collection of fossils as fine; still to that
date he had not made a large general collection, though
he had a good map. The scenery he describes as wild
and grand, the health and spirits of the party were
good, and their hopes of success high. Although about
'o spend some days in drying the provisions and to
recruit, he was anxious to hurry on to the Green
River to make observations of the eclipse on the 7th
August (last Saturday). Up to the point he de-
icribes, and for two or three days' journey below it,
the river is mapped on the last Government chart of
the United States and Territories, and then it
ceases ; nor is it resumed through the whole of Utah,
extending many hundreds of miles, till it suddenly
re-enters the scene as the Colorado, which is now well
known up to the navigation ending at Colville, Ari-
zona. The point from which the party started is
where the Union Pacific Railroad crosses the stream.
From Wyoming, where it has its source, it flows
into Colorado, and joining the Bear River turns
westerly, pursuing its course through Utah in a
line almost parallel with the Rocky Mountains and
the Wasatch chain. Where the Green River rises is
the great watershed of the Northern Continent. In-
deed, not far is the main branch of the Missouri,
flowing away north, and the Yellowstone its chief
tributary. Not far either is the Snake River, which
becomes the Columbia, finding its outlet at Astoria,
on the Pacific, and throughout its course the Green
River is swollen with waters which have their rise
in lakes, parks, and mountains; sending down the
many streams which form on one side such rivers as
the North and South Forks of the Platte and the
Arkansas, and on the other the Grand River and
the Eagle Tail, while the Rio Grande derives its
upply from the same mountains of Colorado. Col.
Powell c .nnot fail if he succeeds in his expedition
to throw some light on the, as yet, dark course of
the Colorado. On tbe olligrside the Wasatch chain
sinks that Great Basin into which many streams
run and all disappear, creating numerous salt lakes,
but having no grand outlet. The Great Basin is
very high above the level of the sea, as is the case
with the bed of the river which Col. Po‘i ell is now
exploring, which is sure to cause many fairs and
rapids ere the water reaches the head of the naviga-
tion ; and as the stream breaks through mountain
ranges, rushing into the gorges made by itself, it
must he a dangerous one down which to float. We
hope soon to hear that the party has successfully
accomplished the object of the expedition ; and we
are happy to learn by later advices that good tid-
ings have been received up to July 4.—A nglo-Ame-
rican Times.

Two questions have cropped up again : what ha.?
become of the money subscribed, in ISG4, for the Shak
spere Memorial? - and what has been done about tht
Guild of Literature ? for the benefit of which Lord Lyttoi
'wrote his " Not So Bad as We Seem," in which many
-tiistinguished amateurs appeared at Devonshire Roust
some years ago?--Once a Week.

There was no repetition of the rioting a
Eheffield on Tuesday, a sort of sullen truce being observed.
Numbers of persons lounged about, looking out for anythint•
that might turn up, but not finding it. Two men abd
youth were apprehended in the mut sc of the day, charge('
with having taken pat t in the dir-turbances of Monday. The
charges will he duly investigated.
Curran, who was Master of the Rolls in Ireland in
1811, tells a characteristic anecdcte of a member of at
Irish Parliament. Boasting of his attachment to the jurj
system, " Mr. Speaker," said he, " with trial by jury l
have lived, and by the blessing of God, with trial by jur)
I will die !"—"What !" said Curran, in a stage whisper.
"do you mean to be hanged, Jack?"

A young lady's opinion of the bonnet of tht
season: " Oh, the bonnets of my girlhood—the kind
wore to school ! I reallS, thought them pretty. I must
have been a fool. And yet I used to think myself on hate
a jaunty miss. Perhaps I was, as fashion went ; but
what was that to this? Oh, the lovely little pancake—
the charming little mat ! It makes my head so level, ane
so very, very flat ! "

MISSED HER MARK.—Mademoiselle Georges,
the celebrated French actress, was on one occasion star
ring in the provinces. One evening, after the fall of th.
curtain, the beaux of the village assembled round her t,
congratulate her. " Ah, gentlemen," she said, to pla3
that part well, one ought to be young and beautiful.'
"Oh, madam," answered one of the beaux, " you has.,
proved the contrary."

CIRCULATION OF TUE BIBLE.—FrOm a ref
recently made by the British and Foreign Bible Societ3
it appears that by means of that agency there have bee'
distributed up to the 31st of March, 1869, 57,210,48:
copies of the Holy Scriptures, the expenditure incurrec
during the 65 years of the society's existence having beet
£6,553,164 4s. 3d. The Bible has been translated by tb4
society into nearly all the languages of the world.

SINGULAR FRAUD.—The Military Council o!
PPvision at Clardanne, in France, recently discovered r
singular fraud to escape service in the army. Four con
Bel ipts ely presented themselves for tin
medical visit, all app art blind of one eye, tin
pupil of which was enormously dilated. Three of tht
young men were exempted, but on the fourth appearing
the coincidence seemed so remarkable that thr
members of the council questioned him closely, anc
becoming embarrassed, he at last acknowledged that IL(
apparent infirmity had been produced by rubbing the eyf
that morning with a pomade of belladonna. The thre(
other conscripts were called back, and having acknow
]edged that they had had recourse to the same means
were all declared good for the service. A singular fact
vas that there had been no concert between the your);
nen, and that the operation 3 had been performed 1,3
different persons, who appear to make a trade of sucl-
frauds. All the parties have since been prosecuted, any
the young men have been now each sentenced to our
month's imprisonment, the operator to one year
.of th
same punishment, and some persons who had acted as i 4
termediaries to three months' each.

DuNvILLE an4l Co., Belfast, are the-largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brand). Supplied in casks and cases for how ► use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co ,
Belfa.t; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, Lot) lon, IV,C.--fid
vet LIE. 0 meta

TIM SIN,- LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGU' 19, 1869.

Lively so faint? here, again, tne science of opine conic.
in aid of astronomy. When a line of light, such as a nar-
row slit held in front of a luminous object, is viewed
through a prism, the light is ordinarily spread out into a
coloured band, the length of which may be increased at
pleasure by substituting two or more prisms for the single
prism. As the total quantity of light is not thereby
increased, it is obvious that the intensity of the light of
the coloured hand will go on decreasing as the length
increases. Such is the case with ordinary sources of light,
like the flame of a candle or the sky, which give a con-
tinuous spectrum, or one generally continuous, though
interrupted by dark bands. But if the light from the
source he homogeneous, consisting, that is, of light of one
degree of refrangibility only, the image of the slit will he
merely deviated by the prisms, not widened out into a
band, and not consequently reduced in intensity by the
dispersion. And if the source of light emit light of both
kinds, it will be easily understood that the images
of the slit corresponding to light of any
definite refrangibilities which the mixture may
contain will stand out, by their superior inten-
sity, on the weaker ground of the continuous
spectrum. Preparation for observations of the kind bad
long been in progress in the hands of our countryman Mr.
Lockyer. His first attempts were unsuceersful ; but un-
dismayed by failure, he ordered the construction of a new
spectroscope of superior power, in which be was aided by
a grant from the sum placed annually by Parliament at.
the disposal of the Royal Society for scientific purposes.
On the 20th of October last year, in examining the space
immediately surrounding the edge of the solar disc, he
obtained evidence, by the occurrence of a bright line in the
spectrum, that his slit was on the image of one of those pro-
minences the nature of which had so long been an enigma.
It further appeared from an observation made on No v ember
sth that the prominences were merely elevated portions of
an extensive luminous stratum of the same general
character, which, now that the necessity of the interposi-
tion of the moon was dispensed with, could be traced
completely round the sun. Notices of this discovery were
received from the author by the Royal Society on October
21 and November 3 and the former was almost imme-
diately published in 'To. 105 of the proceedings. These
were shortly afterwards followed by a fuller paper on the
same subject. Meanwhile the same thing had been inde-
pendently observed in another part of the world. After
having observed the remarkable spectrum of the pro-
minences during the total eclipse, it occurred to
M. Janssen that the same method might allow
the prominences to be detected at any time ; and
on trial he succeeded in detecting them the very day after
the eclipse. Having congratulated the Association on the
fact that a reflector of four feet aperture, of the Casse-
giain construction, equatorially mounted, and provided
with a clock-movement, had recently been erected at
Melbourne, Professor Stokes, to spew the willingness of
Government, when practicable, to carry out the sagges-
tions of the Association, pointed out that at the Cam•
bridge meeting of the Association, in 1862, a committee
was appointed for the purpose of investigating the appli-
cation of gun-cotton to warlike purposes. At the New-
castle meeting, in the following year, this committee
presented its report, and a resolution was passed,
recommending the appointment of a Royal et/O-
mission. This recommendation was adopted, and
in 1864 a commission was appointed, which was requested
to report on the application of gun-cotton to civil as well
as to naval and military purposes. The committee gave
in its report last year, and that report, together with a
more recent return relative to the application of gun-
cotton to mining and quarrying operations, has just been
printed for the House of Commons. A substance of such
comparatively recent introduction cannot he fairly com-
pared with an explosive in the use of which we have the
experience of centuries. Yet, even- with our present
experience, there are some purposes for which gun-cotton
can advantageously replace gunpowder. while its manu-
facture and storage can be effected with comparative
safety, since it is in a wet state during the process of manu-
facture, and is not at all injured by being kept perma-
nently in water, but merely requires to be dried for use.
Even should it be required to store it in the dry state, it is
doubtful whether, with the precautions indicated by the
chemical investigations of jr.A Abel, any greater risk is
incurred than in the case of gunpowder. In the blasting
of hard rocks it is found to be highly efficient, while the
remarkable results recently obtained by Mr. Abel leave no
doubt of its value for explosions such as are frequently
required in warfare. General Hay speaks highly of the
promise of its value for small arms; but many more expe-
riments are required, especially as a change, in the arm and
mode of ignition require a change in the construction of
the cartridge. In heavy ordnance, the due control cf the
rapidity of combustion of the substance is a matter of greater
difficulty ; and, though considerable progress has been
made, much remains to be done beforethe three conditions
of safety to the gun, high velocity of projection, and uni-
formity of result are satisfactorily combined. By tile
kindness of Dr. Carpenter, I am enabled to mention to
you the latest results obtained in an expedition which
could not have been undertaken without the aid of Govern.
ment, an aid which was freely given. Last year Dr.
Carpenter and Professor 1V villa Thomson represented to
the President and Council of the Royal Society the great
importance to Zoology and Palmontology of obtaining
soundings from great depths in the ocean, and suggested
to them to use their influence with the Admiralty to
induce them to place a gunboat, or other suitable vessel,
at the disposal of those gentlemen and any other naturalists
who might be willing to accompany them for the pur-
pose of carrying on a systematic course of deep-sea dredging
for a month or six weeks. This application was forwarded
to the Admiralty with the warm support of the president
and council, and was readily acceded to. The operations
were a good deal impeded by rough weather, but never-
theless important results were obtained. Dredging was
successfully accomplished at a depth of 650 fathoms ; and
the existence was established of a varied and abundant
submarine Fauna, at depths which had generally been
supposed to be either azoic, or occupied by animals of a
very low type ; and the character"of the Fauna and of the
mud brought up was such as to point to a chalk formation
actually going on. It seemed desirable to carry the
soundings to still greater depths, and to examine more
fully the changes of temperature which had been met
with in the descent. Another application was accordingly
made to the Admiralty in the present year, and was no
less readily acceded to than the former had been ; and a
larger vessel than that used last year is now on
her cruise. lam informed by Dr. Carpenter that
dredging has been successfully carried down to more
than 2,400 fathoms (nearly the height of Mont lihiec),
and that animal life has been found even at that depth in
considerable variety, though its amount and itind ere
obviously influenced by the reduction of temperature to
Arctic coldness. A very careful series of temperature
soundings has been taken, *Mewing, on the same spot, a
continuous descent of temperature with time depth, at first
more rapid, afterwards pretty uniform. Thermometers
protected from pressure by a plan described by Dr. Miller
were found to maintain their character at the great
depths reached, the difference between teem and the best
ordinary thermometers used in the same sounding being
exactly conformable to the pressure corresponding with
each depth, as determined by the experiments previously
made in smaller depths. All the observations hitherto
made go to confirm the idea of a general interchange of
polar and equatorial water, the former occupying the
lowest depths, the latter forming a superficial stratum of
700 or 800 fathoms. The analyses of the water brought
up indicate a large proportion of carbonic acid in the
gases of the deep waters, and a general diffusion of
organic matter. I must turn for a few moments to
another application recently made to Government, which
has not been successful. The application I have in view
was made, not by the British Association or other
scientific societies in their corporate capacity, but by a
body composed of the presidents of the British Associa-
tion and of the Royal and other leading scientific societies ;
.and its object was, not the promotion of science directly,
but the recognition of preeminent merit. In the history
of science few names, indeed, hold so prominent a place
as that of Faraday. The perfect novelty of principle and the
recondite nature of many of his great discoveries are such
as to bear the impress of genius of the highest order, and
to form an epoch in the advance of science ; and while his
scientific labours excited the admiration of men of
science throughout the world, his singularly genial
dfoirspohsiitmion
thaendlolm,oodofet
, unassuming character even
those who had the hap-
piness of numbering him among their personal
friends. At a meeting of the presidents of the scientific
societies to which I have alluded, it was resolved to erect
a marble statue in memory of Faraday. He was a man
of whom England may well he proud, and it was thought
that it would be a graceful recognition of his merits if the
monument were erected at the public expense. The
present Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, did not
think it right that the recognition of scientific merit, how-
ever eminent, should fall on the taxation of the country,
though even in a pecuniary point of view the country has
received so much benefit from the labours of scientific
men. The carrying out of time resolution being thus left
to private exertion, a public meeting, presided over by
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, was held in the Royal insti-
tution, an eeteblishment which has the honour of being
identified with Faraday's scientific career. At this meeting
a committee was formed to carry. out the object, and a
subscription list commenced. By permission of the sec-
retaries of this Association, an office has been opened in
the reception-room, where thote members of the Associa-
tion who may be desirous of taking part in the movement
will have every facility afforded them. In chemistry,.l
do not believe that any great step has been made within
the last year ; but perhaps there is no science in which an
earnest worker is so sure of being rewarded by mil
some substantial acquisition to our knowledge, though it
may not be of the nature of one of those grand discoveries
which, from time to time, stamp
their impress on diffe-
rent branches of scienee. I may be permitted to refer to
one or two discoveries which are exceedingly curious, and
some of which may prove of considerable practical impor-
tance. The Turaeo, or Pleintain-eater, of the Cape of
Good Hope, is celebrated for its beautiful plumage. A
portion of the wings is of a fine red colour. This red
colouring matter has been investigated by Professor
Church, who finds it to contain nearly six per
cent, of copper, -which cannot he distinguished by
the ordinary tests, nor removed from the colouring-
matter without destroying it. The colouring-matter is in
fact a natural organic compound of which copper is one of
the essential constituents. Traces of this metal had pre-
viously been found in animals, for example, in oysters, to
the cost of those who partook of them. But ienta n these
cases the presence of copper was merely accidl ;
oysters that lived near the mouths of streams which came
down from copper-mines assimilated a portion of the
copper salt, without its apparently doing them either good
or harm. lint in the 'Purace the existence of the red
eolousing-matter .which belongs to its 'normal plumage
Is dependent upon copper, which, in
in minuteobtained
quantities with the food, is stored up in this strange
manner in the system of the animal. Thus in the very
same feather, partly red and partly black, copper was
found in abundance in the red parts, but none
or only the merest trace in the black. This
a view of the plan of creation. Here we have
a chemical substance elaborated which is perfectly
unique in its nature,
example warns us against taking too utilitarian
salts of which are ordinarily regarded as poisonous to
anheals ;
.and the sole purpose to which, so far as we
and contains a metal the
know, it is subservient in the animal economy is one of
pure decoration. Thus a pair of the birds which were
kept in captivity lost their tine red colour in the course of
a few days, in c.insequence of
washing in the water which
was left them to drink, the red colouring-matter, which is
soluble in water, beieg thins washed out ; but except as to
the loss of their beauty it does not appear that the birds
were the worse for it. A large part of the calicos which
are produced in this country in such enormous quantities
are sent out into the market in the printed form. Although
other substances are employed, the place which niailder
occupies among dye stuffs with the calico printer is corn,
pared by Mr. Schunck to that which iron occupies among
metals with the engineer. It appears from the public
returns that upwards of 10.000 tons of madder are im-
ported annually into the United Kingdom. 'lime colours
which madder yields to tnordanted cloth are due to two
substances, alizarine and purpurine, derived from the
rout. Of tile-4,, alizarine is deemed the more important,
as producing faster colours, and yielding finer violets. In
studying the transformations of alizarine under the action
of chemical reagents, MM. Graebe and Liebermann were
led to connect it with anthracene. one of the coal-tar
eau
er eochetnatin t
rod
by allow
artificial u s t o
series of .bodies, and to devise a mode of forming it arti-
fiiieuhrialely..f
thTelioeodstiswcoitvherwyhih
is still -tagou