The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-27 00:00:00

FRENCH THEATRICALS.

ITALIAN OPERA.—The Dilettanti make it their
special business to pick holes and find out flaws in
that which passes for perfection with the superficial
world—they sprinkle ambiguous voices about the
town that they detect a falling off in Mdlle. Patti's
vocal and physical powers since last season. The
best answer to these detractors is that Mdlle. Patti
has performed the surprising feat of singing six dif-
ferent operas on the first six nights of her return to
Paris. There is assuredly nothing singular in the
fact of a prima donna having six different operas
in her repertoire, but this lively little lady sang
the " Somnambula" on the first night, then " Don
Pasquale," " Barbiere," " Traviata," " Lucia," and
" Crispin° ela Comare." A cantatrice who can do
this might be lit to compete with Hercules in any
of his labours, excepting one—and whilst she has
been doing this she has been studying the " Trova-
tore, "Semiramide," and " Elisire." Whilst we
abjure all complicity with these detractors, we can
go so far with them as to avow that Ricci's
delightful little opera was played in its ensemble
just as well, perhaps better played, two
seasons past. Where Mlle. Vestali fanned
herself as she warbled her exquisite waltz
movement, and then sang her chanson a
boire, or, to speak by the card, her chanson h manger,
since la frittola is the subject, every one exclaimed,
" She is charming, but how charming could Mdlle.
Patti be induced to play the part ?" Zeus has
heard our aspirations, and we storks are discon-
tented with his gift. We don't like this substitu-
tion of Ciampi for Zucchini. He was far from a
first-rate buffo ; like Grassot at the Palais Royal,
he depended too much on his nose, but Ciampi's
buffooneries are to his as the jokes of a clown at
a country fair to those of the wits of the round
table at Holland House. His inferiority to Zuc-
chini was painfully conspicuous in the famous
trio of the apothecaries, and he must fully under-
stand that the applause was intended for Mercuriali
and Agnesi. Mdlle. Patti has never played Leo-
nora in Paris. We await her appearance in Grisi's
great role with some apprehension, as it is not the
character which is calculated for the display of her
remarkably versatile powers. Signora Grossi will
make an excellent Azucena, and Nicolini must
struggle hard and possibly without success to dis-
turb our recollections of Mario and Fraschini. His
Edgardo has failed to remove them, but Mdlle.
Patti's Lucia was so near perfection that we wil-
lingly forgot and forgave all other shortcomings.
ODEON.—Look to your laurels, ye novel-writers,

for there are dramaturges abroad. They always
pounce upon the best romances, and absorb them as
remorselessly as that horrible pieuvre at the Aqua-
rium on the Boulevard Montmartre when it
rushes at the crab which crawls unconsciously
before the cleft in the rock, where the monster,
hushed in grim repose, awaits its evening
prey. Octave Feuillet's " Roman d'un jeune
homme pauvre," Achard's " Alber tine de Menis," and
hosts of other romances have been dramatised ; but
Mme. George Sand has been the most despoiled of
all. Each of her novels has been turned upon the
stage ; but we must not complain, for the work has
been as skilfully done as when a sailing frigate is
transformed into a screw in our dockyards. Francois
le Champi and the Marquis de Villemer bear witness
to the fact ; still more do Ces Beaux Messieurs de
Bois Dord, who drew the town to the Ambigu some
few years past to see the strange feudalisms which
Mme. Sand has so skilfully woven into her Watteau
pictures of Berrichon life. You must not, however,
expect to see the glories of the Ambigu re-
produced at the Oddon. Jane Ellsler, as before,
wears the doublet and hose as a scion of that noble
house as manfully as Ellen Tree in Viola. But
Mdlle. Page was then the Lauriane, and, above all,
Boccage was the old Marquis of the Seigliere school.
Lafont will not wrest the laurels from his brow ;
he is a great artist, but the Marquis de Bois Dore
is not a " lion empaille." The boil with which 141.-
font has made him is not done like those cornices in
the Luxembourg, which stand out,fresh like newly-
burnished gold, though two centuries have slid
away since Marie de Medicis dwelt there. Lafont
has gilded his Lois by a procede Ruolz. He is
not the fine, feudal, chivalrous old beau, brave
as his sword, courteous in his bearing to all,
descending even to scented foppery to pay his
court to the fair veuve Lauriane. Boccage reminded
us of Sir Roger de Coverly and his widow, but
Lafont neither dresses nor plays the part as we could
have hoped. For those, however, who happen not
to have seen this play at the Ambigu, the represen-
tation at the Ocldon will have many charms. Mlle.
Jane Disler still plays the Mario, and Mlle. Anto-
nine makes a marvellously pretty widow. We
marvel not that such a Lauriane should have turned
the old Marquis's heart, that she should have thrown
her chains over M. de Lucenay, M. d'Ars, the vil-
lain Alvimar, and the young Florentine. The play
is admirably put on the stage. Watteau and Bon-
cher could not have designed more poetically painted
pastorals.

PRIM RosE-lIILL.—The Commissioner of Works
has given instructions that the whole of the footpaths on
Primrose-hill shall be lighted with gas, and men are now
busy in laying down the pipes. It is contemplated to have
a large and ornamental column on the top of the hill, sur-
mounted by four lamps.—Pall-mall Gazette.
PERUVIAN BARK IN INDIA.—We stated a few
years ago that, thanks to the foresight of the English and
Dutch Governments, the valuable genus of Cinchonas, to
which we owe what is commonly called Peruvian or
Jesuits' bark, and which, through the greed of contractors
and their accomplices, is fast disappearing from its native
forests, has been successfully reared in India and Java.
The last number of Dr. Gaffe's Journal des Connaissances
Medicoles affords us further information on this subject.
The species which has become most completely naturalised
in India is the Cinchona succirubra. It is easy to cultivate,
attains a height of 15ft. in three yeafs, and its bark is rich
in quinine, but it only thrives well at an altitude of from
4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. In the lower
regions its bark is much poorer. A recent discovery, how-
ever, offers some hopes of cultivating it to advantage in the
coffee plantations situated at altitudes of about 2,300 feet.
It has been found that if the trunk of the Cinchona be
enveloped with moss for the space of about 18 months,
its bark will become excessively thick and richer in
alkaloids ; and this plan may be advantageously
followed, as above stated in tho coffee plantations.
The Cinchona inicrantha, which, in the Peruvian
forests, where it grows wild, only contains cinchonine
acquires considerable proportions of quinidino by cultiva-
tion. The C. Calysaya does not thrive well either in
India or Java, but the species which succeed best below
the altitude of 6,000 feet are the C. officinalis, and the
C. lancifolia, generally sold under the name of C.
Pilayo. These qualities contain as much as 11.34
per cent. of alkaloid principles, 5.85 of which are
quinine. Instead of cutting down the trees, as
they barbarously do in Peru, a long strip of bark is taken
off, and the place covered up with moss. In this way the
bark grows again, and the operation may be repeated periodi-
cally a certain number of times. But oven when the tree
s hewn down, if the stump bo left in the ground, new
shoots will spring up from it, which in a few years may
ho out do SY4 iu thoix Galiunani.

NEW PROJECTILES.

Whatever is coLducive to the wholesale destruc-

tion of mankind is a powerful promoter of civilisa-
tion ; so, at least, M. T. Landi, 21, Rue des Dames,
Batignolles, tells us in a printed description of cer-
tain missiles of his, now exhibiting at the Champ de
Mars. " Those monstrous and costly contrivances
of cannon and iron-sheating are things of too privi-
leged and feudal a nature to suit the democracy
of the seas. . ..... And to attack

this aristocracy, I have conceived the idea of
fire-pumps and flying torpedoes, which, while
they possess the power of cannon, are more de-
mocratic and within every one's reach." This,
we must confess, is exceedingly pleasant and
sets us quite at our ease. " The enunciation
of the great social problem, which I intend to
develope at some future period, may be stated
thus: —While allowing society as at present con-
stituted time to maintain itself and seek repose
n existing laws and institutions, let us promote civi-
isation by improving our engines of war." Oracular
but tempting. The gentleman whose heart glows
with such humanitarian feelings is the inventor of
an " Infernal Percussion Shell," for sieges ; and
a " Double-Explosion Shell" for battles and
sieges, two contrivances we need not dwell upon,
having some reason to suspect their novelty. But

ur author has gone much farther, and invented a
' multiple cartridge," being a cylinder containing at
certain measured distances several common musket

charges. It is made of paper, and provided with a
friction priming, which has the peculiar advantage
of catching fire by its mere introduction into the
barrel. As soon as the cartridge has got to the
breech, it begins to spit fire from the top like a
rocket till the uppermost charge is reached, whereby
the first shot is fired ; it spits again till the fire gets
to the second charge, and so on. Six shots at least
may thus be fired in succession. This cartridge may
be used with all kinds of old muskets, making them
as formidable as needle-guns ; so that the great
mass of muskets in the store-houses, or in the
hands of the people, may be turned to account, and
if necessary the nation may be armed after the mo-
dern fashion, without needles and at a small cost."

This " arming the nation" sounds ominous : aris-
tocrats had better keep a sharp look-out. The
other inventions of M. Landi consist in ~a fire-
engine" and a " flying torpedo ;" the former throw-
ing fire instead of water on the enemy's ship at close
quarters, the inflammable liquids being alcohol, oil
of turpentine, or petroleum. The flying torpedo is
a congreve rocket, feathered like an arrow ; it may
be cast against the side of a ship, and will explode
under water, being charged with fulminate of
mercury. Any ship, however large, may be de-
stroyed by it. Our author does not say whether
the two latter contrivances are democratic too."

COUNTRY MARKETS.

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This In
gradually dissolves the Corn In a few hours,
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