The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-17 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN CATTLE.

The market to-day maintained a Christmas character in
the superiority of a largo proportion of the stack on sale,
us in the extent of the supplies. In the former
particular the market compares well with the corre-
sponding market last year, but in point of num-.
hers there was to• day, as cn the grand day, a perceptible
falling off, Quotations were as follows :—Beef, 3s 6d to
6s; mutton, 3s 4d to 5s 6d ; veal, 3s 8d to 6s ; pork, 36 4d
to 4s 10d. per stone.

Numbers at market—Beasts, 1,910 ; sheep, 8,440; calves
212 ; pigs, GO. The proportions of foreign were, 445 beasts
and 113 calves.

BMITHFIELD AND LEADENIIALL.

The dead meat trade is firm, and in consequence of the
near approach of Christmas prices maintain their present
high figure.
BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.
The demand continues good for potatoes.
LIVERPOOL COTTON.

December 17.—Sa1ea probably 10,000 bales. Marks
quiet, and unchanged.

SHIPPING IN2RLLIVENCE.

GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
Arrived, Dcc. 16.—Sir Robert Peel, steamer, from
Dunkirk.

Arrived, Dec. 17.—St. George, from Guernsey; Panther,
steamer, from Boulogne.
Sailed, Dec. 16.—Argos, steamer, for Calais.
Sailed, Dec. 17.—Storm Queen, steamer, for Dunkirk ;
Rhine, steamer, for Boulogne.
DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Anchored.—Seine and Tamise, screw steamer, from
London, for Rouen.

Passed.—Narva, screw steamer (of London), from the
westward, for Loudon.
Sailed.—Superb, for Ipswich.

ROYAL GALLERY OF ILLUSTRATION.—After a
somewhat prolonged recess, the above gallery will re-open
on Wednesday evening next, with F. C. Burnand's clever
entertainment "Inquire Within." While Mr. Parry is
away Mr. German Reed makes some alterations in his
programme. Mr. Frank Matthews is to appear in " The
Entertainment Proper," in which Mdlle. Rosa D'Erina will
make her debut, as well as in a musical extravaganza (taken
from the French), by R. Reece, entitled " The last of the
Paladins."

Despatches were received yesterday at the Colo-
nial Office from the Governors of Prince Edward Island
and Malta. Despatches were sent to the Governors of the
West India Islands and the Australian Colonies.

An interesting paper appears in a recent number
of the San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press on the
orchids of California. One specimen is described whose
exquisite blossom, called the "Flower of the Holy Spirit,"
has in its centre the perfect semblance of a beautiful white
dove. Three thousand different species of orchids have
been described ; and in the American Naturalist Mr. 0. M.
Tracy says that only a beginning has been made. He gives
three characteristics which, amid their extraordinary
variety of appearance, are always present. First, irregular
flowers; second, stamens and pistils consolidated; third,
seeds around the sides of the pod, not around its centre.
" If," ho adds, " we find a plant in which these three occur
together, we are safe in looking up to it as a well-accre-
,dited member of this regal order. It is remarkable that
this class of plants, while distinguished for their beauty,
have scarcely a family of any known utility. The Vanila,
the Salep, the Coral-root, and the Ladies' Slippers are
almost the only members of any commercial value.

At the meeting of the Californian Academy of
Science, Oct. 19, Mr. Theodore Bradley road an able ad-
dress on the Value of the Study of Science in its Historical
Relations. He gave a summary of the scientific discoveries
of the ancients, and an account of the theories built upon
them, showing the fallacy of their conclusions in conse-
quence of their deficient knowledge of science. _dad they
taken pains to explore the hidden mysteries of nature
and to accumulate facts before constructing systems
of the universe and accounting for the pheno-
mena of the earth, their philosophy and science would
not Lave been deformed by such absurd theories
as we now find attributed to them. He pointed out
the dawn of correct science, and traced its progress to
the present time. At the close he made some experiments
in hydrostatics to illustrate some of the principles dove-
lcped by the ancients. The first experiment was designed
to show that the pressure of a large column of water on a
disk of a certain size is no greater than that of a smaller
column of the same height on the same disk. The second
proved that the loss of weight of a body immersed in
water is equal to the weight of the volume of water dis-
placed. The third experiment proved that the lateral and
the vertical pressure of water are equal.
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