, 1876-08-19

agi-uHizsgat isrs-.7'.r t' "a
those Of Western and Southern Asia and
Northern Africa. and tuw aboriginal
Tongues of the tIbvs bordering upon the
States and Canada, the speech of each
tribe Of the millions Of the humun iNcr
va, an unknOwn unl ballmruuS tongue
to other nations; now, through tlr ln'
bnriol, research of missionaries, and Ia
meet the cVigcnCjrS OF trade and com.
niece, the various languages have nearly
all bcrn reduced to gmmma'icaI form,
and ly lrXirous nnIoIdcd to those who
would learn them. All nations can now
have recourse with each other Never
in all the centuries have the nations "t
the earth been so well acquainted M
during this centu,y,
SCIENCES.
Scientific investigation has made
greater advances than in all the pre-
vous agps-mOrc wonderful discoveries
made, and more in number, and sciences
reduced to system and order OF scicn
tific discoveries within century, we
enumelatc some of the chief under their
proper heads.
ASTRONOMY
At the beginning Of the century. the
knowledge of the solar system WIS con
fined to the sun, of which little was
known, the four inner planets ard the
two greater outer planets, Jupiter and
hls four satellites, and Saturn and six of
his satellites; the great discovery OF the
seventh planet by llctschcl marked the
beginning of lha century, soon followed
by the asteroids; now increased to 1885,
and the eighth planet, or Neptune, by
mathematical induction alone, in lSA6,
by two independent calculators, Leverrl-
el and Adams; the distance obtained OF
several Of the fixed stars, and the nature
of comets asccrtained, and the orbits ol
many OF them calculated; the nature of
the sun, and the substance composing 1t
ascertained by means OF the telescope
and spcc,roscope; the wonderful facts
revealed ot double, treble, quadrupIe,
and sextuple stars forming one system;
systpms, indeed, Of many suns and clus-
tiers of thousands of suns forming one
system have been the discoveries of the
last half OF this century. More Of the
wonders of the universe have been
brought before the vision OF man, and
within the range OF his calculation within
this century than in all the preceding
centuries. Tie youth in his teens IN
1876 may know more of the starry heav-
ems than all that the profoundest suges
could know previous to 177G.
ELECTRICITY.
At tue beginning of the century, little
more was known OF this great physical
fnrce than that n few curious expert.
ments upon amber subjected to friction
were known to the ancients. The two
states OF electricity had been made
known Du Fay. The Leyden jar had
been invented, and just before its COM
menccment, the discovery OF Dr. Frank
lin Chat Lightning is an electrical phe-
nomenon) had become known. The dis.
coycries of Galvani, that still bear his
name, were first published in 1901 and Of
Volta in 1900. These discoveries, fol.
lowed by those Of Davy, Oerstead, Far.
raday, Henry and Morse, opened up one
OF the greatest fields of discovery in
science and art. The application Of this
great force to chemical analysis, as
medical ageht, in plating and gliding, in
elcctrotypihg, and, most wonderful Of
all, in telegFaphy, by which, in mo.
ment Of time, messages can be sent from
continent to contineht--all, indeed, that
is known OF one OF the greatest forces Of
the universe, except few amusing phe'
nomena, has been the discovery Of this
century, and by tar the greater part of
the last half,
The same remark holds true in respect
to the discoveries in the forces of light,
heat, magnetism, nerve.vital force, GER
ebral action, and their CONNECTION with
A. N 1, ,,,, &c l;t., ond nf mind