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M*x*J5 165^.] TUB EElBtEl, 42&
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A Central Committee of the Institute of ...
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A most remarkable series of Illustration...
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. a " . s a ' !LYEIX'S GEOLOGY. A Manual...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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!Ftft^Ftbb'is I Sometliimg'quitd-Peculia...
CjUBir . KgfRgAi > B » M ace .. " daahedoff . " ( asitbapbrose ^ runs ) ia sketche ^ vsome-r tinwfrgood ^ and eotnethnestquitei-randomy . Tiie * astiiale ^ om ' . "The Length ! of . Hainan * iLife ' * is « n analysis of a very trumpery bookVby Flocbbns , which has excited attention in Paris ( not among scientific men ) by its attempt to prove that , every man . ought to . live a century , and that only in his eighty-fifth' year does he properly enter upon old -age .- The only good passage * in Fx-oubens . is given ! by the- . writer .. Buffqn had * investigated the subject and came to this conclusion : — " The total duration of life may : < be'estimatedto . ascertain degree by that of the diixation of , an animaL ' s growths . . . . Man increaaea ; in . height up , to his sixteenth or eighteenth year , and yet the full development in jaize of all the parts of Ilia : body is not completed till the thirtieth , year . The dog attains its full length in . one year , and only in the second year , completes its-growth in bulk or size . Man , who takes thirty years to grow , lives ninety or a , hundred years . The dog , which , grows only ... during , two-or three years ; . lives only .-tan . or-Iwelvef and it is the same with most other animals . "
This , passage contains , the germ , of an idea . which he afterwards . develops more clearly . "The duration of life in the horse , " he says , " as in all other species of animals ,-- , is proportionate to the length of time , during which it grows ... Man , who takes fourteen years to grow , may live six or seven times as long ; that is , to ninetyor-, a < hniidred years . The horse , which , completes its growth in foux years , may live six or seven times as long ; that is , to twenty or thirty years . " And again , " as the stag is five or six years in growing , it . lives also seven , limes five . or . six ; that is , to thirty-five op forty years .. " Flottrssb strikes in at this point :- ^—" I find , " he says , " the true sign of th'e term of animal growth iri the reunion of thift' -bones to their « piphyses . So long as this union does not take place , the animal grows . As soon as the bones are united to their epiphyses , the animal ceases to grow . " In man , this reunion takes place at the . age of twenty years , and he lives ti ninety or a hundred . The following table contains the other data given by M . FBtarens : — Man grows for 20 years , and lives 90 or 100 Thocamel , 8 ... 40 The horse , 5 ... 25 The ox , 4 ... 15 to 20 The lion , 4 ... 20 The doer . 2 ... 10 to 15
The cat , l £ ... 9 or 10 The hare , 1 ... 8 The guinea-pig , 7 months , 6 'br 7 " B ^ -these data'the result of Buflbn- is corrected . All the larger animals live about ' five times longer than they grow , instead of six or seven times , as . inferred by Buffon . Thus , by a physiological ' analogy , the ordinary natural life of a man . is fixed at a hiradred years . Before concluding , let the writer be informed that the notion of a definite quantity of life on our globe , and even the notion . of " organic molecules " wfciohnhypotheticaUy supports it , arenofc * to be dismissed so summarily , " as inconsistent with our positive knowledge . " "Very positive thinkers , MM Robin and Vkrdeit , for example , adopt a modification of . Buffon ' s theary ^ and . of his .-hypothetical molecules . If the writer of the article turn t < y their Chimie Anatomiqueho will see reason to pause ere he again classes Buffon ' s notion among " vain fancies . " "What shall be said to the writer on " Coal" in the Dublin University Magazine ( a place where one meets trash with some astonishment ) , who gravclyundertakes to show that coal not only proves the existence " of a God of Providence , but even of a God of Redemption . " In the same Magazine there is a continuation of the biographical sketches " The Dramatic Writers of Ireland , " and a sketch of "The Life and Writings of Hans it l . a e " " 1 3 ,. 1 :
Uunstian Anaersen . Tait has a pleasant satirical ,. paper . ott-. " GeateeL . Thieves , " purporting to be written by : an . old shopkeeper ; and iBcntley has an article on "Haalitt . ' Wtthithis we ninsfci close our Magazinio survey . |
M*X*J5 165^.] Tub Eelbtel, 42&
M * x * J 5 165 ^ . ] TUB EElBtEl , 42 &
A Central Committee Of The Institute Of ...
A Central Committee of the Institute of France held a special meeting on Tuesday last , to draw up a protest against the Imperial decree , which degrades that illustrious Corps sumaut to tho condition of a dependency of thai . Ministry of Public Instruction . The protest formally declares the dooreo-to h & inexecutable , ct attcntatoirc aux privileges de VInstiiut . It is not the adjunction . of . a . fifth section of non -elected creatures of ithe , Government thaA constitutes the gravest objection to the decree , it > is the masked attack o € i a < joalouai and > stealthy despotism' , which throws a network of quasilegialfttive enactments and of irresponsible decrees over all . that remains of right and . freedom . According / to . this decree , 1 ; The- Government , and not tho Institute , proposes tho subjects for pi'izesi 2 . Tho Government , and not tho Institute , regulates the admissions to the public stances . 3 . Tho Government nominates the employe s of tho Institute . 4 . Tho Government composes one-half of the commissions charged with awarding prizes in tho name of the Institute . . 5 . In short , tho Institute becomes a simple appendage to tho Ministry of Public Instruction , and loses its distinctive character , its individual existence . ( . fa vic . proprc ) , its liberty , its dignity . Th * . consequences of this invasion are so patent , that even men like MM . Ctt * A « r , E 8 Tnorx . ONoandDuri ? f are constrained to voto with their colleagues Only , one has been found to approve tho decree , and , his naino desorves to bw i iiiERitr iuiUw 11 9 . ,
mu «»« u « u—xxMjftuuH : UER , ijuizoT , and Uousiwt , load * ha » opposition >{ and though it has been apprehended that tho Government
may > deem it prudent : to . pjcoppse some compromise , it . is ., ta be hoped that .. the ; resistance , which , has far / greater importance . than ; some of . oucareadera ? . may be inolined i to suppose ; will be rigorously sustained ; At the introduction of the new Academicians , par brevet , the other day , - there were Jive members of the Institute present , who did not even raise- "; their eyes upon the- interlopers . It is worth adding that M . Fobtoul ,-, Minister of rPublic Instruction , and author of the decree , is known as one of- , the sorriest of political renegades . At the beginning of his public career ' he disgraced republican , opinions by his violence and exaggeration , but his chief notoriety was that of a . farceur . He it was who , after writing a coit . elusive article in an architectural review , in favour of preserving the Pantheon , signed it away to the Jesuits by his first decree after , the coup d ' etat .- , His faith in . the Empire may be judged ibom the remark . he . onoe made upon his own hopeful ' childyAh ! il verra passer bien de » gouvernements !
A Most Remarkable Series Of Illustration...
A most remarkable series of Illustrations has just been commenced ;; a monograph of the ** Ferns of Great Britain . " * It is a truly unique w ork ^ comprising in itself two kinds of novelty ; it is printed after the process called ' Nature-printing , which has been carried out in the Imperial Press of "Vienna . The nature of the process is not explained , but it consists in some way of taking . ; the impress of the plants themselves so that they appear to constitute a kind : of model of the plant compressed upon paper . In this way , although the process fails to catch some of the minuter characteristics , it forms an exact " transcript of the leaves , their shape , the veins , indentations , & c , by which ' the botanist immediately recognises . the plant in all its .- delicate varieties . ' . The act of compression , indeed , necessarily alters the aspect of the ori ginal , and gives a certain heaviness and roundness ; yet-the exactness exceeds any- - thing that ordinary painters , even of a skilful grade , can accomplish . It cannot be -said to approach to such living exactness as W ^ EiriAM ^ Hxraray but it would of course be impossible for a Hunt to be engaged in elaborating .-: every specimen in this really wonderful collection of a numerous and obscure - that particularly requires -the tnost patient family fidelity of transcription .
. A " . S A ' !Lyeix's Geology. A Manual...
! LYEIX'S GEOLOGY . A Manual of " Elementary Geology ; or , Changes of the Ancient Earth and its Ihhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments . By Sir Charles L < yell . " Fifth " Edition , greatly enlarged ; Mnrray . This is a very valuable work—a new work more than a new edition—for Sir Charles Lyell is not only the most eminent of our geologists , he is one of the best and most conscientious of writers on his science . He is not content with his laurels . He is not to be seduced . into trading upon his . reputation . But as each successive edition of his work is called for by the public he sets earnestly to the task of making that work the accurate representative of the present state of science . Our differences with Sir Charles on speculative points do not prevent our hearty acknowledgment of his value , and of the superiority of his works . Therefore , while we see the money of the public tempted by so many works professing to be popular , and being for the most part superficial compilations , we cannot resist an emphatic appeal in favour of works like those of Sir Charles , which are popular in every sense of the term , which are as intelligible to beginners as . the most exacting ignorance can demand , and are at the same time thoroughly scientific , and claimd ; he attention of professors . The purchaser of . this Manual will pay little more for it than he would pay for trash' —scarcely so much considering its bulk and its seven hundred and fifty illustrationsand he will have the satisfaction of giving his money for money ' s worth . In running through this fifth edition , enriched as it is with a hundred and forty pages of text * entirely new , not to mention minor corrections and additions , and with two hundred new illustrations , one cannot help being struckwith the enormous accumulation of accurate observation which was necessary before-any one chnpbercould have been written . Think of what " it is to read the pages of the great Stone Book ; to decipher its mysterious ' alphabet , and by the aid of such penetration into the laws of nature as yr & - have already attained ,- , to read the history of our planet millions of years ' before History ( in the ordinary sense ) had even a beginning . Geology is to our planet what History is to our race . To decipher its simplest phenomena we need' tho most accurate knowledge of the mechanical ,, chemical , and ' biological processes now in action : for it is only b y mechanics , chemistry , and biology that we can gain any clue through this labyrinth . If , therefore , we consider what an amount of observation and thought has been requisite to establish the principles of these sciencesj and then reflect on the labour of applying them to Geologyj we approximate to a conception of the vastness of the achievement . For , observe , this Stone Book is in every sense writtenin a dead language . Wo have only surmounted the first difficulty in recognising the fact that its al phabet is tho al p habet of mechanical , chemical , and ' biological laws . When a problem is before us such as the formation- of a rock , the appearance of a "dip or a "fault , " the formation of valleys , or . anything else we need to have explained , it is not enough to settle how it might have occurred , we must- settle how it did occur . The mechanical ' action of running water— -tho action of volcanic eruption — tho action of chemical combination—although shown , by what occurs in our timo , to be-a probable-cause , is not enough . Philosophy demands more than probability . Tho operations of mechanical and chemical laws , however-demonstrable , may have to be ranged under a higher law—they may bo regarded as tho mere accessories of development , instead of the simple and direct ' agencies . To illustrate what we mean it is necessary to refer to somd modern speculations which—especially in Germany—tend , to give a now aspect to Geology . Theodore Scnallor , Jor example , has recently published tho first part T / i « Feme qf Great Britain . ( iVoture-Printed . ) With Doaoriptione by Thtomos Mooro , F . JLS . Edited by JDr . Undloy . Bradbury and Evans .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05051855/page/19/
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