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of the same metal; and many articles are either entirely of iron, or of iron partially, and superficially coated with tin. Zinc, and copper, and antimony, and lead, and tin, are component parts of his pewter and brazen utensils. Quicksilver is a main ingredient in the metallic coating of his humble mirror; cobalt and platina, and metals perhaps more rare and costly than these, as chrome, are employed in the glazing of his drinking cups and jugs. So that of the whole number of metals made use of by society at large, for common purposes, more than half of them are either directly used by the mere peasant, or enter into the composition of the furniture and implements employed by him. -Professor Kidd.

THE FORCE OF CONSCIENCE.

THE following remarkable instance of the force of conscience occurred a few days since in the neighbourhood of London. A lady, about thirty-eight years of age, elegantly dressed, entered the shop of Mr. --, a respectable pastry-cook, in a state of great mental excitement, and inquired if Mr. were still alive. On being answered in the affirmative, she, in the most earnest manner, begged to see him. Being engaged in superintending the making of some confectionary, he begged to be excused, and referred her to his daughter, who, he said, would wait upon her. The daughter immediately withdrew with her into the parlour; when, after sitting a few moments in silence, she burst into a flood of tears. When she became more composed, she stated, that upwards of twenty years since, she had been a boarder at a highly respectable boarding-school in that neighbourhood, which school Mr.- had for nearly forty years supplied with pastry, &c.; and while there, she had been in the habit of abstracting small articles from his tray, unknown to the person who brought it. She had now been married some years, was the mother of six children, and in the possession of every happiness this world could afford; but still the remembrance of her youthful sin had so haunted her conscience, that she was never happy. Her husband, perceiving her unhappiness, had, after many fruitless endeavours, at last got possession of the cause, when he advised her, for the easement of her conscience, to see if Mr. were alive, and to make him or his family a recompence; and as she was going to leave London on the following day, perhaps for ever, she had then

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THE GLORY OF SCRIPTURE.

THEN do we find food for our souls in the word of truth, then do we taste how gracious the Lord is therein, then is the scripture full of refreshment to us, as a spring of living water, when we are taken therein. This is the glory of the scripture, into a blessed view of the glory of Christ that it is the great, the only outward means of representing unto us the glory of Christ: and He is the Sun in the firmament thereof, which only hath light in itself, and communicates it to all other things besides, John i. 9; v. 39; Col. i. 15-19.- Dr.

Owen.

NOTHING USELESS.

AN extensive manufacture is carried on in Leeds, by which old woollen rags are made into new cloth. The rags are subjected to a machine which tears them in pieces, and reduces them nearly to their primitive state of wool: they are then, with a small admixture of new wool, again carded, slubbed, spun, and woven, and made into a cloth; not very strong, but answering very well for paddings, and other purposes of a similar nature. So extensive is this manufacture, that it is said five million pounds weight of woollen rags are yearly exported for Germany and other parts for this purpose.

Philosophers say that "nothing is lost in nature," and it seems nothing is lost in art. Linen rags are converted into paper, and now a use is discovered for woollen rags, by transmuting them into cloth. How ingenious is the skill of man! and how vast the difference betwixt instinct and reason, if not in their nature, certainly in their application.

JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Price d. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five Numbers in a Cover, 3d.

W. TYLER, Printer, 4, Ivy Lane, St. Paul's.

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LANTERN-FLY OF BRAZIL, TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.

Wings brown, powdered with white dots and dark-brown dashes and zigzag lines, with a beautiful peacock-eye on the tip of the under wings; the centre of the eye is light yellowish brown, with a white dot in the middle encircled by brown, and a brown circle surrounds the whole.

ON LUMINOUS INSECTS.

allow it to shine at will. A species of inSHOULD any of our readers, at least on sect allied to our glow-worm, but of which the southern parts of this island, take a sum- both sexes are alike winged, (Pygolampsis mer evening's ramble along lanes with Italica,) is very abundant in Italy; and high mossy banks, and hedges of hawthorn, when numbers are seen glittering like stars sweetbriar, and honeysuckle, where, shroud- flitting about at night through the woods ed in thick foliage, the nightingale is pour- and groves, the effect is said to be extremely ing out her song, he will most probably see beautiful. To return, however, to our the bank here and there studded with living island, we may observe that the glowsparks of fire, and at once recognise them worm is not the only luminous insect which as glow-worms. The glow-worm is the bespangles the dewy lawn: a very common wingless female of a winged beetle, (Lam- species of centipede, (Geophilus electricus,) pyris noctiluca,) which itself is not, as has which resides under clods of earth during been supposed, altogether destitute of the the day, and crawls forth at night, possesses property of giving out light, though in a this luminous property. It is abundant in very trifling degree. The female of this gardens, at least in the neighbourhood of beetle might be mistaken for the larva of London, and the southern counties, and some insect, and is very different in appear- cannot fail to have been observed during ance from its less illuminated but aerial dark, moonless nights, glowing with phos mate. The luinuous property of the glow-phorescent radiance along the garden walks worm is confined to the three last ventral and the grass-plats. An allied species, the segments of the abdomen, which are appa- Geophilus phosphoreus, is a native of rently capable of being withdrawn, so that Asia. the insect can either conceal the light, or

VOL. III.

Europe, however, cannot vie with the

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Fire-Fly, (Elater Noctilucus,) from nature; natural Size. Colour-Chestnut Brown.
the beetle tribe, (Elater noctilucus,) about
an inch in length, and one-third in breadth;
"it gives out its principal light from two
transparent eye-like tubercles, placed upon
the thorax (chest ;) but there are also two
luminous patches concealed under the ely-
tra, (horny wing-cases,) which are not vi-
sible except when the insect is flying, at
which time it appears adorned with four
brilliant gems of the most beautiful golden
blue lustre; in fact, the whole body is full
of light, which shines out between the ab-
dominal segments when stretched. We are
told that the original natives (a race whose
memory even is passing away) were for-
merly accustomed to employ "these living
lamps, which they called Cucuij, instead of
candles, in their evening household occu-
pations. In travelling at night they used
to tie one to each great toe, and in fishing
and hunting required no other flambeau."
Besides this, they were sought for and en-
couraged in houses, and especially sleep-
ing-rooms, as extirpators of gnats, which
constitute a great part of their food. (See
Decades of the New World, by P. Martire,
quoted in Southey's Madoc.) The fire-fly
is common in the inter-tropical regions of
the American continent, as well as the West
Indies. In addition to the E. noctilucus, the
E. ignitus, and several other allied species,
are also luminous. But of all luminous
insects, by far the most transcendent (if
the accounts of writers are to be at all
credited) are some of the Hemipterous
order, and of the genus Fulgora. Of these
the lantern-fly of South America (Fulgora
laternaria) is said to be pre-eminent.
This beautiful insect, of which we give a
sketch from nature, (see page 145,) is, ac-
cording to the measurement of the specimen

before us, more than two inches and a
half in length, with a hollow transparent
projection of the head, seven lines in
length, (some individuals are larger in
both respects,) which is the organ whence
has been said to issue the lamp-like flame.
"Madame Merion," says Kirby, "informs
us that the first discovery which she made
of this property caused her no small alarm.
The Indians had brought her several of
these insects, which by day-light exhibited
no extraordinary appearance, and she en-
closed them in a box until she should have
an opportunity of drawing them, placing it
upon a table in her lodging-room. In the
middle of the night the confined insects
made such a noise as to awake her, and
she opened the box, the inside of which, to
her great astonishment, appeared all in a
blaze: and, in her fright, letting it fall, she
was not less surprised to see each of the
insects apparently on fire. She soon, how-
ever, divined the cause of this unexpected
phenomenon, and re-inclosed her brilliant
guests in their place of confinement.
adds, that the light of one of these Fulgore
is sufficiently bright to read a newspaper
by: and though the tale of her drawing
one of these insects by its own light, is
without foundation, she doubtless might
have done so had she chosen."

She

The Fulgora laternaria is said to be not the only blazing lamp of the genus; China produces one, little its inferior, the F. candelaria, provided with a slender recurved hollow projection from the head, in which resides the luminous matter; and India (see Donovan's Insects of India) produces another, the F. pyrrhorhynchus, having a smaller snout than F. laternaria, of a deep purple hue, with a transparent tip of intense

scarlet; and as these tints will be imparted | have classed it with the metals. It is, howto the transmitted light, the effect produced must, of course, be most splendid and striking.

It must, however, be confessed, notwithstanding Madame Merion's tale, which savours no little of the romantic, that the luminous power of the Fulgore is very hypothetical. In shrillness of voice, and in many of their habits, they resemble the tree crickets; but late observers, who have closely investigated the natural history of these insects, and of the lantern fly of South America, in particular, deny that any luminous property is situated either in the hollow lantern of the head, or in any other part of the body; and affirm that the received account is altogether fabulous. Sieber, a practised entomologist, who took numbers of Fulgore during his stay in the Brazils, (where he continued for several years,) treats the whole as a ridiculous fable; in which statement he is borne out by observers, whose testimony we have personally heard, and who assert that the Indians regard the tale as originating in the mistake of the white men, who, seeing the fire-fly (Elater noctilucus) glancing about like a meteor, have in some unaccountable manner attributed its luminosity to the Fulgora, perhaps because they could conceive no other use for the hollow projection from its head, than that of a lantern. The true nature of the luminous property of insects is not yet fully understood; neither is the use of this singular provision very satisfactorily made out. In the glow-worm it has been conjectured to be a beacon-light to its mate, but this is not a sufficient explanation as it respects other luminous insects, where both sexes are alike lamp-lit. How great a part of our Creator's ways in nature are past finding out! and can we then wonder if mysteries, which bewilder us amidst the mazes of speculation, occur in the revelation of grace?

CHEMISTRY.-No. VII.

M.

SELENIUM, CHLORINE, IODINE, BROMINE,

BORON, FLUORINE, SILICON. BERZELIUS, a native of Sweden, and an eminent chemist, discovered, when examining the products of a copper mine, a new substance, in combination with sulphur and copper, to which he gave the name of selenium. This substance is of a grey colour, and in some respects resembles the metals it is slightly transparent, is insoluble in water, and possesses a metallic lustre, and on this account some chemists

ever, more closely allied to sulphur and phosphorus, in its general properties. It combines with sulphur, chlorine, and carbon, and it may be easily distinguished from all other substances by its peculiar odour, which greatly resembles that of the horse-radish.

CHLORINE may be distinguished by its yellowish green colour, and by its power of destroying all vegetable colours. It may be obtained from marine plants, and was formerly considered an acid, being called oxymuriatic acid, but experiment has proved that oxygen not an element in its composition. Chlorine exists either as a gas, or in combination with water; it occasions suffocation when inspired by animals; is a supporter of combustion, and is of great importance to many manufacturers, particularly the bleacher. When united with hydrogen, it forms muriatic acid, one of the most useful of all the compounds, of which it is a constituent part.

IODINE may be obtained from kelp, or the ashes of sea-weed, and is a substance that bears a near resemblance, in many respects, to chlorine. As a gas, it is distinguished by its violet colour. In its pure state it is poisonous, and, like chlorine, destroys all vegetable colours.

BROMINE, also, has a close resemblance to chlorine; but as it is of no value, either in the arts or as a medical agent, it will be unnecessary that we should describe its properties.

BORON is the base of an article of commerce called borax, frequently employed by manufacturers and physicians. Boron is a dark, opaque, olive-coloured powder, and incapable of fusion. When united with oxygen, it forms boracic acid, which, combined with soda, forms borax.

Many of our readers are probably acquainted with the substance commonly called Derbyshire spar, of which many ornamental and useful things are made. It has been usually called, by chemists, fluate of lime, but recent experiments have proved that it is a fluate of calcium. The base of this compound is a simple substance, designated fluorine. It is of a chocolate colour, a supporter of combustion, and a destroyer of animal life. It cannot be presented in a separate form, and is consequently only known in its combination with other bodies.

There is one other simple substance that remains to be noticed under the present head, called silicon; it is the basis of flint, quartz, and many other compounds. When

combined with oxygen, it forms silica, an earth of great importance in the arts, of which we shall give a full description when we speak of that class of bodies to which it belongs.

THE HISTORY OF BOTANY.

one or two others, till about the sixteenth century, when it was again brought into notice by one Brunfels, a German. Once revived, it continued advancing gradually with little intermission, till the time of Linnè, who began to write about the year 1736, and continued to prosecute the study with the most determined perseverance, till about 1776. His famous work, "Systema Plantarum," and another, "Genera Plantarum," went through many editions after his death, and were finally translated into English. The first clearly demon

which he founded that system h ich has received his name, and which is, with various alterations, almost universally received in the present day. He also materially improved botanical terminology in general, which is universally acknowledged the most difficult part of the study, on which, in a measure, depends the practical application of the whole system. After him, John Thedwig, Professor of Botany at Leipzig, appeared, who arranged the mosses, lichens, ferns, &c., consisting of the lower, though in many cases more beautiful orders of vegetable life, which had been left almost untouched by Linnè. He discovered the fructification and sexual organs of the mosses, in which his predecessor (Linnè) had erred; and completely formed the whole of our present class, cryptogamia.

Ir is only within the few last years, that Botany, considered scientifically, and as a branch of Natural History, has attained to that degree of perfection and beauty which it may now be said to possess. Prior to the time of Linnè, the great Swedish na-strated the sexual nature of plants, on turalist, it could hardly be considered as a science, inasmuch as it possessed few of the requisite qualities, and those only in a slight degree. The ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as the early Britons, were, indeed, acquainted with the names and qualities of many plants and vegetable productions; they knew the difference between a tree, a shrub, and a herb, distinctions which have prevailed in every nation; but they were in want of a regular classification, which would equally extend to, and embrace all, and by which they might readily distinguish particular genera and species (to use modern terms.) Amongst them, plants were generally considered either in a medicinal or domestic point of view; this of necessity very much confined their ideas, for, restrained within such limits, they could only extend to a part, and that a very small part of the vegetable kingdom. The About this time a new era in botanical system itself, therefore, (if system it can be science arose, in the discovery, or rather, called,) was a very imperfect one, and re-application of the natural system; classing quired the alteration which a far more com- plants, not according to the number or situprehensive acquaintance with nature could tion of their stamens and pistils, but accordafford. Perceiving this necessity, the an- ing to their natural affinities. This was cient philosophers, and particularly Aris- first carried into effect in 1759, by Bernard totle, applied themselves to the task; he was de Jussieu, who arranged in this manner all the first who wrote a complete system of Na- the plants in the botanical garden of Tritural History but of all the branches which anon, near Paris; and in 1789, his nephew he treated of, he paid least attention to the Antoine Laurent de Jussieu published his vegetable arrangement, his studies being "Genera Plantarum Secundum Ordines chiefly directed to the animal kingdom, or Naturales Disposita." Since this publicawhat is now called zoology. After him, tion, many improvements have been made Theophrastus, his pupil, and finally, suc- in the system, especially within the few cessor in his school, studied the science, last years, by Robert Brown, Decandolle, and wrote a work, about the year 330, B. C., Professor Lindley, and many others. We in which he gives a description of upwards have now given our readers a brief outline of five hundred plants. The Romans also, of the history of botany, from ancient time about the year 73, B. C., soon after the to the present date; mentioning a few who Mithridatic war, engaged in the study; and have distinguished themselves in the Cato and Varro wrote on it; they did not, science, either by their discoveries or imhowever, bestow a special and undivided at-provements; still, however, we cannot pass tention upon the subject.

In the first century of the christian era, this science began to languish, and remained almost forgotten, except by Apuleius and

over unnoticed that great friend and patron of botanical study, Sir J. E. Smith, whose assiduous and persevering labours have never, perhaps, been excelled, and but

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