NOTES IN SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. Photographs in Natural Colors.— | The announcement is again made that a process has been discovered for taking photographs possessing all the brilliancy and delicacy of the natural colors, and an exhibition of pictures thus naturally colored has just been held in London. According to the reports, the colors are produced by the action of light alone in the camera, and owe nothing whatever to the artist's brush. In the photographs exhibited, the coloring appeared to be quite true to nature, and delicate tones and shades were clear to the view. The flesh tint was exact to life, and full justice was done to gorgeous regimentals. The protruded tongue of a dog in one of the photographs possessed the exact color of nature. Some of the guests, says the English Mechanic, inspecting this collection, and not fully acquainted with the character of the latest invention, took it for granted that the work was done by skillful, artistic hands on ivory and other material, and could scarcely believe their eyes when informed that the color, as much as the form and outline, was produced by the light of day. Careful investigation, however, would then show that human handicraft was not in it; for there were touches and effects which Nature's pencil of light could alone accomplish. The contention is that photographs colored by artists, however clever, must be more or less "monotonous, hard, untrue to Nature, and to the originals." The process was discovered, it is said, by a French scientist, but has since undergone improvement by the proprietor of the process in England. If the new system proves an unqualified success, the reward will not have been reaped without much labor in the past, for numerous attempts have been made to induce the sun-pencil to fix colors in the picture it draws in the camera; but chemical and mechanical difficulties have stood in the way. In the new process colors are said not only to be faithfully produced, but protected from the action of light by being passed through a boiling solution, of which gelatine forms the principal ingredient, and that some of the photographs so treated have been exposed for months to the sun without being in anywise affected by the ordeal. Unfortunately the process is yet unknown, as it is likely to be for some time to come.-Manufacturer and Builder. New Compressed Air LocomoTIVES. In the last number of the Swedish Fernsköntoret, it is stated that a new compressed air locomotive has been invented and patented by R. Akerman, of Motala, Sweden. It is said that it will run twelve miles without requiring replenishing, and draw three loaded tram cars at a speed which can be easily regulated. At an experimental trial, which took place at Stockholm a short time ago, the engine was started with a pressure of 900 lbs. to the inch in the reservoir, and when stopped in three-quarters of an hour's time, 600 lbs. pressure remained. The revolutions per minute were 112. and the total number of revolutions made was 4,960, which, if the engine had been running on a road, would have been equal to over eight miles traversed. This engine seems to outdo the one invented by Colonel Beaumont, with which, however, satisfactory results have also been obtained. Faculty of Place in Birds and INSECTS.-The wonderful accuracy with which the carrier-pigeon determines the direction of its distant home has long been a subject of remark. It is evident that they can not be guided by remembrance, for they will return directly from places never visited by them before. Mr. J. H. Fabre has suggested that there is an undefined (?) faculty, a kind of topographical sense, which enables certain birds and insects to find their way. This faculty is very well developed in certain insects. The sand-wasp, for example, boring its mine until a late hour of the day, closes the opening with a stone and then goes away to a distance, but the next day it can find its home again. Bembex also, one of the hymenopterous insects, which burrows in the sand, possesses the same faculty. Mr. Fabre has conducted a series of experiments with certain insects, in order to test their intuition in this regard. A number of female moths were marked for identification, inclosed in a box, and carried some distance from their nests. When released, they all went directly toward their nests. In another experiment, they were kept in the box all night, and released in the street of a town where they certainly had never been before. Each moth rose vertically, and directed its flight toward the south, where the nests were. Mr. Fabre, however, asserts that this peculiar sense of locality is totally absent in man, or that man has nothing analogous to it. This is a mistake, for on the contrary this faculty exists in man, although comparatively in an undeveloped condition, owing to the predominance of other and higher faculties. The woodsman, the hunter, the trapper, and the Indian certainly can find their way through pathless forests, where their more civilized fellows would surely be lost. Cold vs. Magnetism.—A recent investigation, conducted in the physical laboratory of Harvard University, has led to the discovery of the remarkable fact that intense cold can deprive magnetized steel bars of nearly all the magnetism which may have been imparted to them. The intense colu was produced by solid carbonic acid. This fact has an important bearing upon observations of the magnetic condition of the earth taken in high latitudes; for what appear to 1881.] NOTES IN SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. be daily and yearly changes in the earth's magnetism may be due in large part to conditions of temperature which affect the magnets used in the observations. It also must be concluded that the molecular condition of steel is changed by great cold.- Boston Advertiser. The Apricot.-A correspondent of the American Farmer-Mr. John Saul, the wellknown florist of Washington-thus warmly and intelligently discusses this cousin of the peach: "One of the most delicious fruits in cultivation is the Apricot, yet we find it in this latitude but little grown, and when cultivated, with very indifferent success. Before venturing a remark on its cultivation, let us inquire where it comes from, trace it to its native habits, and we shall then more likely find out its requirements. It is native of Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and other countries having a warm, arid climate. In those countries we read of the Apricot growing freely and bearing profusely, quite as free as any of our ordinary fruits-the apple, peach, etc. It follows, that to cultivate this fruit successfully it must have a climate similar to its native home. Along the shores of the Mediterranean it succeeds well, but as we go north, success diminishes until we reach, say, the center of France, where it is still to be found as an orchard tree, but not with the success met on the shores of the Mediterranean. If an orchard is examined we shall find dead branches and occasionally dead trees, though not to as great an extent as in this country. Passing further on till we reach the latitude of Paris, when there we find it grown on walls, under glass, and requiring protection; likewise in Great Britain, though in the south of England, as in the vicinity of Paris, some of the hardier varieties will perfect their fruit as standards. apricot succeeds well in South Africa, Australia, Southern California, New Mexico, etc. -all dry, warm climates. Need we be surprised when transplanted to the rich, moist alluvial soils of our valleys, that it soon catches the prevailing disease-chills? True, it may not show it in the same way as man, yet it is evident to any person going into an orchard in such localities and seeing the yellow appearance of the trees, gummed and dead branches-dead trees. The "It follows from the foregoing that to grow apricots successfully, a dry, sandy, warm soil, not over rich, nor yet the reverse, but moderate, is necessary. Occasionally we find trees in our city yards doing finely. Let us examine, and try and ascertain to what success is due. The trees had been planted close to the house, well sheltered, the roots most likely rooting close to the wall or perhaps under a brick pavement-dry and warm -approaching in a measure the conditions of their arid, sunny home, with just sufficient warm soil to nourish them. In such positions the tree will grow vigorously, continue healthy and bear abundantly. I have seen 323 many such trees in this city, and have seen them farther north-in the State of New York--in just such positions breaking down with the weight of their golden fruit. It follows from what I have written I attach more importance to having the roots in a dry, warm position, than I do to the position of the tops, though the latter should have all the benefits of our warm suns, and will be all the better if well sheltered." CAPTAIN CORN. CAPTAIN CORN, in the garden, Straight and strong and tall, With silken plume and bright green cloak, He really cuts a dash; But when he marries Lima Bean, -Harper's Young People. Introduction of Wheat into AMERICA. Prior to the discovery of this continent by Columbus, there was no cereal in America approaching in nature the wheat plant. It was not until 1530 that wheat found its way into Mexico, and then only by chance. A slave of Cortez found a few grains of wheat in a parcel of rice and showed them to his master, who ordered them to be planted. The result showed that wheat would thrive on Mexican soil, and to-day one of the finest wheat valleys in the world is near the Mexican capital. From Mexico the cereal found its way to Peru. Maria D'Escobar, wife of Don Diego de Chauves, carried a few grains to Lima which were planted, the entire product being used for seed for several successive crops. At Quito, in Equador, a monk of the order of St. Francis, by the name of Fray Iodosi Rixi, introduced the new cereal; and it is said that the jar which contained the seeds planted is still preserved by the monks of Quito. Wheat was introduced into the present limits of the United States, contemporaneously with the settlement of our country by the English and Dutch. FOWLER & WELLS, Proprietors. H. S. DRAYTON, A.M., Editor. N. SIZER, Associate. NEW YORK, JUNE, 1881. THE FOSSILS IN MENTAL SCIENCE. HE idea of purpose implies limitation, but that does not lead necessarily to fatuity, else everything in the universe of matter and mind, being part of some wondrous plan, must be regarded as bound "fast in fate." With some thinkers the fact of organization appears to be allied to fatuity, and they are, therefore, very reluctant to accept the principle that it is the function of the brain in man to express mind. They feel compelled to admit the evidences of nervous structure so far as they relate brain to some peculiar and elevated sphere of action, but to admit that it is the sphere of intellection, reflection, judgment, concerning matters of moral as well as of physical import in human life, is, in their opinion, to rob mind of its dignity as the highest and noblest attribute of man; to degrade into a commonplace function a quality almost divine. Science, with such thinkers, has to do with external nature only; when its Argus-eyes are turned to the scrutiny of mental phenomena it assumes a haughty, defiant, and even impious part, and becomes "false science." When they are told that it is at least as much our right and duty to examine the laws of human being as to investigate the properties of the soil or the relations of the planets, they reply, Possibly, but not in the same way, or by the application of principles which have been derived from the investigation of matter. When it is claimed that the laws of vital growth and chemical change are the same throughout nature, they fearfully protest against their adaptation to man, for to attempt to show a parallel between the development of the tissues of his body and those of a dog's is little short of sacrilege. Yet, these elevated sophists devise schemes of mental philosophy in which they set forth at much laborious length various qualities, functions, and conditions as belonging to mind, and specify certain modes of action for it with dogmatic positiveness. They fly from one horn of their own dilemma to impale themselves upon the other; for while rejecting a calm and logical analysis of mental phenomena, they abandon themselves to vague, indeterminate, and hollow speculation-turning from what is tangible and self-evident to pursue airy phantoms. No thinker, from Democritus to Stewart, produced anything worthy of preservation which was not founded upon definite phenomena. The sophists of Greece, the schoolmen of Alexandria and the Middle Ages reason volubly and often charmingly upon assumed premises, but their reasoning becomes platitude and balderdash when exposed to the keen logic of induction. It seems wonderful to us that in the brilliant light of our era there should be well-educated, even learned men, who are willing to appear as a surviving remnant of an order of thought belonging 1881.] THE LATE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. to antiquity; but so it is. Perhaps they have a mission in the age which is so much beyond them. Perhaps they help to prevent a too rapid movement of science and philosophy, and so contribute to making them definite and certain in their results. If so, let them live and air their doubts and fears; the Truth they can not harm. ONE THE LATE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. NE of the most brilliant masters of political science since the days of Richelieu, died at his residence in London on the 19th of April last. His ca reer forms a piece of biographical history which is hardly surpassed in romantic interest by any tale of mediæval caliph. A novelist of the ideal type, ardent and ambitious, he was at the same time a political leader of the shrewdest and most sagacious order. On the one side, delicately sentimental and imaginative; on the other, politic, practical, audacious. This man, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, was born of Hebrew lineage, in London, December 21, 1805. His father, Isaac Disraeli, won an eminent place as an author,his well-known works entitled, "Curiosities of Literature," and"Amenities of Literature,"being found in all well-furnished libraries. Benjamin, it may therefore be said, inherited his inclination to literature, and this inclination was so strong that it drew him aside 325 from the pursuit of law, for which he had been intended by his father. Travel, writing, and politics occupied his time. from 1824 until 1837, when he secured the great object of his ambition-a seat in the House of Commons. The ludicrous failure of his first speech before that body has been often quoted, and also the prediction he then angrily cast in the teeth of the jeering auditors." The time will come when you will hear me." Two years later he delivered a speech which was listened to with respect and approval. THE LATE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. In 1839 he married Mrs. Wyndham Lewis, a lady of wealth and high culture, whose devotion to his fortunes contributed greatly to his advancement in parliamentary influence. By 1848 he had acquired the distinguished place of leader of the Conservatives in the House, and was regarded the champion of the landed interest and even of the Church, especially the High Church party. In 1852 he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Derby ministry, but went out of office ere the year was out, on the restoration of Lord Russell to the Premiership. He, however, became Chancellor of the Exchequer again when Lord Derby, in 1858, was reinstated, and again in 1866, after the Government had experienced two changes in its ministry. The parliamentary measures of importance then arrayed Mr. Gladstone as leader of the Liberals against Mr. Disraeli, as the champion of the Conservative or Tory interest, and their opposition was sharp and persistent ever afterward. On Lord Derby's resignation in 1868, Mr. Disraeli became Prime Minister, and held office for two years and a half, when, on the agitated discussion of the disestablishment of the Irish Church, Parliament was dissolved, and the new Parliament contained a strong majority for the Opposition. Mr. Gladstone succeeded him as Premier, and after an administration of about three years, resigned, Mr. Disraeli stepping back into his old place with a strong Conservative support. For about six years he wielded the authority of the Government, but employed it chiefly in diplomatic negotiations with the leading European powers, Turkey being their chief subject. Throughout these negotiations England appeared as the chief ally of the Porte, Mr. Disraeli, now Lord Beaconsfield, clearly showing his sympathy for the Turk. In the Berlin Congress of the chief Powers of Europe, he displayed great skill and sagacity in parading the resources and military pride of England, and restored, as it were, that nation's influence in European councils. As regards the military campaigns in Afghanistan and South Africa, their obscure purposes, great expense, and comparative failures, must remain as dark spots in Beaconsfield's ministry. When the general elections were held in the spring of 1880, and it was expected by the Conservatives that their result would be a triumphant confirmation of the course of the Beaconsfield Administration, they were surprised by utter defeat. At the hustings "the people had arraigned Lord Beaconsfield's Government for six years of inaction at home and menace abroad, and had condemned his policy in the mass as essentially unEnglish in its methods and tendencies." It was in 1876 that the Queen called Mr. Disraeli to the House of Peers by investing him with the insignia and rank of an Earl. He was a man of rare versatility, as exhibited by his being able to write book after book of the imaginative sort, amid the excitements and absorption of political life. Ambitious for preferment, he broke faith with party when his keen sense of opportunity dictated. Yet so boldly and skillfully did he play the game of Fortune that followers and foes could not but admire, while both alike never believed in him. It is said that, "among the Lords or in the Commons he seemed to stand apart from friend and foc, a mysterious figure." Lord Beaconsfield offered to the observer a most interesting physio-mental study. His temperament was a peculiar combination of the mental, motive, and vital elements, a morbid quality of the latter bordering on the lymphatic, imparting the singular livid complexion which impressed every one who saw him. |