exhibition. Already, in this establishment there are a large number of fruits preserved, both dry and moist. Amongst the dry are, collections of the fruits of the Coniferæ, the Palms, and proteaceae. This department may be made very valuable to the botanist. the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, there is a wide space which, according to the law of planetary distances, ought to contain a planet. Kepler predicted that a planet would be found there, and strange to say, the astronomers of our own times discovered at the beginning of the present There are also to be seen here a few wax mo- century four small planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno dels of plants. The art of the wax modeller and Vesta, occupying the very place in our sysmight be of great use, in such an institution as tem where the anticipated planet ought to have this for securing and rendering permanent, forms been found. After the discovery of the third, that cannot well be transferred to paper or ac- Dr. Olbers suggested the idea that they were curately described. In such subjects the mu- the fragments of a planet that had been burst in seum of the Jardin des Plants is very superior pieces; and considering that they must all have to anything in England; but we may now expect diverged from one point in the original orbit, to find every deficieney supplied. As no country and ought to return to the opposite point, he in the world has so great an opportunity as our examined these parts of the heavens, and thus own, of heaping together vegetable treasures, we dicovered the planet Vesta. But though this may now expect to see the Museum at Kew une-principle was in the possession of astronomers, qualled for the extent and variety of its objects. Athenæum. RECENT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. In Dr. Brewster's address before the British Association, last month, we find the following notice of recent discoveries in Astronomy. It will be seen that we owe to a Pennsylvanian the discovery of an additional law of our solar sys tem. nearly forty years élapsed before any other planetary fragment was discovered. At last, in 1845, Mr. Hencke, of Driessen, in Prussia, discovered the fragment called Astræa, and in 1847, anothcalled Hebe. er, In the same year our countryman, Mr. Hind, discovered other two, Iris and Flora. In 1848 Mr. Graham, an Irish astronomer, discovered a ninth fragment called Metis. In 1849 Mr. Gasparis of Naples, discovered last two months, the same astronomer has disanother, which he calls Hygeia; and within the covered the eleventh fragment, to which he has Astronomy, though sprung from the earth, given the name of Parthenope. If these eleven seeks and finds, like Astræa, a more congenial small planets are really the remains of a larger sphere above. Whatever cheers and enlivens one, the size of the original planet must have our terrestrial paradise is derived from the orbs been considerable. What its size was, would around us. Without the light or heat of our seem to be a problem beyond the grasp of reasun, and without the uniform movements of our son. But human genius has been permitted to system, we should have neither climates nor triumph over greater difficulties. The planet seasons. Darkness would blind, and famine Neptune was discovered before a ray of its light destroy, everything that lives. Without influ- had entered the human eye; and by a law of ences from above, our ships would drift upon the the solar system just discovered, we can deterocean, the sport of wind and wave, and would mine the original magnitude of the broken plahave less security for reaching their destination net long after it has been shivered into fragments, than balloons floating in the air and subject to and we might have determined it even after a the caprice of the elements. But while the single fragment had proved its existence. This study of Astronomy is essential to the very ex-law we owe to Mr. Daniel Kirkwood, of Pottsistence of social life, it is instinct with moral ville a humble American, who, like the illustrious influences of the highest order. In the study of Kepler, struggled to find something new among our own globe we learn that it has been rent the arithmetical relations of the planetary eleand upheaved by tremendous forces-here sink-ments. Between every two adjacent planets ing into ocean depths, and there rising into gi- there is a point where their attractions are equal. gantic elevations. Even now, Geologists are If we call the distance of this point from the Sun measuring the rise and fall of its elastic crust; the radius of a planet's sphere of attraction, then and men who have no faith in science often Mr. Kirkwood's law is, that in every planet the learn the truth to their cost, when they see the square of the length of its year, reckoned in days, liquid fire rushing upon them from the volca- varies as the cube of the radius of its sphere of no, or stand above the yawning crevice in which attraction. This law has been verified by more the earthquake threatens to overwhelm them. than one American astronomer, and there can Who can say that there is a limit to agencies be no doubt, as one of them expresses it, that it like these? Who could dare to assert that they is at least a physical fact in the mechanism of may not concentrate their yet divided energies, our system. This law requires the existence of and rend in pieces the planet which imprisons a planet between Mars and Jupiter: and it folthem? Within the bounds of our own system, lows from the law that the broken planet must and in the vicinity of our own Earth, between have been a little larger than Mars, or about more or less distinctly in many; but "more fre- For Friends Review. ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS. In re The annual meeting of this Association was held at Short Creek Meeting House, the 3rd of 9th month, and was much larger than at any former period, upwards of 200 Friends being present. A large addition was made to the list of members. 5,000 miles in diameter, and that the length of its day must have been about 57 hours. The American astronomers regard this law as amounting to a demonstration of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace; but we venture to say that this opinion will not be adopted by the astronomers of England. Among the more recent discoveries within the bounds of our own system, I cannot omit to mention those of our distinguished countryman, Mr. Lassels, of Liverpool. By means of a fine 20-feet reflector, constructed by himself, he detected the satellite of Neptune, and more recently an eighth satellite circulating round Saturn-a discovery which was made on the very same day, by Mr. Bond, director of the Observatory of Cambridge, in the United States, Mr. Lassels has still more recently, and under a singularly favourable state of the atmosphere, observed the very minute, but extremely black, shadow of the ring of Saturn upon the body of ANNUAL MEETING OF THE OHIO FREE PRODUCE the planet. He observed the line of shadow to be notched, as it were, and almost broken up into a line of dots: thus indicating mountains upon the plane of the ring-mountains doubtless raised by the same internal forces and answering the same ends as those of our own globe. In passing from our solar system to the frontier of the sidereal universe around us, we traverse a gulf of inconceivable extent. If we represent the radius of the solar system, or of Neptune's orbit (which is 2,900 millions of miles) by a line two miles long, the interval between our system, or the orbit of Neptune, and the nearest fixed star will be greater than the whole circumference of our globe-or equal to a length of 27,600 miles. The parallax of the nearest fixed star being supposed to be one second, its distance from the sun will be nearly 412,370 times the radius of the earth's orbit, or 13,746 times that of Neptune, which is thirty times as far from the sun as the earth. And yet to that distant zone has the genius of man traced the Creator's arm working the wonders of his power, and diffusing the gifts of his love-the heat and the light of suns-the necessary elements of physical and intellectual life. It is by means of the gigantic telescope of Lord Rosse that we have become acquainted with the form and character of those great assemblages of stars which compose the sidereal universe. Drawings and descriptions of the more remarkable of these nebulæ, as resolved by this noble instrument, were communicated by Dr. Robinson to the last meeting of the Association; and it is with peculiar satisfaction that I am able to state that many important discoveries have been made by Lord Rosse and his assistant, Mr. Stoney, during the last year. In many of the nebulæ the peculiarities of structure are very remarkable, and, as Lord Rosse observes, " seem even to indicate the presence of dynamical laws almost within our grasp." The spiral arrangement so strongly developed in some of the nebula is traceable After the regular business of the Association had been attended to, our friend John Candler gave an interesting account of his recent visit to the West India Islands. He admitted that there was depression in them, but attributed it principally to the introduction of the slave grown sugar of Cuba and Brazil into the English market, that introduction being, of course, the effect of an individual consumption of the articles. Our friends Benjamin Seebohm, Nathan C. Hoag, Cornelius Douglass and others who were in attendance, addressed the meeting in words of Christian exhortation and encouragement. It was concluded to appoint a committee of two Friends in each Monthly Meeting within the limits of Ohio Yearly Meeting, to correspond with the Board of Managers, circulate information, encourage the purchase of Free Labour products, ascertain the number of families or heads of families, who give a decided preference for, or use only free productions, and give general attention to the promotion of the concern. From the Annual Report of the Managers, which was read in the Meeting and directed to be published, it appeared they had printed and distributed a large number of Tracts, intended to awaken, in the minds of Friends and others, a more general interest in that practical testimony against slavery, which excludes the use of its productions. The store established in Mount Pleasant, about two years since, for the sale of Free Labour products, continues to afford facilities to those who desire to purchase such goods, and it is believed, has had a salutary influence in promoting the cause. The Managers express their belief that there is a feeling steadily spreading | fires constantly burning in their huts at night, among Friends, that it is not consistent with our assigning that the fires keep away the evil spirits, testimony against slavery to purchase the proceeds to which, in their ignorance, they attribute fever thereof; and the increasing demand for Free La- and ague. Latterly, Europeans have begun to bour goods has induced a number of merchants adopt the same practice, and those who have tried in different places, to keep on hand a small assort-it, assert that they have entire immunity from the tropical fevers to which they were formerly subject. ment. The following Friends were appointed officers of the Association the ensuing year, viz. :— -Secretary, George K. Jenkins; Treasurer, Jonathan Binns; Managers, Ezra Cattell, Cyrus Mendenhall, Ellwood Ratcliff, Sarah E. Jenkins, Parvin Wright, Louis Taber, Eliza Binns and Penrose Hussey. WHY EPIDEMICS RAGE AT NIGHT. R. In the epidemics of the middle ages, fires used to be lighted in the streets for the purification of the air; and in the plague of London, of 1655, fires in the streets were at one time burning incessantly, till extinguished by a violent storm of rain. Latterly trains of gunpowder have been fired and cannon been discharged, for the same object. But it is obvious that these measures, although sound in principle, must necessarily, out of doors, be on too small a scale as measured It was one night that four thousand perished against an ocean of atmospheric air, to produce in the plague of London of 1655. It was at any sensible effect. Within doors, however, the night that the army of Sennacherib was destroy-case is different. It is quite possible to produce ed. Both in England and on the continent a large proportion of cholera cases in its several forms, have been observed to have occurred between one and two o'clock in the morning. The "danger of exposure to the night air" has been a theme of physicians from time immemorial; but it is remarkable that they have never yet called in the aid of chemistry to account for the fact. heat in a room to produce rarification and consequent dilution of any malignant gases it may contain, and it is of course the air of the room, and that alone, at night, which comes into immediate contact with the lungs of a person asleep. · Westminister Review. SIR ROBERT PEEL. It is at night that the streams of air nearest A correspondent of the Times furnishes to the ground must always be the most charged that journal an abstract of the testamentary diswith the particles of animalized matter given positions made by Sir Robert Peel. They conout from the skin, and deleterious gases, such assist of a will dated the 8th of March, 1842, excarbonic acid gas, the product of respiration, and sulphureted hydrogen, the product of the sewers. tending over more than fifty sheets of briefpaper, and of three codicils, dated in 1842, 1844, and March, 1849. The dispositions of the property are the usual ones for entailing on the eldest living branch of his family great landed estates, and for dividing equally among the junior branches, the remainder of his property already personalty or to be converted into it by the trustees. The first codicil, in very great detail, gives a great number of legacies to his stewards and servants; generally proportioning them in amount to the length of service. The last codicil relates solely to Sir Robert Peel's "literary possessions," and is framed to this effect In the day, gases and vapourous substances of all kinds rise in the air by the rarification of heat; at night when the rarefaction leaves them, they fall by an increase of gravity, if imperfectly mixed with the atmosphere, while the gases evolved during the night instead of ascending, remain at nearly the same level. It is known that carbonic acid gas, at a low temperature, partakes so nearly of the nature of a fluid, that it may be poured out of one vessel into another; it rises at the temperature at which it is inhaled from the lungs, but its tendency is towards the He bequeaths all his manuscripts and corresfloor, or the bed of the sleeper, in cold and un-pondence, which he states he presumes to be of ventilated rooms. At Hamburg, the alarm of cholera at night, in some parts of the city was so great, that on some occasions many refused to go to bed, lest they should be attacked unawares in their sleep. Sitting up, they probably kept their stoves or open fires burning for the sake of warmth, and that warmth giving the expansion to any deleterious gases present, which would best promote their escape and promote their dilution in the atmosphere, the means of safety were unconsciously assured. At Sierra Leone the natives have a practice in the sickly season, of keeping great value, as showing the character of great men of his age, unto Lord Mahon and Mr. Cardwell, with the fullest power to destroy such as they think fit; and he directs that his correspondence with her majesty and her consort shall not be published during their lives without their express consent first had and obtained; for them (the trustees) to make arrangements for the safe custody and for the publication of such of them as they may think fit, and to give all or any of them to public institutions; and the codicil contains general directions for the custody of such as shall not be disposed of in such manner. Be upon trust, to invest and to apply the income, and the principal if required, in the execution of his wishes; as also a recompense to each for their trouble and pains. queaths to Lord Mahon and Mr. Cardwell 1,0007. | the discovery of what may be called vast storehouses of contemporaneous records, wonderfully preserved, and as wonderfully deciphered, which so far as they have yet been arranged, tend to prove the accuracy of the historical statements found in belief in various and subtle forms been more agHoly Writ. Perhaps at no former period has un Probate of the documents was passed; and the duty paid was for personal assets under 500,0007. -Living Age. FRIENDS' REVIEW. PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH 12, 1850. The discovery, among the ruined palaces of Nineveh, of a chamber filled with ancient records, and apparently one of those places of deposit for the archives of the Assyrian empire which the prophet Ezra calls "the house of the Rolls," is noticed on another page, and is an incident which not only excites our curiosity, but may well promote profitable reflection. The evidences of the authenticity and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures are usually divided into two classes, the internal and the external. Besides the undesigned coincidences and the peculiarities of style which will be noticed by the scholar, the most remarkable of the internal proofs are the purity of the moral sentiment, and, above all, the wonderful adaptation of the truths revealed, to the needs of a fallen race. The believer who has been favored to have these essential truths opened to his understanding by the immediate influence of the Spirit through which the Scriptures were given forth, can not but feel that to him has been vouchsafed the highest and most satisfactory evidence of their divine authority. Yet such an enlightened and humble inquirer will be the least likely to despise or undervalue the external evidences, as miracles, the fulfilment of prophecy, and the accuracy of historical details. Abundant as is this evidence, there have been found in every age of the church some who have sought to invalidate its force; and it is not to be questioned that the acute and laborious writers who have so often refuted the free thinker, by collecting and arranging these proofs, have done good service to the cause of religion. Cotemporary evidence of the truth of a narrative must always be regarded as the most satisfactory; and as we recede from the period to which the historical statements refer, the difficulty of substantiating them must increase. But the Bible carries us back to a period far antecedent to any published records, and infidels have not failed to avail themselves of this fact to give a semblance of probability to their objections. In this view, for the Christian, it is not merely a subject of rejoicing, but it should be one of humble thankfulness to the Disposer of all things, that the researches of modern inquirers have been guided to gressive; and never before could the task of deciphering these records of antiquity have been so well accomplished as in our times, when a knowledge of the living dialects of almost every known region of the earth has been added to the accumulated learning of the past. Surely, then, we may be lieve it to have been in the ordering of Divine Providence that the discoveries of Belzoni and Layard have brought to light great masses of contemporaneous evidence to the authenticity and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, when most needed to refute the cavils of the unbeliever, and when a Champolion, a Young and a Rawlinson were prepared to read the handwriting upon these mysterious scrolls. As the season returns when our cities are again crowded, we are reminded of the number of young Friends who resort to them from their more secluded homes in the country. Some come to be placed as apprentices; some are on their way to boarding schools, and there are generally in this city a small number of our members who spend the winter in attendance upon the medical lectures. To those who are familiar with the incidents of a city life, it is hardly necessary to speak of the manifold temptations to which it subjects the young, and especially those who are separated from the restraints of home. But we have thought it might be useful to submit to our friends residing in more retired situations a few hints on this subject. As to the expediency of sending the sons of Friends to large cities to be placed in business, we would suggest to parents that they carefully weigh the subject in reference to the most important result its bearing upon the morals of their children. Let them consider the entire change of pursuits, in many cases the frequent intervals of leisure, and at other seasons the exposure to late hours; the influence of novelty upon the youthful mind, and the untold seductions to which they subject their sons. If after reflecting upon the trial of the principles and firmness of youth which the change involves, they still incline to dismiss a son from the paternal roof, let them first be assured that they have secured for him the kind and watchful care of a Friend in whom they can confide, and under whose roof he can reside. To send him under less favorable circumstances may involve results of which it is painful to think. To those who may visit our cities on their way to school, or to attend lectures, we would, from some knowledge of the exposure to which such young persons are liable, earnestly recommend that they endeavour before leaving home to correspond with some respectable Friends through whose agency a suitable boarding house may be secured; or if this be not practicable, that they take great care to bring letters of introduction to such members of our religious society, and embrace the first opportunity of presenting them. This course will not only prevent much needless exposure, but may be the means of introducing them to agreeable and improving associations, from which they might otherwise be debarred. Those of our young Friends who adhere to their plain dress and are careful to attend meetings, will by these circumstances it is hoped be brought under the notice of their fellow members. There is reason to believe that much good has often been done by kind attention to such as appear to be strangers. Christianity inculcates the duty of watching over each other for good, and our own religious organization-may none of its stakes be removed or its cords be broken -affords peculiar facilities for the discharge of this obligation. DIED-Near Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio, on the 1st of 8th mo., 1849, of Cholera, after a brief illness, ANNE S., wife of Isaac Evans. She was mercifully enabled to feel a humble trust that her peace was made with her Redeemer. At the same place, on the 9th of 8th mo. last, after an illness of eight days, ANN E., wife of William G. Kinsey, and daughter of Thomas Evans: their infant son, Benjamin E., having deceased a few days previously. BORAX LAGOONS OF TUSCANY. with sulphur. Far and near the earth is covered, with glittering crystallisations of various minerals, while the soil beneath is composed of black marl, streaked with chalk, which at a distance, imparts to it the appearance of variegated marble. As you proceed, you are stunned by the noise of constant explosions, which remind you that you are traversing the interior of a mighty crater, which in past ages was perhaps filled with a flood of liquid fire. * Borax was first brought to Europe, through India from Tibet, where it is found in a mountainous region, resembling in character the district of Tuscany we have described. If we except some doubtful specimens, said to have been discovered in coal-pits in Saxony, we may assert that the mineral is found nowhere else in Europe, or that the territories of the Grand Duke enjoy the growth of the manufacturing system, is coma natural monopoly of the article, which, with ing more and more into use every day, especially in France. In former times, when the value of the lagoons was not understood, the hollows and gorges in the mountains where they are situated were regarded by the superstitious peasantry as the entrance to hell. Experience taught them that it was in many respects a region of death. Whatever living thing fell into the lagoons inevitably perished, for the devouring acid almost in a moment separated the flesh from the bone. Cattle were frequently thus lost, and the peasants themselves or their children sometimes encountered a similar fate. A celebrated chemist, engaged in making experiments on the impreg nated water, accidentally fell into a lagoon which he himself had caused to be excavated, and perished immediately, leaving a wife and several children in indigence. For many ages no use was made of the boracic acid, and the whole district containing it-altogether about thirty miles in length-was dreaded and shunned by the inhabitants. Many inducements were vainly held out to the peasantry to cultivate the lands in the neighbourhood, which might generally be obtained for nothing. From time to time a few adventurous families would take up their residence near Monte Cerboli, and bring a few fields into cultivation, leaving however, more than nine-tenths of the land fallow. About the middle of the last century, Hoefer, who is described as apothecary to the Grand Duke, first detected the presence of boracic acid There is some confusion of terms and some inaccu In a mountainous district of Tuscany, lying about twenty miles west of Sienna, are situated the extraordinary lagoons from which borax is obtained. Nothing can be more desolate than the aspect of the whole surrounding country. The mountains, bare and bleak, appear to be perpetually immersed in clouds of sulphurous vapour, which sometimes ascend in wreathed or twisted columns, and at other times are beaten down by the winds, and dispersed in heavy masses through racy in this statement. The Borax of commerce is a the glens and hollows. Here and there water- combination of Boracic acid with soda. This salt is springs, in a state of boiling heat, and incessant- and is brought to Europe to be refined. It is the found in India, and also in Peru, in an impure state, ly emitting smoke and vapour, burst with im- Boracic acid of which Tuscany has the monopoly. mense noise from the earth, which burns and The acid when obtained as described in this interesting shakes beneath your feet. The heat of the at-article, is mostly, we believe, shipped to other Euromosphere in the vicinity of the lagoons is almost intolerable, especially when the wind blows about you the fiery vapour, deeply impregnated pean countries or to America, where it is combined with the soda to make the borax, which is largely used in the arts, by workers in iron and copper as a flux to assist the process of welding, and for other purposes. |