ROYAL INSTITUTION AND SOCIETY OF ARTS. 663 



door-way, that it occurs to me as a piece of singular luck that no 

 formidable philosophic apparatus is necessary for a dissertation on the 

 " Slave-Trade of the White Nile," as the space often occupied by Prof. 

 TyndalPs tubs is packed full of chairs, to the great relief of a number 

 of ladies. Sir Samuel Baker delivers his views on the " Slave-Trade" 

 to an evidently sympathetic audience, easily put into good-humor by 

 beinor told that England was the first nation to set the world the 

 noble example of liberating her slaves a statement, by-the-way, not 

 precisely accurate, inasmuch as in 1780 was passed an act for the 

 gradual extinction of slavery in Pennsylvania, an example followed 

 four years later by the States of New Jersey and Connecticut, and in 

 1793 the French abolished slavery in Hayti, forty years before its 

 abolition in our West India colonies. No doubt, to those who had 

 never heard much about slavery, the remarks on its cruelty and injus- 

 tice were interesting enough, but I, infelix, have had my ears too 

 often pierced by shrill American voices, raised to shrieking pitch on 

 this subject, during " the late trouble." Sir Samuel Baker is an ex- 

 cellent advocate for a new crusade against slavery, and produces 

 ample evidence as to the atmosphere of general rascality evolved by 

 slave-holding and slave-dealing, but his arguments, though true enough, 

 are not very new. The lecturer, however, possesses the excellent gift 

 of carrying his audience along with him, and sends them home happy in 

 the conviction that they have assisted at an anti-slavery demonstration. 



The claims of science are amply vindicated on the following 

 Friday by Dr. Wright, an experimentalist of known boldness, who 

 delivers a discourse on the "Chemical Changes accompanying the 

 Smelting of Iron in the Blast-Furnace." Dr. Wright has enjoyed the 

 advantage of pursuing his investigations in concert with Mr. Lowthian 

 Bell, a gentleman well known by his inquiries into the chemistry of 

 the blast-furnace, as well as by his office as President of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, and his gigantic enterprises in the production of iron 

 and chemicals. Although of little interest to the general public, this 

 lecture commands a good attendance of experts, who follow Dr. Wright 

 very attentively through his exposition, and endure, without a mur- 

 mur, an atmosphere heavily charged with noxious gases. 



I have already observed that, in addition to the Friday evening 

 meetings, where lions of the first magnitude roar by turns, several 

 courses of afternoon lectures, in which actual teaching is combined 

 with attractive experiments, are given during the session. These 

 lecturers and their subjects attract audiences of varying strength. 

 Looking in, one afternoon, to hear a lecture on Paleontology by Prof. 

 Duncan, I find the theatre but thinly attended, in spite of the inter- 

 esting character of the lecture, and its eloquent treatment by the 

 expositor. This apathy may perhaps be explained by the difficulty 

 of inspiring ordinary human beings with a taste for science, pure and 

 simple ; as I well recollect that, when at the dawn of the Darwinian 



