MISCELLANY. 



24? 



alone. One, in "West Virginia, is 70 feet high, 

 and 1,000 feet in circumference. They are 

 truncated, and their summits are supposed 

 to have been occupied by edifices proba- 

 bly temples which have disappeared. Lines 

 of artificial embankments remain which en- 

 close from 100 to 400 acres, and evince a 

 considerable degree of geometrical knowl- 

 edge in their plans. Many articles, as vuses, 

 pottery, fragments of cloth, and copper im- 

 plements, have been found in them, indi- 

 cating considerable industrial skill. There 

 is evidence that, since they were built, the 

 rivers have changed their courses, and it is 

 also a significant fact regarding their anti- 

 quity that the human skeletons found with- 

 in them are in a state of decay so advanced 

 that they crumble to pieces as soon as 

 touched. Skeletons found elsewhere, and 

 known to be 2,000 years old, are still com- 

 pact, and comparatively well preserved. An 

 interesting fact in regard to these aborigines 

 is, that they knew something of mining. In 

 the copper-mines of Lake Superior, old ex- 

 cavations for the extraction of the metal, 30 

 feet deep, have been discovered. Mining 

 implements were found in the cavern, and 

 trees 400 or 500 years old (as ascertained by 

 counting their annual rings) stood upon the 

 debris. Prof. Newberry, Geologist of the 

 State of Ohio, informs us that he has found 

 evidence of the ancient working of oil-wells 

 and lead-mines. 



The indications of civilization in Central 

 America, Mexico, and Peru, are still more 

 perfect. The author states that the great 

 Peruvian roads of stone, lime, and cement, 

 25 feet wide, and with a strong wall on each 

 side, and carried over rivers, marshes, and 

 mountains, and as long as both our Pacific 

 Railroads, make these boasted works of the 

 nineteenth century dwindle into insignifi- 

 cance. 



Mr. Baldwin's book is neatly and copi- 

 ously illustrated, and it has the excellent 

 defect of being too brief. 



PROF. TYNDALDS NEW BOOK. 



The first volume of the " International 

 Scientific Series " will be by Prof. Tyndall, 

 on the " Forms of Water," and will treat of 

 the mutations of this element in the great 

 operations of Nature, especially in the phe- 

 nomena of glaciers. We publish a short 



article from the advanced-sheets, which will 

 give an idea of the lucid simplicity of the 

 style in which it is written. Prof. Tyndall 

 throws his statements into the direct collo- 

 quial form, as if he were talking to a young 

 student beside him, and showing him the 

 things he is talking about. There is true 

 art here as well as science the art of for- 

 cible, effective, vivid presentation by which 

 words become pictorial to the imagina- 

 tion. Prof. Tyndall is as skilful in his 

 manipulation of language as of his scien- 

 tific apparatus, and he sets his successors 

 in the International Series an example 

 which it will be not easy for them to imi- 

 tate. 



While speaking of Prof. Tyndall, it may 

 be proper to add that he intends visiting 

 the United States in the autumn, perhaps 

 early in October. He will come to see his 

 friends (and he will find them numerous), 

 and to get acquainted with our people ; but 

 it is not his purpose to exploit the country 

 as a lecturer. He may probably give a few 

 lectures, but he will embarrass himself by 

 no previous engagements. 



MISCELLANY. 



CONCERNING ATOMS. 



Dr. S. D. Tillman publishes in the 

 American Chemist an able paper on " Atoms 

 and Molecules," in which he reviews the 

 present state of the question, and gives the 

 reasons why we should still hold by the 

 atom, notwithstanding the attempts made 

 to get rid of it. Both sides of the question 

 were early taken, on purely speculative 

 grounds. The ancient philosophers, in their 

 subtle reasonings on the constitution of Na- 

 ture, asserted the existence of ultimate in- 

 destructible material atoms. Others, and 

 notably Boscovich, at a later day denied the 

 material atoms, and substituted for them 

 what he termed centres of force. Modern 

 chemistry, however, approached the subject 

 from a different point of view. It was 

 proved that the interior changes and reac- 

 tions of matter are governed by definite 

 mathematical laws, and it was inferred that 

 material substances must therefore be made 

 up of ultimate material units. The assump- 

 tion was made, because it best explained 



