HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G OS SIP. 



i55 



new surfaces become exposed. These being inside 

 flesh surfaces the drying hardening wastefulness is 

 much greater on them than on the outer surface, 

 which is protected by integumentary sheath. This 

 may be proved by weighing different sized joints 

 before and after roasting. It will thus be found that 

 the percentage of loss diminishes as the size of the 

 ioints increases. I have witnessed the process of 

 whole roasting an ox and dined on a slice of the 

 result. It was about the best roasted beef I have 

 ever eaten. The only rivals to it were cuts from the 

 " barons " of beef which were, in the olden times, 

 cooked every Thursday (market day) by Benson of 

 Birmingham, for the best of all judges of roast beef, 

 viz. the Midland farmers. 



The whole ox to which I refer was roasted at 

 Warwick. Its cookery commenced at midnight, and 

 was completed at 1 p.m. on the following day. 

 Burning of the fat was impossible, it was too far from 

 the fire, and the basting was too industriously applied. 

 It never ceased, and hence, as explained in the 

 chapter above named, the true nature of the cookery 

 was a process of stewing in a bath of fat of a lower 

 mean temperature than that of boiling water. The 

 flavour, tenderness and digestibility of roasted lean 

 meat depends mainly on the retention of its juices. 

 Lean meat is muscle, every muscle and all its fibres 

 and bundles of fibres are enveloped in protecting 

 sheaths which retains these juices. These leak away 

 during cookery when the muscle is cut through. 



The Rings of Saturn. — These marvels of the 

 heavens have been making further demonstrations of 

 their marvellousness. Drawings made on the 8th and 

 15th of February were recently presented to the 

 Royal Belgian Academy by M. Stuyvert, Assistant 

 Astronomer to the Royal Observatory of Brussels, 

 which show that the Cassinian division is encroaching 

 on the outer ring ; that ring B is nearly broken up 

 into a series of bright white spots by a number of 

 dusky indentations on the inner border. The dusky 

 ring shows two dark notches, and the division 

 between this and the ring B appeared on February 

 8th, to be formed by a succession of dark grey spots. 

 Other astronomers have been making similar obser- 

 vations indicating the variability of these remarkable 

 appendages and supporting the satellite theory of the 

 rings ; the view of their constitution which represents 

 them as composed of a multitude of small satellites so 

 clustered as to present the appearance of a ring when 

 viewed at such a distance that the spaces between the 

 individual bodies are not visible. If we look along a 

 row of gaslights in a street they appear nearer and 

 nearer to each other as their distance from the eye 

 increases. If the street be of a sufficient length the 

 most distant appear in contact, forming a continuous 

 line of light. There is now but little doubt that such 

 is really the constitution of these beautiful appendages 

 to this planet. 



In my essay on "The Fuel of the Sun," published 

 in 1870, I ventured to compare them to the Zodiacal 

 light which similarly surrounds, our sun, and to 

 ascribe to both the same origin, viz. meteoric ejec- 

 tions from the parent orb, erupted by the mighty 

 explosions which form the solar prominences in one 

 case, and by the corresponding white cloud-spot 

 prominences in the case of Saturn. The inner dusky 

 ring, which has been compared to a crape veil, is 

 especially subject to fluctuations. Its variability 

 is quite equal to that of the Zodiacal light. It was 

 discovered in 1850 by Mr. Bond in America, Mr. 

 Dawes in England, and Father Secchi at Rome, each 

 independently of the others. Some have even 

 supposed that it then came suddenly into existence, 

 but it is more probable that this simultaneous dis- 

 covery was due to favourable position and inclination 

 of the planet, combined with full development of its 

 variable elements which appear to be comparatively 

 small meteoric particles. 



Cold Bathing. — The investigations of M. 

 Quinquad on the effect of hot and cold baths on 

 respiration, have brought out very remarkable results. 

 According to "Nature," his experiments on dogs 

 show that after cold baths the consumption of 

 oxygen is on an average ten times greater than before, 

 and that hot baths exert a like influence, but in a less 

 marked degree. " Cold baths (and hot as well, but 

 in a less degree) increase pulmonary ventilation ; the 

 quantity of air passed through the lungs is double or 

 treble after the bath. At the same time a greater 

 quantity of carbonic acid is expelled." These quanti- 

 ties are very wonderful, so much so that careful 

 repetition of the experiments are demanded to insure 

 their verification. If the quantities are proved to be 

 correct, a further course of research is suggested, in 

 order to determine whether any reaction follows this 

 extraordinary increase of vital activity. 



We all know that cold baths are refreshing, and 

 those who take them before breakfast are clearly 

 conscious of their effect on the appetite, but ten times 

 the consumption of oxygen demands nearly ten times 

 the supply of food. Accordingly those physiologists 

 who measure vital energy simply by the heat- 

 equivalent mechanically calculated upon the basis of 

 oxidation must conclude, if M. Quinquad's figures are 

 confirmed, that one dog after a cold bath is equivalent 

 in dog power to ten dogs before immersion. For 

 my own part I do not accept this steam-engine 

 analogy of vital energy ; and have endeavoured to 

 refute it in the concluding chapter of " The Chemistry 

 of Cookery," which discusses the physiology of 

 nutrition. 



The Nose Triumphant. — -In the early days of 

 my practical chemistry studies in the laboratory of the 

 Edinburgh College of Surgeons and Highland Agri- 

 cultural Society, I occasionally assisted at a "Council 



