178 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



present some analogy in the gradual but incurable disturb- 

 ance in the system, produced by a poison which, unlike 

 other well-known insect stings, produces no irritation at the 

 time. I am much obliged to you for promising to take 

 notice of my " Lectures on Roman Husbandry " ; it will be 

 the means of rendering them known in the United States, 

 as they will be shortly in Germany, as a Leipsic Professor 

 is about to translate them. 



Our Indian troubles appear drawing to a conclusion, but 

 the perfidy and cruelty of the natives have left behind 

 them a feeling of estrangement from the whole Hindoo 

 race, which must be got over, or the country will not be 

 worth our holding. In this point of view, Lord Canning's 

 measures are much wiser, as well as more humane, than 

 those of some of his compatriots at Calcutta. 



I may call your attention to a little notice of mine in the 

 " Proceedings of the Geological Society " for last month, 

 suggesting a cause for the evolution of ammonia from volca- 

 noes. As it is very short, it may, perhaps, be thought worth 

 inserting in your Journal. 



I am much obliged by your long and interesting letter, 

 and shall at all times be glad to hear of you and your fam- 

 ily, either in this way or by those who bring me your card. 



FROM SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL. 



SIR, I have received and read with much interest the 

 biography you were so good as to send me of the late Mr. 

 Mason.* It is indeed a very affecting, and at the same time 

 a very pleasing, record ; and a youth of such talent and 

 promise would not have failed, had he lived, to have distin- 

 guished himself and done honor to his country, not only by 

 his discoveries but by his virtues. I already possess an 

 account of a fourteen-feet reflector constructed by him, and 

 of his observations (very interesting ones) made with it on 



* Ebenezer Porter Mason, a young American Astronomer of high promise 

 who died December 26th, 1840. F. 



