-closed in a casket at Ferula, because 

 of its lightness. The body of the 

 casket being made of this plant, was 

 covered with rich stuff or skin, 

 adorned with ribs of gold, and 

 studded with pearls and precious 

 stones. (Journal of Botany.) 



THE CHEMIST'S POWER OVER 



MATTER. 



From the power over matter, 

 with which existing progress has 

 already invested man, how won- 

 drously interesting are the results 

 and substances which he can pro- 

 duce at will ! One of these sub- 

 stances takes fire, and glows bril- 

 liantly when simply exposed to the 

 air another starts into flame when 

 it is touched with water or with 

 ice a third shines in the air with 

 a paler and more lambent but al- 

 most perpetual light and the smell 

 of a fourth is too nauseous to be 

 endured. One gas, when diffused 

 through the air, in absolutely inap- 

 preciable proportion, affects those 

 who inhale it with violent catarrh 

 another, when inhaled, exhilarates 

 with a happy but fleeting intoxica- 

 tion a third, if breathed but once, 

 suddenly arrests the current of life. 

 A single drop of one fluid, if swal- 

 lowed, will produce instant death 

 of another, will set in motion 

 the whole contents of the alimen- 

 tary canal while the vapour of a 

 third will produce speedy insensibi- 

 lity. One solid stlbstauce, if merely 

 touched, will crumble to powder 

 and change its colour another by 

 gentle friction will explode with a 

 terrific detonation while others 

 again change by a single gleam of 

 the brilliant snu, and produce the 

 wonderful pictures of Talhol and 

 Daguerre. Again, other substances 

 are enriched Avith healing, balsamic, 

 and salutary virtues assuaging, 

 -exhilarating, or strengthen! i 

 the experimenter's will realizing, 

 in a somewhat different seuse, the 

 aspirations of the latter alchemists 



343 



after a universal medicine, And 

 then how remarkable are the 

 changes in the sensible properties 

 of an organic compound, ana in its 

 relations to animal life, which are 

 produced by a very small altera- 

 tion in its chemical composition ! 

 It is sufficiently striking that the 

 union of combustible hydrogen gas 

 with fire-supporting oxygen should 

 produce the fire-extinguishing fluid, 

 water ; and that salutary common 

 salt should contain, mollified and 

 disguised by its combination with 

 a metal, sixty per cent, by weight 

 of suffocating chlorine. But these 

 combinations, water and common 

 salt, consist of equal atoms of each 

 constituent, which may readily be 

 supposed, by their union, greatly to 

 modify the properties of one an- 

 other. In organic compounds, how- 

 ever, containing many molecules 

 united together, it is more surpris- 

 ing that the addition of a single 

 molecule more should often entirely 

 alter their properties and relations 

 to life. Beuzoil, for example,' con- 

 tains twenty-one atoms fourteen 

 of carbon, five of hydrogen, and 

 two of oxygen and yet the addi- 

 tion of one of hydrogen to these 

 twenty-one forms the high-flavoured 

 and poisonous oil of bitter almonds ; 

 or one of oxygen added in its stead 

 forms the well-known solid benzoio 

 acid, to which our pastilles owe so 

 much of their agreeable odour. In 

 cinnamyle, again, there are pre- 

 sent twenty-seven atoms, and yet 

 one of hydrogen added to these 

 forms oil of cinnamon, and one of 

 oxygen, a solid substance called 

 einiKiniie. acid. How very incom- 

 prehensible to us as yet are all such 

 molecu lar changes ! (Edinburgh 

 Review.) 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOLT WRIT. 

 Travelling in thisdesert of Bay- 

 iouda, (ho pleasautest part of our 

 '.lireh in- 

 formed us, the most like the deserts 



