22G 



• KMOWLEDGE 



[April 13, 18(53. 



the accompaniment of silly and unseemly jests. The ex- 

 perience essential to their safety, they acquire tlirouj^h 

 the evil eonseijuences froux which it might have saved 

 them — as it certainly saves all who, having sense, are 

 worth saving. 



The little book before us, of fewer than fifty pages, is 

 intended to be put into the hands of young men by fathers 

 who are unwillin;,' to discharge a father's duty in this 

 respect. And as not one father in ten is, we believe, 

 ready to do what is right by his boys, himself, it is well 

 that such a book as this should be available, especially as 

 it gives some information which a physician is able to give 

 with special authority. We commend it to the attention 

 of fathers and sons alike ; to the former, as showing what 

 they should tell their boys ; to the latter, as containing 

 lessons wliich they should take to heart 



We are not sure but that the question of religion should 

 here have been left untouched. It rather weakens the 

 special plan of the pamphlet, by seeming to imply that, 

 independently of religion, much that is here condemned 

 might not be so objectionable and mischievous as it really 

 is. If our author had contented himself by showing that 

 every young man who values (1) his health, (2) his strength, 

 (3) his temper, (4) his happiness, (5) length of life, (6) his 

 fitness to take his place among his fellow-men, and finally, 

 (7) his self-respect, should consider the precepts here enun- 

 ciated, he would have given such sufficient reason, that 

 religious motives, presented from another side, and acting 

 with each according to the religious views of each, would 

 have had double force. It is well that young men should 

 know equally what is best for their own interests, and what 

 is right for them apart from their own interests. But 

 where each consideration is independently sufficient, the 

 two should not be associated as if each required support 

 from the other. Apart from which, those young men who 

 are so unfortunate as to be without religion, and those 

 whose religion is different from that here referred to, may 

 be apt not to get all the good from Dr. Pratt's advice which 

 they otherwise would. 



However, a lad must be foolish indeed if he does not pay 

 attention to the physical lessons conveyed in this most 

 useful little work. If it is read by all who ought to read 

 such a book, its sale will be counted by hundreds of 

 thousands. 



SALT.* 



Taking as his text " Salt is good," Mr. Evan M. Boddy 

 gives us a treatise on salt which is decidedly saline in 

 Havour. His style is " crisp " to a fault. " Such imagi- 

 native plerophory " (imaginative plerophory is good) "is 

 invariably antagonistic," he remarks, in dealing with one 

 set of paradoxists, " to scientific conclusions and common- 

 place principles, besides being redundant of inane folly and 

 trivial hyperbole." He speaks of the " unhealthful and 

 insensate antipathy to salt which has infatuated, in a 

 greater or a lesser degree, the several strata of society." 

 Yet, so soon as he is fairly started on the history 

 of salt, and is thus on his way to the discussion of 

 salt "as a chemical, therapeutical, and toxicological 

 agent," ho moves along more smoothly — the gusts of 

 wrath no longer blow him hither and thither, and he 

 tells his readers many interesting facts. Albeit, it is not a 

 demonstrated fact, as he states in Chapter III., that chlo- 

 rine is nothing more nor less than the oxide of a metal, 

 the researches of Professor Meyer, of Berne, having been 



by no means accepted as yet by his chemical brethren. In 

 a later chapter, Mr. Boddy discusses the effects of salt on 

 animal and vegetable life. Most land animals eat salt 

 when they get the chance, and apparently with advantage. 

 But many reptiles, and most of the lower types of animals, 

 are deprived of life by the action of salt. Mr. Boddy — 

 from carelessness, no doubt, not from ignorance — seems to 

 convey the idea that life may be spontaneously gene- 

 rated, since he speaks of " insects generated by animal 

 and vegetable decay," of " life produced by putrefaction," 

 and so forth. The passages relating to the action 

 of sea-water on seeds are interesting. The question is of 

 importance as bearing on the transport of plants across 

 sea. Darwin says that, out of 87 kinds of seed, 64 germi- 

 nated after an immersion of 28 days, and a few survived 

 after an immersion of 137 days. The medicinal and 

 dietetic properties of salt are carefully considered ; but here 

 our author becomes wrathful again, as he does in consider- 

 ing the physiological properties of salt. The chapters on 

 the geographical distribution and geological formation of 

 salt are worth reading, and contain a quantity of curious 

 evidence, obviously gathered with much care. 



• " The History of Salt." By Evnn M. Boddy, F.R.C.S., F.8.S., 

 &c. (Bailliire, Tindall, & Cox, London.) 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



Fhoh April 33 to Aphil 27. 

 By F.R.A.S. 



THE sun should now be carefully watched, as indications of 

 renewed violent action on his surface are apparent. As we 

 write, several large spots (one of them enormous) are visible on his 

 disc. The aspect of the night sky will be found portrayed in ilay IV. 

 of " The Stars in their Seasons." Jupiter is now approaching the west 

 so rapidly that he should be looked at as soon as may be after dark 

 to be seen properly at all. He ia situated to the N. and E. of 

 J Tauri. 



The visible phenomena of his satellites are fairly nnmerous. 

 To-night (13th), I. will be occulted at 9h. 59m. On the 14th, the 

 shadow of Sat. I. enters on Jupiter's disc at 8h. 20m. p.m. ; Sat. II. 

 disappears in occultation at 8h. •t4m. p.m. ; Sat. I. passes oft Jupi- 

 ter's face at 9h. 27m., followed by its shadow at lOh. 37m. On the 

 15th, Sat. I. will reappear from eclipse at 7h. 52m. 33s. On the 

 10th, the egress of the shadow of Sat. II. happens at 8h. 43m. p.m. 

 The shadow of III. will pass off his face at lOh. 15m. p.m., on the 

 18th. On the 31st, the transit of Sat. I. begins at 9h. 10m. p.m., 

 and that of its shadow at lOh. 15m. Jupiter will be too near the 

 horizon at the times of their respective egress for that phenomenon 

 to be fairly observable. On the 22nd, Sat. I. will be eclipsed at 

 9h. -ISra. 8e. p.m. On the 23rd the shadow of II. will enter on the 

 planet's face at 8h. 33m. p.m., the Satellite casting it passing off 

 at 9h. 12m. Lastly, on the 25th, the egress of Sat. III. will occur 

 at 9h. 30m. p.m. The directions previously given for finding 

 Uranus above the Gth Mag. Star, 89 Leonis (to the N.W. 

 of which he is now situated), are still applicable. Mercury, 

 Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune are all, for our present purpose, 

 invisible. 



Two occultations only of stars by the Moon oceur during the 

 ordinary working hours of the night within our specified period. 

 To-night (April 13) the 3i Mag. Star X Geminorum will disappear 

 at the Moon's dark limb at 8h. 20m. p.m., at an angle of 58° from 

 her verte.\, and reappear at her bright limb, at an angle of 342 

 from her vertex, at 9h. 6m. The second occultation is that of the 

 0th Magnitude Star 28 Libnv, which on the night of the 23rd will 

 disappear at the Moon's bright limb 55 minutes after midnight, at 

 an angle of 138" from her vertex. Its reappearance occurs at her 

 dark limb, at an angle of 196° from hor vertex, at Ih. 32m. o'clock 

 the next morning. The Moon is 5'9 days old at noon on the 13th, 

 C 9 days at the same hour to-morrow, and so on. To-day her path 

 lies through Gemini. She passes into Cancer on the 14th, remain- 

 ing all day in that constellation. Travelling through Cancer on the 

 15th she enters Leo before noon on the IGth. during the whole of 

 which day her path lies through it, and a portion of Sextans, as it 

 d(jcs on the 17tli and 18th also. She passes into Virgo before noon 

 on tlio 19tli, remains in that constellation during the 20th and 2l8t, 

 travels into Libra on the 22nd, and does not quit it duringthe 23ra. 

 I On the 24th lier path lies through the remaining part o£ Libra and 



