3G2 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 15, 1883. 



'lefendcd, especially when such a good example is afTorded 

 to us in this particular liy our I'onunfntat conti'inporaries. 



The first part of the work deals with "The Food Products 

 obtained from the Sea." Scope is here given for a vast 

 amount of information respecting the various kinds of fish 

 and fisheries, the methods of their preparation for imme- 

 diate use or for preservation, and a fund of literary lore 

 about fish. Nor are we disappointed ; for we recognise at 

 once the master's hand in the judicious display of facts set 

 before us. There is a degree of novelty and unusual inte- 

 rest in the chapters devoted to the essentially eastern 

 trepang and E(iuid fisheries, whilst the oysters and their 

 allies demand, and have received, a fair share of attention. 



The second portion, entitled " Marine Contributions to 

 Industry," occupies an extent of 197 pages, and includes 

 most of the engravings which are contained in the volume, 

 all of which are well executed ; whilst some, more notably 

 those at pp. 156, 169, and 187, are really artistic. A brief 

 introduction is followed by three chapters on sponges ; 

 their place in nature is commented on, the modes of pro- 

 curing and preparing them are fully described, and their 

 marketable values are carefully noted. Some of the more 

 beautiful hexactinellid sponges, such as Etiplectella and 

 Iloltenia, also, are neatly figured. At p. 182 the following 

 sentences are worthy of remark, as illustrative of the value 

 of scientific experiment to commercial enterprise : — 



" During the past few years, Dr. Oscar Schmidt, Professor of 

 Zoology at the University of Griitz, has employed several weeks of 

 the early summer in artificially prodvicing and rearing the bath- 

 sponge. His labours have met with such success that his system 

 has been adopted by the Austrian Government, and is now carried 

 on on the coast of Dalmatia. 



" It has for some time been a well-known fact that several 

 families of zoophytes have such great powers of reproduction, that 

 a portion of one will grow and form on an entirely new body. This 

 property has been taken advantage of by Dr. Schmidt, his process 

 being to cut the sponge into pieces, fasten each portion to a pile, 

 and immerse it in the sea. The pieces then grow, and eventually 

 from each one a spherical sponge is obtained. According to the 

 estimates of Dr. Schmidt, a small piece of sponge at the end of 

 three years will represent a value of 5d. The total cost of raising 

 4,000 sponges, including the interest on the expended capital for 

 three years, is estimated at £8. Ss., and the income at about £16, 

 leaving, therefore, a net profit ol nearly £8. There is no doubt 

 but that the practice of this branch of industry mil be the means 

 of considerable benefit to the inhabitants of the Idrian and 

 Dalmatian coasts." 



We would fain linger over pages such as these are, but 

 must content ourselves with merely remarking that the 

 products of marine mammals, fish, molluscs, seaweeds, and 

 even salt, are all carefully included in these chapters. 



The third section is devoted to " -Marine Contributions 

 to Art," and in this, as in the other parts, the author has 

 utilised his space with the highest degree of excellence. 

 Tortoiseshell and turtles, mother-of-pearl and pearl 

 fisheries, corals and amber, successively considered, bring 

 the work to an appropriate close. Lastly, there is a 

 fairly copious index appended. 



A New Electric Cancelling St.\mp. — This instrument 

 has been invented by Monsieur J. Chatenet, and is designed 

 by him to supersede the present Post-office cancelling 

 stamps. It is of the same size as the ordinary ones, and 

 the top of the handle is connected by means of ordinary 

 insulated wire with the two poles of a battery. Tlie 

 circuit is closed by the contact of two metal plates on the 

 face of which is a zig-zag platinum wire. Upon the 

 postage-stamps being struck in the ordinary way, contact 

 is made, and the platinum wire liecomes instantly red-hot. 

 This burns the surface of the postage-stamps in such a 

 manner as to render it impossible to erase the marks, wliile 

 doing no injury either to the envelope or its contents. 



€01 to rial (gossip. 



Wk have seen and heard Mrs. King lecturing on and in 

 the divided skirt ; and we venture to express the most 

 confident opinion on the utter futility of any attempt to 

 persuade ladies to adopt the style of dress she advocates. 

 It is, to all intents and purposes, Bloomerism over again ; 

 and the Bloomer costume failed egregiously. It was 

 Ijound to fail ; and so is the new dress — not because it is 

 outre, for there is no dress, however preposterous, which 

 fashion could not force women to wear (witness tlie de- 

 velopment of crinolines, tie-backs, and the present fantail- 

 pigeon style), but because it attracts notice to women as 

 running counter to the fa.shion. Sensible women so array 

 themselves, whatever absurdities may be in fashion, as not 

 to appear absurd, either in following the fashion to its full 

 absurdity, or in lieing markedly out of the fashion. 

 Feminine idiots in the days of crinoline made themselves 

 known by the fullness of their crinoline develop- 

 ment ; in the days of tie-backs by the exposure of contours 

 (either their own or Parisian), usually concealed Viy more 

 flowing drapery, and at the present day by Parisian pro- 

 tuberances, pectoral, and otherwise than pectoral, unknown 

 to nature, save among fancy pigeons ; ladies are able to 

 be in the fashion at all times, yet reasonably attired. Now 

 the divided skirt in the obtrusive form advocated by the 

 reformers, is neither idiotic nor indecent like many of the 

 developments of fashion among races essentially inartistic ; 

 on the contrary, regarded merely as clothing, and not as 

 adornment, it is sensible and seemly ; but it is staringly 

 out of the fashion. It attracts notice, a serious matter 

 wherever louts and boobies, 'Arrys and 'Arriets are many. 

 A few strong-minded — but not therefore the wisest — 

 women, may try the new dress ; some others neither wise 

 nor strong-minded, but pleased to attract notice in any 

 way, may adopt it ; but it needs no prophet to know that 

 women generally, wise enough to know that street-staring, 

 and the coarse comments of the vulgar, are neither to be 

 invited nor despised (however contemptible in themselves) 

 as of no account, will not expose themselves to unpleasant- 

 ness even for the sake of the undoubted advantages which 

 the proposed costume presents. 



Mrs. King considers that harm is done to the cause she 

 advocates by those ladies who wear the divided skirt but 

 conceal it so that no one knows they are wearing it. She 

 mistakes. Round by the road may be a longer way than 

 through the hedge, but it may be much the better way 

 even where the hedge can be broken through. The way 

 she recommends is through the hedge ; but there is no 

 getting through. She thinks the way by the road does 

 not lead to the desired goal ; but those who have tried it 

 find that it does ; it is also an easy way and a pleasant 

 way. 



AVe are sorry to see the British Workman, usually rather 

 obtrusively goody-goody in tone, becoming, to all appearance, 

 an advocate of steady drinking. So, at least, we infer from 

 the only story we have read in No. 342. It is called 

 " A Ship Wrecked by One Glass." We must confess we 

 read it in the hope of finding some such amusement as one 

 derives from the famous temperance stories in " Pickwick." 

 Imagine, then, the pain with which we found that the 

 wreck of the ship is ascribed to a too rigid teetotalism. 

 "My brother," says the narrator, "was to .stand watch. 

 The seamen prevailed on liim to take one glass to help him 

 to perform his duties, but, being unaccustomed to liquor, he 



