4S 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



LFEBBrAHy, 



vantafjes, which apply to others only in a small degree. First, it 

 has size; next, it has durability beyond almost any other of man's 

 works, except perhaps the lay of the poet; and third, in its dedi- 

 cation to worship, to halls of meeting, to schools, to tombs, it has 

 a hallowed influence from the associations connected with it. 

 Beyond this, it admits and requires the adaptation of painting and 

 carving. 



Thus, a perfect building, such as Karnac, the Parthenon, or a 

 middle age cathedral, becomes the exponent of the principal tech- 

 nic, festhetic, and phonetic arts of the age in which it was erected. 

 Architecture alone has hitherto been able to attract to itself so 

 many arts in a permanent form, and hand them down to after 

 ages; and it is for those reasons that Mr. P'ergusson has adopted it 

 as the web on which to embroider the story of his pages. 



Before leaving this subject, the writer remarks that many of 

 the works of the engineer admit of a higher artistic treatment 

 than they have received; though he admits that they are free 

 from the affectation and servility which characterise those of our 

 architects. He regrets, however, that works unrivalled in the 

 world for magnitude and magnificence, should not have been trans- 

 mitted to posterity with some better testimony of the public taste. 



He does not even let the military engineer alone, for he says 

 that it is no reason against artistic treatment, that if a place 

 should be beseiged the works will be destroyed; and he alludes to 

 some of the fortifications lately erected in Germany, as having 

 masonry well executed, the embrasures and openings surrounded 

 by bold and appropriate mouldings, and the bastions and curtains 

 surmounted by a bold cornice of machiocolations. These, with 

 their size and massive solidity, are held forth as making them 

 nobler buildings than those of almost any modern architect. 



The Seventh Section is for the ^Esthetic Arts. These, Mr. 

 Fergusson very fairly arranges under the senses from which they 

 arise, and as Useful and Refined Arts. He considers, likewise, the 

 Tools used to produce the results, but does not include the consi- 

 deration of the Powers which contribute to them. 



Under the head of Taste, Mr. Fegusson names only Gastronomy. 

 This is a sense, though much used, little cultivated; and the only 

 scientific recognition we know of it is by the Horticultural Societies, 

 who require fruits exhibited to have a good taste, as well as size. 

 Perhaps we may name the galvanic effects on the taste. The prac- 

 tical application of Taste would, no doubt, if its functions were 

 better understood, be widely extended; as it is, although there are 

 numerous classes of what may be called gastronomic tasters for 

 teas, wines, brandies, ales, &c., the only non-gastronomic pursuit 

 of tasting, is that of tasting whale and other oils, though metals 

 are sometimes tasted. The medical relations of taste have like- 

 wise been little cultivated. 



Mr. Fergusson dwells at some length on the neglect of the sense 

 of smell, though if carefully considered its functions are most im- 

 portant, — indeed, they are essential to the human economy, and it 

 may be questioned whether the operations of electricity and 

 chemistry are ever unattended with the phenomena of smell. At 

 present, there is no good observation or classification of pheno- 

 mena, so that the technical or [esthetic uses are not developed. 

 It has been too much the custom to consider smell and sound as 

 dependent on the perception of man, instead of independent of 

 him. In our last," we extended Mr. Fergusson's theory (p. 44) 

 as to the imponderables, to actinism, colour, and sound, and we 

 here add smell; and we repeat, that the best mode of studying 

 them is by carefully marking every distinction, and classing apart 

 every form which is not in all things identical with any other. 

 At the same time, the study of each of these is calculated to 

 throw light on the laws which govern the others, and to suggest 

 new modes of observation. 



The coincidences in the laws which respectively govern sound 

 and light are most remarkable; but they are explainable, because 

 there must be a priori laws and principles common to both. Thus, 

 the cultivation of one branch of little importance in itself, may 

 point out or corroborate some phenomenon in relation to another 

 branch of immediate and practical application. We are acquainted 

 with the existence of low degrees of electricity, with rays of the 

 spectrum which cannot be seen, with manifestations of electric 

 light too weak for our sight: we know that there are sounds which 

 we do not hear. Everything attests that there are phenomena 

 existing of which we have not yet attained the development. 



In the consideration of the imponderables, no distinction has 

 hitherto been drawn between those which are naturally or or- 

 ganically, and those which are artificially developed. We are 

 familiar with the distinction between the light of gas or a candle 

 and that of the sun, but we are prone to assume that there is no 



* C.E, aud A. Journal, ante p. 2'i, 



difference in other cases between an organised and artificial im- 

 ponderable; yet the same relations may exist between organised 

 and artificial electricity or magnetism, as between tlie two classes 

 of lights. Indeed, the principle of organization, fundamental in 

 Mr. Fergusson's system of philosophy, is ignored elsewhere. 

 There must, however, be a great distinction : we see it in the 

 colours of nature and in those of art — the greatest painter can 

 never give the freshness of the former: we feel it in the odour of 

 the free-blowing violet, and in the faintness of the manufactured 

 perfume. Life is wanting. If we are to apply the teachings of 

 science to physiology, we must bear this broad fact in mind; the 

 mfire particularly at a time when so strong a desire is shown to ex- 

 plain all the functions of life by the chemist's workshop, and the 

 galvanic battery. In vain shall we strive to restore the impaired 

 functions of an organ, or to give motion to the animal machine, 

 if our instruments are dead instead of living. That there are 

 such distinctions, we may see again; for the electric currents of 

 our machines do not exhibit the periodic phenomena of the free 

 electricity of the globe. We have dead blood, as against a throb- 

 bing pulse. This may suggest the consideration of applying the 

 free electricity and im])onderables of the globe, as powers distinct 

 from their artificial representatives. 



The fine art which Mr. Fergusson ranges under that of Smell, 

 is perfumery; but gastronomy also partakes of this sense. Mr. 

 Fergusson is inclined to recommend the greater cultivation of 

 perfumes, as among the ancients. 



Of the sense of Touch, Mr. Fergusson has nothing to say, 

 though he places Eumorphics within its range. Bathing is an act 

 which certainly belongs to this art. 



For the Sight, the writer provides the fine arts of Eumorphics 

 and Euchromatics, or beauty of form and beauty of c(dour; the 

 former of which he thinks is not studied enough, though most im- 

 portant in architecture and in all the technic arts, as in pottery, 

 glass-blowing, upholstery, &c., — as indeed is likewise the other 

 art of the arrangement of colour. 



In this place, iMr. Fergusson advocates the restoration of colour 

 in sculpture; and, as we think, with great propriety. No good reason 

 was used against its application in Gibson's rtatue of the Queen, 

 and those who did not pretend to be classicists, were pleased 

 with it. 



Under this head, as a useful art, the writer names only Optics; 

 but we think he should have added Telegraphing, unless he con- 

 siders it a phonetic art, and perhaps Illumination, or the prepara- 

 tion of artificial lights. The preparation of coloured lights and 

 fireworks are fine arts, producing good scenic effects. Testing 

 bodies by polarised light may come in here as a useful art. 



While upon the subject of illumination, we may observe that 

 the science of it is in a very low state; for the endeavours of in- 

 ventors have been — rather to produce a substance for light, than 

 to produce the greatest light. The quantity of light seen has no 

 relation to the quantity of light existing in the substance, and 

 which may be obtained: nor have quantity and intensity any 

 correlation. Liglit is mostly attendant on the operations of elec- 

 tricity, but in so low a state that it is not always observable by our 

 organs, but can only be seen by increasing its intensity, or by 

 forming new combinations with it. Indeed, no consideration has 

 been bestowed on the media by which it can best be manifested. 

 Light is light, and air is air, and it is supposed that light and 

 sound cannot exist independently of the laws which are usually 

 considered as regulating the atmosphere and our organs. It is, 

 however, easy to conceive, and perhaps to prove, that the gaslight 

 of London might be doubled or multiplied in intensity, without 

 requiring any increase of material. 



The sense of Hearing comes next, and the arts which belong to 

 it, which Mr. Fergusson puts down as neglected, though he names 

 acoustics and music, and to which we add acoustic telegraphing. 



A great deal has been written on acoustics, as on optics, and 

 much mathematical learning expended; but this, as already hinted, 

 has been in one direction, and thereby has tended to throw en- 

 quirers into a single, and in so far the wrong path. It has been 

 pointed out in a late writing on this subject in the Jllechanics 

 Magazine (September, 1848), that the investigation of the trans- 

 mission of sound in air, gives very little idea of its capabilities for 

 transmission in other media; and this is applied to the conveyance 

 of sound to a distance — holding forth that the voice and tone of a 

 speaker may be communicated from London to Liverpool, and 

 perhaps further, by mechanical resources already existing. A dis- 

 tinction is there drawn between the processes of generating, con- 

 ducting, and diffusing sound, which may be very usefully applied 

 in the consideration of the adaptation of light to purposes of illu- 

 mination. 



