Dec. 26, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



519 



pretty piece to view with an inch or lower power under 

 the microscope. When a piece worth preserving is obtaiued, 

 mount it in Canada balsam, which will keep it from 

 tarnishing. 



The curk with the zinc attached to it should be quickly- 

 replaced in the bottle, which must be left quite free from 

 shaking for a day or two. It is very interesting to watch 

 the gradual formation of the lead tree with a magnifying 

 glass. The tree will last for sume time if not disturbed, 

 and when it falls to pieces the smaller crystalline leaves 

 should be placed under the microscope. If melted lead is 

 slowly cooled, it forms octohedral crystals. In the experi- 

 ment just described the forms are arborescent, like the 

 frost figures with which a cold winter adorns our window- 

 panes. The exact character of the lead tree figures varies 

 according to the strength of the solution. The proportions 

 mentioned give the prettiest effect — that of large metallic 

 leaves composed of smaller feathery deposits. All the 

 soluble salts of lead are extremely poisonous, including the 

 acetate. It must therefore be used with care, and not 

 placed where inquisitive children may be tempted to ta-ste it. 



A still more beautiful experiment may be made with the 

 formation of a silver tree. This metal crystallises in 

 arborescent forms as native silver, and sometimes in cubes 

 or octohedra. For our present purpose, get a solution of 

 five grains of crystallised nitrate of silver in one dram of 

 distilled water. If the water is quite free from chlorides 

 and certain other impurities, the solution will be clear, and 

 will keep for any length of time in a stoppered bottle. 

 Neither cork nor any other organic matter should be 

 allowed to come into contact with it. It is highly poisonous. 

 Melted and cast in sticks, nitrate of silver is the lunar 

 caustic of the doctors. It is also the active ingredient in 

 marking-inks, and stains the skin black, besides destroying 

 it, unless it is very dilute. A slate-blue man is still occa- 

 sionally seen, bearing for life that sad tint, the evidence of 

 having been doctored with this salt. 



To obtain a silver tree, take up a drop of the solution on 

 a glass rod, and transfer it to the centre of an ordinary 

 glass slide, placed on the stage of the microscope, which 

 for this purpose should be horizontal, to prevent the drop 

 running. Focus the drop with an inch power, and then 

 put in the middle of it a piece of copper the size of a small 

 pin's head, which can be cut from a bit of bell wire. 

 Instantly the nitric acid will attack the copper, setting 

 free the silver, which forms numerous branches, something 

 like a Selaginella, and exquisitely brilliant in reflected light. 

 A dram of the solution will enable the experiment to 

 be repeated scores of times, and there are few that are more 

 striking. A fresh and bright particle of copper should be 

 used on each occasion. I do not sive a figure of the silver 

 tree, because its beauty depends very much upon the fine 

 colour of the pure metal, which no engraving could repro 

 duce. When quite dry the piece of copper should be 

 removed, and the tree can then be mounted in Canada 

 balsam ; but, unless the covering-glass is very gently super- 

 posed, the crystals are scattered and the beauty lost. 



THE GAMBLING SPIRIT IN AMERICA. 



By Eichard A. Proctor. 



AT Monte Carlo the gambling spirit has shown itself 

 during the past few years in such a way as to startle 

 even those who have not been accustomed to regard gam- 

 bling with special horror. France, which encourages a 

 national system of gambling ; and Britain, whose betting 

 ways have long put her among the very foremost of the 



gambling races, look on with pain and sorrow at a system 

 of gambling which seems dwarf-like compared with the 

 system of lotteries in France and British betting on 

 races. So easy is it to see the mote in another's eye while 

 a beam in our own is overlooked ! But, much as all 

 European nations are given to gambling in various 

 forms, Americans seem to have gone altogether beyond 

 them. In America boys of ten or twelve bet as resolutely 

 as bookmakers at a British race. Everything seems to 

 afford fit subject for wagering in America, insomuch that 

 betting expressions have become part of the language. 

 A man can hardly express agreement with another in 

 America save by saying, "You bet," or "you may go your 

 pile," or " bet your bottom dollar," or the like, " on that." 

 The progress of the Presidential election brought out the 

 betting element in a marked way throughout the length 

 and breadth of America. In every State of the Union, 

 north and south, east and west, betting men — by which one 

 may be said to mean nine out of ten of all the men and 

 boys iu America — backed their favourite candidate at the 

 current odds. These were publL'hed in the papers as 

 systematically, though not as exactly, as the betting on 

 races in England. A fibulous amount of money changed 

 hands over the results of the election, and preposterous 

 though it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that a large 

 part of the energy with which the results of the New 

 York election were canvassed had its origin simply in the 

 anxieties of betting men to get a good chance of hedging. 



I can imagine no worse sign in a community than the 

 general prevalence of the gambling spirit. It is so rife in 

 my own country that I am making no attack specially on 

 America, or any vaunt respecting England, in saying this. 

 The gambling spirit is evidence of an immoral, unprin- 

 cipled nature. Those who find themselves possessed by it 

 should be as anxious about so evil a symptom as a man 

 would be who should find himself spitting blood or giving 

 other evidence of a disease affecting his whole physical 

 nature. A nation in which the gambling spirit is seen to 

 be prevalent is in a dangerous way, though it may well be 

 that the difference between one nation and another in this 

 respect is only apparent, and due to the circumstance 

 that in one nation gambling folk take a more prominent 

 position than in another. Just as one who had travelled 

 much in America might be disposed — if in England he 

 belonged to the classes which take no part in trade — to 

 imagine that a much larger portion of the American popu- 

 lation are engaged in business than in England, so may 

 the opinion be quite as mistaken that betting is very much 

 more prevalent among Americans than among ourselves. 

 We know that business men and tradesmen take a better 

 position and mix more in society in America than at home, 

 so that they are much oftener met. May it not well be 

 that the real fault in America (for serious fault there must 

 be somewhere) in regard to betting lies not in the much 

 greater prevalence of betting-folk, but in the circumstance 

 that they are suffered to intrude iu America into circles 

 whence in England they are excluded (unless they happen 

 to be titled or wealthy persons, when they are too easily 

 admitted into the company of the better - principled 

 portion of the community). American political life is 

 not only open to immoral and unprincipled men, but, as 

 has been only too strikingly shown of late years, honest 

 men are withdrawing themselves more and more care- 

 fully from it. Among the various office-holders and 

 dependents on office-holders in America, an immense 

 proportion are of just the class from which the betting 

 community is formed. Nay, poUtinal life in America is 

 itself a lottery, and a man must be very strongly imbued 

 ■with the gambling spirit to become a politician in the 



