3oO 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[Oct. 



for the curtain to l>e raised without being rolled. No one 

 is to W allowed to live in the theatre, and the stage car- 

 penter's shops, the stage applianees, and the refreshment 

 l>ars are to be outside tlie tlieatre, this latter regulation to 

 l>e applied to tlieatres already in existence. All the dresses 

 worn by the actors and actresses arc to be dipped in a pre- 

 paration which makes them more or less fireproof, and no 

 explosive matter is, under any pretence, to be left in the 

 theatre. Very strict pro\isions are made with regard to 

 the seating of the theatre, so that there may be plenty of 

 room for easy e^it, and the prefect of police is to have the 

 power of deciding how many firemen shall be allotted to 

 each theatre. The manager of the theatre is to l>c held 

 personally responsible for the carrying out of all these 

 regulations down to the smallest detail, and he will be 

 severely punished if, upon the very first alarm of fire, he 

 fails to give the public notice. 



We note elsewhere that a deputation waited on Blr. 

 >haw-Lefevre, on Monday, with respect to the present dis- 

 _M-aceful condition of Kew Ciardens. The English, truly, 

 '.r>- a paiient people, or they would long since liavc put an 

 • !uphatic end to what amounts to . the appropriation of a 

 valuable portion of tlie national property by the Hooker 

 family. The gardens are bricked out of sight by a mile- 

 long wall, and during the best hours of the twenty-four for 

 gjirden scenery the real owners of the gardens arc excluded 

 by a system of administration which we should call boorish, 

 if that were not altogether too mild a term to apply to what 

 (when we consider how many thousands of our people are 

 injured and robbed of their rights by it) can only properly 

 Vie termed cruel and lirutal. We shall return to tliis sub- 

 i'ct next week. 



Bismarck objects to the displacement of Gcnnan 

 characters by the Roman letters used by other Eurojiean 

 nations. He would even stand by the ingeniously mys- 

 terious written characters which ha\-e apparently been 

 invented to prevent foreigners from reading German letters 

 or MS. One cannot well wonder that Germany has turned 

 out some excellent readers of hieroglyphic and cuneiform 

 inscriptiona Germans are trained in such work from their 

 childhood upward. 



Pkofe-seor Tyxdall, referring to our triumphs in 

 K'zypt (shades of Pitt and Fox '.), says, after Tennyson, 



• Thank God, we are a people still ! " This national feeling 

 ii an im[»ortant factor in human progress, though science 



iews it rather doubtfully. Our nation has had, perhaps, 

 ti worthy cause of pride ere now as Telel-Kebir gives. 

 l;ut I'v/y this the j,pr,plf'/i war ? If it was, then the people 

 -hould give their thanks. A journey to Balmoral may be 

 icceptable to our men — or, st.iy, the men are not com- 

 i:ianded to be commended — to our oflicers, after their return 

 :rom Egypt But a review in the park, with thousands to 



!iout applause (if so >je), would look more like a people's 

 1 raise. 



Lf).vb0X College ok PBAf-ricAL E.\f;iXEKiiiNv;.— This 



liege has just l»een opened at 1 C2, Great Portland-street, 

 London, W., to afford practical and systematic instruction 

 ' : engineering. Actual workshop practice is to be its 



ain feature, though not to the exclusion of theory. Thr; 



liege i.s under the superint'indence of Mr. F. S. Pichler, 

 < ■ K., formerly a.<>8Lgtant to Hir Charles Wlieatstone, and 

 itterwards for many yf^ars the deviser of the mechanical 

 !.'')velticg which distinguished the late lloyal Polyt<;chnic, 

 i . Inding the famous life-size automata of Leotard and 

 IJiondin. 



TuE OwKXS CoLLEiiE, M.^KCiiESTEit. — Professor Arthur 

 Schuster, assisted by Mr. Gee, is announced to give a theo- 

 retical and practical course on the technical applications of 

 electricity on Ihursday evenings, in the Physical Labora- 

 tory. The syllabus is comprehensive, and embraces :— 

 Curi-ent producers, current measures, telegraph construc- 

 tion, duplex and submarine telegraphy, telephony, magneto 

 and dynamo-electric machines — description and comparison 

 of dill'erent systems ; electrical lighting, testing of strong 

 currents and electro-motive forces, ditl'erent systems of 

 lanips, photometers, electromotors, electric railways, itc. 



'■ The 'fi lilts," says the Photographic Neirs, "is acquiring 

 quite a reputation for being behindhand with its news. 

 Photographing from a train in motion is a feat it has just 

 heard of, and probably next year we shall be told tho 

 operation can be performed on board a steamer as well. 

 Our contemporary also speaks of a shutter moving so 

 rapidly that 'only 1-lOOth of a second' exposure is given 

 by it. Apparently the Timof: is incapable of conceiving 

 anything faster than itself just now." Considering that 

 five years ago Janssen claimed to give only the 1 :200th of 

 a second exposure in his solar photographic operations at 

 INIeudon, the Times does seem rather behind the time. 



Mkssrs. 

 publish a 



SAMPSON Low, 

 :heap edition 

 Gilpin's "Forest Scenery, 

 up to date, bj' Mr. F. 0. 

 Leaves." It is a curious 

 third edition of " Forest 

 Gilpin himself, and which 

 reprint, was unknown to 

 this famous work, and the 

 British Museum. 



Mausto.v, it Co. are about to 

 of the illustrated re-issue of 

 " edited, with notes bringing it 

 Heath, author of " Autumnal 

 fact that the existence" of the 

 Scenery," which was revised by 

 1 forms the text of Mr. Heath's 

 Sir T. D. Lander, first editor of 

 re is no copy of it even in the 



The National Portrait Gallery is to be re-arranged, the 

 portraits now at the British Museum being added to the 

 collection. The (iallcry needs another change in the way 

 of subtraction. It is an insult to every lady and gentle- 

 man in the country, to every Englishman and every English 

 woman, that a National Portrait Gallery should include 

 portraits of the female associates of royal iniquity. No 

 man who has any respect for wife, oi- sister, or mother, or 

 daughter, should cross tlie threshold of the National Portrait 

 Gallery till these offensive pictures have been either removed 

 or put in a room by themselves — a Bad ( lallery, so to speak. 

 Whoever put these women among our national "celebrities" 

 might bo duly honoured by Iteing pictured in the same 

 room. That pr-rsons descended from their brood should be 

 in the I louse of Lords is an offence not now ea.sily corrected ; 

 but we need not have pictures thrust before us (as wUionnl, 

 save the mark) of those to whom the British nation owes 

 this legislative insult. It is understood that the queen's 

 sympathies are with those among the women of this 

 country who are good and pure. She possesses influence. 

 She should get the jades removed. 



Mii8. Lanotky sailed for New York on the Hth. 

 American ladies did not welcome Mrs. Rousby very 

 warmly at their " receptions." Yet she was not the worst 

 actress England has sent across the Atlantic. One wonders 

 how they will receive Mrs. Langtry. 



Ol'ii space having been somewhat encroached upon this 

 week, we shall have next week a thirty-two page number. 



