Curiosities of Science. 



the laws of Magnetism. The Electric Telegraph and the Elec- 

 trotype process include in their principles and mechanism the 

 most complete and subtle results of electrical and magnetical 

 theory. Edinburgh Review, No. 216. 



PEKPETUITY OF IMPROVEMENT. 



In the progress of society all great and real improvements 

 are perpetuated : the same corn which, four thousand years 

 ago, was raised from an improved grass by an inventor wor- 

 shiped for two thousand years in the ancient world under the 

 name of Ceres, still forms the principal food of mankind ; and 

 the potato, perhaps the greatest benefit that the old lias derived 

 from the new world, is spreading over Europe, and will con- 

 tinue to nourish an extensive population when the name of the 

 race by whom it was first cultivated in South America is for- 

 gotten. Sir H. Davy. 



THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC TREATISE. 



Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, wrote a treatise on the Astro- 

 labe for his son, which is the earliest English treatise we have 

 met with on any scientific subject. It was not completed ; and 

 the apologies which Chaucer makes to his own child for wilting 

 in English are curious ; while his inference that his son should 

 therefore " pray God save the king that is lord of this lan- 

 guage," is at least as loyal as logical. 



PHILOSOPHERS' FALSE ESTIMATES OF THEIR OWN LABOURS. 



Galileo was confident that the most important part of his 

 contributions to the knowledge of the solar system was his 

 Theory of the Tides a theory which all succeeding astrono- 

 mers have rejected as utterly baseless and untenable. Des- 

 cartes probably placed far above his beautiful explanation of 

 the rainbow, his d priori theory of the existence of the vortices 

 which caused the motion of the planets and satellites. New- 

 ton perhaps considered as one of the best parts of his optical 

 researches his explanation of the natural colour of bodies, 

 which succeeding optical philosophers have had to reject ; and 

 he certainly held very strongly the necessity of a material cause 

 for gravity, which his disciples have disregarded. Davy looked 

 for his greatest triumph in the application of his discoveries to 

 prevent the copper bottoms of ships from being corroded. And 

 so in other matters. Edinburgh Review, No. 216. 



RELICS OF GENIUS. 



Professor George Wilson, in a lecture to the Scottish So- 

 ciety of Arts, says: "The spectacle of these things ministers 



