21, 1873| 
of the Construction of the new National Standard of 
Weight.” _ 
The new imperial standard pound is of the true weight 
of an avoirdupois pound when ina vacuum. The prin- 
cipal advantage of the metal of which it is composed 
. inum), consists in its not being affected by oxidation, 
hich would unavoidably alter its absolute weight. But 
latinum has this disadvantage, if used as the material of 
standard for regulating ordinary weights of precision 
e of brass, viz. that when weighed in air against a 
s or bronze standird weight of so much greater 
me, although of equal weight in a vacuum, its appa- 
ent weight is always about half a grain greater than that 
f the brass or bronze standard. To obviate this disad- 
ntage, the weight in standard air of all the bronze 
ndard pounds verified by Prof. Miller were computed 
him, zot tn ternts of the platinum standard pound, but 
Vf an ideal brass commercial standard pound, denoted by 
im as W. He assumed W to be of the same density as 
lost standard, and of the average density of brass or 
onze. In standard air, ¢. = 65°°66, 6. = 29°75 in. PS 
with a density of 21°1572 displaced 0°39644 grain of air, 
W was assumed to displace 1'03051 grain. And as 
official standard weights, by reference to which all 
mercial weights are veritied, are made of brass or 
ze, it was intended that they also should be regulated 
‘their weight in air when referred to the brass commer- 
standard W. This has in fact been done. The 
change since made has been under the sanction of 
ie late Standards Commiission, by which the standard 
r recited in the Act of 1824 for determining the weight 
air of a cubic inch of water, viz. 7. = 62° F., 6. = 301n. 
s been substituted for that adopted by Prof. Miller in 
msequence of its being the air in which the weight of 
the Jost standard pound had been most accurately deter- 
nined. The object of this change was to adopt one 
uniform normal temperature and barometric pressure 
for all standard purposes. In the new standard air 
(log ZX =7 0852825 — 10), PS displaces 040282 gr., and 
W, with a density of 8°1430, displaces 1'04706 grain of 
air, H. W. CHISHOLM 
(To be continued.) 
THE TUSCAN MEMORIAL TO GALILEO 
ap ARI, in speaking of Savonarola, and the men of 
his time, says :—‘“ The world stood aghast at this 
new race of Titans, who arose to fight with the old idols, 
‘and it soon began to oppress them ; but it worships their 
remains and lingers in their footsteps.” And this is 
literally the case : the descendants of those Italians who 
burnt Savonarola at the stake, preserve, with religious 
‘care, the cell in which he wrote, morsels of his monkish 
garments and of his hair, his manuscript notes, indeed 
every memorial that remains of him. The custodian 
“who showed us these remains, together with a picture 
‘representing Savonarola at the stake in his own Piazza 
della Signoria, of Florence, abused Alexander VI. and 
the Inquisitors, and the whole body of ecclesiastics con- 
cerned in the matter, so roundly and so fiercely, that we 
were led to wonder what manner of Catholic he could 
be; and to compare the Catholicism of 1872 with that 
of 1472. Thus, too, Galileo, persecuted during his life- 
time, is now almost worshipped : the Tuscans have built 
him a shrine worthy of a saint ; in the inscription on his 
house at Arcetri, they call him Divinws Galileus ; and in 
the shrine itself they have preserved, after the manner of 
a saintly relic, one of his forefingers which was detached 
from his body when it was removed from the chapel of 
SS. Cosmo and Damianus to Santa Croce. This relic is 
preserved in a small reliquary urn, upon the base of 
avhich is the fo!lowing inscription written by Thomas 
Perelli :— 
NATURE 
329 
“* Leipsana ne spernas digiti quo dextera cceli 
Mensa vias nunquam visos mortalibus orbes 
Monstravit, parvo fragilis molimine vitri 
Ausa prior facinus cui non [itania quondam 
Suffecit pubes coagestis montibus altis 
Ne quidquam superas conata ascendere in arces.” 
Again we have Via Galileo and Biblioteca Galileina. 
The Pisans point with pride to the Lampada Galileina 
in their Cathedral, and honour his statue in their Uni- 
versity ; and these are the descendants of the men who 
paid Galileo tenpence a day for his services in’ the Uni- 
versity; who made him abandon his professorship 
because he proved that Aristotle was not infallible ; and 
who said derisively to his followers—* Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” or, as Ponsard 
has it :— 
“Ecoutez c que dit l'Apétre : Dans les cieux 
Pourguot Galiléens, promenez-vous vos yeux ? 
C'est ainsi que d’avance il lancait l'anathéme 
Contre toi, Galilée, et contre ton systéme.’’ 
The Tuscan Memorial to Galileo is in Florence, in 
the Museo di Fisica e di Storia Naturale. It is entirely 
the work of Tuscans, and is said to have been con- 
structed at a cost of 1,000,000 lire (nearly 40,0007.) It 
consists simply of a vestibule, from which opens a small 
rectangular hall, with a semicircular tribune, in which is 
placed the statue of Galileo, by Prof. Costoli. The 
interior of the hallis entirely lined with white marble, 
and with frescoes in admirable taste. The frescoes in 
the vestibule represent Leonardo da Vinci in the presence 
of Ludovic Sforza, Duke of Milan, to whom he is making 
known some of his great inventions. Apropos of this, 
there exists in the Ambrosian Library, in Milan, a large 
folio full of MSS. notes, and drawings, by Leonardo da 
Vinci, which the courteous director of the library is 
always willing to place in the hands of interested strangers, 
and which well repays the most careiul examination. 
Some of the sketches of hydraulic apparatus, appeared to 
us to be worthy of minuter study than they appear to 
have received. The opposite fresco of the vestibule 
represents Volta explaining his invention of the pile to 
the members of the French Institute, in the presence of 
the first Consul, Napoleon, and Lagrange. In the 
vestibule are also placed marble medalions of Leo 
Baptista Alberti, and Baptista della Porta. A fresco in 
the hall by Bezzuoli, represents Galileo lecturing in Pisa, 
on the laws of falling bodies. This is a really striking 
and well-conceived painting : Galileo in his professorial 
toga stands by the long inclined plane, showing his 
results to his colleague, Mazzoni. In the foreground is a 
professor in a monastic habit, kneeling near the inclined 
plane, and counting the time of descent of the falling 
body, by the beats of his pulse. Young students are 
pressing round Galileo, in order, if possible, to aid him in 
his experiments ; while on another side the Aristotelian 
prolessors are looking on with derision, and searching in 
vain in the writings of the Peripatetic for explanations of 
the new facts. Inthe background appear the cathedral and 
the leaning tower. The whole conception is noble and 
spirit-stirring, and one longs fora similar treatment of 
other great discoveries in science :—Davy discovering 
potassium, Faraday obtain ng the first magneto-electric 
spark, and magnetising a ray of light. The opposite 
paintingrepresentsameeting of the Accademia delCimento: 
the patron of the Society, the Grand Duke Ferdinand Lye 
is eagerly watching an experiment which is being made 
by Redi, Viviani, and Borelli, on the apparent (to them 
real) reflection of cold by a parabolic mirror :—one of the 
rough spirit thermometers recently invent-d by the 
Academy, is placed in the focus of the mirror, and a 
block of ice is used as the source of cold. 
The three frescoes in the Tribune immediately ar. und 
the statue of Galileo, represent three notable events of 
his life: in the first he is seen intently watching the 
swinging of a lamp in the Cathedral of Pisa; in the 
second we see him in the sct of presenting his telescoze 
