FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I.] 



June, i{ 



[No. 4. 



PAGE 



Current Events 73 



General Notes 76 



Domestic Sanitation 80 



The Conductivity of Metals {illiis.) . . 83 



Osmose {illns.) 83 



True and False Dew 83 



Speaking Apparatus for Divers {il/us.) 84 



The Decay of Leather-bound Books. . 85 



The Spectrum {///us.) 85 



A Travelling Platform {///its.) 87 



The Chemical Section at the Man- 

 chester Exhibition 88 



CONTENTS. 



Apparatus for Compressing Air (il/us.) 89 

 The Technical Training at the Central 



Institution 91 



Reviews of Books 92 



Papers read before Societies. 

 The Royal Institution : — 



Light as an Analytical Agent .... 93 

 The Society of Arts : — 



The Chemistry of Putrefaction . . 93 

 The Institution of Civil Engineers : — 

 The Manufacture of Salt near 

 Middlesbrough 93 



PAGE 



The Geological Society 93 



Royal Meteorological Society 94 



Royal Microscopical Society 94 



The Society of Chemical Industry : — 

 New Process of Manufacturing 



White Lead 94 



The American' Association for the 



Advancement of Science 94 



Record of Scientific and Technical 



Societies 95 



Applications for Patents 96 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Science, Art, and Literature. — Professor Huxley, with 

 great felicity of expression, made some useful and suggestive 

 remarks at the Royal Academy banquet. " I imagine," he 

 said, " that it is the business of the artist and of the man of 

 letters to reproduce and fix forms of imagination to which 

 the mind will afterwards recur with pleasure ; so, based 

 upon the same great principle by the same instinct, if I may 

 so call it, it is the business of the man of science to symbo- 

 lize, and fix, and represent to our mind in some easily 

 recallable shape, the order, and the symmetry, and the 

 beauty that prevail throughout Nature. I am not sure that 

 any of us can go much further from the one to the other. 

 We speak in symbols. The artist places his colours upon 

 the wall ; the colours have no relation to the actual objects, 

 but they serve their purpose in recalling the emotions 

 which were present when the scenes which they depict 

 were acted. I am not at all sure that the conceptions of 

 science have much more correspondence with reality than 

 the colours of the artist have ; but they are the symbols by 

 which we are constantly recalling the order and beauty of 

 Nature, and by which we by degrees force our way further 

 and further into her penetralia, acquiring a greater insight 

 into the mystery and wonder which are around us, and at 

 the same time, by a happy chance, contributing to the hap- 

 piness and prosperity of mankind." 



He is of opinion that the great truth, that art, and litera- 

 ture, and science are one, and that the foundation of every 

 sound education and preparation for active life, in which a 

 special education is necessary, should be some efficient 

 training in all three. Recognising that the three branches 

 of art, science, and literature, are essential to the mak- 

 ing of a man,*to the development of something better than 



the mere specialist in any one of these departments, he 

 concluded as follows : — "I sincerely trust that that spirit 

 may in course of time permeate the mass of the people, 

 that we may at length have for our young people an educa- 

 tion which will train them in all three branches, which will 

 enable them to understand the beauties of art, to compre- 

 hend the literature at any rate of their own country, and to 

 take such interest not in the mere acquisition of science, 

 but in the methods of inductive logic and scientific inquiry as 

 will make them equally fit for whatever specialised pursuit 

 they may afterwards take up. I see great changes ; I see 

 science acquiring a position which it was almost hopeless to 

 think she could acquire. I am perfectly easy as to the 

 future fate of scientific knowledge and scientific training ; 

 what I do fear is, that it may be possible that we should 

 neglect those other sides of the human mind, and that the 

 tendency to inroads which is already marked may become 

 increased by the lack of the general training of early youth 

 to which I have referred." 



The Manchester Jubilee Exhibition. — Opinions may 

 differ as to the desirability of having so many exhibitions in 

 a single year, but there can be no doubt that of the one re- 

 cently opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales, not only 

 Manchester, but the whole of England, may be justly proud. 

 We do not mean that there are many startling novelties or 

 new departures in the exhibits, but that the average merit 

 is decidedly high, while the extent and variety of the exhi- 

 bition are very striking. We have not the space at our 

 disposal to describe exhibits in detail, moreover they are 

 being exhaustively treated in the technical and professional 

 journals, but we may say in general terms that the display 

 of textile and other machinery in motion has seldom, if 

 ever, been equalled in this country. ' We are also greatly 

 struck with the very simple and ingenious manner in which 



