Domestic Notices : — Inland. 105 



will make them natural philosophers. No man, who has perused the first- 

 mentioned work, will voluntarily consent to live in the small low-ceilinged, and 

 often damp, houses or sheds, which gardeners, both journeymen and masters, 

 now too frequently occupy ; neither will they consent to have them surrounded 

 by trees and bushes, in such a manner as to render ventilation impossible. 

 The second book is most delightful and instructive reading. In that excellent 

 newspaper the Scotsman, for October 28., there is a review of it, which thus 

 concludes : — " It contains the most clear and satisfactory exposition of the 

 nature of man, and his relations to the external world, which we have ever met 

 with ; and we rejoice to see it brought within the reach of all classes. In its 

 subject it has a considerable analogy to the Bridgewater Treatises ; and in 

 quantity of matter it rather exceeds one of the volumes of that work j but it 

 is amusing to observe, that, by a skilful employment of the powers of the press, 

 a volume directed to the same end, and, in our opinion, affording a much 

 clearer and more instructive commentary on the moral and physical world, 

 than all the published Bridgeivater Treatises put together, is here presented 

 at the price of \s. 6d.; while each volume of that work costs 8^., though some 

 thousand pounds were bequeathed to promote the diffusion of its supposed 

 wholesome doctrines among the people." The price of the work on ven- 

 tilation is 7s. Some farther details respecting it will be found in the Archi- 

 tectural Magazine, 11. 460. 



IRELAND. 



Effect ofLigJit and Heat in affecting the Exhalation of Moisture from the Leaves 

 of Plants. — At the meeting of the British Association at Dublin, in August, 

 1835, Professor Daubeny reported that, since his communication to the British 

 Association at Cambridge (when he had ascertained that the quantity of car- 

 bonic acid decomposed by a plant was in proportion, not to the chemical or 

 heating influence of the ray transmitted to it, but to its illuminating power), 

 he has found that the functions of exhaling moisture by the leaves, and ab- 

 sorbing it by the roots, depend upon the same law; with this difference, how- 

 ever, that, provided some light be present, much heat will serve as a substitute 

 for our transmitting a greater degree of light. He has made experiments which 

 serve to show, that, so long as the plant continues healthy, in the mutual 

 action of the plant and atmosphere, the balance is always in favour of the 

 purifying influence of plants. Dr. Daubeny employed Drummond's light; but 

 he could not discover that it had any influence on the functions of the plants. 

 (^Ed. Phil. ■Journ., vol. xix. p. 404.) 



Structure of the Wood of the Coniferce. — At the meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation at Dublin, in August, 1835, Mr. Nicol of Edinburgh "read a paper on 

 the horizontal branches of the natural family of the Coniferag. He stated that 

 in these branches the pith is always nearer the upper than the under side ; 

 that the upper side is of a paler colour than the under side; that the upper 

 side is softer, and less dense than the under side ; and that, whilst the upper 

 side has a structure similar to that of the stems, the under side has a structure 

 so different in all the three principal sections, that, without occular proof, no 

 one could imagine it to belong to the very same branch. The transverse sec- 

 tion has the partitions forming the network of the under side considerably 

 thicker than those of the upper side. The vessels, or openings, of the former 

 are, consequently, smaller than those of the latter; and hence the greater 

 solidity of the wood on the under side. The longitudinal sections, parallel to 

 the radial partitions of the under side, have smaller, less numerous, and more 

 obscure discs than those in the upper side. The vessels, or spaces, containing 

 the discs in the under side present numerous decussating fibres, which do not 

 occur in the upper side ; and these fibres also occur in the longitudinal con- 

 centric section of the under side. The branches of ten different species of 

 pines were examined, and the same structure was observed in them all, although 

 in some it was better defined than in others. The peculiarity of the structure 



