64 



ON MODERN DISCOVERIES BY THE MICROSCOPE. 



1854.] 



total importation was 1,829,291 tons; of which Russia furnished 

 1,505,189 tons; and the rest of the world, including India, 324,102 

 tons. 



We have receiycd from Russia, in the last 53 years, the following 

 quantities and value of flax and hemp ; the valuation being made, for 

 the whole term of years, at the moderate rate ot £40 per ton for flax, 

 and £35 per ton for hemp ; — 



Of flax 

 Of hemp 



Together 



1,587,395 tons worth £03,495,800 

 1,505,189 „ ,, 52,681,615 



3,092.584 



£116,177,415 



The importation of rags of every description, in the last 53 years, 

 was 346,554 tons, or an average for the whole terra of 6,539 tons per 

 annum. We exported in the same period, 12,296 tons, of which 10,- 

 146 tons were British and Irish rags ; and only 2,150 tons foreign rags 

 re-exported; and of the quantities so exported, 4,206 tons, or about 

 35 per cent, of the whole quantity in 53 3"ears, was exported in the 

 last two years, almost wholly to the United States. — J. B. Sharp, 

 Jour. Soc. Arts. 



Collossal Monument to Slialcspei'Ca 



It is a subject of frequent remark by foreigners that there is in this 

 country no monument to Shakspere. Signer Chardigni has conceived 

 the idea of erecting a gigantic statue of the great dramatist. Russia, he 

 says, boasts her colossal statue of Peter the Great ; Italy of Charles 

 Borromeo ; Bavaria its gigantic statue, the head of which forms a 

 conspicuous ornament at the Crystal Palace. Why should not England 

 have her great statue, Signor Chardigni proposes that the statue 

 should be a hundred feet high, of cast-iron, formed by a new process 

 which he has invented. 



In the statue it is proposed to have three floors, with a staircase for 

 ascending to the top or head of the monument. These three floors 

 will divide the statue into three rooms, of about 80 feet in circumfer- 

 ence and 15 feet each in height, the sides of which the artist jjroposes 

 should be adorned with bassi-relievi, in cast-iron, representing all the 

 chief scenes of Shakspere's plays. In the middle of the first floor 

 are to be statues, in cast-iron, of the Queen and Prince Albert. 



The third floor of the statue reaching to the head, will afford a most 

 splendid panoramic view of London, through the apertures for the eyes, 

 which, following the proportions of the rest of the statue, will be more 

 than two feet wide. In addition to the light which will come from the 

 apertures of the eyes, a large quantity of light will be admitted by the 

 top of the head, which is for this purpose intended to be made of glass. 

 In addition to this, the folds of the drapery of the statue will admit a 

 variety of openings, not visible from below, through which light and 

 air may be introduced. It is also proposed it should contain a library 

 of the best editions of Shakspere's works. 



Busts, in cast-iron, of contemporaries of Shakspere, and of those 

 whose names have been worthily associated with his, would be fitting 

 ornaments of the interior. 



The statue would stand on a pedestal of stone, in which should be 

 the entrance, through doors of cast-iron, whose panels might be 

 adorned with appropriate bassi-relievi. 



It has been suggested that the Regent's-park, or the top of Primrose- 

 hill, are fitting spots for its erection, 



On Modern Discoveries by tlic Microscope. 



Jii/ T. Rymer Jones, F. R. S., Professor of Oomparative Anatomy, King't 

 College, London. 



It is easy for any one to expatiate generally concerning the extent 

 of the animal creation, and the limitless beneficence of Providence, but 

 it is the microscopist only, who, reversing the Galilean tube, explores 



for himself the deep abysses of a drop of water, and finds therein a 

 world invisible to the unassisted sense, feelingly can appreciate the 

 works of the Almighty. 



Not many years ago it was related that the inhabitants of a certain 

 district in Sweden, possessing but a scanty stock of corn, were in the 

 habit of mixing with their meal a portion of the earth of the country 

 to supply the deficiency, and that this earth was found to be nutritious. 

 Now it had long been an acknowledged fact that animal life cannot be 

 sustained by inorganic matter ; but how, then, in this case, could such 

 be employed as nutriment ? Many microscopes were speedily directed 

 to this inquiry, and on examination, to the astonishment of an admiring 

 world, this earth was found to consist of shells of microscopic crea- 

 tures, shells as perfect in their construction as they were varied in 

 their beauty. Such a circumstance as this was eminently calculated 

 to attract the attention of the curious, a"d subsequent investigations 

 were not long in proving the startling fact that whole tracts of country 

 in diiferent parts of the world — nay, solid rocks are altogether formed 

 of similar materials. A coin shows by the impress upon it the name 

 and date of the sovereign in whose reign it was issued, so do these 

 " medals of creation" hear testimony to the eternal power and sove- 

 reignty of the Great Ruler of the world. Nearly 6000 years passed 

 away before the invention of the microscope. Poetry had sought to 

 pourtray the "flammantiamoenia mundi," — it remained for the micros- 

 cope to bring them before our view. Looking with the ordinary powers 

 of the microscope into a drop of water, we pei-ceive minute globes 

 rolling round and round, having within them smaller globules revolving 

 like satellites, not around, but within their parent planet. Multitudes 

 of various forms have been found ; and Ehrenherg, who had given 

 much time and profound attention to the examination of these forms of 

 being, has supposed them to be possessed of numerous stomachs, an 

 eye, and a system of blood-vessels ; bi;t sober reflection and more^ 

 recent investigation have assured us that these do not exist. The 

 interior globules, supposed by him to be stomachs, at the touch of the 

 magic wand of a sister science, have revealed their real nature ; tested 

 by iodine, they have shown themselves to be starch grannies; and 

 these infusoria, so long claimed as part of the animal creation, are 

 now given up to the botanist as belonging to the vegetable world. 



In his younger days he was told of a mill to grind old people young 

 again, and laughed heartily at so absurd a story, little thinking that a 

 greater number of years, more knowledge and mature reflection, would 

 convince him of the truth of the tale as regards these infusoria, in 

 whom division is multiplication ; looking at one of these j'ou will per- 

 ceive a transparent line crossingit ; sometimes longitudinally, sometimes 

 transversely, sometimes obliquely, according to the different species. — 

 At each extremity of the line an indentation may next be observed, 

 which gradually lengthens till the two halves resemble the two conti- 

 nents of America connected by a slender isthmus ; by the continued 

 efforts of both portions they become finally divided, and each swims 

 off to find for itself a separate maintenance. In 24 hours a transparent 

 line appears across each of these divided beings, and a similar division 

 again takes place. We have heard of the calculation of the nail in a 

 horseshoe, and the squares on a chess-board, but these are trifles com- 

 pared with the computation of the descendants of a single monad, 

 which in one month would equal the number of the human inhabitants 

 of this globe. A grain of sand appears of little importance, but the 

 shores which say to the ocean " hither shalt thou go and no further, 

 here shall thy roud waves be stayed,'" are but composed of multitudes 

 of these grains ; so these myriads of simple forms oppose a harrier to 

 chaos and to death, and retain within appointed bounds all that may 

 contribute to organic existence. These infusoria form, the base of 

 that pyramid of animal life at the apex of whLch man has proudly 

 stood for 6000 years without discerning that foundation to which it 

 owed its strength and its secui-ity. The microscope is a most valuable 

 instrument for education and for amusement ; costly apparatus is not 

 needful, nor is great advance in science necessary to the person who 

 uses it ; the most important observations have been made by the most 

 simple means. Many of the discoveries of Ehrenherg himself were 

 made by means of a simple pocket instrument. The microscope is 

 available at every leisure hour ; it affords quiet and never-ending 

 amusement, and not amusement only, but the most important of all 

 instruction, for it affords us visible proof that God not only clothes the 

 "lilies of the field," and the grass which to-day is, and to-morrow is 

 cast into the oven, but that He perpetually cares for those myriads of 

 creatures, so small that they are invisible to the unaided sight ; and 

 how, then, shall we, so much more highly favoured, ever fail to rely 

 upon His fatherly Providence and His unwearying care ? 



