the standardi of value that we dismiss with little thought othefs 

 equally rare, and sometimes more beautiful, as for example osmium, 

 osmiridium, palladium, and platinum. The latter is, however, 

 now much used in the most costly and elaborate jeweller's work, 

 but from its extreme rarity and hardness it is even more costly 

 than gold itself. In the event of platinum ever superseding gold 

 coinage, its hardness would of course be a great point in its favor. 



A new metal, which has not yet been named, has been discovered 

 by Dr. Kruss. By igniting fresh oxide of either nickel or cobalt 

 with potassium hydrate, he got a solution from which a white oxide 

 was obtained. From this oxide (^by means of a blow-pipe) was 

 obtained a brown, malleable metallic powder, soluable in hydro- 

 chloric acid. This oxide resembles zinc and aluminium oxides, 

 although it distinctly differs from them or any other known metal; 

 it is therefore supposed to be a new element. 



Mr. Mattbew Williams has shewn, by an interesting experiment, 

 that by heating certain kinds of coal in an iron or brick retort, it 

 is possible to obtain real petroleum and also a porous coke, which 

 by pressure becomes anthracite. This he assumes was the way in 

 which petroleum was formed in the coal beds, above and below 

 which are porous strata, through which the petroleum percolates 

 and ultimately rises to the surface, where it is sooner or later found 

 by some lucky individual, who, in the words of the famous Gilead 

 P. Heck, " strikes ile." 



The following extract from a report by Mr. Findlay, Manager 

 of the L.N.W. Eailway, will show you to what perfection one 

 branch of practical engineering has been brought. He writes : 

 "The engines of this one Company run one and three-quarters of 

 a mile every second, and, in effect, put a girdle round the earth 

 every four hours. Yet such is the perfection of mechanism at- 

 tained in the present day that engines are able to run a distance 

 equal to twice round the world for every single case which occurs 

 of a hot axle, the loss of a split pin, or anything to throw the 

 engine out of gear !" Contrast this most interesting statement 

 with an extract from the " Quarterly" of 1825, when George 

 Bteplienson was using every effort to get the Bill passed for 

 maldng the first railway line iu England, The reviewer wrote : 

 "What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the 

 prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stage 

 coaches. We trust that Parliament will, on all railways it may 

 sanction, limit the speed to eiglit or nine miles an hour, which is 

 as great as can be ventured on with safety." I need not remind 

 you that the Bil' was thrown out, although it passed, after great 

 opposition, the following year, but so great was the national preju- 

 dice against the use of steam power, that the surveyors of the line 



