Prog?'ess of Invention. 63 



Britain, from the first King- of England, the first King of Scotland, 

 and the first Duke of Normandy. (Bacon and Co.) — Though of less 

 substantial use than the preceding, this chart is, by the price 

 affixed, expected to be the most •popular. We presume Mr. Malcolm 

 has consulted sufficient authorities for composing his " tree," and 

 have no doubt its exposition of royal marriages and their results 

 will be pleasing to the curious in such subjects. 



List of Diatomace^; occurring in the Neighbourhood of Hull. 

 By George Norman. (Hull, March, 1865.) — Mr. Norman states that 

 his former list contained about 400 species ; the present one con- 

 tains 480, " a number which considerably exceeds the whole of the 

 species given as British in Smith's work." The present list is not 

 only a proof of the remarkable richness of Hull in objects of this 

 kind, it is also an evidence of extraordinary industry on the part of 

 its author. 



Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society. New Series. 

 No. VI. (Blackwood.) — In addition to abstracts of local observa- 

 tions, this number contains essays of importance, among which is a 

 paper by Mr. Alexander Buchan on the storms which occurred in 

 Europe in October, November, and December, 1863. Mr. Buchan 

 says : — " From the rate at which the storms passed over the British 

 Islands a number of them could have been predicted for thirty-six 

 hours at the more easterly British ports, a few for only twenty-four 

 hours, but none for quite so long a period as forty-eight hours. 

 The forms of forty-two different areas of barometric pressure were 

 examined. Of these, thirty were circular, or nearly so, the longer 

 diameter having to the shorter no higher ratio than that of three to 



two The area over which the storms spread themselves was 



very variable in size, seldom less than 600 miles across, and often two 

 or three times that amount. Occasionally, as the storm area expanded, 

 the central depression divided into two separate depressions, which 

 appeared to become two separate storms, with the wind circling 

 round each. 



PRO GEE SS OE INVENTION. 



Palimpsests. — The scarcity of writing materials led, in the middle 

 ages, to an attempt at economising them, which was attended with 

 very mischievous results to literature. Manuscripts containing the 

 most valuable productions of antiquity were effaced, that the parch- 

 ment on which they were written might be used for some worthless 

 legend, or some fanciful disquisition equally valueless. Various 

 efforts have been made to revive the more ancient writing, in the 

 hope of recovering some lost work of classic antiquity. A very 

 effective means of attaining this object has lately been discovered 

 by accident. An old engraving having been photographed, a line 

 which had been written with a pen was perceived in the copy, 

 though nothing of the kind had been observed in the engraving. 

 An examination, however, showed that it had been there, but was 



