KTDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



63 



mud near the borders, and so are soon killed; 

 but most fish-ponds are too shallow. Mine is not 

 twenty -two feet across ; and has been frozen for 

 more than a week at a time. I have never lost 

 one. My chief enemies are owls. Common carp 

 can be transported in a frozen state, and thawed 

 again alive ! — Somerset. 



The Isle of Dogs. — This island, so long a tract 

 of barren a id unproductive maish land, and still for 

 the most part seven feet below high-water level, is 

 now in a flourishing condition. It has, according 

 to the Builder, a population of 5,000 people ; a 

 rateable property of £20,000 in value ; 530 houses; 

 60 manufactories ; four places of worship; one or 

 two good school-houses ; ten excellent public- 

 houses ; a doctor (no lawyer !) ; a house agent; a 

 gas- work ; an omnibus ; a post-office ; and a station 

 for the Thames police. Mr. Cubitt has built, at 

 his own expense, a capacious church on the south- 

 east extremity of the island. A clock, an organ, 

 and a peal of five bells are to be added ; and the 

 church, with an acre of ground, is to be vested in 

 the Church Building Commissioners, the patron- 

 age, with the consent of Brasenose College, Oxford, 

 the patrons of the parish, being placed in the 

 hands of the diocesan. — E. J. 



What is Electricity ? — Electricity is the effect 

 of the revolution of atoms of matter upon 

 their axis. All matter is in motion; and 

 the various forms which it assumes in organic 

 and inorganic structures are depeudent on the 

 intensity and peculiarity of the motion of their 

 constituent atoms. Atomic motions intensified, 

 is electricity ; whether existing naturally or in- 

 duced by artificial means. In electrical action, 

 one atom communicates its motions to those con- 

 tiguous ; and since, in travelling along a wire, 

 this motion cannot be retrogressive, no continuous 

 electrical current can be caused unless there be a 

 reservoir at the negative end of the wire. The 

 statement made in regard to the use of only one 

 wire, that the earth completes the circuit home 

 again, is incorrect ; the fact being, that the earth 

 is made the reservoir for the motion excited in the 

 battery; but as the electricity is not diffused so 

 quickly in the earth as it would be at the negative 

 metal, the current is not so intense with one Wire 

 as with two. By the revolution of particles of 

 matter about their axis, a force is generated called 

 magnetism. The revolution of masses of matter 

 about their axes generates a force exactly similar, 

 called the attraction of gravitation. Generally, 

 therefore, the force caused by this kind of motion 

 is one of compression ; and the quicker the motion 

 the greater the force, as may be seen by increasing 

 the length of wire coiled round the soft iron 

 magnet. When, however, the motion of the 

 atoms, or masses of matter, is about contiguous 

 atoms or masses, centrifugal force is generated, 

 which is one of extension, and is directly opposed 

 to the former. Although, therefore, we only apply 

 the term electricity to very intense atomic motion, 

 it really belongs to all such motion ; and its 

 phenomena are as various as the conditions of 

 organic and inorganic substances. And may we 

 not infer that, in all living matter, the true state 

 of health is that in which the opposing forces of 

 extension and compression are in equilibrio, as is 



the case in planetary systems ? and that disease 

 and decay are the result of a disturbance of this 

 equilibrium? I think this w< mid be a fair field 

 for scientific investigation ; for if the contraction 

 and expansion of any substance is carried beyond 

 its natural state, the destruction of the substance 

 follows as a consequence. An illustration of this 

 will be seen in the formation of gases from solids 

 and liquids, and in other changes of condition, 

 dependent on the relative intensity of the con- 

 tractile and expansive forces generated by the 

 atomic motion. Advantage is taken of this prin- 

 ciple in welding iron. When the metal is heated 

 to such a degree as to be on the point of changing 

 its state from the extreme expansion of the atoms, 

 the two parts are violently pressed together, and 

 the atoms of one forced among the atoms of the 

 other. Also, when steel or iron is heated until 

 the atoms repel each other as far as possible, the 

 sudden removal of the exciting cause allows the 

 atoms to fall together with great force, and the 

 metal becomes more dense and hard than if left 

 to cool gradually. — W. T. 



A " Christmas Dinner "for the Birds. — A Good 

 Example. — All persons who read Our Journal, 

 must know wherein its Editor takes most delight, 

 — viz., in the record of acts of humanity and 

 kindly feeling. This, whether as regards society 

 at large, or the so-called lower creation. Let me 

 then, my dear sir, register in the columns of Our 

 Own, the truly amiable habit that prevails in a 

 distant country, of giving the little birds a " Christ- 

 mas dinner." It is a much better practice, surely, 

 than exists amongst us, — of slaying them with the 

 murderous gun, whilst craving our " Christian 

 charity ! " Well has charity been christened 

 " cold." Our English proverb, " cold as charity," 

 is a national disgrace to us ! — " One of the prettiest 

 of Christmas customs is the Norwegian practice of 

 giving, on Christmas day, a dinner to the birds. 

 On that morning, every gable, gateway, or barn- 

 door, is decorated with a sheaf of corn fix^d on the 

 top of a tall pole ; wherefrom it is intended that 

 the birds shall make their Christmas dinner. 

 Even the peasants will contrive to have a handful 

 set by for this purpose ; and what the birds do not 

 eat on Christmas-day remains for them to finish at 

 their leisure through the winter." — Fedelta, 

 St. Leonards. 



[We record this pretty little fact with the most 

 sincere pleasure ; and only hope it may appeal 

 forcibly to those thoughtless hearts, which, while 

 caring only for " number one," forget that "com- 

 forts shared yield a double blessing." The Nor- 

 wegian peasants put us all to the blush, — should 

 do so, we mean !] 



Cliaracter in a Laugh. — How much of character 

 is there in a laugh! You know no man till you 

 have heard him laugh — till you know when and 

 how he will laugh. There are occasions — there 

 are humors, when a man with whom we have 

 been long familiar shall quite startle and repel us 

 by breaking out into a laugh which comes mani- 

 festly right from his heart, and which yet we had 

 never heard before. Even in fair ladies, with 

 whom we have been much pleased, we have re- 

 marked the same thing. As, in many a heart, 

 a sweet angel slumbers unseen till some happy 



