August 24, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
159 
matter, there is none that has a wider range than that 
of the expansion of bodies by heat. Excluding water and 
one or.two other substances, the fact of such expan¬ 
sion might he said to he invariable ; and, as regards 
bodies whose gaseous condition is known, the law of ex¬ 
pansion can be stated in a form no less simple and defi¬ 
nite than the law of gravitation. Supposing those ex¬ 
ceptions, then, to be unknown, the law would be univer¬ 
sal in its range. But it comes to be discovered that 
water, whilst conforming to it in its expansion from 
394° upwards to its boiling-point, as also, when it passes 
into steam, to the. special law of expansion of vapours, 
is exceptional in its expansion also from 39 downwards 
to its freezing-point; and of this failure in the univer¬ 
sality of. the law, no rationale can be given. Still more 
strange is it, that by dissolving a little salt in water, we 
should remove this exceptional peculiarity ; for water 
continues to contract from 39£° downwards to its freez- 
ing-point 12° or 14° lower, just as it does with reduction 
of temperature at higher ranges. 
Thus from our study of the mode in which we arrive 
at those conceptions of the orderly sequence observable 
in the phenomena of nature which we call “laws,” we 
are led to the conclusion that they are human conceptions, 
subject to human fallibility; and that they may or may not 
express the ideas of the Great Author of Nature. To set 
up these laws as self-acting, and as either excluding or 
rendering unnecessary the power which alone can give 
them effect, appears to me as arrogant as it is unphiloso- 
phical. To speak of any law as “regulating” or “go¬ 
verning ” phenomena, is only permissible on the assump¬ 
tion that the law is the expression of the modus operandi 
of a governing power. I was once in a great city which 
for. two days was in the hands of a lawless mob. Magis¬ 
terial authority was suspended by timidity and doubt; 
the force at its command was paralysed by want of reso¬ 
lute direction. The “ laws ” were on the statute book, 
but there was no power to enforce them. And so the 
powers of. evil did their terrible work ; and fire and ra¬ 
pine continued to destroy life and property without 
check, until new power came in, when the reign of law 
w r as restored. 
And thus we are led to the culminating point of man’s 
intellectual interpretation of nature,—his recognition of 
the unity of the power, of which her phenomena are the 
diversified manifestations. Towards this point all scien¬ 
tific inquiry now tends. The convertibility of the phy¬ 
sical.forces, the correlation of these with the vital, and 
the. intimacy of that nexus between mental and bodily 
activity, which, explain it as we may, cannot be denied, all 
lead upward towards one and the same conclusion; and the 
pyramid of which that philosophical conclusion is the apex, 
has its foundation in the primitive instincts of humanity. 
By our own remote progenitors, as by the untutored 
savage of the present day, every change in which human 
agency, was. not apparent was referred to a particular 
animating intelligence. And thus they attributed not 
only the movements of the heavenly bodies, but all the 
phenomena of nature, each to its own deity. These 
deities were invested with more than human power ; but 
they were also supposed capable of human passions, and 
subject to human capriciousness. As the uniformities 
of nature came to be more distinctly recognized, some 
of these deities were invested with a dominant control, 
while others were supposed to be their subordinate 
ministers. A serene majesty was attributed to the 
greater gods who sit above the clouds ; whilst their in¬ 
feriors might “ come down to earth in the likeness of 
men.” With the growth of the scientific study of na¬ 
ture, the conception of its harmony and unity gained 
ever-increasing strength. And so among the most en¬ 
lightened of the Greek and Roman philosophers, we find 
a. distinct recognition of the idea of the unity of the 
directing mind from which the order of nature proceeds; 
for they obviously believed that, as our modern poet has 
expressed it,— 
“All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
'' hose body nature is, and God the soul.” 
The science, of modern times, however, has taken a 
more special direction. Fixing its attention exclusively 
on the order of nature, it has separated itself wholly 
from theology, whose function it is to seek after its cause. 
In tins, science is fully justified, alike by the entire in¬ 
dependence of its.objects, and by the historical fact that 
it has been continually hampered and impeded in its 
search for the. truth as it is in nature, by the restraints 
v hich. theologians have attempted to impose upon its 
inquiries. But when science, passing beyond its own 
limits, assumes to take the place of theology, and sets up 
its own conception of the order of nature as a sufficient 
account of its cause, it is invading a province of thought 
to which it has no claim, and not unreasonably provokes 
the hostility of those who ought to be its best friends. 
For whilst the deep-seated instincts of humanity, and 
the profoundest researches of philosophy, alike point to 
mind as the one and only source of power, it is the high 
prerogative of science to demonstrate the unity of the 
power which is operating through the limitless extent 
and variety of the universe, and to trace its continuity 
through the vast series of ages that have been occupied 
in its evolution. 
parlwincntwg m i fitto f racMtaijs. 
Duties of Employers towards their Apprentices. 
_At the Maldon County Court, on Thursday, August 
1 5 th, an action was brought by the Rev. E. R. Horwood 
and the Rev. G. Tamplin, two of the trustees of Dr. 
Plume’s charity, and Mr. Charles Smith, tailor, Maldon, 
against Mr. James Henry Trist, of 106, East India-road, 
Poplar, chemist, for breach of a covenant contained in 
apprenticeship indenture between the plaintiffs and de¬ 
fendant, and by which Thomas Arthur Smith (son of the 
plaintiff Charles Smith) was apprenticed to the defendant 
for five years, from May, 1871, to learn the businesses 
of a chemist, druggist and dentist. 
Mr. A. Evans appeared for the plaintiffs, but the de¬ 
fendant did not attend. 
It appeared from the opening statement of Mr. Evans 
to the jury and the evidence of the apprentice that in 
May, 1871, the lad went on trial at defendant’s shop 
with a view of entering into apprenticeship. He was 
there six weeks, and during that time the master ex¬ 
pressed.himself quite satisfied with all he did, and gave 
expression to no complaint as to the lad’s education, 
memory, or aptitude for the business, In consequence 
of this an indenture of apprenticeship was prepared at a 
premium of £65, £32.10s. of which was paid down—£15 
by Dr. Plume’s trustees, and £17. 10s. by plaintiff, Charles 
Smith. In the indenture the defendant obliged himself 
“ to use his best endeavours to teach and instruct, or 
cause to be taught and instructed, the apprentice in the 
several businesses.” Almost immediately afterwards de¬ 
fendant commenced complaining of everything which he 
did, and those things which before the apprenticeship had 
been done to defendant’s satisfaction were afterwards 
always objected to by him. The employment had con¬ 
sisted chiefly in mixing up and retailing out seidlitz 
powders, salts and senna, and other small articles, and 
in mixing pills, the defendant taking care not to 
allow his apprentice to know the nature of the drugs 
and ingredients of the latter, or the purpose for which 
they were made. No books were provided for the lad’s 
reading; and even if they had been he was allowed 
no time for the purpose, being engaged in the 
shop from seven a.m. till ten and eleven p.m. In 
addition to the above duties he had had to clean the 
shop, the stoves, shake mats, and perform other 
menial offices usually executed by a shop-bov. Except 
