a case, where the vapors and oil, retained for a time | nated with bituminous vapors, or oils resulting from in higher rocks, may, when a cooling of the beds below occurred, have drained downwards through the very strata from which they had been expelled, into reservoirs below; or, again, products driven off from a disturbed region, may have drained away to a position below an unaffected series of Coal-measures. We must remember, too, in connection with this subject, the probability, nay, the certainty, that immense masses of carbonized vegetation may have been denuded from localities where now we find oil, but neither coal nor lignite. Many corroborative items of evidence in favor of, or at least not inconsistent with, the distillation theory, will occur to the investigator of the subject; as, for instance, the nature of the ground in which the oil is found, the very rifts and fissures into which the boring-rods fall being the ancient drains by which the Hydro-Carbons found their way from the great natural stills to the permanent receivers. To sum up the evidence in favor of either of the two theories: the case to our mind stands thus, That vegetable matter, in becoming bituminized, or converted into lignite and coal, undergoes processes of mineralization varying according to the diverse conditions in which such vegetable deposits may be placed, we admit; but further proof is required to show that any such special mineralization will produce free bitumen. Still less are we inclined to admit, without anything save conjectured hypothesis to support the view, that the remains of animals may be so converted. On the other side, it is a fact that hydro-carbons may be derived from pre-existing bituminized substances; and, so far from seeing physical and geological objections to this view, it appears to us that the circumstances under which free bituminous substances are described as occurring in nature, are not merely not inconsistent with such an origin, but actually, in some cases, such as we should a priori expect. Let us be clearly understood. The chemical action which reduces vegetable substances to a carbonized state may, possibly, under favorable circumstances, be carried on to a second stage, and liberate hydro-carbons from the results of the first. Possibly the conditions may be such that the chemical action of the first stage is so energetic as to develop in itself an amount of heat sufficient for the accomplishment of the second. Mr. Wall's remarks, above quoted, at the utmost, imply no more, and we are, by them, left in the position that we have taken up, that bituminous substances are derived from accumulations of previously carbonized vegetable substances. If any such deposits are known, or if there is a probability of such beds having existed, and having been destroyed, in the neighborhood of bitumen or petroleum yielding districts, it surely is more in accordance with the rules of inductive philosophy, and more safe in practical investigations, to construct our hypotheses upon such known facts, than upon the possibility of these substances having been derived from the decomposition of animal remains. Acknowledging fully the difficulties of the subject, we would yet a natural distillation, they were placed under such Any practical results of the acceptance of the distillation hypothesis, under the very difficult circumstances in which the inquiry is placed, may seem remote; but cases may arise where it would be advisable for the practical man to remember that the hypothesis of Bitumen, or Petroleum, having arisen in some instances from a "special mineralization of animal remains, is a doctrine by no means generally accepted, and most certainly containing nothing in it upon which to base either a scientific or commercial investigation. A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY. WE must introduce our readers to an old lady of forbidding aspect and austere countenance. She is not only a mythical, but a real personage; her sway is undisputed in half the parishes of England; she is generally considered a paragon of virtue, and a model of correctness, a ne plus ultra in everything which concerns everybody, a charitable old lady with uncharitable proclivities; her character must indeed be immaculate, as it is supposed to be compounded of charity, piety, benevolence, and all other virtuous habits. Her shibboleth is to love God above all, and her neighbor as herself. We might suppose that the said old lady is an universal philanthropist, to be revered and respected by all men; that she loves a man in that he is a man, and that, like a hen, she would, to preserve her brood, rush even upon a lion. The loving old lady of whom we speak pins her "rather bear the ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of." faith on example and authority. She is not to be thrown out of the old beaten paths of propriety or With respect to bituminous shales, or pyro-schists, orthodoxy (?) by any of the "new-fangled" notions in which the Hydro-Carbons exist, in such intimate of modern science, for she hates logic, and calls new connection with the earthy constituents of the rock, discoveries "farthing scientific rushlights"; all her as to require distillation to set them free, it is easy ideas have been cast in a previous mould, and rivetto conceive that, when they first became impreg-ed to those of others. She is strong in the strength of prejudice, and the only genius to which she ever laid the slightest shadow of a claim is the genius of parochial tradition. Her mind is turned instinctively backward on the past, and she cannot project it to the future. She could not, for the life of her, imagine anything, either in individual or general truth, different from what has been handed down to her as such. Give her costume, dialect, manners, popular superstition, grotesque characters such as she has known in her youth (now, alas! no more), supernatural events, the last theological bon mot, or a description of local grievances, and conform rigidly to the inexorable dictum which she puts forth, and you too an Anti-Teapot in practice, though not in namewill be described as a great and virtuous character; in fact, one to whom the venal old lady herself will crouch, and to whom every one else ought, in her opinion at least, to offer the qualified worship-not latreia of due respect and veneration. The same old lady also possesses many other attributes which may, or may not, deserve our praise. For instance, she not only crouches to power, but she is always more disposed to fall upon and crush, than to come forward to the support of a sinking individual. She is not like La Fleur, in the "Sentimental Journey," who advanced three steps forward to his master when the gendarmes arrested him; she bears a far stronger resemblance to the maitre d'hôtel, who retired three paces backwards on the same occasion. We may, of course, suppose that the said m. d'h. had heard of the rat and a sinking ship, and looked upon discretion as the better part of valor. The old lady is a bigot to the shadow of power and authority, a slave to prejudice and custom, and tries to enslave all who throw themselves into her power; but she is a coward in everything else. She has not a particle of mental courage. She is bitter and uncharitable; and from the lofty pinnacle on which she is placed looks down with unmitigated scorn and contempt on the failings of others. No virtue, however exalted, can cleanse you from the plague-spot with which you will be marked, unless you follow obediently in her train, and listen complacently to the innumerable “intricacies of delicacy" with which her sombre court is surrounded. She not only imbibes a bad opinion of you from hearsay, but condemns you unheard, and conceals the good she knows of you, both from herself and the world. She is a miserable old woman, full of formality and hypocrisy, and she never forgave an injury in her life. Let any one offend her, and she exclaims, with Iago in the play :— "Though that their joy be joy To throw such stages of vexation on it but the affairs of her neighbors; she denounces with severity and punishes without mercy; she is more dreaded than an absolute monarch; her power is supreme over all causes, and in all cases, both secular and ecclesiastical; her home is nowhere and yet everywhere; and if any of our readers are ever unfortunate enough to discover her front door, let them put on a bold face, and ask for the peerless British Sultana of whom we have been writing, her name is MRS. GRUNDY. ATOMS. WE would be as gods, knowing all things; and the child is father to the man. The boy breaks up his most ingenious toys, to surprise the secrets hidden within the man dissects, analyzes, probes all nature, to discover the ultimate qualities and causes of everything. It is quite an error to suppose that curiosity is a passion to which the fair sex is peculiarly propense. Tell either man or boy that there is a thing he cannot do, a place he cannot visit, a fact he cannot ascertain, and no rest is his until he has effected the thing, reached the spot, tested the circumstance. From what else should arise the strong attraction which the transmutation of metals, the top of Mount Cervin, the constitution of matter, exercises on multitudes? Respecting the latter subject of inquiry, modern science has drawn up for itself a creed which is almost as precise as a treatise on arithmetic. Whether future philosophers will modify those notions it remains for a future period to show. There seems at present every probability that we have really hit upon the truth. Matter is known to us under three forms, solid, liquid, and gaseous. The ethereal modification of matter (the attenuated ether which fills the interplanetary and intersidereal spaces) we do not know, but only infer, suppose, and guess at. But, as Professor Tyndall quietly observes, there is no more difficulty in conceiving this ether, as it is called, which fills space, than in imagining all space filled with jelly. All matter, of whatever form, is believed to be made up of atoms. Gases we can easily conceive to consist of independent particles which repel each other; liquids to be made up of minute molecules, behaving, when poured out, like grains of wheat or sand, still held together by a slight attraction; but there is much greater difficulty in granting solid bodies to be collections, groups, or aggregates of atoms not in actual contact with each other. Solid bodies especially, therefore, have long puzzled people who have considered them with careful attention. They expand, and they contract. How? It must be by the expansion and contraction of their constituent parts. But what are their constituent Her impudence is extreme, and devoid of dignity parts? They cannot be anything else than atoms (Fielding says, "there is a certain dignity in the of inconceivable littleness. According to many impudence of women of quality," though for our philosophers, group atoms together, and you have own part, we have not yet discovered wherein the a molecule; but, in common parlance, atoms and dignity of impudence consists); her malice is cold-molecules may be regarded as synonymous. Comblooded, covert, crawling, and deliberate, without the frailty or excuse of passion. She clubs her vices and venalities together, and by the help of both united she is invincible. Her age is unknown, and her parentage obscure; she is of no occupation or profession, and her great delight in life is to take care of everybody's business except her own! She never had a husband; she can, and does, gossip and talk cant; she is an ignoramus about everything bine molecules in sufficient quantity, and you produce a particle, a portion of matter of form and size appreciable by the human eye. Matter is similar in its nature, throughout the solar system at least. Spectral analysis has shown that minerals, found on earth, are also contained in the sun and the planets, not to mention diverse and sundry fixed stars. The same fact is proved by the examination of bolides, or shooting stars. A bolide is a planet in miniature: a small mass | etary spheres, but also molecularly, or throughout of matter, revolving round the sun in a longer or its most intimate structure. Thus, every alterashorter elliptical orbit, obeying the same laws and tion of temperature produces a molecular change governed by the same forces as the greater planets. throughout the whole substance heated or cooled. Now, suppose the orbit described by a bolide to Slow chemical or electrical actions, actions of light cross the orbit of the earth, exactly as one road or invisible radiant forces, are always at play; so crosses another; and, moreover, that the two trav- that, as a fact, we cannot predicate of any portion ellers reach the point of junction or crossing at of matter, that it is absolutely at rest." the very same time. A collision is the inevitable consequence. The bolide, which, in respect to size, is no more than a pebble thrown against a railway train, will strike the earth without her inhabitants experiencing, generally, the slightest shock. If individuals happen to be hit, the case will be different. If the earth arrive there a little before or after the bolide, but at a relatively trifling distance, she will attract it, cause it to quit its own orbit, dragging it after her, an obedient slave, to revolve around her until it falls to her surface. Or it may happen that the bolide may pass too far away for the earth to drag it into her clutches, and yet near enough to make it swerve from its course. It may even enter our atmosphere, and yet make its escape. But, in the case of its entering the atmosphere, its friction against the air will cause it to become luminous and hot, perhaps determining an explosion. Such are the meteors whose appearance at enormous heights our newspapers record from time to time. about seven miles Be it remarked that bolides are true planets, and not projectiles shot out from mountains in the moon, as has been conjectured. A projectile coming from the moon would reach the earth with a velocity of per second. But the most sluggish bolide travels at the rate of nearly nineteen miles per second, fast-goers doing their six-andthirty miles in the same short space of time. None of the inferior planets travel so rapidly as that. Mercury, the swiftest of them all, gets over only thirty miles per second. Mr. Tyndall states that this enormous speed is certainly competent to produce the effects ascribed to it. The atoms, therefore, of which solid bodies consist are supposed to vibrate, to oscillate, or, better, to revolve, like the planets, in more or less eccentric orbits. Suppose a solid body to be represented by a swarm of gnats dancing in the sunshine. Each gnat, or atom, dances up and down, at a certain distance from each other gnat, within a given limited space. The path of the dance is not a mere straight line, but a vertical oval, ,-a true orbit. Suppose, then, that in consequence of greater sun heat, the gnats become more active, and extend each its respective sweep of flight. The swarm, or solid body, as a whole, expands. If, from a chill or the shadow of a cloud, the insect's individual range is less extensive, the crowd of gnats is necessarily denser, and the swarm, in its integrity, contracts. Tyndall takes for his illustration a bullet revolving at the end of a spiral spring. He had spoken of the vibration of the molecules of a solid as causing its expansion; but he remarks that, by some, the molecules have been thought to revolve round each other; and the communication of heat, by augmenting their centrifugal force, was supposed to push them more widely asunder. So he twirls the weight, at the end of the spring, in the open air. It tends to fly away; the spring stretches to a certain extent; and, as the speed of revolution is augmented, the spring stretches still more, the distance between his hand and the weight being thus increased. The spring rudely figures the force of cohesion, while the ball represents an atom under the influence of heat. The intellect, he truly says, knows no difference When a bolide, then, glances sufficiently close to between great and small. It is just as easy, as an our earth to pass through our atmosphere, the re-intellectual act, to picture a vibrating or revolv sulting friction makes its surface red hot, and so renders it visible to us. The sudden rise of temperature modifies its structure. The unequal expansion causes it to explode with a report which is audible. If the entire mass does not burst, it at least throws off splinters and fragments. The effect is the same as that produced by pouring boiling water upon glass. The fragments, falling to the ground, are aerolites. It is needless here to cite instances of their falling. They are of universal notoriety. Aerolites have no new substance to offer us. If the earth, therefore, be made up of atoms, we may conclude that the universe is made up of atoms. - In imagining the ultimate composition of a solid body, we have to reconcile two apparently contradictory conditions. It is an assemblage of atoms which do not touch each other, for we are obliged to admit intermolecular spaces, - and yet those atoms are held together in clusters by so strong a force of cohesion as to give to the whole the qualities of a solid. This would be the case even with a solid undergoing no change of size or internal constitution. But solids do change, under pressure, impact, heat, and cold. Their constituent atoms are, consequently, not at rest. Mr. Grove tells us : "Of absolute rest, Nature gives us no evidence. All matter, as far as we can ascertain, is ever in movement, not merely in masses, as with the plan ing atom as to picture a vibrating or revolving cannon-ball. These motions, however, are executed within limits too minute, and the moving particles are too small, to be visible. Here the imagination must help us. In the case of solid bodies, you must conceive a power of vibration, within certain limits, to be possessed by the molecules. You must suppose them oscillating to and fro; the greater the amount of heat we impart to the body, the more rapid will be the molecular vibration, and the wider the amplitude of atomic oscillations. It is held that all matter differs only in the grouping of its elements, in the juxtaposition of its molecules. That juxtaposition depends on the temperature, and the speed with which changes of temperature have taken place. The mode and manner of those changes are so many causes of the transformation of matter,so many origins of divers substances. It is maintained that, in the actual state of science, bodies differ only by the clustering of their atoms, exactly as the constellations of the sky differ through the arrangement of their stars. Take a bird's-eye view, from the car of a balloon, of four or five towns, at a considerable altitude. They will differ but very slightly in aspect; they are simply towns. From a point of view nearer to the earth, their distinctive characters will be visible; showing themselves in the disposition of the houses, the topography of the streets, and the distribution Every Saturday, ATOMS. Wax, for instance, is cited by our great lecturer as expanding, in passing from the solid to the liquid state. To assume the liquid form, its particles must be pushed more widely apart, a certain play between them being necessary to the condition of liquidity, Ice, on the contrary, on liquefying, contracts. In the arrangement of its atoms to form a solid, more room is required than those atoms need in the neighboring liquid state. No doubt this is The attracting due to crystalline arrangement. poles of the molecules are so situated, that, when the crystallizing force comes into play, the molecules unite, so as to leave larger interatomic spaces in the We may suppose them to attach themselves by their corners; and, in turning corner to corner, to cause a recession of the atomic centres. At all events, their centres retreat from each other when solidification sets in. accom of the public walks. Such is the case with a min- | combed in all directions. Daylight would stream mass. The atoms of bodies must be regarded as all but infinitely small; the necessary consequence of which is, that they must be all but infinitely numerous. A learned Frenchman, Monsieur A. Gaudin, calculator at the Bureau des Longitudes, has lately estimated, by a very ingenious process, the distances which separate molecules and their component atoms, and their number. The result he obtains is, that, if you set about counting the atoms contained in a little cube of solid matter two millimetres high, that is, about the size of a pin's head, and that you counted a billion of them per second, it would take you about two hundred and fifty thousand years to complete the task! Consequently, although the increase of the diameter of a revolving atom's orbit by the communication of heat is insensible, the sum of an almost infinite number of increased orbits becomes perfectly sensible. Comparing the infinitely small with the infinitely great, it is held that a body, of what kind soever, represents in miniature, and very exactly, an astronomical system, like those which, weather permitting, we behold every night in the firmament. creatures, as The wonder is that these molecular motions, so Astronomers are perfectly aware that the earth is only a molecule amidst the innumerable stars which constitute the Milky Way. But a body, never mind What a strange result of the study of atoms! what, take wood, gold, or diamond, to have a clear idea, - is nothing more than a heap of molecular From the ex- Heat and light, whose origin was inscrutable, or atconstellations diversely grouped. treme of vastness to the extreme of minuteness, the tributed to some mysterious hypothetical fluid, are analysis holds good throughout. Although our eye now traced to their causes. The reader has already The heat of terrestrial fire is is not framed to perceive in all their details these been informed that the heat of the sun is attributed infinitely small stars and systems of stars, other to the collision he sustains from a never-ceasing for example insects, whose vision is shower of meteors. differently constituted to ours, may possibly - al- similarly produced. All cases of combustion, Tynthough not probably be able to see some of them. dall tells us, are to be ascribed to the collision of One thing, however, appears certain; if we could atoms which have been urged together by their construct a microscope of sufficient power, we should mutual attractions. It is to the clashing together be able, by the help of such an instrument, to re- of the oxygen of the air and the constituents of our solve the molecular constellations of every little ter- gas and candles that the light and heat of our flames restrial milky way, exactly as our first-rate tele- are due. It is the impact of the atoms of oxygen resolve the celestial nebula and separate against the atoms of sulphur, which produces the To the collision of the same scopes double and triple stars. It is a mere question of heat and flame observed when sulphur is burned in Were our sight sufficiently penetrat- oxygen or in air. atoms against phosphorus are due the intense heat visual power. ing, we should behold what now appear mere confused heaps of matter, arranged in groups of ad- and dazzling light which result from the combustion mirable symmetry. Bodies would appear honey-of phosphorus in oxygen gas. Whether atoms are concerned, or suns and planets, the theory is equally | his influence in the University was marred by re applicable and true. sentment against this defect. At the same time be When interatomic movements occur under given often exhibited an urbanity which, coupled with his conditions of mass and velocity, they make an im- universal knowledge, made him a delightful e pression on the eye. Their undulations, communi-panion. Much must be allowed to a man who cated from one to the other, strike the retina, and compelled to tolerate persons much his inferis in turn set vibrating the atoms of which it is com- ability; but Dr. Whewell must be allowed to har posed. We see; we receive the impression of light. exhibited an occasional disdain of those who might And accordingly as the vibrations occur with cer- fairly be deemed on some subjects his equals. The tain proportional rapidities, they give us the sense was in part, however, probably attributable to t of blue, yellow, red, and the other visible tints of high estimation in which he held the Colle the rainbow, because there are certainly other tints which he was the head, and which was wholly f which are not visible to the human eye, exactly as from any alloy of personal vanity. He was pronde there are sounds not audible to the human ear. of Trinity College than of any of his works, an Atoms and their motions are therefore the physical would have sacrificed everything to magnify cause of color. Wonderful as it must appear, the And it must be added, that he endowed it with allength of the waves both of sound and light, and the most royal munificence. Some seven or eight year number of shocks which they respectively impart to since he built, at his own expense, a hostel for th the ear and eye, have been strictly determined. reception of some of the overflowing students The number of waves of red light which enter the Trinity, who had been compelled to live in eye in a single second is 474,439,680,000,000. To ings for want of rooms in College, and at the tim produce the impression of red in the brain, the of his death he had commenced still larger works b retina must be hit at this almost incredible rate. way of addition to the former building, which To produce the impression of violet, a still greater had unwillingly deferred in consequence of diff number of impulses is necessary, amounting to sixties in obtaining the necessary site, but the comp hundred and ninety-nine millions of millions per second. Thus a thing, an entity, several billions of which can be contained within the point of a needle, is able to give the cattle disease, hydrophobia, or the plague; or to gratify you with the perfume of a rose, the flavor of a peach, the warmth of sunshine, the delights of music. Are atoms, then, to be despised and disregarded, being components of ourselves and of everything around us? Despised! Their force is gigantic, irresistible, rending iron, riving rocks, upheaving mountains, and, if fully set in action, consuming the world with fervent heat. FOREIGN NOTES. A RECENT number of the London Review devotes three columns to Mr. J. R. Lowell, an edition of whose poems has just been placed before the English public by Mr. S. O. Beeton. A MILAN letter states that Dr. Giuseppe Ortori, of that city, has discovered a manuscript, by Leonardo da Vinci, consisting of about 112 leaves of parchment, in which the illustrious painter, who was also one of the most distinguished men of science of his time, examines the different phenomena of light in their relation to his art. IN the course of a notice of the death of the late Master of Trinity, the London Times remarks: "Men of such wide and varied attainments as Dr. Whewell possessed are always open to the suspicion of being but superficially acquainted with some of the branches of knowledge on which they write, and the Master of Trinity was sometimes disparaged as Leibnitz was in his day. The saying, that' Science was his forte and Omniscience his foible,' is well known, though it had, in truth, less real ground than even epigrams usually have. Dr. Whewell was doubtless not uniformly great, but he reached a high degree of excellence in everything he attempted. It is probable that defects in his manners encouraged those who were ready to disparage what they were unable to measure. Dr. Whewell was at times disposed to overbear opponents, and for some years | tion of which, we have reason to believe, be to of cast-iron into fragments are both cumbers THE English language has been officially adopt by the government of the Japanese Empire, permission has been given to have it taught p licly. Prince Satsuma is now turning his attenti to commerce, and is largely engaged in the silk trad finding it more profitable to sell silk to the Engl than to have his palaces battered down by them. "DANIEL LAMBERT" is the title of Alexande Dumas's new drama, now in rehearsal at one of the Paris theatres. Dumas has just signed a new tract with the New Free Press of Vienna, to give Very recently he was at Pesth, where the extra a novel drawn from life in Paris, the price, £10 dinary costume in which he delivered a letty was the cause of considerable laughter. The turer appeared in the Hungarian national costum ANOTHER reprint of the "Hundred Mery Talys commonly called "Shakespeare's Jest Book," s Herman Oesterley. This reprint is said to be tr just appeared, with introduction and notes by Dthe original black-letter copy, of which only of perfect copy is known. THE Green Rooms are as able to furnish strang information as the spiritualists. Thence, we be a report of a new "actor of all work," in the pers of Mr. Home, who, after trying the stage of the unknown world, and the platform of the lecturer. now in training, preparatory to making an essay i sock and buskin, to come off, it is said, in the nex: summer. S |