SCIENCE. Disappearance of a Lunar Volcano.-Violent convulsions of nature, exhibiting themselves as earthquakes around the basin of the Mediterranean, in Algeria, Santorin, Cephalonia, and lastly in Mitylene, have, during the past few months, called forth our sympathy and active assistance in behalf of the numerous sufferers in these various localities. Owing, however, to the circumstance of the several calamities having befallen communities situated beyond the range of our immediate interests, these sudden and fearful visitations, even though attended by the loss of many lives, have failed to awaken any marked consideration in this country. That a catastrophe occurring at a vastly greater distance from us, unattended, so far as can be surmised, by any loss of life, should have fallen still-born, as it were, within our cognizance, need therefore cause little wonder; and yet, strange as it may sound, such an event has happened, and that, too, in sight of the whole world. To descend to plain language from the lofty sphere of our meditations, our attendant satellite has recently been the scene of a most surprising change of surface, before which the petty tremblings of the earth in the places above named sink into utter insignificance. 44 The news comes to us through Mr. J. F. Julius Schmidt, Director of the Royal Observatory in Athens, who has communicated the fact to the Imperial Academy of Science in Vienna. That some estimate may be formed of the authority which may be attached to Mr. Schmidt's statement, it is only necessary to mention that he has made drawings of ninety-five different phases of the moon, besides upward of 1200 hand-sketches of various points of interest upon her surface since the year 1840. If any one can be acquainted with the usual outward appearance of the moon, he therefore of all men should be; indeed, his continued study of the subject might almost induce an irreverent reader to insinuate that he must be moon-struck." But the same reader will persist: What can Mr. Schmidt tell us with any degree of certainty about the moon?" We reply: Much more than you may suppose; and, if you will believe us, we will briefly recapitulate the heads of his experience. He tells us, then, first, that the moon has no atmosphere; next, that no signs of water are apparent on her surface; and lastly, that there is abundant evidence of her surface being crowded with active volcanoes. The first point received a tolerably clear confirmation the other day on the occasion of the eclipse of the sun, when, on the edge of the moon reaching the edge of the sun, the rough projections on the moon's disc cut off, as it were, in passing, small particles of the sun's disc, without producing any effects of an illusory character, such as are known to follow under similar circumstances in this sublunary earth, owing to the refraction of light produced by our atmosphere. The second point is a matter of observation by means of powerful telescopes, as well as of inference from various scientific reasons. The third point is that which principally concerns us in the present instance. When Galileo first turned his telescope upon the moon, he was delighted to find her surface cov ered with apparent protuberances; and as the sun rose higher over her face, his impression. was turned into certainty as he witnessed the shortening shadows formed in exactly the same way as in the case of mountains on the earth. The more carefully as well as more powerfully constructed instruments of the present day fully confirm this appearance, which can leave no doubt upon the mind of the honest observer that lofty mountain-ranges, interspersed with plains, really exist upon the moon's surface. The sharp eyes of students of the heavenly bodies having been persistently turned upon the face of our satellite, they at last remarked that some of the eminences-indeed, that very many of themthrew such a shadow as might be expected in the case of volcanoes with gaping craters. The profound depth of these was evident from the considerable alteration in the length of the internal shadows thrown upon them as the sun's rays fell upon the craters at a greater or lesser angle; the very sizes of the orifices have in some instances been approximately measured, and our astronomers can tell you in yards the distance across these yawning abysses in the moon, with greater exactness than many visitors to Vesuvius, with some pretensions, too, to geometrical acquirements, could calculate the dimensions of the fiery gulf at their feet. Men of industry (and astronomers, to obtain any marked results, must be very industrious) have mapped out the surface of the moon, and as we mentioned above, hundreds of carefully prepared charts are in existence, showing, doubtless with as great exactness as many atlases show the features of the earth's surface, the leading characteristics of the moon's surface. In these charts the numerous vocanoes in the moon are laid down in their respective positions, each bearing its distinctive name; among them, that one at present claiming. our attention which has been called Linné. It is situated in the eastern portion of that district of the moon known by the appellation of Mare Serenitatis, and is an isolated crater, which, according to the investigations of Mr. Schmidt, has been regarded since the year 1788 as a fixed point of the first magnitude. The diameter of the crater is, or rather was, estimated at from five thousand to six thousand French toises, or from twelve thousand to thirteen thousand yards; and its depth was supposed to be very great. This enormous volcano, then, with an apex of such large dimensions, must at the base have covered a surface of many square miles in extent; and Mr. Schmidt has made the startling discovery, which has been confirmed by observ ers in this country, that it had, on the 16th October, wholly disappeared from the surface of the moon. As Aladdin rubbed his eyes in doubt as to the correctness of his vision when his brilliant palace disappeared from his ken, so the learned astronomer at first doubted the correctness of his sight, and devoted particular attention, on every recurring favorable phase of the moon, to this remarkable phenomenon; and at last, finding that he had not been deceived in his observation, made known his wondrous discovery to the scientific world. His letter an-nouncing it to the savans of Vienna was accom panied by sundry speculations as to the causes of the event, or rather as to the manner in which it had been effected, which may be of interest to the general reader. Mr. Schmidt was of opinion that the phenomenon was not produced by an eruption of steam or ashes, as the cloud of smoke would give rise to a shadow at sunrise or sunset in the moon, which he saw did not occur. Nor was any such result visible at the phase of the moon. If, on the other hand, the crater had fallen in, a deeper shadow would have exhibited itself during the phase; but this was not so. Had the surrounding mountain-range been shattered by a violent explosion, the ruins would have shown themselves by the shadows they would have cast, which were altogether wanting. Had the crater become filled during the eruption by fluid or dusty masses, without overflowing, the internal shadow, it is true, would disappear, but the external hill would, at sunrise or sunset, produce a marked reflection, which Mr. Schmidt failed to perceive. A phenomenon of such a character as this was observed in 1790 by Schroeter, and again in 1849 by Mr. Schmidt himself, in the case of the central crater of another volcano, but would not account for the present phenomenon. If, however, we imagine that such a mass, after filling up the crater, overflows, its sides, and converts into a gentle declivity the almost precipitous sides of the crater, we should then, Mr. Schmidt considers, have a combination of circumstances which would entirely meet the various requirements of the results observed. books being lent out of the premises. He endows the Sorbonne with an annual income of 10,000f.-namely, 4000f. for the librarian, 2000f. for the sub-librarian, 1000f, for the reading-room clerk, and 3000f. for keeping the books in repair. Lastly, he designates M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire as chief librarian, and leaves him all His papers, charging him expressly to write his (the testator's) biography. The posts of chief and sublibrarian are hereafter to be reserved for agrégés of the university. Having made all these dispositions, M. Cousin appoints as universal legatees MM. Mignet, Barthélemy St. Hilaire, and Frémyn, who will have at least 400,000f. to share among them, after all deductions, and independent of a capital representing an annual income of 4000f., bequeathed especially to M. Mignet." The Basis of Darwinism.-We had occasion some time since to point out the more than superficiality of the logic which formed the basis of Darwinism; the negation of common sense involved in the idea that a symmetrical structure could arise out of a fortuitous application of forces. We are glad to see how closely our views on the subject are shared by the most accomplished of British philosophers, Sir John Herschel, who, in a note in his Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects, indicates his sense of its absurdity by comparing it with one of Swift's Laputan speculations, as follows: "His plan for writing books by the concourse of accidental letters, and selection of such combinations as form syllables, words, and sentences, has a close parallel in the learned theories of the production of the existing races of animals by natural selection." The discovery made by Mr. Schmidt is justly considered by his co-philosophers as a feather in his cap, inasmuch as such an event, although British Periodicals.-Cassell's Magazine in penlong since surmised as possible, has hitherto ny weekly numbers and sixpenny monthly parts, escaped the observation of diligent searchers of is announced, and Cassell's Choral Music is a new the heavens; indeed Mädler, a fellow-countryman and high-class art periodical, edited by Mr. Henry of Mr. Schmidt, who had bestowed much labor Leslie. There are still published in London, The upon this point, was compelled, after many years Bookseller tells us, the Last Vials, and the Latter of fruitless research, to confess that he had failed Rain; the Net; the quarterly Anti-Tea-Pot Reto detect the slightest sign of any physical alter-view; the monthly Earthern Vessel, and the ation in the surface of the moon. The phenom-weekly penny Tailor. So much success has atenon recorded by Mr. Schmidt, which may be said to find an analogy upon our earth in the mud-volcanoes of the peninsula of Taman, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, exhibits possibly the process by which those halolike appearances, so visible over the moon's surface, have been formed during countless ages; but whether so or not, a well-established observation of a change going forward in the face of our satellite, cannot fail to prove of more than mere cursory interest. VARIETIES. Cousin's Library.-M. Victor Cousin, in bequeathing his immense library to the Sorbonne, made certain conditions which are thus stated in the French papers: "He requires that the library shall be left just as it is, in the very same place, so that readers may be received in the apart ment which he inhabited for more than thirty years, but now to be transformed into one of the library rooms of the Sorbonne. He also leaves to that building 'all the furniture and engravings that adorned his room. He formally forbids any tended the Flying Dragon, the only Chinese paper published in Europe, that the proprietor has imported a font of Chinese type. The Dragon circulates in such ports of China, the Philippines, and Japan, as England is allowed intercourse with, and is read not by traders alone, but by kings and princes, for the information it brings about European arts and machinery. The Chinese have begun to print from movable type. Ingenuity and Perseverance.In the Great Exhibition of 1862 there was a marvellous piece of handicraft-executed by a poor man in the country-a model of one of the cathedrals cut in cork-every item beautifully reproduced. It ex. cited a great deal of interest, and some wealthy for it. The man was a sensible man, and, instead people collected eight hundred pounds to give of playing my lord for a day or two with his money, he invested it in good security, and built the following inscription, in rather doggerel as many cottages as it would cover, and he put rhyme, upon the centre one: "Perseverance, cork, and glue, |