beauty of the Doric temple, the graceful elegance of the Ionic, and the luxuriant beauty of the Corinthian. The chisel of Phidias and Praxitiles had eternised in marble wondrous ideals of beauty. The magnificent colonnades and ornamented entablatures, the more than earthly beauty of the radiant sun-god, Apollo, and of the marvellous Venus, attest the perfect triumph of art among the Greeks. The fine capabilities of that noble, beauty-intoxicated race in their sunny Hellas, were developed to a marvellous state of perfection in the kindred arts of painting and poetry. It was the sanctuary of beauty, the home of freedom, and the favoured shrine of genius and valour. But Greece is living Greece no more.' The spirit that gave vitality to the whole mass of Hellenic society, when the Children of the Sun and of the Moon were commingled into one noble people, is gone.

At the present day, the Rajpoots with august ceremony celebrate the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse in honour of the sun, as their ancestors did, on the banks of the Ganges and the Gogra, twelve hundred years before our era. The horse was equally sacred in the rude tracts of Scandinavia as in the burning plains of India. The steed of the Scandinavian god of war was kept in the temple of Upsala, and was always found foaming and sweating after battle. Thus, from the earliest dawn of history, the chain of affinity can be traced between the great branches of the race of the sun, by similarity of customs, and names, and religion. No doubt, there are links of it at present obscured, but we should hope not lost. Parts of it are distinctly visible on the cold mountains of Scandinavia, and the inhospitable steppes of Central Asia; in the mild vales of Greece, and the burning regions of the tropics. Nay, further, if the sun tribes peopled Scandinavia, why not Scotland and Ireland? We see no reason for a negative answer; and, as we undoubtedly came from somewhere, and at some very remote time, we may hold it at least as a flattering hypothesis, that we are the descendants of the emigrants that weighed anchor on the Indus after the Mahabharata. This Mr Pococke has undertaken to demonstrate for us. He has, in fact, asserted that the Irish are Rajpoots, and that Hibernians is a word synonymous with Ionians, which is equivalent to equestrian tribes. So much for similarity of name; and then we may be allowed to suggest the Giant's Causeway as Cyclopean enough for any ordinary taste-great enough to be the work of the Children of the Sun. But, oh! ye shades of Mahabharata Rajpoots, what a falling off is there!' A Rajpoot to a navvie! If the ghost of any of these emigrant heroes still hover over the Emerald Isle, fearful must be his grin of wrath and sorrow at his degenerate descendants, squatting down, amid filth and pigs, to cram their paunches with potatoes. And if he has deigned to look at Nicol's pictures, he must be furious at seeing the linear representatives of Solar Rajpoots exhibited purshooing knowledge under difficulties, and rollicking in grotesque and drunken revelry at Donnybrook Fair. The sooner an Irish Mahabharata drives the superfluous swarms of Milesian population to batten on the superfluous mutton of Australia, the better for these three kingdoms.

However this point may be settled, we have been able, when we raised the curtain many centuries after the embarkation from India, to discern remarkable traces of the Children of the Sun in lands wide apart. If an absolute identity of family and race cannot be made out, the evidence is very strong that the nations of which we have been speaking came from a common centre. Their wanderings strongly confirm the assertion of Scripture, that 'God hath made of one blood all nations to dwell on the face of the whole earth.' By running up this investigation to an antiquity so high, such a unity becomes very apparent.

But, amidst all the unity that we find, we meet with great variety, the result of the modifying influence of climate and situation on man's physical and mental development. Though we can identify the Caucasian type in nations placed far asunder, yet to what extent have modifying causes been at work to produce diversity! It is

curious to mark how the character and destinies of nations sprung from the same root have been affected by external circumstances. The inhabitants of luxurious plains, after attaining to a certain degree of civilisation, have stopped, and allowed the sceptre to be wrenched from their feeble hands by a hardy race nursed in mountain fastnesses. And this has been repeated again and again in the history of the world, and ever as the banner of progress has dropped from the hand of one nation, has it been seized by another, and carried forward.

To climate, we trace the hardy vigour or the effeminate languor of a people. The social and religious life of the Greeks, under the mild heavens of their beautiful land, was graceful and cheerful. The theology of the inhabi- Į tants of the Northern climes of the mist and of the storm, was full of gloom and terrific grandeur. Their heaven of ' Valhalla-where the shades of departed heroes fought all day, and at night quaffed mead in celestial revelry-bas nothing of the sunny sweetness of the Grecian Elysium. The Grecian nymphs are enchanting beings, full of joyous grace and loveliness; while the Valkyriæ, that minister eternally to the heroes in the palace of Odin, though adorned with immortal youth and beauty, are of stern mien, and more terrible than fascinating. Yet, amidst all this variety, a family resemblance in religious rites can be traced in Scandinavia, Affghanistan, Greece, and Peru. Even after the storms of the North have howled around them for centuries, the progeny of the sun can be identified in the worshippers of Thor and Woden. The Greek, after gazing for centuries on the glassy waters of the Ægean Sea, and being fanned by the luscious breezes of Tempe, can be recognised as a descendant of the Surya Vansa. It is with a feeling of pride that we trace the history of the battle which man has been waging with external circumstances ever since he set his foot upon earth. While these always leave their impress upon him, he in the end always subdues and bends them to his will. But a review of this struggle also teaches us to set a proper value on the achievements of modern times. We, that within the modern epoch have risen from the depths of barbarism to a high point of culture, are amazed to discover monuments of the arts of a date so old as utterly to dismay us. We stand in gaping wonder at the sculptured stones that are dug up from Nineveh, and at the science and literature of the East in ages so very remote. In some points we have not equalled the ancients, in many we have equalled them, and in many more we have far surpassed them. And, in many cases, the degree in which we have done so can be determined very accurately, for some nations have stood still for ages. Six thousand years of thought and action have carried humanity inconceivably forward in what is noble and good; but, at every point of its progress, columa after column has been made to halt for centuries, that we in after ages might be able to track its route, and read off the successive grades of its advancement. The Anglo-Saxon race, late in commencing the march of civilisation, bat now leading the vanguard, has found its dusky brother of the East, to whom that proud position erst belonged, sunk in the lethargy of ages. His sleep has been broken by the voice of the missionary and the call of science, as well as by the rude noise of war and the hum of mammon's worshippers; and the Children of the Sun and of the Moon, merged into common brotherhood, shall soon ex-| pand their sympathies beyond the narrow bounds of nationalities, and accelerate each other's career towards the goal of human perfection.

DANGER OF Listening to flatTERERS.

Know that flatterers are the worst kind of traitors; for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing, but so shadow and paint all thy vices and follies as thou shalt never, by their will, discern good from evil, or vice from virtue. And because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the additions of other men's praises is most perilous.

EVERY intelligent reader of the INSTRUCTOR knows something about Gutta Percha. A substance whose utility ten years ago was unknown, and whose existence scarcely known, has become since then a pre-eminent exemplification of the practical tendencies of the age. Invariably the time being is the most wonderful part of the world's history. We may therefore fairly claim our last half century (as doubtless our worthy progenitors claimed theirs), not only as the most venerable, but also as the wisest epoch in the life of old Father Time.

Amongst the innumerable developments of the capacity of nature to add to human well-being, and of man's capacity to beguile the secrets from her bosom, there has never been a more striking illustration than that afforded by gutta percha. It has been made to subserve almost every condition of life. Science greets it as a desideratum; art accepts it as a unique boon. It is entering into the economy of every household. In fine the astonishment is less at its accumulating applications, than at the thought of how the world has done without it so long.

To communicate a more definite knowledge of this interesting substance, we beg for companionship on a tour through the works of the Gutta Percha Company. Thought, which travels faster than the flash along the gutta percha covered electric wire, will enable any one imaginatively disposed to join us at the works. To save trouble in discovering them, we will at once announce that they are located upon the banks of the Regent's Canal, near to the City Road, London. Nor can they be mistaken-the tall chimney, towering almost as high as the Monument, would be conspicuous anywhere. Should the visit be at any time more than imaginative, the utility of thick gutta percha 'soles' will be made manifest. The locality cannot well be invaded nor left, without its seal, in the material of mud, being attached to the visiter's habiliments. Inside the yard are stacks of gutta percha, in the state in which it leaves its native country; light, honeycomb masses, containing about half a cubic foot, and of the shape of a corpulent lapstone'-an appurtenance of the 'stall' which seems in a likely way of being superseded.

'Percha' (ch sounded as in the English word perch) is the general name of the trees that produce the gutta,' or gum that exudes from them. Both are Malayan words. Like the caoutchouc, the gutta percha belongs to the natural order Sapotacea, or plants that give a milky juice. It is, however, not indigenous to so great an area as the India-rubber plant. While the latter flourishes in every part of the torrid zone, the former is confined to a large space indeed, but only a portion of the East Indies, and generally amongst the islands. Fears were once entertained that limited bounds would limit the supply. Premature fears; for with vastly increased and increasing demands, they have been almost forgotten. Singapore is the depot of the trade, but new districts are constantly being added to those from which supplies have come. Each year, instead of an augury of the last consignment, gives proof of more exhaustless abundance. Sir James Brook says, 'The tree is called niato by the Sarawak people, but they are not acquainted with the properties of its sap. It attains a considerable size, even six feet diameter, and, most probably, it is plentiful all over Borneo.' A more natural apprehension of its failure arose from a wanton 'kill the goose to get the egg' devastation of trees by the natives. The sap circulates in little, black, capil

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lary vessels between the bark and the body of the tree. To collect it, the natives would fell a magnificent specimen of a century's growth, the produce of which would be of little more than four shillings' value. There is no property in the forest trees of Malacca and parts in the vicinity, so that any other method than 'felling' would not be so immediately productive. European skill will prevent the extermination system continuing long, and multiply the growth of trees by regular culture, and also acclimatise them in countries where they are not indigenous.

The Gutta Percha Company has endeavoured to promote the method of tapping the trees. This is done by making regular incisions in the trunk, from which the juice flows in the same manner as the maple sugar of America, or the gum of our own plum-tree. The sap flows freely. Although a great supply is not so readily gained by this means, yet the development of the tree is scarcely hindered, and it is ready to be tapped again in three or four years. Before the fluid solidifies, which it does very quickly, women work it up into the masses to which our attention was drawn. The Portuguese, Dutch, and English nations have, the one or the other, been in the neighbourhood of the gutta percha tree for nearly 350 years, and yet it never became known to them. Its vast utility has been attested by the extreme rapidity of the growth of the trade. In 1843, was imported, 20,600 lbs.; five years afterwards, the amount was more than 3,000,000 lbs.; and each succeeding year has increased the amount in a degree proportionate.

Chemically, the substance is a carburet of hydrogen. Its analysis is almost identical with that of caoutchouc by Dr Faraday, and it presents the anomalous phenomenon of contracting in boiling water, directly opposed to all the laws of heat.

Dr Montgomery has the merit of first pointing out its valuable properties, and received the gold medal of the Society of Arts for a very valuable acquisition to modern discoveries. He very modestly says, 'I may not arrogate to myself the actual discovery of gutta percha.' As far back as 1822, he knew of the existence of the tree. While making inquiries at Singapore about caoutchouc, several fine specimens were brought to him; one, in particular, named 'gutta girek,' of a softer nature than gutta percha, or gutta tuban, as it is more properly called. The doctor was recalled to the Bengal presidency, and had no opportunity of prosecuting his inquiries for twenty years. In 1843, he drew public attention to it. Previous to its introduction then, it was quite unknown to Europeans, but it was known to a very few of the inhabitants of certain Malayan forests. From the trifling uses to which it was applied, it was likely enough to have remained unknown, being used only occasionally for handles to parangs (woodchoppers), instead of wood or horn.

We shall find, at the works in the City Road, that the workmen have found it advantageous for somewhat similar duties. Their knives, barrows, and baskets, have the handles encased in gutta percha. It possesses a slight but sensible elasticity, which makes it more pleasing to the touch than wood or any other material.

There is no substance which ever became applied to so many useful purposes in so short a time as gutta percha. Novel appliances multiply every day. Most of these are the design of the workmen here. Amongst the 200 engaged, are a good many clever fellows." So says the gentleman who acts as our cicerone, and visiters will not doubt it who see their dexterous manipulations. Uses increase with such rapidity, that the question promises to be, not, 'To what can it be applied?' but, To what purposes can it not be applied?'

The works of the Gutta Percha Company comprise an extensive series of workrooms, varied in their operations as in their appearance. We shall enter amongst the steam-boilers and engines. If not quite distracted with the noise, with the novelty and the multifariousness of the operations, our attention will first be claimed by what is called the cutting machine. A modern chaff-cutter with a circular wheel bears some resemblance to it,

only this is vastly more massive, and the trough is made to incline. Blades corrresponding to those in the chaffcutter are fixed into the heavy disc or wheel, and made to extend a little towards the trough. Into the trough are put the blocks; and, as the wheel revolves at the rate of 200 turns a-minute, they are sliced up, thick or thin, according as the cutting instruments are disposed. Injury to the machine and annoyance to the workman not unfrequenty occur, owing to tricks of dishonesty which the Malays have very quickly learnt. Purchases are made by weight, and, to increase this, earthy matter is continually mixed with the gutta percha, and sometimes even a large stone is put in the centre of a block. Unless the stone be very large, it is not possible to detect it at the time of purchase. Injury to the apparatus cannot easily be guarded against.

Purification is indispensable, and, fortunately, the impurities are removed without great difficulty. Each slice presents a face full of sinuous markings, which give it a pretty and variegated aspect, but one it does not keep. Hurled into a tank of boiling water, the whole forms into a soft mass, and a good deal of the impurities sink to the bottom. Two steam-engines of 50 horse power propel the cutting machine, besides setting in motion most of the other machinery.

Those who have had the advantage of inspecting a papermill, will recognise several processes which gutta percha undergoes. When softened, it is submitted to the action of a machine like the engine for rending the linen rags, and technically called the teazer. It consists of a large cylinder enclosed in a box. The cylinder is set with jagged spikes, which work against corresponding teeth in the box. Going at the rate of 600 or 800 revolutions a-minute, the mass is torn into shreds, and all extraneous matter is released. The process of cleansing is simplified very much, from the fact that the gutta percha does not blend with these foreign matters so as to produce a compound substance, but only mixes mechanically with them. Though softened, it does not become adhesive; and some times it is cleansed by the simple operation of rolling it out to a thin sheet, and then picking and brushing the surface. The shreds fall into a tank of cold water, upon which they float, and from which they are removed to be subjected to a second boiling. When again softened, it is ready for kneading, a process similar in principle to that of the same name of a more domestic character. Machinery is brought into requisition here, and strong machinery, too. A great roller, with a surface like the grinding cylinder of a coffee-mill, only infinitely larger, moves horizontally upon its axis in a metal compartment in the floor. A man throws in a bushel at a time, of what, at little risk, might be pronounced warm chocolate-paste. While we gaze, it gradually disappears. The apparatus-or masticator, as it is called-monster-like, seems to have an inordinate penchant for the delicacy, and disposes of an unlimited amount down its capacious throat. A thorough' mastication' ensues inside. Every hard particle is broken up, and a homogeneous mass formed by the rolling, and squeezing, and grinding it receives. It is now quite pure, and in a condition for any of the subsequent manipulations in which it may be called upon to take a part. In this stage of its manufacture it is best fitted to mix with other substances. Already very many compounds of gutta percha have been formed. If greater elasticity be required, it gains it by the mixture of caoutchouc; if hardness, combination with sulphur, or the metallic sulphurets, will give it. Metallo-thianised by this latter (a patent) process, it becomes hard as ebony, and can be applied to most purposes for which wood and ivory are generally used. The bulk of the gutta percha is formed into 'sheeting,' which is accomplished by placing it, while soft, upon bands of felt, and passing it between two steel rollers, a process, in fact, much like to that of rolling lead. The felt bands afterwards take the sheet a long journey, over and under, up and down, for the purpose of cooling it. To aid in doing so, when the material is thick or weather warm, the surface is fanned and blown upon in its course. The thick

ness of the sheet is regulated by the distance the rollers are set apart; and to such nicety can this be done, that an integument is manufactured to supersede oiled silk for bathing and hydropathic prescriptions. At the end of the journey, it is wound off, cold and hard, upon a drum, to a length unlimited.

But the form of sheeting is only one of its useful phases. Nearly the earliest use to which gutta percha was put was that of driving bands.' The French use it for little else yet. Its suitability for the duty has been much controverted. Any visiter to the company's works would think it fully established. There they are to be seen in every part of the building, applied in a variety of ways, and, amongst others, that of driving the machine which serves to cut them out. Making bands is a simple operation. Let us pass on the sheet just now rolled upon the drum, and it will reach a framework, in the top bar of which are fixed and suspended a number of knives cutting vertically. Their distance from each other varies according to the breadth of the bands required. As the sheet passes under them, it is divided into strips of an indefinite length, which, in their turn, are wound off upon drums. What outery has arisen against their use has been owing to their misuse. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, the eminent brewers, testify to a saving of £30 a-year in driving bands, by their employment. Skill is required in nicely joining them, but the skill is readily gained by those who follow the simple directions of the company. If these are too troublesome, why, the old leather strap, with its paraphernalis of buckles and hooks and eyes, had better be resumed. Where it is necessary that bands cross, friction should be avoided. as causing heat-an enemy to gutta percha which cannot be resisted, and just as great a friend.

From the sheet and bands, innumerable useful things are formed. Industrial and domestic economy tax them both. In a room removed a little from the din and bissing of the steam-engine, is to be seen a machine for cutting the bands into squares, and another for fashioning these squares into 'soles.' Both are done by pressure. In the first case, a sharp-edged instrument, and, in the second, a sharp-edged mould, similar to what is used for cutting out envelopes, only of the shape required for a shoe, descends with irresistible pressure, and cuts through half a dozen pieces at once. A die imprints the sign-manual (if such it may be yclept) upon each sole, and they are ready for sale. Space will not permit a dissertation upon the merits of this novel improvement of our understanding.' Thirty words will suffice to refer to one or two of its advantages. It is absolutely repellant of water, and a bad conductor of heat. If gutta percha soles were worn, colds from wet feet would be scarcer, and chilblains unknown. We may put in a word for the shoemaker also, who would be saved all the ills from contracted chest, if folks could be persuaded that 'nothing like leather' is invalid. Accumulated attestations-from the clergy, the army, and the police force-relative to the durability and other excellences of these soles, are possessed by the company, and published in their prospectuses.

At a corner of an adjacent bench, a young man may be seen moulding, to all appearance, a brown earthenware pitcher. His only tools are, fingers, boiling water, and the mould. His hands glide over the plastic material, detecting a 'wale' in a moment, and filling up every interstice. Even while we look, he turns out of hand a neatly finished kitchen utensil. Close to his elbow is a shopmate manufacturing a bucket, which has no staves and wants no hoops. Observing him, we learn the method of fastening the various parts of an article. He puts on s rim, by first rubbing over the surface a solution of coal naphtha, then evaporating the naphtha and warming the surface by means of a gas jet. The naphtha cleanses the surface, as well as disposes it to 'take' the piece to be joined on. His fingers dexterously manage the rest. A softened piece is rolled out to an appropriate length, and gently pressed round into its position. If disposed to obstinacy, an application of the jet makes it instantly tractable. The gas-pipe is gutta percha; and

in a remote department, a fellow-officer maybe, who 'canna be fashed' to come, wishes to communicate with him. He has, therefore, blown at his end of the tube, a distance of fifty, sixty, or a hundred yards, and produced the musical phenomenon we chance to hear. He to whom the intimation is given, removes a little whistle from his end, and replies with a like gentle puff, then listens. The effect is amusing; not unlike the sounds produced by a good ventriloquist, when imitating a distant speakerperfectly audible and clear, yet seeming as though they had travelled far. Let us hold a short conversation; not an imaginary one, but the repetition of what actually took place only a few days ago.

The Scotch seem generally to have no fondness for picture-books; do you know how that is?'

I really cannot tell; unless it be that the proprietors make literary merit the exclusive basis of their claims upon the public.'

Now let our readers imagine that such a message-tube had a mouthpiece where the knob of the Night Bell' usually is on the door-post of a surgeon's house, and that it communicated with the bedside of the surgeon. If, perchance, a reader be such functionary, he will, or ought, to hail a contrivance that substitutes a passing of symptoms' and 'directions' between the door and the bed, for rising on a frosty night and exposure to the bleak air. Speaking-tubes are also suggested as a communication between the man on the look-out' and the helmsman, or the captain in his cabin. Gutta percha is as antagonistic to salt water as to fresh. It will, without doubt, become a sine quá non with every shipmaster for buckets, &c., and by every seaman for 'sou'westers.' Already it is made into life-buoys, more buoyant than cork, speakingtrumpets, sheathing, cord which does not sink in the water, and other things, a host.

Ornamental sound-receivers have been fixed to the pulpits of some churches, with tubes passing to the pews of the deaf members of the congregation. By this means, many a one to whom the sound of a sermon had long been strange, has had cause of thankfulness for the introduction of gutta percha. Another application of the same principle has given us a conversation-tube for a railway carriage. With it two individuals may hold an animated debate, without edifying their neighbours with one word. This little instrument, about a yard long, is one of the greatest curiosities in the show-rooms. By placing one end to the ear, and whispering in the lowest tone possible at the other, the voice may actually be heard louder than it issued from the lips. Most useful would it be to one whose voice failed, as voices do sometimes; or to one in the habit of conversing with himself as people sometimes are. If the end be placed against the watch-pocket, the ticking becomes so preternatural that we are ready to believe, if the watch had stopped, yet so excellent a sound-tube would convey at least a faint tick.

Gutta percha tubing, truly, is invaluable. In chemistry it is used for conveying oils, and acids, and alkalies. Only strong nitric or sulphuric acid seems to touch it. This inertness with the acids makes it useful in manifold ways beside tubing. With dilute nitric it is used by the refiners as a coating to their various vessels. Glass 'carboys' to contain muriatic acid have almost become things that were. Pipes of this acid, secure in gutta percha, are now constantly travelling in every direction upon the railways, the directors of which, a few years ago, would not suffer it to be conveyed on any consideration what

ever.

We must not leave the premises without a look at the most recent application of gutta percha. Of course, that is as a covering for the telegraph wire. It is hardly possible that that wonderful triumph of human intellect, by which a thought breathed in Britain is imprinted on s foreign strand, even while in its birth-throes, would yet have awaited man, without the aid of gutta percha. Amongst the multifarious operations, there is not one that requires so much care as in the covering of this wire. It is made by thousands of miles! In the room appropriated to this work we may see coils of wire representing distances that would have startled our grandsires. We have heard of such lengths of wire being sunk in the neighbouring canal-a most convenient storeroom-that we would not dare mention, for fear our authenticity should be questioned in that and other matters.

The machinery employed in the preparation of the covered telegraph wire is thus described:- Two pairs of heated, polished, iron flatting rollers, one vertically above the other, are fed with soft gutta percha cylinders, which they deliver on the other side as flattened sheets. These are made to travel onward, and in the interval between them there also travels a row of copper wires. These i. e., the parallel sheets of gutta percha, and the intervening wires-all meet between a pair of grooved cutting rollers, not quite close together. The grooves are, of course, the size of the required casing, and each wire precisely hits the centre of a groove. The whole therefore appears on the other side as a band of covered wires, which may either be left together, as in the telegraph for railway tunnels, or pulled apart into single pieces. The wires thus encased are soaked for a considerable time in water, which is sure to find out any flaw, though invisible to the eye, which would prevent complete insulation.' In this way the sub-marine telegraph was manufactured The single wires receive two or three coats of the soft substance, and in the end are wound off upon a wheel at a distance. In part the process resembles wire-drawing, looked at through strong spectacles; except, indeed, that the wire is not lengthened nor lessened in bulk (very modest exceptions truly). Before winding on the wheel it glides through the hands of a youth, who by practice becomes expert enough to detect the minutest flaw. Several tests are applied to prove the perfect insulation of the wire. The last of all is that of sending an electric charge through a large coil. If they stand the trial, they are pronounced fit for use.

Space will not permit us to indicate half the useful and ornamental things placed before us at the gutta perchs works. We must introduce irregularly a few more exemplifications of its wondrous utility, and conclude. 'Embossing' is a work that promises to extend itself. Raised maps and globes, for general purposes of teaching, and raised reading lessons for the blind, are made with comparative facility. Already it is greatly used in surgery. A solution in naphtha, which latter evaporates, and leaves the gutta percha uninjured, is used to procure sheets of exceeding tenuity. As a balsam for wounds, this solution will quite supersede the objectionable 'gold-beater's skin,' or patch of court-plaster.' Splints moulded to the shape of the fractured limb, have been used with great success. In one case recorded, that of 'broken jaw' from the kick of a horse, the patient was enabled to eat after three days, a fact unparalleled. The vastly greater comfort of these splints can only be avouched by an unfortunate patient. Stereotype plates have been made. The clearness and sharpness of edge and purity of form, when moulded, make it well suited for this purpose. As many as 20,000 impressions have been taken from an experimental plate at the works, and the woodcuts and text seem as fresh as at first.

It was brought into notice in the form of a horsewhip. We may not spare a sentence to speak of the number of whips now manufactured. Nor can we refer in detail to the gutta percha boats which were found of such eminent use in the search after Sir John Franklin. Nor of the thanks due to gutta percha, from the beautiful science of