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without effort, strong." It betrays no" ardour to adorn,' He neither resorted to catch-texts, nor to catchtopics. For months in succession, he expounded the peculiar doctrines of Methodism to minds which had been steeped from infancy in Calvinistic dogmas. Popularity, as an end, he neither sought, nor could be satisfied with. But his sermons were carefully prepared-a pile of them is now in our possession. He knew full well that it were fanatical to hope for excellence as a preacher any more than as a medical practitioner, without indefatigable painstaking. Simplicity of plan and oneness of impression would lend a novel charm to his discourses, for a Scottish audience; extreme prolixity being characteristic of the national divinity of the day; insomuch that studying it strongly reminds one of going a nutting in the tangled wildwood, with all its ways and by-ways, paths and cross-paths, turns and sub-turns, so that without incessant looking back one must inevitably get confused and lost. His appearing twice a week in the same pulpit gave him purchase over the public mind. Once on the Sunday, and one week evening, is the normal number of times for addressing the same congregation. Had he been rolling round a Circuit, Sabbath after Sabbath, he would have "gathered "very little ministerial "moss."

He thus notes the close of his three years' ministry at Haddington:

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By the Conference of 1820, he was appointed to the Edinburgh Circuit as third minister, his residence being at Dalkeith; where he took the pulpit always on the weekevenings, and two Sundays out of three; the third being usually spent at Edinburgh. He soon became as great a power in Dalkeith as he had ever been at Haddington, but seems to have been more directly and traceably successful in the conversion of souls. Edinburgh was too large and pre-occupied a city to be deeply and widely moved by a visit once in three weeks, frequently intermitted through the mortal illness of his wife. In April, 1821, after months of painful decline, his wife died. He is perhaps the only Methodist minister who was bridegroom and widower during his probation. His diary contains many touching references to this affliction, e.g.:

"Septr. 3rd, 1820. This is the day of the Lord.... The country perspective is exquisitely beautiful. When I look into the street, only an occasional passenger is seen to step silently along, like an individual observed to pass... impressed with awe, from within and again into, the precincts of a court. Blessed are the courts of Thy house! I am surrounded with spiritual privileges and temporal blessings; but there is a worm at the root of every earthly gourd of protection and shade. My Ann... Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!'

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"Nov. 17th. In a week from this date four months will have elapsed since it pleased God to lay His hand on the wife of my youth; and alas, how very little have I profited by this long-continued affliction Death has been the frequent subject of my thoughts, but that has not, as it should have done, attached me to Christ. The prospect that... the light of my eyes may be taken from me... when it wrings tears of agony from me, does not always lead me to Christ. . . . She has not been able to read, and only now and then to hear reading. God of mercy, wilt Thou take away

(To be concluded.)

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42

NOTES ON THE SCIENCE OF THE MONTH.

BY THE REV. W. H. DALLINGER, F.R.M.S.

THE relation existing between comets and meteors is now firmly established. We have from time to time pointed out the facts on which this generalization is based. Confirmatory evidence is constantly being adduced by collateral experiment; especially from the researches of chemists. It was Professor Graham who first proved that meteorites contained hydrogen which must have been occluded under immense pressure: and it was in course of observation shown that precisely these conditions existed when eruptions occurred in the glowing envelope of the sun. Solid and gaseous matter is driven out to vast distances through an atmosphere of hydrogen-hence meteorites are the erupted matter of innumerable suns wandering about in space, and as the several suns bear their vassal worlds through the trackless abysms of space these wandering masses of erupted matter are compelled into orbits, in common with the larger nebulous masses which are vagrant through space, and become comets, and eventually by the "lagging behind" of their gaseous and incohesive matter become meteor streams and fall into the sun and on the planets meteors-a large source of supply as fuel to the sun.

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Professor Wright of Yale College has been making some very interesting and instructive experiments on the meteorites which have fallen on the earth. The spectroscope was the instrument employed. He found hydrogen, the carbon oxydes and the spectra of nitrogen

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and oxygen. No new substancesuch as has been indicated in the solar corona-could be discovered. But meteorites differ in structure, some of them being much more stony in nature than others. of these fell in Iowa on February the 12th, 1875, and on examining this with great care he found that it gave off carbon dioxyde, with a small admixture of hydrogen, when gently heated; while at a red heat this state of things was reversed; the hydrogen being most powerfully present. In fact, the spectrum obtained was exactly that which Mr. Huggins has obtained from the nuclei of comets; the hydrogen band being wholly lost by the strength of the three bright bands of the carbon spectrum. The inferences made from these observations are-1. That stony meteorites are distinguished from iron ones by having as their chief gaseous components oxydes of carbon. 2. The proportion of carbon dioxyde given off is greater at low than at high temperatures. From which we may conclude that the temperature of even the nuclei of comets is not high. 3. The amount of these gases contained in a large meteorite or group of such, is enough to give the spectrum which the nuclei of comets afford. 4. The spectra of the meteorite and that of several observed comets are identical.

It would thus appear that a comet is composed, as was keenly surmised by many, of the materials which make up meteorites. The components are in all probability

in a discreet condition and give off carbon dioxyde under solar heat, and the gaseous carbons being driven off and streaming away into space, reflect solar light and partly account for the phenomena of tails. But this latter certainly not altogether. There are phenomena in relation to these enormous material extensions called "tails" which are yet wholly inexplicable.

In further elucidation of this very fascinating subject, M. G. Tissandier sends to the French Academy the results of his examination of the powder which he has collected from the air at great altitudes. This dust is found to be largely composed of rounded and pear-shaped corpuscles which are attracted by the magnet and are composed of magnetic oxyde of iron. Their origin he believes to be cosmical-that is to say that they come into us from space as the débris of meteorites which have been fused in their passage through the air and dissipated as microscopic dust.

P. Secchi gives the results of his continued researches upon the sun; the sun-spots and prominences, or flames, which are erupted from the sun's glowing envelopes. The observations have been continuous since 1871, during which time the spots have passed from the period of maximum size and frequency towards that of minimum. He has been able to determine (1) That the daily number of prominences has diminished regularly from fifteen to four, and the minimum does not yet appear to have been reached. (2) The area over which the spots extend has diminished in even a more marked

degree. (3) The great eruptions of metallic vapours have entirely ceased since the large spots have disappeared; thus making clear the

close connection between them. (4) The height of the prominences has not diminished much; while the brightest parts of the solar photosphere, which in 1871 were found nearest the poles, have disappeared wholly from that region, and are now confined to the zones in which spots are usually found. When it is remembered that there is a close connection between the sun-spot periods, and the periods of greatest and least magnetic disturbances on our earth, the value of such observations is clear.

Another interesting fact in reference to solar matters is the determination by Mr. Baxendall of a direct relation between solar spots and the amount of solar radiation. There can be little question that the variation in the solar surface, arising from the greater or less number of solar spots, affects its light-giving power to the worlds far out beyond us; so that in fact our central star is in the strictest sense "variable "sometimes brighter and at other times when the spots are largest and most numerous-far less brilliant. Mr. Baxendall's observations show that with the number of the spots the intensity of the sun's heat increases and diminishes. But the result is remarkable; when the solar radiation is greatest the earth's heat is least:

but this arises from the fact that greater radiation of solar heat means greater evaporation from the surface of the ocean; hence more moisture in the air; and from this very cause less of the sun's rays reach the earth's surface; and so by evaporation a greater cooling results. Now the largest portion of the earth's surface is covered by water, and so the principal result of increased solar radiation is increased evaporation

from the water-area of the earth, which by increasing the moisture simply diminishes the heat we receive.

Since our November "Notes" a remarkable series of additions to the asteroids has been made. On November the 1st and 2nd, M. Palisa discovered two. In little more than a week afterwards M. Paul Henry discovered a third and M. Prosper Henry a fourth, and M. Palisa a fifth, and shortly after this the same observer discovered a sixth. This brings up the number to one hundred and fifty-six; making six planetary discoveries in a month, and sixteen in a year.

M. Flammarion has given some very interesting evidence lately confirming previous observations as to the rapid and remarkable changes which are taking place in the zones of the planet Jupiter. These changes are both in the colour and form of the zones and are such as could not be produced by the influence of the sun. They clearly indicate activity on the planet itself, which can only be accounted for by the action of heat. Jupiter is almost certainly going through geologic changes which are fitting him for future habitation. Meanwhile he probably affords heat to his four moons which makes habitation on them possible.

For some years evidence has been offered tending to prove that it is possible for living forms to exist at very high temperatures in hot springs. Nature's capacity to adapt organism to circumstance is most marked and the objection raised by some Biologists to the facts on account of the changes which temperature effects on albuminous substances is we believe weak; for the chemistry of the living organism differs very widely

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from that of the dead one. Wyman collected recently observations to prove that plants are to be found in springs at over 200° Fahr. Cohn, who is a careful observer, had found in the Carlsbad springs no vegetation at a higher temperature than about 125° Fahr., while Max Schultze made experiments to prove that protoplasm stiffened in plant cells at less than 110° Fahr. But surely no inference can be made from this. Cohn, who takes a very moderate view shows that plant-life may be vigorous at a very much higher temperature than this; and to take living plants whose life habitat has been in moderate temperatures, and subject them suddenly to higher ones is not to give them the same chance as nature affords by way of adaptation. There can be very little doubt that lowly forms can exist, after continuous survival, at temperatures not much below 150° Fahr.

Dr. Du Chaumont has been recently dealing with the question of the relation between food and work in organized beings. For a long period in the history of physiology, it was held as true that bodily force was due to chemical change in the muscles themselves, and that the nitrogenous matter in food repaired the waste. Recent

researches into the relation of heat to work, resulting in the great law of the conservation of energy, have led to the conclusion that active force in the body is produced chiefly by the potential energy stored up in the carboniferous food, which is set free by oxydation. By direct calculation it appears from experiment that the work done in walking three miles an hour is equal to about one-tenth the work done by a direct ascent; a hard

day's work would be equivalent to walking twenty-four miles in eight hours. Helmholtz calculates that five times as much energy is used in the internal work of the body as is expended in ordinary productive work; and in cases of severe work the proportion of internal work to productive work is still greater. The greatest amount of potential energy possible for a continuance is seven thousand foot-tons; and this would yield six hundred foot-tons of productive work.

The recent publication of the results of his long labours on Drosera rotundifolia and kindred insectivorous plants, to which we briefly referred in our last " Notes " has taken away the last feature which was held to distinguish the vegetable from the Animal Kingdom. In the earlier days of Biology, it was held that motion was a distinctive test of an animal as opposed to a vegetable but it is now known that while there are animals far less capable of motion than the cedars of Lebanon, there are vegetables swifter in their motion than the eagle or the swallow. In the same way sensitiveness was once held as peculiarly animal: it is now shown* that there are plants more delicate in their tactile sensibility than man himself.

The "budding" and "grafting" known to appertain to vegetables is equally manifest in the animal world; there are animals which if cut into a hundred pieces would simply

* See this Magazine. P. 571. 1875.

BOOK

The Course Fulfilled. A Sermon preached in City Road Chapel, London, September 6th, 1875, on the Death of the Rev. Charles Prest, General Secretary of Wesleyan Home Missions. With a Sketch of the Life and Services of

become a hundred animals. Circulation of a vital fluid is as much vegetable as animal: breathing, sleeping, and even the capacity to become intoxicated, belongs to plants. But it was long held that the great, indeed the only difference between the two kingdoms was that whilst the animal could only feed on prepared organic compounds, the vegetable could elaborate an organic compound from inorganic elements. It has been noted in this Magazine that the former hypothesis can be no longer maintained, for animals have been proved to elaborate their lifesubstance from simple inorganic elements of a suitable kind; and it has long been known that there were plants, such as the mistletoe, which were parasitic upon others, and could only live by the organic juices provided by their host: and now it is proved that there are whole genera of plants that depend very little on their roots for sustenance, but they are provided with elaborate sensitive organs and perfect digestive apparatus for appropriating organic substances of the highest structure-which indeed must have animal matter, to live. There is consequently no universal distinction left between the two great "Kingdoms;" and whilst it is as true as ever that popular distinction is easy-as for example between a horse and a cucumber, or a rose-bush and a monkey-yet to science the two "Kingdoms' form together one great organic whole.

JOURNAL.

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the Deceased, and a Plea for the Mission Work he officially represented. By FREDERICK J. JOBSON, D.D. London: Published for the Author at the Wesleyan Conference Office. This Sermon is valuable and well

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