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      Aimttst 11,1855.] The Lu. A. B B R. Sftl

      AimtTST 11 , 1855 . ] THE LU . A . B B R . Sftl

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      Critics Are Not The Legislators, Bat The...

      Critics are not the legislators , bat the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws — they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Oust Readers Have All Heard Of The Caled...

      Oust readers have all heard of the Caledonian Cremona , an instrument upon which no one plays , except in the way of witticism , for by a " transmutation of species" not clearly made out this Fiddle is developed from a parasitic animal , known to naturalists as the Acarus , and only so developed when a favourable nidus presents itself . In the last number of the Annales deP Sciences Naturclles there is a paper of great interest by M . Boukguignost detailing his experiftieuts and observations on the contagion of this cuticular disturbance , which is named to ears polite only under a musical periphrasis . He took some of these Acari from a diseased horse , and tried in vain to innoculate himself therewith . He then tried the effect of these Acari taken from a man , and placed upon dogs , cats , rabbits and birds , without success . These experiments were multiplied , till he came to the conclusion that contagion wns not possible between animals of different species , each animal

      having a parasite peculiarly his own . But this conclusion , which seemed so well founded , was suddenly overthrown by the discovery that the Acarus of the sheep might be placed on the skins of healthy sheep without effect . What did this meau ? Was contagion impossible ? Was spontaneous generation possible ? The question became important . M . Bourguignon euspeeted that the reason why healthy sheep were not susceptible was simply because they were healthy , and afforded no fitting nidus for the growth and propagation of the parasite . To test this suspicion he fed the sheep on a poor diet , and after three months of this regimen they were so susceptible that a few Acari were sufficient to give them a mortal disease . This result is important , although it is only another confirmation of the biological law of the necessary relation between an organism and a surrounding medium . The spores of fungi float in millions past healthy trees ; it is only when they arrive at one decaying that they find a home .

      In the same number of the Annales there is a third memoir of M . Camiixe Dakeste on the " Convolutions of the Brain in Mammalia , " in which extensive investigations in comparative anatomy are brought forward to show that the convolutions do not by any means follow the order of intellectual development ; on the contrary , in each species the convolutions are in each family in relation to the size of the animal , and where the size is variable , tho same family will be found to contain convoluted brains and smooth brains , although no one thinks of attributing less intelligence to the small species than to the large species . M . Dareste observes , moreover , that in the same brain these convolutions are often different in different hemispheres . Valuable as his memoirs are , they are , as he feels , by no means conclusive ; but they serve to swell the mass of evidence which the physiology of the nervous system has of late years assembled to show how much is still to be done before a deflnite and certain basis can be secured .

      This * Is The Season When All Who Can Qu...

      This * is the season when all who can quit London are departing , or preparing to depart , for the Continent or the sea-side . Let not our migratory readers settling on the coast forget to indulge themselves , and slaughter time , by minute inspection of the " Wonders of the Shore ; " Crustacea or jelly-fishes may not , indeed , be so amusing , and arc not so wonderful as the bipeds toddling on tho sands , followed by demurer bipeds armed with new novels and " uglies ; " nevertheless , you can study the toddlers elsewhere , and ogle the demure bipeds in "halls of dazzling light , " but you cannot elsewhere examine the acaleph , or watch the voracious polype . Nor need those condemned to stay at home be without their recreations itt natural history . Objects abound . The nearest pond will furnish material for a life-time . Listen , reader , to a recital of one among the many

      facile pleasures within your reach . Wo will not touch on the fresh-water polypes , so many amusing accounts have been published of them and their Trays ; we leave you to seek in books the wonders of insect-life ; we will for the present only introduce you to a few tadpoles , such as next June and July you may easily make personal acquaintance with . This summer wo devoted to a close study of frog tadpoles and toad tadpoles , trying various experiments on them ; and growing so attached to them , that when , after ftn incautious exposure of them to a noonday sun , we returned home and found one brood ( lead , our grief was .... But this tadpole tragedy must not bo dwelt on longer . Remember it , and profit by our experience , tadpoles cannot bear the summer sun , at least not when in glass eases . Keep them warm by all means , but keep them from the far-darting Apollo . Let us suppose next Jmui arrived . You go into the fields , peer curiously in

      tho ponds , nnd among the greon which mantles on the face of tho water you Observe little fiahes which seem all head and tail . Catch n dozen of these , and bring with you in the jug a little of the weed which grow * on the water . Placo them in a glass jar , such as h used for gold fish , ami then you ean Watch them for hours with perfect case . The weed disposes itself gracefully . A few water insects vary the scene . But the tadpoles aro sufficient to absorb you . After a while two little bud-like processes are observed under the tail ; these grow and grow until you perceive that your supposed fish have got legs , and very human-looking legs too , for the calf ia evident . If

      you know how to dissect , and are dexterous , you may now take one . of these tadpoles , and removing the skin wbfch covers its ch « st , yon will perceive two arms folded up beside the gills ; which said arms you will without dissection , in process of time , observe making their appearance externally , like the legs ; and then you must take care to place stones , or some other restingplace , in your jar , in order that the tadpole may exercise , his incipient lungs by coming out of the water to breathe the fresh air . The tail now gradually becomes absorbed ; and the frog , which has been daily assuming more and more of the familiar aspect , is ready to hop into space . What can be simpler ? Who cannot get a glass jar and a dozen tadpoles ? With such simple means we promise you a great treat , which you will know how to multiply according to your philosophic interest in natural processes , or your invention in devising experiments . If you cannot afford to keep a small vivarium , you can at least amuse yourself in the way just described .

      The Books On The War Are Becoming Less N...

      The Books on the War are becoming less numerous , but the war poets multiply . Nay , our contemporary , the Athenaeum , advances the proposition that only in times of war have poetic voices been heard . We think the coincidences noted are coincidences , and not causally related ; but the question is too wide to be disposed of in a sentence , and instead of arguing it , we will turn to Shakspeabe for a passage , which is quite in accordance with the temper of the times ; it is from Coriolanus , in that inimitable scene where the servants of Tuu . cs Acfidics discover who it is they have treated with contumely , and discover also that they knew all the while there was something in him— " He had , sir , a kind of face , methought—I cannot tell how to term it . " Well , these fellows talk of war : — 2 nd Servant . This peace is nothing , but to rust iron , increase tailors , and breed ballad-makers .

      1 st Servant . Let me have war , say I : it exceeds peace as far as day doe 3 night ; it ' s spritely , waking , audible , and full of vent . Peace is a very apoplexy , lethargy ; mulled , ' deaf , sleepy , insensible ; a getter of more bastard children than war ' s a destroyer of men . . . . Ay , and it makes men hate one another . 3 rd Servant . Reason : because they then less need one another .

      Bain On The Senses And The Intellect. Th...

      BAIN ON THE SENSES AND THE INTELLECT . The Senses and the Intellect . By Alexander Bain , A . M . J . W . Parker and Son Tots is a very considerable contribution to Psychology . It is a treatise in many respects novel , and always elaborate , on the Senses and the Intellect ; clear in its exposition , rich in facts , suggestive in views , and free from any hinderances or pedantries of terminology . The Mind Mr . Bain considers as possessing three attributes or capacities : — First , ¦• has Feeling , in which term I include what is commonly called Sensation and Emotion . Secondly . It can Act according to Feeling . Thirdly . It can Think . The three terms , Feeling , Emotion , and Consciousness , express one and tho same fact or attribute of Mind ; but the second attribute , or Action ,

      will at first surprise the reader until he learns that Mr . Bain means by it those mental actions which take place under the prompting and guidance of Feeling . The whole of these feeling-prompted actions are ranged under the term Volition . In the present volume only the Senses and the Intellect are . considered ; a future volume is to complete the treatise by an exposition of the Emotions and the Will . The girst Book , which is on the Senses , is the best and most exhaustive treatise on that subject our language possesses . Placing himself at the true physiological point of view , he describes the nervous system in general as a fit introduction to the special instances of nervous action in the senses . " The current character of the nerve force , " he says , " leads to a considerable departure from the common mode of viewing the

      position of the brain as the organ of mind . We have seen that the cerebrum is a mixed mass of grey and white matter—the matter of centres and the matter of conduction . Both are required in any act of the brain known tous . The smallest cerebral operation includes the transmission of an influence from one centre to another centre : from a centre to an extremity , or the reverse . The organ of mind is not the brain by itself ; it is the brain , nerves , muscles , and organs of sense . " This view of nervous action he justly considers a complete refutation of the common notion of a sensonwn within the brain—a sort of inner chamber where impressions are stored up for reproduction on some future day . It is the man who thinks ; not the brain only ; not an entity having a shadowy residence somewhere in the

      bruin . . _ , _ , . The result of this mode of conceiving mind is seen m Mr . Bam s exposition of the senses , especially in that admirable and novel attempt to write the Natural History of the Feelings upon a uniform descriptive method . Ihus he not only explains each sense , both in its organ and function , but he describes and classifies it in its psychial characteristics . One sense is shown to have the property -of pre-eminently exciting emotional and volitional The sensations ot the ali

      operations , another of exciting the intellectual . - mentary canal , for example , are powerful as motors to action , but they furnish the intellect with little food , since , however intense while they are present , they arc not recoverable by the intellect . Tho lmngry or ¦ tlurs , tj man is energetically prompted to action to relieve himself of the < listroasr , sen sntion , but once relieved , he cannot recnl with any <*«» " } * " «¦ . f ° ^ hi tion itself ; whereas tho sense of sight is an eminently > i xtcll ett > ' < ' ^ '; ^ cause the intellect ean recover with wonderful d » tmet ¦ " «« ^ S ? Z made by sight . Mr . Bain , further distinguishes , tho ^^ 5 ^ aS 5 at they aro voluminous , massive , or intense . In slioit , m . 1 . the precision of Natural History 5 and the very attorn > t is d would claim great praise , even ^ ^ ' ^ v ^ shouS Se to debate with Mr . There aro many points upon which we should u . ivu

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081855/page/15/