car."

Denis Papin first threw up the idea of atmospheric locomotion; and Gauthey, another Frenchman, in 1782 projected a method of conveying parcels and merchandise by subterranean tubes, after the method recently patented and brought into operation by the London Pneumatic Despatch Company. The balloon was an ancient Italian invention, revived by Mongolfier long after the original had been forgotten. Even the reaping-machine is an old invention revived. Thus Barnabe Googe, the translator of a book from the German, entitled The Whole Arte and Trade of Husbandrie, published in 1577, in the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of the reaping-machine as a worn-out invention

his mouth to curl almost imperceptibly | Drag the slow barge, and drive the rapid upwards, and a renewed lustre came into his eye, if not exactly indicative of cheerfulness, at all events of well-regulated, patient, Christian resignation. My meaning will be misunderstood if it be imagined from this picture that I suspected any hypocrisy, or an affectation of grief, in the first instance. I have no doubt, indeed, that he feels, and most acutely, the bereavements which have come upon him; but we may very fairly suppose, that among the many visitors he must have, there may be some who cannot understand that it is proper, decent, or even possible, to hide those finer emotions deep in the heart. He immediately began conversing in his usual style, the chief topic being Captain Denham (whom I had recently seen in London) and his book of African Travels, which Sir Walter had evidently read with much attention. . . . After sitting a quarter of an hour we came away, well pleased to see our friend quite unbroken in spirit, and though bowed down a little by the blast, and here and there a branch the less, as sturdy in the trunk as ever, and very possibly all the better for the discipline, better, I mean, for the public, inasmuch as he has now a vast additional stimulus for exertion, and one which all the world must admit to be thoroughly noble and generous.-Captain Hall's Diary.

OLD INVENTIONS REVIVED.

Steam locomotion, by sea and land, had long been dreamt of and attempted. Blasco de Garay made his experiment in the harbor of Barcelona as early as 1543; Denis Papin made a similar attempt at Cassel in 1707; but it was not until Watt had solved the problem of the steamengine that the idea of the steamboat could be developed in practice, which was done by Miller, of Dalswinton, in 1788. Sages and poets have frequently foreshadowed inventions of great social moment. Thus, Dr. [Erasmus] Darwin's anticipation of the locomotive, in his Botanic Garden, published in 1791, before any locomotive had been invented, might almost be regarded as prophetic:

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered Steam!

afar

a thing "which was woont to be used in France. The device was a lowe kinde of carre with a couple of wheeles, and the front armed with sharp syckles, whiche forced by the beaste through the corne, did cut down al before it. This tricke,' says Googe, "might be used in levell and champion countreys, but with us it wolde make but ill-favoured woorke." The Thames tunnel was thought an entirely new manifestation of engineering genius; but the tunnel under the Euphrates at ancient Babylon, and that under the wide mouth of the harbor at Marseilles (a much more difficult work), show that the ancients were beforehand with us in the art of tunnelling. Macadamized roads are as old as the Roman empire; and suspension bridges, though comparatively new in Europe, have been known in China for centuries.

There is every reason to believe-indeed, it seems clear-that the Romans knew of gunpowder, though they only used it for purposes of fireworks; while the secret of the destructive Greek fire has been lost altogether. When gunpowder came to be used for purposes of war, invention busied itself upon instruments of destruction. When recently examining the Museum of the Arsenal at Venice, we were surprised to find numerous weapons of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries embodying the most recent English improvements in arms, such as revolving pistols, rifled muskets, and breech-loading cannon. The latter, embodying Sir William Armstrong's modern idea, though in

a rude form, had been fished up from the bottom of the Adriatic, where the ship armed with them had been sunk hundreds of years ago. Even Perkins' steam-gun was an old invention revived by Leonardo da Vinci, and by him attributed to Archimedes. The Congreve rocket is said to have an Eastern origin, Sir William Congreve having observed its destructive effects when employed by the forces under Tippoo Saib in the Mahratta war, on which he adopted and improved the missile, and brought out the invention as his

own.

sentation of the old premises at Soho, apparently taken by some such process.

In like manner, the invention of the electric telegraph, supposed to be exclusively modern, was clearly indicated by Scherwenter in his Délassements PhysicoMathématiques, published in 1636; and he there pointed out how two individuals could communicate with each other by means of the magnetic needle. A century later, in 1746, Le Monnier exhibited a series of experiments in the Royal Gardens at Paris, showing how electricity could be transmitted through iron wire 950 fathoms in length; and in 1753 we find one Charles Marshall publishing a remarkable description of the electric telegraph in the Scots Magazine, under the title of "An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence." Again, in 1760, we find George Louis Lesage, professor of mathematics at Geneva, promulgating his invention of an electric telegraph, which he eventually completed and set to work in 1774. This instrument was composed of twenty-four metallic wires, separate from each other, and inclosed in a non-conducting substance. Each wire ended in a stalk mounted with a little ball of elder-wood, suspended by a silk thread. When a stream of electricity, no matter how slight, was sent through the bar, the elder-ball at the opposite end was repelled, such movement designating some letter of the alphabet. A few years later we find Arthur Young, in his Travels in France, describing a similar machine invented by a M. Lomond, of Paris, the action of which he also describes. In these and similar cases, though the idea was born and the model of the invention was actually made, it still waited the advent of the scientific mechanical inventor who should bring it to perfection, and embody it in a practical working form. -Industrial Biography, chap. x.

Coal-gas was regularly used by the Chinese for lighting purposes long before it was known amongst us. Hydropathy was generally practised by the Romans, who established baths wherever they went. Even chloroform is no new thing. The use of ether as an anesthetic was known to Albertus Magnus, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and in his works he gives a recipe for its preparation. In 1681 Denis Papin published his Traité des Opérations sans Douleur, showing that he had discovered methods of deadening pain. But the use of anaesthetics is much older than Albertus Magnus or Papin; for the ancients had their nepenthe and mandragora, the Chinese their mayo, and the Egyptians their hachish (both preparations of Cannabis Indica), the effects of which in a great measure resemble those of chloroform. What is perhaps still more surprising, is the circumstance that one of the most elegant of recent inventions, that of sun-painting by the daguerreotype, was in the fifteenth century known to Leonardo da Vinci, whose skill as an architect and engraver, and whose accomplishments as a chemist and natural phifosopher have been almost entirely overshadowed by his genius as a painter. The idea, thus early born, lay in oblivion until 1760, when the daguerreotype was again clearly indicated in a book published in Paris, written by a certain Tiphanie de la Roche, under the anagrammatic title of Giphantie. Still later, at the beginning of the present century, we find Josiah Wedgwood, Sir Humphry Davy, and James Watt making experiments on the action of light upon nitrate of silver; and only within the last few months a silvered for journalism. His humorous sketches obtained legitcopperplate has been found amongst the imate success, and his later novels brought the popular old household lumber of Matthew Boul-author into a new rôle, which may be termed judicial ton (Watt's partner), having on it a repre- fiction. His most noted works are L'Affaire Lerouge,

SAMUEL SMILES, M. D.

THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE. [Emile Gaboriau, a graphic French novelist and

dramatist, was born at Sajon, 1835, died 1873. He be

gan life in a cavalry regiment, which he relinquished

1866; Le Dossier 113, 1867; Le Crime d'Orcival, 1867;

Gens de Bureau, 1862.

two agents as his deliverers. He quickly Monsieur Lecoq, 1869; La Dégringolade, 1876, and Les related the facts, and read his deposition. You have acted very well, sir," said the judge. 'All this is very clear; only there is one circumstance that you have forgotten.

From L'Affaire Lerouge we extract the opening scene. Gaboriau's novels are faithful pictures of French legal procedure, with its mode, so contrary to ours, of administering criminal law.]

The head of the police was no other than the celebrated Gévrol, who will not fail to play an important part in the drama of our nephews. He is unquestionably an able man; but he lacks perseverance, and he sometimes allows himself to be blinded by the most incredible obstinacy. If he loses a track, he cannot make his mind up to confess it, even less to retrace his steps. On the other hand, he is audacious and cool, and has never hesitated to confront the most dangerous criminals.

But his specialty, his glory, his triumph, is a memory for faces so extraordinary as to exceed the limits of the credible. If he has seen a face for five minutes, it is done: the face is marked down. Everywhere, at any time, he will recognize it. The most impossible places, the most unlikely circumstances, the most incredible disguises, will not put him off the track. He says the reason is that in a man he only sees, only looks at, the eyes. He recognizes the glance, without troubling him

self about the features.

His experience was tested a few months ago at Poissy. Three prisoners were draped under coverings in such a manner as to hide their figures; before their faces was put a thick veil, with holes for the eyes, and in this condition they were brought before Gévrol.

Without the slightest hesitation he recognized three of his customers, and

named them.

Was it chance alone that helped him? Gévrol's aide-de-camp on this day was a former convict, who had made his peace with the law a clever fellow at his trade, as sharp as a needle, and jealous of his chief, whom he considered of mediocre ability. He was called Lecoq.

The justice of the peace, who began to feel his responsibility weigh upon him, welcomed the investigating judge' and his

1 The investigating judge (juge d'instruction) acts as a kind of public prosecutor, and makes inquiries in secret which may lead to the discovery of a criminal. He has a right to summon any witness whose testimony may be of use, and he may also arrest on suspicion any

66

Which, sir?" asked the justice.

'Which day was the Widow Lerouge seen for the last time, and at what hour?" "I was coming to that, sir. She was seen on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, at twenty minutes past five. She was returning from Bougival with a basket of provisions.

"You are quite sure of the time, sir?" asked Gévrol.

|

"At half-past nine," answered the brigadier. "I was coming from supper, and going to take a turn at the balls, when I was overtaken by a shower opposite the Rue des Pêcheurs. In less than ten min-mattress. utes there was half an inch of water in the street." "Very good," said Gévrol. "Then if the man came after half-past nine his boots must have been covered with mud; if not, he must have come before. You must have been able to see that, since the floor is polished. Were there any footmarks, sir?"

"I must confess that we did not think about that.