of London; but I know nothing personally of their utility. I intend to try the 'Armadillo' again."
We spoke of the "Armadillo" last month, not from any direct knowledge we have of it, but to correct the advertised statement that The Popular Science Monthly had endorsed it, which was not true.
Address to an Atom.
BY AN UNCOMFORTABLY CONSCIOUS AUTOMATON.
Mysterious particle,
Intangible and most indefinite article,
Which even Science cannot fix or focus;
Are you indeed of all this hocus-pocus,
Mischristened Cosmos, protoplast? If so,
'Tis pity that the happy status quo
Of universal dumb inertia ever
Was broken up by vortices or voices,
'Twere surely better far that space had never
Reëchoed to objectionable noises,
Or witnessed all this pother
Of biologic bustle, whose chief law seems Bother!
Why could not you,
And all your fellow-motes, far, far too prankful,
In the embraces of the boundless blue
Rest and be thankful?
A plague on all your forces and affinities!
A mob of monads, to my notion,
Surpasses one of demons or divinities
Only while idle. With the earliest motion
Began the immitigable Mischief. Why
Must you in chaos cut those primal capers,
Which were "the promise and the potency"
Of—all the woes that fill our morning papers?
'Tis surely a reflection most unpleasant
To think that all the plagues which haunt the present
Spring from that moment in the hidden past,
When the first molecule, weary at last
Of—immemorial motionlessness, stirring,
Jostled his neighbor Atom. What a whirring
Went through astounded space!
Thought pictures a grim grin upon the face
Of him, the Prince of Evil;
Only that then, of course, there was no devil.
At least of the New Creed that's one prime article;
Though I have little doubt
He was incipient in that self-same particle
Whose fidgets caused the first great stirabout.
If Science's "dry light," at its meridian,
Finds men no more than automatic midges
In its cold ray, the history that bridges
The space between us and the first Ascidian
Were better blotted.
To archetypal atoms was allotted
An easier fate than to the complex mass
Of clever matter, which has dared to pass
For Man, but is, for all its prayers and panics,
A problem in molecular mechanics!
If Conscience be but chemic combination.
And Love a mere molecular affinity;
What boots all Life's superfluous botheration
Of mad and painful dreams, that limn Divinity
On fool-projected limbos? Life's a swindle,
If taken à la Tyndall.
And, let who may in that demoniac war win
("Survival of the fittest!")—yet, as groping
Less anxiously, less fearing, striving, hoping,
An Ape was less a dupe than is a Darwin.
That Atom must be a misguided duffer
Who'd join a Co.; alone it could not suffer.
Why should it long for partnership and pain so?
I would /were a monad—I'd remain so;
And as for "nascent thrills" and "ganglia," drat 'em!
They're things for which I should not care—an Atom!
To determine the real value of the "disease-proof potatoes" advertised by seeds-men, the Royal Agricultural Society of England, some time since, offered a prize of £100 for a really disease-proof potato. The conditions were that the potatoes should be tried in twenty different parts of the kingdom for three years. But the committee did not need to continue the experiment for three years; the results obtained in one season were decisive. None of the potatoes resisted the disease. During the period of vigorous growth, in five localities out of the twenty, the disease was virulent in all the varieties, and by the end of the season it had appeared in all the plots.
The collection of anatomical and physiological preparations made by the late Prof. Jeffries Wyman was in his will bequeathed to the Boston Society of Natural History, on condition that they paid to his heirs the sum of three thousand dollars. The Society promptly accepted the bequest; but, instead of the sum named in the will, of their own accord they paid to the heirs five thousand dollars.
From the investigations of Prof. Buckley, State Geologist of Texas, it appears that that State has vast deposits of iron and coal, of much greater extent than had been anticipated. Both are of excellent quality, and, in some cases, they occur near together. He has also found an abundance of salt, gypsum, and a wide range of copper-ores. Other valuable minerals are roofing-slate, marble, soapstone, etc.
Dr. Kosch, of Vienna, has discovered a method of making certain colors fire-proof, so that they may be used for painting on china in precisely the tones required. The inventor also employs a special enamel, which he spreads over the surface to be painted on, thus doing away with the irregularities and porosities of the porcelain; the irregular and undue absorption of color is thus prevented. Another invention of Dr. Kosch's is the fusion of gold, silver, and platinum, with bronze, by which the most gorgeous effects are produced.
A new method of casting statues in bronze has been discovered by a Venetian founder named Giordani. The advantage of the method consists in the cast being effected in a single operation, no matter how large the model, or how complicated in its form.
During the Paleolithic period horses were numerous all over Europe, and formed the basis of human food. In every "find" of that epoch, horses' bones constitute a considerable portion of the animal remains.
