Labor, Education increases the power of, 181. Life a Fountain 13. Literary and Scientific Intelligence 15, 31, 47,63, 80, 87, 158, 174. Literary Pursuits in U. C. 79. Libraries Public, in U. C. 8, 42, 51, 57, 97, 102, 137, 152, 168. Libraries, Public Statistics of 159. Libraries, Common School 140. Libraries, Influence of Suitable 141. Libraries and Study, 139. Leisure, the Young Man's 28. Love of the Beautiful 28. Law Proceedings in Regard to Schools 37, 85. Legislation School in Ohio 43. In N. Y. thoughtless, 50. Lower Canada, Education in 45. 184; Population of 159. New York, Education in 20, 31, 47, 50, 78, 157. Nestorians, Schools among the, 188. North West Passage, Discovery of 173. Opening of the Normal School, U. C. 12. Opening the Gate, Hints 86. Ottawa, Valley of the 87. Ontario, Lake, Waterspouts in 174. Р Press, Opinions of the 12, 23, 39, 41, 55, 70, 167. The Mother's Prayer 13. Steam, and the Steam Engine 32. Paris (U. C.), Schools in 25, 61. Plate presented to Rev. Dr. Ryerson 59. Prince Edward's Island, Free Schools in 46, 70- Printing, the Inventor of, 185. Politics, Corruption of, in N. Y. State 50 Pitt, Anecdote of 159. Power of Memory 165. Potter, Rev. Dr. 138. Pollock, the Poet, and Sir J. Sinclair, 181. Q Queen's College, Ireland 30, 187. Queen's College, Kingston 75. Quebec, Daniel Webster at 22. Ꭱ Report on Education in U. C., 1851, Remarks on 23, 55. Read Slowly, Make Children 28. Russell, Lord John, Address on Education 38, 47. Reading of Books, Suggestions on 138. Relations of Teacher and Pupil 151. Right of a Child to a Public Education, 150. Rhode Island, Education in 157. Rules for Home Education 166. Rules for a Young Man in Business 165. Regulations for Public Libraries in U. C. 99. S Scott's Advice to Youth, Sir W., 180. State System of Education without a State Fund 1. Senate of the University of Toronto, 187. Sites, School, Authority to take 10, 87, 52. Suggestions to Trustees 156 183. St. Thomas, U. C., School Progress in 29. Statistics of the Population of the B. N. A. Pro Taste for Reading 140, 168. Teacher's Manual, Young's 72. Time, the measure of (Poetry), 181. Training of Youth, Judicious 85. Trustees, School, Powers of 36, 41, 51, 56, 82 88, 94, 98. Truant, Playing 176. Trinity College, U. C. 60. CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER. EDUCATION, TORONTO: JANUARY, 1853. I. STATE System of Education without a School Fund,.. III. The Rich and Childless taxed to support Public Schools,. V. The Modus Operandi of the School Room,. VI. 1. Normal Schools. 2. Examination of Teachers. 3. Uniform Series of Text Books. 4. Apparatus in Schools. 5. School Discipline, VII. EDITORIAL-1. National Education in Upper Canada. 2. County School Conventions in Upper Canada by the Chief Superintendent. 3. Extracts of Letters from Local Superintendents. 4. Remarks on the foregoing. 5. Shall authority be given to take School Sites. 6. Small School Sections. 7. Good Suggestion. 8. General System of Free Schools. 9. Vagrant Children in Cities and Towns. 10. Punctual attendance of Pupils, VIII. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS-1. Globe. 2. Middlesex Prototype. 3. Niagara Chronicle. 4. Western Progress,.. IX. MISCELLANEOUS-1. Beautiful Figure. 2. The Mother's Prayer (Poetry). 3. Arithmetical Accumulation of Money. 4. Extinct Families of Great Poets. 5. The Reward of Diligence,. X. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGEECE-1. Canada Monthly Summary. 2. New Brunswick. 3. British and Foreign Monthly Summary. 4. United States Monthly Summary,. PAGE 1 2 5 6 7 Canada. No. 1. suggest or admit improvements, encourage faithfulness and skill among the teachers, punctuality and diligence among the pupils, and diffuse as largely as possible, among themselves, the benefits of the institution. Now, if our Commonwealth has, as yet, at her disposal no large and 5 productive fund for the support of her system of public instruction, she has whatever of advantage can be derived from the immediate dependence of the system on the tax-payers of the State.-And although we should not go so far in boasting of this advantage, as to imply that this plan is every way better than the other, or better than some sort of union of the two, yet we certainly need not hesitate to admit that the present system has advantages which, in the absence of other causes, are operating powerfully for the cause of general education in our State. And first it commands, for the most part, an amount sufficient to give the schools of the State a very considerable practical efficiency. It 8 enables all the families of the State to maintain good schools among them a part of every year, with funds partly provided by the State, and partly furnished in due proportion by the families themselves. It induces those communities which set a higher value on general education to add largely by voluntary taxation, to the amount received from the State, and thus to increase among them the benefits of this public instruction. Now, to say nothing of the vast amount of principal which must be placed in charge of the State authorities, and vested by them, at some hazard, and with no small trouble, and expense and responsibility in the management, the people have this valuable inducement to tax themselves the more, 'n order to secure the greater benefit of the schools for which they are taxed by the State. The State of Connecticut has had a large school fund rural generations. But it was so difficult for the legislature to devise a plan for aistributing te avans among the people, so as at the same time to satisfy the people and induce them to raise enough more to keep up good schools, and enliven the general interest in them, that it became a serious question with the enlightened people of the State whether their great fund was any real advantage. 12 13 14 XI. LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE-1. Monthly Summary. STATE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION WITHOUT A The Rev. Dr. Yeomans, of Pennsylvania, stated the following The value of a large fund for the support of common schools to the people of a State will of course depend on the prevailing sentiments and habits of the people. For, on the one hand, a fund may not be judiciously managed, and may render a large portion of the people more indifferent towards education than if they should pay for it as they go along; or on the other, the people may appreciate education so highly as to bear ample taxation for its support. In the latter case education will prosper more without a fund than with one; for nothing more engages the interest of the people in any institution than their being called upon steadily by law or otherwise to contribute to its support. No doubt much more can be expended for education in a community where the avails of a rich fund lie plentifully in the hands of disbursing officers, and where the management is simple and quiet, and agents have only to apply the public means and account for their expenditure, to the government in the appointed way. But we should remember that for the usefulness of public schools there must be not only the necessary expenditures to build houses and supply teachers, but also an interest among the people, alive and watchful, to detect abuses, Secondly, this system of regular taxation for schools brings up the subject of general education before the attention of the citizens, and makes them familiar with the cause of common education as a proper matter of public concern in every civillzed community. It is suggestive; and reaches, especially in this Commonwealth, a numerous class of minds, which would scarcely be reached in any other way. With a fund of the existence of which half the people would know nothing, while still more would not know how it was managed, it would be far more difficult than it now is, to call the attention of thousands in our State to the duty of educating their children. Taxation is a hint, from high authority, that the education of the young is a sacred duty which the State owes to herself; and when society thus expresses her interestin the knowledge and virtue of its members, and claims the right to compel provision for their education, it takes a deep hold on the attention of many who would otherwise be the last to feel an interest in the subject. Thirdly, there is this farther advantage in drawing the support of our schools directly from the people according to the present laws of our State, that it keeps the eyes of the people open on the directors, and other officers who are responsible for the application of the money, while it also gives them a personal concern in the wise expenditure of funds which they must contribute their share to supply. In the towns which have become interested in the improvement of the public schools, the larger part of the school tax is to be imposed and collected under the authority of the local directors; upon whose proceedings the presence and watchfulness of the tax-payers will not fail to be an all-sufficient check. There is little danger in such circumstances, of a careless use of funds by directors, and little probability that funds will be supplied in this way by the people, unless they feel an interest in the benefits of the expenditure. Whether this part of the plan works well for the State in general must be seen by its fruits; but all must see that this feature of our present system is not without important advantages." SHORT MEMOIRS OF EMINENT MEN. With the first number of the Sixth Volume of the Journal of Education, we commence a third series of "Short Memoirs of Eminent Men." Those which have already appeared are follows: as Wollaston published two papers on astronomy, one "On a Method of Comparing the Light of the Sun with that of the Fixed Stars," of which we can only give the title; the other is "On the Finite Extent of the Atmosphere," and is one of the most interesting physical essays on record. It was published in January, 1822, in the May preceding which, a transit of Venus over the sun's disc took place. Wollaston was induced in consequence to make observations on this rare and In the Fourth Volume, under the title of "Systems of Education interesting phenomenon. None of the larger observatories were proand their Founders:vided with suitable instruments for watching it; but our philosopher, with that singular ingenuity both in devising and in constructing I. John Frederick Oberlin. II. Henry Pestalozzi. III. Gustavus Frederick Dinter. In the Fifth Volume: I. Homer. II. William Harvey, M.D. [IV. Emanuel, Count de Fellenberg apparatus, which we shall afterwards find to have been one of his great V. Rev. Andrew Bell, D.D. VI. Joseph Lancaster. III. Joseph Addison. Our third series commences with the following sketch of WOLLASTON, the distinguished English Chemist and Philosopher, to whom we are indebted for several most interesting discoveries and improvements in science;-among others, for the discovery of the important process by which Platina is rendered malleable, for which Wollaston received thirty thousand pounds sterling. I. WILLIAM HYDE WOLLASTON, M.D. WILLIAM HYDE WOLLASTON, one of the ablest and most renowned of English chemists and natural philosophers, was born August 6, 1766, and died in December, 1828. He was the second son of the astronomer, and of Althea Ilyde, of Charter-house Square, London. He was one of seventeen children, and was born at East Dereham, a village some sixteen miles from Norwich, on the 6th of August, 1766. After the usual preparatory education, he went to Cambridge, and entered at Caius College, where he made great progress. In several of the sketches published of him, he is said to have been senior wrangler of his year; but this is a mistake, arising out of the fact that a person of the same surname, Mr. Francis Wollaston, of Sidney Sussex College, gained the first place in 1783. Dr. Wollaston did not graduate in arts, but took the degree of M.B. in 1787, and that of M.D. in 1793. He became a fellow of Caius College soon after taking his degree, and continued one till his death. At Cambridge he resided till 1789, and astronomy appears to have been his favorite study there,although there is evidence to show that at the time, as at a later period, he was very catholic in his scientific tastes. He probably inherited a predilection for the study of the heavenly pours nomi tits trer, and it was increased by his intimacy with the late astronomer-royal of Dublin, Dr. Brinkley, now Bishop of Cloyne, and with Mr. Pond, formerly astronomer-royal of Greenwich, with whom he formed a friendship at Cambridge which lasted through life. In 1789, he settled at Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, and commenced to practise as a physician, but with so little success, probably on account of the peculiar gravity and reserve of his manner, that he soon left the place and removed to London. He succeeded, however, no better in the metropolis. He continued to practice in London till the end of the year 1800, when an accession of fortune determined him to relinquish a profession he never liked, and devote himself wholly to science. He had no occasion to regret the change even in a pecuniary point of view, the only one in which his abandonment of medicine was likely to have injured him. His process for rendering crude platina malleable, which conferred so great a service on analytical chemistry, is said to have brought him more than thirty thousand pounds, and he is alleged to have made money by several of his minor discoveries and inventions, His communications to the Royal Society are thirty-nine in number, and, along with his contributions to other scientific journals, refer to a greater variety of topics than those of any other English chemist, not excepting Cavendish. In addition to essays on strictly chemical subjects, they include papers on important questions in astronomy, optics, mechanics, acoustics, mineralogy, crystallography, physiology, pathology, and botany, besides one on a question connected with the fine arts, and several describing mechanical inventions. Five are on questions of physiology and pathology, and do not admit of popular discussion. The most curious of these is a paper on "Semidecussation of the optic nerves,' and single vision with two eyes. Besides its interest as a scientific essay, it is important as having been occasioned by speculations concerning the cause of a remarkable form of blindness from which Wollaston suffered, during which he saw "only half of every object, the loss of sight being in both eyes towards the left, and of short duration only." This peculiar state of vision proved in the end to have been symptomatic of a disease of the brain, of which he died, Eight or nine papers are on optics, but our limits will not allow us to discuss them. characteristics, succeeded by a few happy contrivances in making a small telescope completely serve his purposes. His special object in watching the passage of Venus, was to ascertain whether or not the sun has an atmosphere like that of the earth. He satisfied himself that it has not, and embodied his results in the paper, the title of which we have given. problem by reference to an astronomical fact. The chemical question It is a very curious attempt to decide a most difficult chemical is, do the elements of compounds consist of indivisible particles or atoms, or do they not? It is a branch of the great problem which has occupied physics and metaphysics since the dawn of speculation, in vain attempts to decide either way, viz., is matter finitely or infinitely divisible? Our author undertakes to show, not only that this difficulty may be solved, but that in fact it was solved, though no one was aware of it, as early as the discovery of the telescope, and Galileo's first observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's moons. The paper we are discussing excited great attention among men of science; and for a long period, though few implicitly assented to the validity of the argument, no one appeared able to detect any fallacy in its reasoning. Beautiful and certain as are the astronomical facts brought to light by Wollaston, they supply no decision of the question of the divisibility of matter. That problem still presents the same two-fold aspect of difficulty which it has ever exhibited. If we affirm that matter is infinitely divisible, we assert the apparent contradiction, that a finite whole contains an infinite number of parts. If, pressed by this difficulty, we seek to prove that the parts are as finite as the whole they make up, we fail in our attempt. We can never exhibit the finite factors of our infinite whole; and the so-called atom always proves as divisible as the mass out of which it was extracted. Finity and infinity must both be believed in; but here, as in other departments of knowledge, we cannot reconcile them. The greater number of Wollaston's strictly chemical papers, with the exception of those referring to physiology and pathology, are devoted to the exposition of points connected with the chemistry of the metals. He was the discoverer of palladium and rhodium, once interesting only as chemical curiosities, but now finding important uses in the arts. He discovered, also, the identity of columbium and tantalum. He was the first to recognise the existence of metallic titanium in the slags of iron furnaces; and he is the deviser of the important process by which platina is rendered malleable. He published, also, analyses of meteoric iron, and showed that potash exists in sea water. it Among other bodies which the alchemists of the middle ages thought possible to discover, and accordingly sought after, was a Universal Solvent, or Alkahest as they named it. This imaginary fluid was to possess the power of dissolving every substance, whatever its nature, and to reduce all kinds of matter to the liquid form. It does not seem to have occurred to these ingenious dreamers to consider, that what dissolved everything, could be preserved in nothing. Of what shall after all things, and can eat its way through adamant as swiftly as water we construct the vessel in which a fluid is to be kept, which hungers steals through walls of ice? A universal solvent must require an equally universal non solubile in which it may be retained for use. The modern chemist's desire has lain in the opposite direction from that of his alchemical forefather. It is the non solubile, not the solvent, that he has sought after, and Wollaston supplied him with that in malleable platina. Long before the close of last century, the chemical analyst found the re-agents he had occasion to make use of, alkahests or universal solvents enough, for the vessels in which he could contain them. For the greater number of purposes, glass and porcelain resist sufficiently the action of even the strongest acids, alkalies, and other powerful solvents. In some cases, however, they are attacked by these, and cannot be employed in accurate analysis. Whenever, moreover, it is necessary to subject bodies to a high temperature along with active re-agents, as, for example, in the fusion of minerals with alkalies, porcelain can seldom be employed, and is often worse than useless. It was in vain that chemists had recourse to silver and gold, as substitutes for the insufficient clay in the construction of their crucibles. These metals melt at comparatively low temperatures, and before a sufficient heat can be obtained to fuse the more refractory substances enclosed in them, they run into liquids, and the crucible and its contents are lost in a useless slag. It was at this crisis that Wollaston came forward to put a new weapon into the hands of the chemical analyst. Several years before he turned his attention to the subject, scattered grains of a brilliant metal had been found in the sands of certain of the South American rivers. To this, from its resemblance to silver, or in their language plata, the Spaniards gare the name of platina, or little silver. This metal was found to resist the action of nearly every substance except aqua regia; to suffer no change, nor to become rusted by protracted exposure to the atmosphere; and to be perfectly infusible by the most powerful forge or furnace. Here, then, was a substance for the chemist's crucible, could a method of working it only be discovered. But the very properties which made its value certain, if it were wrought into vessels, forbade its being easily fashioned into them. It occurred in nature only in small grains which could not be melted, so that it was impossible, as with most other metals, to convert it into metals by fusion. Neither was it possible oy hammering to consolidate the grains into considerable masses, so that vessels could be beaten out of them, for the crude metal is very impure. Accordingly, it happened, that for years after the value of platina had been discovered, it could not be turned to account. Whole cargoes of the native metal, although it is now six times more costly than silver, are said to have lain unpurchased for years in London, before Wollaston devised his method of working it. That method was founded upon the property which platina possesses of agglutinating at a high temperature, though not melted, in the way iron does, so that, like that metal, it can be welded, and different pieces forged into one. This property could not, however, be directly applied to the native grains owing to their impurity and irregularity in form. Wollaston commenced by dissolving the metal in aqua regia; purified it whilst in solution from the greater number of accompanying substances which alloyed it; and then, by the addition of sal ammoniac, precipitated it as an insoluble compound with chlorine and muriate of ammonia. When this compound was heated, these bodies were dissipated in vapor, and left the platina in a state of fine black powder, which was further purified by washing with water. It was only further necessary to fill a proper mould with this powder well moistened, and to subject it to powerful compression. By this process the powder cohered into a tolerably solid mass, which was gently heated by a charcoal fire, so as to expel the moisture and give it greater tenacity. It was afterwards subjected to the intensest heat of a wind furnace, and hammered while hot, so as completely to agglutinate its particles, and convert it into a solid ingot. This ingot or bar could then be flattened into leaf, drawn into wire, or submitted to any of the processes by which the most ductile metais are wrought. The costliness of the metal has not forbidden its application to manufacturing operations even on the largest scale. In the oil of vitriol works, stills of platina are made use of for distilling sulphuric acid, each of which, though holding only a few gallons, costs above a thousand pounds. A coinage of platina was introduced into the Russian dominions, which possess valuable supplies of its ores: but though roubles and other coins struck in it, occasionally reach this country as curiosities, we understand that the coinage has been withdrawn by the imperial government, in consequence of the fluctuations that occur in the value of the metal. In our own country, from the great consumption of platina in chemical processes, its value has rapidly risen even within the last few months; but it is constantly shifting.* Nothing but its rarity and costliness prevent its application to the construction of every kind of culinary vessel, for which its purity, cleanliness, and enduringness espe cially fit it. Á thousand other uses would be found for it, if it were more abundant. Were it now the custom to honor men after death according to the fashion of the Greeks and Romans, Wollaston's ashes would be consigned to a gigantic platina crucible, as to a befitting and imperishable sepulchral urn. His other chemical papers are all important. One of them, " on the chemical production and agency of electricity," proved, by singularly ingenious and beautiful experiments, that identity of voltaic and friction electricity, which Faraday has since confirmed by still inore decisive trials. The others had reference chiefly to the atomic theory, which Wollaston was a great means of introducing to the favorable notice of chemists. One was, "On superacid and subacid salts," and contained one of the earliest and most convincing proofs which can be given of the existence of such a law of multiple proportion, as Dalton had pronounced. The other on, "A synoptical scale of chemical equivalents," first brought the laws of combination within the reach of the student and manufacturer. Wollaston published three papers on the shapes of crystals, and on the mode of measuring them. No branch of science is less inviting to the general student than crystallography. Nevertheless, we must be Platina costs at present, in the state of ingot or bar, from 30s. to 35s. per ounce, wholesale. Manufactured articles from 32s. to 428, per ounce, also wholesale. The retail prices are from 5s. to 10s. higher. Virgin silver sells at 5s. 8d. per ounce, wholesale; at 9s. per ounce, retail, when manufactured. Sterling silver is worth 4s. 11d. per ounce. allowed to refer briefly to one of Wollaston's essays on that subject. The most superficial sketch of the philosopher whose works we are considering, would be inexcusably defective if it passed it by. The paper we refer to is entitled, "Description of a reflective goniometer," and, next to that containing the account of the platina process, is perhaps Wollaston's most important contribution to science. It is much more difficult, however, to convey an idea of its value, than it was in the case of that essay. A goniometer, as its name implies, is an instrument for measuring angles. The appellation, though susceptible, of course, of much wider application, is restricted to an apparatus for measuring the angles of crystals. Different goniometers were in use before Wollaston invented his, but they were comparatively rude, and could only be applied to large crystals. When Wollaston published the account of his goniometer, he stated as an evidence of its superiority to those previously in use, that whereas a certain angle of Iceland spar was reputed to be of one hundred and four degrees, twenty-eight minutes, forty seconds, it was in reality of one hundred and five degrees. But this is the lesser service which the reflective goniometer has rendered to science. Early in this century, a great German chemist, Mitscherlich, comparing the results obtained by Wollaston's instrument, with those procured by analysis, in the case of crystalline bodies, discovered a very curious and unexpected law. It appeared, that when substances resemble each other in chemical characters, their crystalline forms are also similar. When the simplicity in chemical properties is very great, the shapes become absolutely identical. It is a very singular circumstance, which no one appears to have in the least anticipated, that where two closely-allied bodies, such as arsenic and phosphorus, unite with the same third substance, they should produce identical forms when the respective compounds are crystallized. Each face of the one slopes at the same angle as the same face of the other. A mould of a crystal of the one would fit a crystal of the same size of the other. A goniometer set at the angle of the one, would exactly measure the angle of the other. Such crystals are named isomorphous, a Greek word synonymous with the Latin one, similiform, also made use of. Taught by this law, the chemist, to his astonishment, found himself able to ascertain chemical analogies by measuring angles of crystals, and supplied with a means of controlling and explaining the results of analyses, which otherwise seemned only to lead to contradiction and confusion. Crystalline form is now one of the first things attended to in classifying chemical substances, and is the basis of most of our attempts to arrange them into groups and natural families. It deserves especial notice, but has never obtained it, in histories of the progress of chemistry, that he who, by his gift of the platina cruci ble, enabled his brethern to extend the whole science, and especially to subject every mineral to analysis, by his other gift of the reflective goniometer showed them how to marshal their discoveries. The latter instrument has been to the chemist like a compass-needle or theodolite to the settlers in a strange country. By means of it, he has surveyed and mapped out the territory he has won, so that new comers may readily understand the features of the district; and has laid down pathways and roads, along which his successors may securely travel. One of his papers is on the interesting and poetical subject of "Fairy rings." There is no one, we suppose, who does not sympathize with the poetical rendering of the fairy ring; and no one, probably, who does not at the same time wish to know what the scientific version is also. Wollaston furnished us with the latter. He was led to form the opinion we are about to state, by noticing "that some species of fungi were always to be found at the margin of the dark ring of grass, if examined at the proper season." This led him to make more careful observations, and he came to the conclusion that the formation of the ring was entirely owing to the action of the fungi in the following way. In the centre of each circle, a clump or group of toadstools or mushrooms had once flourished, till the soil, completely exhausted by their continued growth on it, refused to support them any longer. The following year, accordingly, the toadstools which sprang from the spawn of the preceding generation, spread outwards from the original spot of growth towards the unexhausted outer soil. In this way, each circle of mushrooms came to be preceded by a ring of withered grass, and succeeded by one of the deepest verdure, and as the one increased the others did also. These views of Wollaston have been beautifully confirmed by the recent researches of Professor Schlossberger of Tübingen, into the chemical compositions of the fungi, by which it appears that they contain a larger quantity of nitrogen, of phosphates, and of other salts, than any of our cultivated vegetables. In another, and one of the most curious of his papers, Wollaston again plays the part of disenchanter of a poetical fancy. It is entitled, Into this essay "On the apparent direction of the Eyes of a Portrait.' we cannot enter at length, but it deserves a word of notice. One large part of it is occupied in showing that we are unconsciously guided in our estimate of the direction in which the eyes of another are turned not merely by the position of the iris (or colored circle) and whites of these eyes, but likewise by the direction of the concurrent features, particularly those which are more prominent, as the nose and forehead. However unexpected this statement may be, or perplexing the explanation of it, Wollaston puts it out of the power of the least credulous of his readers to deny the facts, by the plates which accompany his paper. In these he shows that the same pair of eyes may be made to look up, or down, or to either side, merely by altering the direction of the nose and forehead which accompany them. In this paper, also, he supplies an explanation of the familiar fact, that "if the eyes of a portrait look at the spectator placed in front of the picture, they appear to follow him in every other direction." One other reference will conclude our discussion of Wollaston's essays. The last paper we mention is, "On Sounds inaudible to certain ears." Its object is to point out, that while in the natural healthy state of the ear, there seems to be no limit to the power of discerning low sounds, in many persons who are otherwise quite free from deafness, there exists a total insensibility to high or shrill notes, so that they are quite deaf to these. The hearing of different persons was found by Wollaston to terminate at a note four or five octaves above the middle E of the pianoforte. His own hearing ceased at six octaves above that note. Those who were thus deaf to high notes were, in consequence, quite insensible to the chirping of the grasshopper, the cricket, the sparrow, and the bat. With these observations, Wollaston connects a beautiful speculation as to the possibility of insects both emitting and listening to shrill sounds, which we never hear; whilst they, in like manner, are totally deaf to the graver notes which only affect our ears. This seems to us a striking and beautiful idea, and suggests many thoughts. It is in a fine sense a fulfilment of St. Paul's declaration, "There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." Towards the latter part of the year 1928, Wollaston became dangerously ill of the disease of the brain, of which he died. Finding himself unable to write out an account of such of his discoveries and inventions as he was reluctant should perish with him, he spent his numbered hours in dictating to an amanuensis an account of some of the more important of them. These parting gifts of a dying philosopher to his brethren will be found in the papers bearing his name which are printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1829. These were not his only legacies to science. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to the secretary of the Royal Society, informing him that he had that day invested, in the name of the society, stock to the amount of £1000. The interest of this money he wished to be employed in the ansouragement of experiments in natural philosophy. A Wollaston medal is accordingly given periodically by the Royal Society. In the June before his death, he was proposed as a member of the Astronomical Society of London; but, according to the rules of that body, he could not have been elected before their last meeting for the year. When the society met in November, 1828, however, the alarming situation of his health, and the great probability of his dissolution previous to the December meeting, induced the council at once to recommend to the assembled members a departure from the established rule, and that the election should take place at that sitting. This was done, and received the unanimous sanction of the meeting, which insisted on dispensing with even the formality of a ballot. Dr. Wollaston, then within a few days of his death, acknowledged this feeling and courteous act by presenting the society with a valuable telescope which he greatly prized. It originally belonged to his father, and had been subsequently improved by the application to it of an invention of his own, that of the triple achromatic glass, a device on which astronomers set great value. It is impossible to turn from the record of these incidents, without a feeling of strong admiration of the old Roman-like resolution and calm courage with which the suffering philosopher waited for death. When he was nearly in the last agonies, one of his friends having observed, loud enough for him to hear, that he was not at the time conscious of what was passing around him, he immediately made a sign for a pencil and paper, which were given him. He then wrote down some figures, and, after casting up the sum, returned them. The amount was right. He died on the twenty-second of December, 1818, aged sixty-two, a few months before his great scientific contemporaries, Sir Humphrey Davy and Dr. Thomas Young. After death it appeared that that portion of the brain from which the optic nerve arises was occupied by a large tumor. If we are right in thinking that the singular one-sided blindness from which he sometimes suffered was an early symptom of this malady, it must have proceeded very slowly, for his paper on the semi-decussation of the optic nerves was published in 1824. It is interesting for the sake of psychology to know, that in spite of the extensive cerebral disease referred to, Wollaston's faculties were unclouded to the last. There remains but little to be told. No picturesque incidents or romantic stories adorn Wollaston's biography, and but few character istic anecdotes have been preserved. His days were spent with entire devotion to science, between his laboratory and his library. His reluctance, or rather positive refusal, to admit even friends to his laboratory has already been referred to. Plato is said to have written above the door of his study, "Let no one who is not a mathematician enter." Had Wollaston placed an inscription, or rather a proscription above the door of his laboratory, it would have been still more brief and comprehensive, "Let No one enter." This hermetically sealed laboratory was known to have been of small dimensions. Dr. Paris mentions, in his life of Davy, that a foreign philosopher once called upon Dr. Wollaston with letters of introduction, and expressed an anxious desire to see his laboratory. "Certainly," he replied; and immediately produced a small tray containing some glass tubes, a blow-pipe, two or three watch-glasses, a slip of platina, and a few test-tubes. It is added by the same gentleman, that Wollaston appeared to take great delight in showing by what small means he could produce great results. Shortly after he had inspected the grand galvanic battery constructed by Mr. Children, and had witnessed some of those brilliant phenomena of combustion which its powers produced, he accidentally met a brother chemist in the street. Seizing his button (his constant habit when speaking on any subject of interest) he led him into a secluded corner, when, taking from his waistcoat pocket a tailor's thimble, which contained a galvanic arrangement, and pouring into it the contents of a small vial, he instantly heated a platina wire to a white heat. That he did not selfishly hoard his money may be gathered from the following anecdote, which is declared to be authentic. Having been applied to by a gentleman, who was involved by unexpected difficulties, to procure him some government situation, Dr. Wollaston's reply was-"I have lived to sixty without asking a single favor from men in office, and it is not after that age that I shall be induced to do so, even were it to serve a brother. If the enclosed can be of use to you in your present difficulties, pray accept it, for it is much at your service.” The enclosed was a cheque for ten thousand pounds. Wollaston and Davy were contemporaries and friends. It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that between the eager, imaginative poet-chemist, on the one hand, and the austere, unimpassioned, monk-philosopher on the other. Davy was a man of sanguine, enthusiastic temperament, overflowing with life and animation; Wollaston's nature was as still and unmoved as the bosom of a lake hidden from the wind in the recesses of a cavern. The former was a spoiled child of nature and of fortune, and greedy of applause. He delighted in the approving suntles of ladies, and was flattered by the notice of the great. It was a source of pain to him that he was not of good family. Wollaston was a disappointed man. He begged one boon from his brethren, the physicianship of an hospital; when that was refused him, he shut himself up in his laboratory, and rejoiced, when sixty years old, that he would not ask a favor, even for a brother. He was indifferent to the notice of all but scientific persons, and avoided every occasion of attracting popular attention. To these attempts to bring out Wollaston's character by contrasts with that of his great contemporary, we would add a word or two concerning his likeness in disposition to another of our distinguished men of science. Those who are acquainted with the life of the Honorable Henry Cavendish will acknowledge that he and Wollaston resembled each other greatly. In both there was the same austerity, taciturnity and reserve; the same extreme caution in drawing conclusions, and exact.precision in statiug them; the same catholicity of tastes as regarded their philosophical pursuits; the same relish for scientific society and dislike to any other; the same indifference to applause; the same frugal habits; the same candor and justice towards other men of science; and the same strong love of truth and perfect integrity. And as in life they were alike, so in death they were not divided. The closing moments of the one, were marked by the same kind of calm courage and serenity which distinguished the death-bed of the other. Cavendish and Wollaston might in truth have been twin brothers. The restraint and distraction of faculty which these three influences occasioned, were fatal to Wollaston's being a distinguished or systematic discoverer. His inordinate intellectual caution kept him from giving to the world any great generalization. Had he attempted one, he would have spent a lifetime in establishing it to his own satisfaction. His acquaintance with most of the physical sciences induced him, instead of dedicating his life to the establishment of some one great theory in a single branch of knowledge, to pursue many inquiries in each; these were sufficiently limited in scope to be brought to a conclusion, satisfactory even to his fastidious, sceptical spirit, in a reasonable time. His mechanical ingenuity constantly tempted him to improve some one of the thousand instruments of physical science which are not perfect. He must nevertheless be counted great, on the ground of the multitude of single works which he executed so ably. He will stand in the second rank of great physical philosophers, along with Black and Cavandish, Davy and Dalton. |