582 [September 14, 1861.]

ALL THE YEAR ROUND.

"Yes, Lilian, whispering what ?" "These words-only these- Ye will need one another.' But then, suddenly, between my upward eyes and the two forms they had beheld, there rose from the earth, obscuring the skies, a vague dusky vapour, undulous, and coiling like a vast serpent, nothing, indeed, of its shape and figure definite, but of its face one abrupt glare; a flash from two dread luminous eyes, and a young head, like the Medusa's, changing, more rapidly than I could have drawn breath, into a grinning skull. Then my terror made me bow my head, and when I raised it again, all that I had seen was vanished. But the terror still remained, even when I felt my mother's arm round me and heard her voice. And then, when I entered the House, and sat down again alone, the recollection of what I had scen-those eyes-that face-that skull-grew on me stronger and stronger till I fainted, and remember no more, until my eyes, opening, saw you by my side, and in my wonder there was not terror. No, a sense of joy, protection, hope, yet still shadowed by a kind of fear or awe, in recognising the countenance which had gleamed on me from the skies before the dark vapour had risen, and while my father's voice had murmured, 'Ye will need one another.' And now-and now-will you love me less that you know a secret in my being which I have told to no other-cannot construe to myself?-only-only, at least, do not mock me -do not disbelieve me. Nay, turn from me no longer now:-now I ask to meet your eyes. Now, before our hands can join again, tell me that you do not despise me as untruthful, do not pity me as insane.”

"Hush-hush!" I said, drawing her to my breast. "Of all you tell me we will talk hereafter. The scales of our science have no weights fine enough for the gossamer threads of a maiden's pure fancies. Enough for me-for us both-if out from all such illusions start one truth, told to you, lovely child, from the heavens; told to me, ruder man, on the earth-repeated by each pulse of this heart that woos you to hear and to trust;-now and henceforth through life unto death- Each has need of the other'-I of you-I of you! my Lilian-my Lilian!"

DR. WILKINS'S PROPHETIC DREAMS.

INSTANTANEOUS and, in case of need, secret
communication has advanced within a few years
through the successive phases of a wild vision,
a bare possibility looming in the distance, a
reality too strange to be fully appreciated, and
an ordinary matter of fact. That it was a short
time ago the first, is as certainly true as that it
is regarded now as a mere sixpenny convenience,
but, like many other of the most important and
interesting discoveries of modern science, before
even the knowledge of which it is born had come
into the world, telegraphy had its prophetic
announcement. Shortly after the discovery of
printing, and the religious and political fer-
ment that followed closely upon that discovery,

there was an amount of speculative prescience
among the pursuers of science that has at no
other time been equalled. Men were not over-
loaded with facts, and they allowed their imagi-
native and poetic faculties full play. Very vague
and uncertain, no doubt, was the glimpse of
futurity they got; but it was often real, and
much of it has since been fully verified.

It is now just two centuries ago that the
Honourable Society of Gray's Inn selected as
their preacher the Reverend Dr. John Wilkins,
at that time a puritanical clergyman, in the forty-
sixth year of his age, not unknown to his con-
temporaries, but chiefly remarkable for his great
skill in what were then called "the mathema-
ticks." Preachers were then, as now, selected for
the Inns of Court with the liberal toleration that
looks straight at a man's worth, and Dr. Wilkins
was an able, earnest clergyman, as well as the
author of works on the physical science of his
day, which might even at present be considered
little recommendation to a society of gentle-
men learned in the law. He was one of that
small but distinguished body of learned men
to whom England is indebted for the foundation
of the "Royal Society for the improvement of
natural knowledge"-a body which has since in-
cluded, and still includes, most of those who
Appointed
have chiefly distinguished themselves in the
pursuit of science in England.
Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1648,
during the troublesome political disturbances of
the great rebellion, Dr. Wilkins does not seem
to have meddled much with politics, but, marrying
a sister of Oliver Cromwell, then Protector of
England, he naturally attached himself to the
ruling party. His time, however, at Oxford was
occupied in pursuits congenial to his tastes, for
there were held at his rooms those meetings, com-
menced at the lodging of Dr. Petty, at which were
assembled the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, Dr.
Willis, Mr. Ashmole (founder of the Ashmolean
museum), Dr. Seth Ward (afterwards Bishop of
Salisbury), Dr. (afterwards Sir Christopher)
Wren, Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Petty, and
many others. These kindred spirits discussed
subjects antiquarian, astrologic, medical, and
mechanical, rather than political, and laid the
foundation of a club which afterwards ripened
into the much more important institution we have
named.

At the Restoration, Dr. Wilkins, who had retained the appointment of master of his college after his marriage, contrary to the statutes and by a dispensation from Cromwell, was, of course, ejected, and, coming to London, his fortune was for some time at the lowest ebb, for he was out of favour both at court and at Lambeth, and could hardly expect much preferment. He did not, however, for this reason slacken in the pursuit of what then passed for natural philosophy, but continued to communicate on such subjects with his scientific friends. He also formed one of a party who met at Gresham 23 every College, first, to hear the lectures there given, and afterwards for "mutual converse,' Wednesday afternoon during term time at three

It was while thus occupied that our philosopher received the appointment of preacher at Gray's Inn. His affairs and finances being thereby improved, and his position in London established, he presided on the 28th November, 1660, over a remarkable meeting, at which it was finally decided to form a society for the pur-gravitation has added greatly to the improbability suit of natural knowledge. This society having shortly afterwards been mentioned to the king, his approval and encouragement were obtained, and, being announced on the following 5th December, the Royal Society may be said to have been from that time established.

take one of them with him, first agreeing upon the days and hours wherein they should confer together, at which times, if one of them move the needle of his instrument to any letter of the alphabet, the other needle, by a sympathy, will move unto the same letter in the other instrument, though they be never so far distant. And thus, by several motions of the needle to the letters they may easily make up any words or sense which they have a mind to express."

peculiar jargon that school-children have adopted of the compass under the needle of the marifrom time immemorial when discussing their ner's chart. Let the friend that is to travel affairs with favourite companions. The second department includes the formation and use of cypher alphabets, often invented and modified with great ingenuity, but always capable of being made out when there is any real necessity for doing so. The third method is a kind of short-hand, but the key to this, like that of cyphers, and also like that of many written languages almost lost, can be with singular ease discovered, owing to the much greater abundance of certain letters and words in every language than others, and an invariable and inevitable law thus obtained. All these methods or departments of secret communication, curious" that every natural agent is supposed to have and ingenious enough at the time, may now be said to have little value, and possess no general interest.

While, however, describing these familiar and not very useful secrets, our author suggests others far less probable, as it might seem at the time, but which have been found more useful and practicable. Thus he speaks of "a flying chariot than which imagination itself cannot conceive any one more useful, since by this means a man may have as free a passage as a bird, which is not hindered by the highest walls, or the deepest rivers and trenches, or the most watchful sentinels." It is true that the notion of sailing through the air like birds is of very ancient date, and that Roger Bacon states that he has heard of a machine to accomplish this purpose. But it seems certain that no human being ever actually ascended far into the air in any floating balloon till, in 1783, the brothers Montgolfier made their first successful experiment near Lyons, in France. It would be difficult, however, to find words to express in smaller space, or with greater reference to the modern contrivances of balloons, all that these machines can perform, than those made use of in the above short extract. Balloons, indeed, have not yet been made useful, except on a small scale, in war, but that is because they cannot yet be guided. When this is secured, the prophetic description will be perfect.

On the subject of rapid communication of news generally, we find in this same work a reference to "three saturnine angels and certain images by which in the space of twenty-four hours a man may be informed of news from any part of the world." If the saturnine angels or messengers be translated to mean metallic wires, and the images the dial-plates of telegraphic instruments, all that is apparent in the electric telegraph would be described, but as the nature of the power or influence is not alluded to, the hint is hardly sufficient. Much more distinct, however, is the sentence that follows shortly after, when certain fabulous relations that concern secret and swift conveyances," are thus described. "Let there be two needles provided of an equal length and business, being both of them touched with the same loadstone. Let the letters of the alphabet be placed in the circles on which they are moved, as the points

Dr. Wilkins, while he thus describes what he was informed could be done, evidently has grave doubts as to its possibility. He observes, first,

some certain sphere, which determines its activity," and therefore that this sympathy between distant magnets was improbable. Secondly, he says, that "magnetical operations do not arise from mere sympathy, but from such a diffusion of these magnetical qualities through the medium that they may be continued from the agent to the patient.' Still he describes and refers to it as to a fact, and it is not a little curious to see in this suggestion of a result only recently attained, how completely the imagination has gone ahead of the observing and reflective faculties. The principle involved in all practical telegraphic operations, that of making soft iron magnetic by passing through it a galvanic current, and the facility thus obtained of making and unmaking a magnet at will is not referred to in these speculations, and is altogether a modern invention. The communication of magnetic currents by metallic wires, although exceedingly useful and generally adopted, is not so essential, and thus one very small step, and one only, really separates this suggestion, doubtful even to the suggestor, from the marvellous realisation of our own day.

There is something exceedingly interesting in looking back to the infancy of science and tracing the foreshadowing of great inventions in the mind of an ingenious man, whose imagi native and poetic intellect was enabled to overleap the mechanical difficulties that for centuries prevented the successful carrying out into práctice of the ideas he entertained. It may be very doubtful whether such guesses and vague fancies really assist the more matter-of-fact discoverer in after times, but there is no doubt that they prepare the minds of men, and keep alive an excitement which may often tend in its operation to promote discovery.

One word more with regard to the apparent vagueness of the accounts, and even the impossibility of obtaining a fairly accurate notion of the details, when such men as Bishop Wilkins set forth their ideal views of what science is doing or will do. Although what they wrote seems to us now so unpractical, we must not conclude that men of this stamp were without wisdom and honesty, or that they did not exert themselves to the utmost, according to their knowledge and powers, for the improvement and enlightenment of mankind. They had but few

facts to work upon, and little experience of ac- appendages, which may be taken to pieces and curate observers to fall back upon. Everything put into a box, he has a wooden hospital with around them was equally new and wonderful, wooden offices, and a wooden chapel, which he and if they had not generalised by instinct they can undo, and shift about, and put together never could have arrived at the useful conclu- again, as whim or wisdom may direct; also sions that we frequently meet with, and the sug- that, instead of wooden haymakers and shepgestions that abound in their works. Step by herds and sheep, he has a staff of Sisters of step knowledge has advanced; one after another Charity really alive and active in their black the various sciences and departments of science and white costume: with a collection of one have taken their natural place in the great series. hundred boys and girls who squeak, make faces, At one time minute accuracy of detail, and at and float in the water, as naturally as the most another broad generalisations, have marked the expensive doll to be found in all London. advance, but those have not been the least valuable friends to scientific research who have collected the facts and suggested the practical applications that might possibly result from them. There was something of prophecy even in the scientific dreams of Dr. Wilkins, because he loved truth, and pursued science for its own sake. The difference between the habit of thought in such a man two centuries ago and at the present time is not greater than the difference that exists between the early and later memoirs published in the Transactions of that learned body of which Bishop Wilkins was a founder.

SANDS OF LIFE.

THERE are two (if not more, for there are thirty-six Montreuils in all) well-known Montreuils in France. One, inland, near Paris, Montreuil-aux-Pêches, is distinguished by the peaches for which it is famous. The other, a small fortified sous-prefectoral town on the top of a hill, overlooking the valley of the Canche, is called Montreuil-sur-Mer, although it is several miles distant from the English Channel. This is the Montreuil of which Nelson wrote, "We lodged in the same inn, and under the auspices of the same cheerful landlord who supplied Sterne with his servant Lafleur. We would gladly have remained at Montreuil, but neither good lodgings nor good company are to be had. There is no middle class at all; the town is inhabited by some sixty noble families, who are the owners of great part of the neighbouring country, while all the rest are very poor. Very few places have such good shooting. Partridges are twopence-halfpenny the brace; pheasants and woodcocks, as well as poultry in general, are equally cheap. Thirty-six hours spent at Montreuil made us regret that we had to leave it."

Since Nelson's letter was put into the post, Montreuil has made great advances in every thing-the price of partridges included. With out any dearth of landed proprietors, there is also a middle class, besides good lodgings and good society, with good fish and good fowl, and, above all, a good physician, Doctor Paul Perrochaud, who is the hero of the following story: The doctor was once a little boy, perhaps not a little spoiled, and doubtless given to house-building with cards, and to peopling smali wooden mansions with dolls. Such must have been the pursuits of his childhood, for the child is father to the man. The only difference now, is, that instead of a wooden Swiss farm and its

Everybody has his hobby; Dr. Perrochaud's hobby is SCROFULOUS CHILDREN. And why not? A scrofulous child is far more interesting than a healthy child. In fact, a healthy child is uninteresting. It never gives you the excitement of fearing that it should go blind, or should melt away to nothing, or become frightful to behold with abscesses and scars, or be a cripple for life with white swellings and stiff joints, if consumption do not shorten its sufferings. With a healthy child, you have no need to sit up o' nights, watching whether the flame of life is to go out speedily or to flicker on a little longer. A healthy child never gives you the pleasure of observing the results of successful treatment-the look that assures a fresh hold on existence, the increasing flesh, the clearer complexion, the smile.

But if the scrofulous child be also a poor child-the child of parents confined within large cities, or a foundling child in a foundling hospital, fatherless and motherless-our interest in the child increases tenfold. It is a romance in one volume, whose tedious chapters we cannot skip and turn to the end to satisfy our curiosity. Actual life is an unflinching reader; we must follow every individual page before we can arrive at the conclusion. How strong the interest, is proved by the way in which the appetite grows with the indulgence. Dr. Perrochaud began with nursing one scrofulous child; he now has one hundred under his wing; he hopes in a year or two to get some four or five hundred together in his expansive and movable hospital.

France is not ravaged with scrofula so severely as several other countries of Europe. There is more scrofula in England than in France, and still more in Holland than in England. But there is yet enough scrofulous disease in France to put a medical man upon his mettle. Ever since popular credulity withdrew its faith from the touch of kings, the Faculty have been anxiously inquiring, Where is the remedy, what is the specific, against that dreadful disease the King's Evil?

According to Michelet, it was reserved for England to solve the problem. One of the most striking features of England at the present day are her innumerable marine villas, the love of a sea-side residence, and the bathing continued late into the autumn; all which are modern, premeditated, and intentional habits. The Duke of Newcastle asked Dr. Russell why, in so many of the fairest forms, rottenness lay hid beneath

lilies and roses? The doctor, by way of answer, Worship and Public Instruction, or any other published, in 1750, a book entitled De Tabe branch of the government. Its office is a Glandulari, seu de Usu Aqua Marina (On large building close to Notre Dame. It manages Glandular Disease, or the Use of Sea-Water). His object was, through its use, not to cure but to remake and recreate his patients. He proposed to work a miracle, although a possible miracle; namely, to make new flesh, to create fresh tissues. It follows clearly that he greatly preferred to work upon children. At that period, Bakewell had just invented meat; cattle, which had hitherto scarcely supplied anything else besides milk, were in future to yield a more generous aliment. Russell, on his part, by this little book, most opportunely invented the sea; that is to say, he made it the fashion.

the affairs of all hospitals, infirmaries, almshouses, foundling hospitals, out-door and in-door relief, and every other public act of charity connected with the department of the Seine. Its powers are very great; lately, it has established hospitals of convalescence for sick persons recovering from illnesses, who have been treated in hospitals proper, or elsewhere; and we see that it has sent scrofulous children to the sea-side. It has immense revenues at its disposal, roughly estimated at from two hundred and fifty thousand, to three hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum. It levies a tribute His whole system may be resumed in one of ten per cent on the profits of all theatrical word-THE SEA. You must drink sea-water; performances, balls, concerts, circuses, and you must bathe in it, and you must eat all sorts amusements of every kind, in Paris. It has of marine things-shell-fish, fish proper, sea- landed property, interest from funds, payments weeds (there is not a single poisonous marine from public markets, profits of the Mont-devegetable), in which its virtue is concentrated. Piété, or Public Pawnbroker, a good slice out of Secondly, Dr. Russell ordered his scrofulous the income of the octroi tax, besides the special children to be very slightly clad, and always endowments of the hospitals, &c. The whole exposed to the air; sea-air and sea-water, at of this money must be expended on charitable their natural temperatures, and nothing more, purposes only, and not on paving, drainage, or were his remedies. The latter prescription was any other work of public utility, however rebold and decided practice, which is followed with considerable modifications by practitioners of the present day. To keep a child half-naked in a damp and variable climate, amounted to a resolution to sacrifice the weak liest. The strongest only would survive; and the race, perpetuated by them alone, would be reinstated in its pristine vigour.

Last December, M. Michelet received a small pamphlet from Italy. Opposite the title-page were the portraits of two children, of whom one died and the other was dying, in the hospitals of Florence. Its author was the hospital doctor, who took the fate of his little patients so keenly to heart that he could not help expressing his sorrow and regret; for which he alleges as his excuse, that "These dear children would not have died, if they could have been sent to the sea." Conclusion: A hospital for children must be established on the coast. The doctor's appeal went home to people's hearts. Without waiting for government assistance, an independent society immediately founded a Children's Bathing Establishment, at Viareggio.

The benevolent Florentine's idea had already been anticipated in France by Messieurs Frère and Perrochaud (the former sub-inspector of the assisted children belonging to the Department of the Seine, who are placed out in the arrondissement of Montreuil-sur-Mer; the latter the physician charged with the medical care of the said children), who, in April, 1857, placed in the village of Groffiers, on the Channel coast, several children in a desperate state of rachitism and scrofulism.

The reader here ought to be informed that the Administration Générale de l'Assistance Publique at Paris is almost a sort of ministry, rivalling in importance the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of

commendable. Any one who has served for thirty years in a hospital, or other charitable establishment in Paris, is entitled to a maintenance for life from the Administration Générale de l'Assistance Publique. It will be seen, therefore, what an enormous power for good is wielded by the director-general.

The cure, by sea-bathing, of the above-mentioned little patients encouraged MM. Frère and Perrochaud to demand from the directorgeneral, an authorisation to place, by way of experiment, in a private house on the beach at Berck, as many scrofulous children as could be attended to by the person who undertook to board and lodge them. In '58 and '59, more than fifty children of both sexes, sent to Berck by the Administration, were completely cured of the scrofulous affections under which they were suffering.

These results, as satisfactory as they were unexpected, decided the Administration, in the month of May, 1860, to confide to Messieurs Frère and Perrochaud more than sixty of their scrofulous and rickety protégés. In consequence of the salutary influence of sea-bathing on these last patients, Monsieur le Directeur Général, wishing to give the scrofulous children under his administration a new proof of his incessant solicitude for their welfare, authorised the erection, on the beach at Berck, of a hospital containing one hundred beds: which are now occupied, in the proportion of a third each, by scrofulous children selected from the hospitals Sainte Eugénie, des Enfants Malades, and des Enfants Assistés. Every child, before its departure, is carefully examined, and a note of its condition is drawn up by competent physicians belonging to the Paris hospitals. All the details of the treatment of each, with the effects of sea-side residence and saline baths, on the