Mozos neglected their duties, there boats very near the coast without was the detachment of Hanoverian injuring their health. This proves light horse after them instanter, that the poisonous atmosphere does trot trot. She had, however, an not extend across the water. The unpleasant custom of keeping part man's remarks contain a significant of the broad galleries that ran hint. I remembered that the round the house in a perpetually English Ambassador, with whom I flooded state, from the gigantic often took a walk there- he was scale of washing operations that not a man of learning-directed my seemed always going on there. attention to the fact, that beyond At times the soap-sud breakers ran Mount Posilipo, in the midst of the so high it was a matter of great sea, ruins of ancient Roman houses difficulty to pass them with safety, were found; and he observed, that and a small life-boat was quite a the Romans must have had a sindesideratum. (Lady E. S. Wort- gular taste in thus building houses ley's Travels in the United States in the midst of the water, and conin 1849-50.) nected with the mainland by means of bridges, although there was no

ANCIENT ROMAN WATERING-PLACES beauty to attract them. To aban

BAIE AND AVERNUS.

The real watering-place was Baiæ towards Cape Misenum. It is very remarkable, that at present the district is quite pestilential; if a man were to sleep there one night during the summer, he would be seized with a bilious fever, in consequence of the poisonous air. A French officer, who imagined this to be a mere prejudice, made a bet that he would sleep in the Villa Borghese: he was urgently requested not to do it; but the next morning he was quite swollen, and after a few days he died of a putrid fever. The same is the case at Baiæ; and yet the ancients, as we see from a fragment of Cicero's speech in Clodium et Curionem, most commonly staid there in April, when it is already dangerous. Í have discovered the explanation of all this, from a conversation with a common man. He said to me that the nature of the Pontine marshes was a very strange thing; that it was not possible for any one in summer to sleep there without fatal consequences, and that it was the same in many parts of Latium; but he added, that to his own knowledge sailors and boatmen, even in the dangerous season, slept in their

don such a charming coast, and to build a house in the sea, was, he thought, a strange fancy. When, afterwards, I heard the account of the man I mentioned before, the matter_ceased to be a mystery to me. Even at Formiæ, and certainly at Baiæ, the Romans built houses into the sea, in order to isolate themselves from the bad air: these are the moles jacta in altum, and on them people were safe.

The country there is indescribably beautiful and charming; and besides Baiæ, the Lake Avernus, surrounded by very ancient forests, is likewise a spot of great interest. Near it, a road has been cut through the rock leading to Cuma. Such roads were often constructed for the purpose of shortening the distance and avoiding the heights; for the Romans generally endeavoured by every means to shorten the roads. A similar road leads from Naples to Puzzuoli, likewise made to avoid a hill, which it would be very difficult to cross: hence, the crypta Pausilippana, Puteolana Neapolitana. The Avernus was, no doubt originally called dogvos, and with the digamma fogvos. This etymology has been rejected, because it implied the statement that birds

GERMAN STUDENTS.

could not fly over the lake, which, it is said, is an absurdity. But no bird settles there without dying in consequence, on account of the quantity of carbonic acid which is exhaled by the earth and the lake; dogs, too, are not safe there, but men may pass without any danger. --(Niebuhr.)

GERMAN STUDENTS.

339

five to six dollars per month, inclusive of the servant, a good dinner the same, and supper three dollars a-month. A young man with £50 to £60 a-year may live most comfortably in Berlin, and pursue his studies, while a much greater allowance than this would be injurious to him. The most diligent students are unquestionably the philologists; the poorest, the The characteristic marks of the theologians; the richest, and at the genuine German student, such as same time the idlest, are the jurists. the laced velvet coat, the little Those who study medicine have coloured cap, the long and float- the most work, at least if they foling hair, and bare neck, scarcely low up the course of study preexist in Berlin; and altogether scribed to them at their matricuthere is less esprit de corps than is lation. The lectures are either found in the smaller universities private or public, and the former of Germany. In the latter the cost from one to two dollars halfstudents always address each other yearly; while poor students are in the second person singular, thee admitted to attend their professors and thou; and the neglect of this gratis, on a promise to pay their mode of expression would be con- fees when, in after life, they find sidered an insult, sufficient to cause themselves in a condition to do so. a duel. In Berlin there is more This custom, however, does not formal ceremony, and the terms prevail so much in the medical as Mein Herr and you are generally in the other faculties. Every stuadopted. Secret societies, the dent must attend, at least, one names of which recal to mind the private teacher in the half-year— famous Burchenshaften of former or rather, to tell the truth, to pay days, still exist in Berlin; but in- the fees to one; and the medical stead of having for their object student must prove before examipolitical discussion, they seem to nation that he has attended the have degenerated into smoking, prescribed number. The first mebeer-drinking, and fencing clubs. dical examination takes place in the The Revolution, however, has not second year's study; it is called been without considerable influ- the examen philosophicum, and ence on these societies; and al- comprises logic and natural histhough the Berlin students have tory. At the end of the fourth not played so conspicuous a part year's study, a student is allowed in the political affairs of their to become a candidate for the doccountry as their fellows of Vienna, tor's degree, having previously denevertheless, towards the end of posited about £26 English. The last year, they formed themselves examination-to have passed which into a volunteer body, distinguished does not permit a man to practise by its zeal and the good order that his profession-is very slight, the reigned among its members. Stu- only matter rigorously enforced dents generally live two together, being, that it is conducted in the in furnished rooms, which are Latin language. Then comes the cheaper, more convenient, and grand and public ceremony in the cleaner than those of Paris. A great aula of the university, at room, on an average, costs from which a dissertation and theses are

delivered and defended—the latter easy chair with a movable back. being always privately rehearsed If the object he seeks is high in beforehand with a friend, and the the heavens, his chair-back is play acted in public as a species of lowered till he almost lies down; genteel comedy, the concedo and if the star is lower the chair-back gratulor following a desultory al- is raised in proportion. He has tercation of about ten minutes, the his note-book and metallic pencil insignificance of which is concealed in hand. Across the eye-piece of under the veil of a dead language. the telescope are stretched seven The candidate then challenges any lines of spider-web, dividing the one present è corona-to break a field of view. If his seat requires lance with him; and the comedy change, the least motion arranges is terminated by the dean, gene- it to his satisfaction, for it rests rally the only member of the fa- upon a railway of its own. Beside culty present, putting the oath him is one of the star-clocks, and that he shall do nothing unworthy as the moment approaches for the his art and calling, and presenting appearance of the planet the exthe candidate with his diploma.-citement of the moment increases. (Medical Times.)

THE GREENWICH PLANET-WATCHER. Summer is his time of labour, winter his time of rest. It appears that in our climate the nights, on the whole, are clearer than the days, and evenings less cloudy than mornings. Every assistant takes his turn as an observer, and a chain of duty is kept up night and day; at other periods, the busiest portion of the twenty-four hours at the observatory is between nine in the morning and two in the afternoon. During this time they work in silence, the task being to complete the records of the observations made, by filling in the requisite columns of figures upon printed forms, and then adding and subtracting them as the case requires. Whilst thus engaged, the assistant who has charge of an instrument, looks from time to time at the star-regulated clock, and, when it warns him that his expected planet is nearly due, he leaves his companions and quietly repairs to the room where the telescope is ready. The adjustment of this has previously been arranged with the greatest nicety. The shutter is moved from the slit in the roof, the astronomer sits on an

The tremble of impatience for the entrance of the star on the field of view, is like that of a sportsman whose dog has just made a full point, and who awaits the rising of the game. When a star appears. the observer, in technical language, "takes a second from the clock face;" that is, he reads the second with his eye, and counts on by the ear the succeeding beats of the clock, naming the seconds mentally. As the star passes each wire of the transit he marks down in his jotting-book with a metallic pencil the second and the only second of his observation, with such a fraction of a second as corresponds in his judgment to the interval of time between the passage of the star and the beat of the clock which preceded such passage. —(Dickens' Household Words.)

BELLS.

The nearer bells are hung to the surface of the earth, other things being equal, the farther they can be heard. Franklin has remarked that, many years ago, the inhabitants of Philadelphia had a bell imported from England. In order to judge of the sound, it was elevated on a triangle in the great street of the city, and struck, as it

AUTOGRAPHS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

341

the river, which hangs at a distance

happened, on a market-day, when the people coming to market were in mid-air, like the slender threads surprised on hearing the sound of of the silk-worm, discernible only a bell at a greater distance from by the frequent weavings of its the city than they had ever heard tiny wires; and even when apany bell before. This circumstance proached and surveyed closely, looks excited the attention of the curious; rather as if it was intended as a and it was discovered that the thoroughfare for fairies than a husound of the bell, when struck in man highway. Our luggage was the street, reached nearly double trundled over in a barrow, but we the distance it did when raised in were not permitted to follow until the air. In the air, sound travels it reached the other side, which at the rate of from 1130 to 1140 feet caused me to ask the toll-keeper per second. In water, 4708 feet per did he not then consider it safe? second. Sounds are distinct at twice "O, yes," he said, "perfectly safe; the distance on water that they are a woman crossed it the day before on land. yesterday; but I must obey my orders." To this conclusive reasoning I made no reply, but waited until the porter reached the opposite side, where I wished I was myself, without the gratification of viewing the foaming river through the wires. (Kelly's Excursion to California.)

FOREIGN ORTHOGRAPHY.

In the mineral department of the Museum at Florence, the following label in Italian is affixed to a specimen from Scotland: 66 Scolezite, from Hold Kilpatrukhill, near Glasgow." We wonder if our friends at Old Kilpatrick are able to inform us what locality is meant.

STUDY.

Logic, however unperverted, is not for boys; argumentation is amongst the most dangerous of early practices, and sends away both fancy and modesty. The young mind should be nourished with simple and grateful food, and not too copiously. It should be little exercised until its nerves and muscles show themselves, and even then rather for air than anything else. Study is the bane of boyhood, the aliment of youth, the indulgence of manhood, and the restorative of age.—(W. S. Landor.)

CURIOUS TEST OF THE NIAGARA
SAFETY BRIDGE.

NATURAL COMPASS.

It is a well-known fact, that in the vast prairies of the Texas a little plant is always to be found, which, under all circumstances of climate, change of weather, rain, frost, or sunshine, invariably turns its leaves and flowers to the north. If a solitary traveller were making his way across those trackless wilds, without a star to guide or a compass to direct him, he finds an unerring monitor in a humble plant, and he follows its guidance, certain that it will not mislead him.

AUTOGRAPHS IN THE BRITISH

MUSEUM.

During the vast influx of visitors attracted to London by the Great Exhibition, the following autographs were laid out for inspection, along with a collection of books and manuscripts of celebrated individuals, in the British

My admiration was much more largely drawn upon by the exquisitely delicate suspension - bridge that spans the rushing waters of Museum :