| [3] | It is highly honourable to the sex, that the only exposition of Laplace's work that has (1848) appeared in England, is from the pen of a female—the accomplished Mary Somerville, wife of Dr. Somerville, of Chelsea Hospital. This was published under the title of the Mechanism of the Heavens, of which, it is observed, in the Edinburgh Review, "this, unquestionably, is one of the most remarkable works that female intellect ever produced in any age or country; and with respect to the present day, we hazard little in saying that Mrs. Somerville is the only individual of her sex in the world who could have written it." For this signal service to science, there was conferred upon the lady a pension of 300l. per annum, at the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel. |
THE WORLD IN A DROP OF WATER.
The microscope has shown that a drop of water though it may appear to the naked eye to be perfectly clear, is swarming with living beings. According to Ehrenberg, a cubic inch of water may contain more than 800,000 millions of these beings, estimating them only to occupy one fourth of its space; and a single drop, placed under the microscope, will be seen to hold 500 millions; an amount, perhaps, not so very far from equal to the whole number of human beings on the surface of our globe!
ORIGIN OF POST-PAID ENVELOPES.
M. Piron tells us, that the idea of a Post-paid Envelope originated, early in the reign of Louis XIV., with M. de Velayer, who, in 1653, established, with royal approbation, a private penny post, placing boxes at the corners of the streets for the reception of letters, wrapped up in envelopes, which were to be bought at offices established for that purpose.
M. de Velayer also caused to be printed certain forms of billets, or notes applicable to the ordinary business among the inhabitants of great towns, with blanks, which were to be filled up by the pen with such special matter as might complete the writer's object. One of these billets has been preserved to our times by a pleasant misapplication of it. Pelisson, Mde. de Sevigné's friend, and the object of the bon mot, that "he abused the privilege which men have of being ugly," was amused at this kind of skeleton correspondence; and under the affected name of Pisandre, (according to the pedantic fashion of the day,) he filled up and addressed one of these forms to the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scuderi, in her pseudonyme of Sappho. This strange billet-doux has happened, from the celebrity of the parties, to be preserved, and is still extant: one of the oldest, we presume, of penny-post letters, and a curious example of a pre-paying envelope—as well as a new proof of the adage, that "there is nothing new under the sun."