[THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.]
January 1852.
Notwithstanding our busy and acquisitive propensities, we of the metropolis have found time to wish one another a happy new-year, and to send friendly greetings to our country cousins also. We don't like to take the step from one year into another without a coup d'amitié. Besides all which, we are in the habit of considering ourselves at the present season more than ever entitled to partake of the recreations offered us, whether theatrical, musical, pictorial, saltatorial, philosophical, or scientific. And so, while simple-minded people are looking into the new almanacs to test the accuracy of the predictions, I must try to fill a page or two with such matters of talk as will bear reproduction in print.
First of all, among the discussions and communications at the Astronomical Society, it is stated that the term 'meteoric astronomy' is one which we shall shortly be able to use with almost absolute certainty, as M. Petit of Toulouse has succeeded in determining the orbits of meteors relatively to the sun as well as to the earth. His conclusions are considered valuable, especially with respect to the meteor of August 19, 1847, which, it appears, came 'from the regions of space beyond our system;' having, as is estimated, occupied more than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium! This is another addition to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of further results. Certain members of the same society are still at work on what has been a tedious task—the restoration of the standard yard, rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years ago. The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and graduations being read off with a microscope. When finished, it will be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom. This restoration of the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 degrees. Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly identical with the modern French mètre; whence a suggestion of 'the possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of barbarism.' Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree of the earth's surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the side of one of the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time. Modern science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a remarkable incident in the history of philosophy.
The appearance of extraordinary spots on the sun has attracted a more than ordinary degree of attention to that luminary, and to Mr J. Nasmyth's 'views respecting the source of light,' which, though published a few months since, are now again talked about. Mr Nasmyth, after several years' observation, comes to the conclusion, 'that whatever be the source of light, its production appears to result from an action induced on the exterior surface of the solar sphere;' and he believes it reasonable to 'consider the true source of the latent element of light to reside, not in the solar orb, but in space itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun is to act as an agent for the bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion of the illuminating or luciferous element; which element he supposes to be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in that case must be perfectly exhaustless. Further, assuming this luciferous element to be not equally diffused through space, we find a reason why in some ages of the earth's history the heat should have been greater than at others, why stars have been seen to vary in brightness, and why there was that puzzle to geologists—a glacial period. During that period, according to Mr Nasmyth, with whose words I finish this part of my communication, 'an arctic climate spread from the poles towards the equator, and left the record of such a condition in glacial handwriting on the mountain walls of our elder mountain ravines, of which there is such abundant and unquestionable evidence.'
Our Microscopical Society have made a discovery in an all but invisible subject: they now state the Volvox globator to be a vegetable, and not, as has long been supposed, an animal, as its cells, presumed to be ova, are produced in the same way as in certain kinds of algæ. In the discussion excited by this announcement, it came out that several other minute forms, classed by Ehrenberg among living animalcules, are in reality vegetable; which, if true, shews that a good deal of microscopical work will have to be done over again. The Syro-Egyptian Society, too, have heard something relating to the same subject—a paper on Ehrenberg's examination by the microscope of the anciently deposited alluvium of the Nile, from which it appears that 'microscopic animals' in countless numbers were the cause of the remarkable fertility of the soil, and not vegetable or unctuous matters. Talking of deposits reminds me of a little fact which I must not forget to mention—the finding of a fossil reptile in the 'Old Red' of your county of Moray is, barring the alarm, as much a cause of astonishment to our geologists, as was the mark of the foot on the sand to Robinson Crusoe.
Now for a few gatherings from the continent. M. Chalambel has laid before the Académie at Paris a 'Note on a Modification to be introduced in the Preparation of Butter, which improves its Quality and prolongs its Preservation.' 'If butter,' he observes, 'contained only the fat parts of milk, it would undergo only very slow alterations when in contact with the air; but it retains a certain quantity of caseum, found in the cream, which caseum, by its fermentation, produces butyric-acid, and to which is owing the disagreeable flavour of rancid butter. The usual washing of butter rids it but very imperfectly of this cause of alteration, for the water does not wet the butter, and cannot dissolve the caseum, which has become insoluble under the influence of the acids that develop themselves in the cream. A more complete separation would be obtained if these acids were saturated; the caseum would again be soluble, and consequently the quantity retained in the butter would be almost entirely carried away by the washing-water.'
The remedy proposed is: 'When the cream is in the churn, pour in—a little at a time, and keep stirring—enough of lime-wash to destroy the acidity entirely. The cream is then to be churned until the butter separates; but before it forms into lumps, the buttermilk is to be poured off, and replaced by cold water, in which the churning is to be continued until the butter is complete, when it is to be taken from the churn and treated as usual. I have,' says M. Chalambel, 'by following this method, obtained butter always better, and which kept longer, than when made in the ordinary way. The buttermilk, deprived of its sharp taste, was drunk with pleasure by men and animals, and had lost its laxative properties.' By means of lime-wash or lime-water, he has restored butter so 'far gone' that it could only have been recovered by melting; but any alkaline lixivium will answer the same purpose.