one eastern plan demonstrates a little-known effect | great rudeness towards each other. So, again, of centrifugal force. It would be curious if Mr. Layard could illustrate the legend :— Caelius testifies that the Babylonian hunters place raw eggs in a sling, and whirl them round, until by this sort of motion they are cooked.—p. 301. To conclude-occasional absurdities only set off Aldrovandi's merits, which are great wherever (like Herodotus) he relies on his own observation. A very good account of his labors and his life, as far as they are accurately known, is given in the Naturalist's Library, Mammalia, vol. vii. The veins of French literature that have been most freely worked in the poultry line are candidly pointed out by Walter B. Dickson in his preface The chief sources from which the materials of the present work have been derived are French, beginning with Olivier de Serres, the father of French agriculture, and M. Chomel, the author of the Dictionnaire Economique. The two most distinguished of the French writers on poultry are the celebrated M. Réaumur, the inventor of the thermometer, and M. Parmentier, the author of the article Poule, in the Abbé Rozier's Cours Complet d'Agriculture, as well as the notes along with M. Huzard to the government edition of the Théâtre d'Agriculture the details of which have been almost implicitly followed in his Pigeons et Gallinacées. M. Parmentier has also contributed articles on poultry to several other works, which have been consulted. M. Bosc wrote the article Poule for the Encyclopédie Méthodique, which, amongst other novelties, contains a mode of making hens hatch at any time that may be required. The subject of the preservation of eggs has been carefully explained, chiefly from the admirable experi ments of M. Réaumur. The disorders of poultry have, it is believed, for the first time, been treated in a scientific and rational manner; and the experiments and researches of M. Flourens on this subject have been fully detailed. Now all this is very right and proper. The public is much obliged to any writer who will bring forth interesting matter from little known, and especially from foreign sources. But we conceive that by doing so he acquires a sort of copyright in his novel quotations. Literary morality ought to prevent succeeding writers from building up their structures with his materials. If they will go to the same crag, let them at least respect the stones which he has already hewn out. It is tiresome, whenever one takes up a new poultry-book, with whatever title, to have the lady who trained capons to perform all the offices of hens, except laying, or the Egyptian egg-ovens, or Lord Penrhyn's poultryhouse, or the verminier of M. Olivier de Serres, which, Mr. Nolan calls (p. 78) a vermineer, staring out from the pages as soon as they are opened. And gross errors are as sure to be thus re-copied as useful facts: witness, ex medio acervo, the stereotyped statement from M. St. Genis, that " geese will pair like pigeons and partridges, and that, if the number of the ganders exceed that of the geese by two, and even by three, including the common father, no disturbance nor disputes occur; the pairing takes place without noise, and, no doubt, by mutual choice." After this decorous matrimonial ceremony," the couples which had paired kept constantly together, and the three single ganders did not, during temporary separation of the males and females, offer to approach the latter." Exemplary birds! But that must have been in the goiden age of poultry-keeping. Now, they are very jealous, and even noisy, behaving sometimes with from the French we have it that the common fowl has been recommended to fill the important function of hatching goose-eggs; but the eggs of the goose being very large, and their shell very hard-all true a hen is not bulky enough to hatch more than-how ber is given to a hen in Boswell, p. 151; the same many-eight or nine! The same numin Main, p. 83. Now, reader, study for a moment the next hen you see, and then look at a goose's egg: She would be just as able to hatch nine ostrich's eggs as nine of these, unless she is one of those dunghill hens which, as we calculated, cover, at the most, five goose's eggs: it is a quesmust be five feet long. A large Dorking hen will tion whether she can warm them thoroughly, at least in the climate of England. They drain off her caloric at a terrible rate; the poor thing would as soon sit on so many cannon-balls. The practice is not a good one here. But nine goose's eggs are nothing for a clever hen to hatch. "Buffon mentions a sort of fowl in Brittany which are always obliged to leap, the legs being so short. These are the size of a dunghill-fowl, and kept as being very fruitful. The hens will hatch thirty eggs at (W. B. Dickson, p. 18.) a time." It is enough to laugh at the repetition of such things as these:-but the serious evil of incorporating foreign agricultural information, as a naturalized part of our own system, is, that the difference of climate, and the innumerable details depending on that difference, render any practice based on such precepts unsafe, and probably unsuccessful. This great oversight is what rendered all Cobbett's speculations on gardening, agriculture, and foresting, of so little value; he constantly mistook the English climate for an American one; the maize that required a long, unclouded summer to mature it, was to increase profitably in the "usual severity" of our seasons; the trees, which had not half enough sunshine to mature their young wood, were yet to pass the trying ordeal of our drizzling winters and our reluctant springs. Cobbett's hints on Poultry in his Cottage Economy, though not infallible, are better worth attending to. They are his own; and so he has been pillaged that other books may be put together. He had too much English industry and independence not to think that his own observations on things in general were the very best that could be made. He would have scorned all plagiarism from the French, though he yielded to the overpowering influence of the summer suns of America in his gardening theories. Main's Poultry-book is thoroughly French, both in information and expression, except the parts quoted from Dr. Latham's Synopsis of Birds. This treatise,' ," the advertisement to the third edition tells us," was written by a gentleman who, in the course of his travels in tropical countries, and from a pretty long residence in France, acquired a very extensive acquaintance with the dif ferent species and varieties of poultry, together with the different methods of rearing and fattening them with a view to profit, as practised in some of the rural districts of that kingdom." Rules and plans so collected may, for aught we know, be valuable for French poultry-keepers. A publisher, however, would look oddly if an author were to go to him, and say, "Sir, I have resided several years in Devonshire, and have had great opportunity of studying the practice of gardening there-what will you give me for the copyright of a work on the Horticulture of the Shetland Islands nearly ready for publication-a handsome thick octavo | Cephalonia, as part of a ship's stores; they might volume, with wood cuts, elegantly bound in cloth ?" There is nothing more local than the best way of managing plants, birds, and beasts for profit, or than the best sorts to be cultivated in those localities; and yet we are overpowered with the opinions of MM. Parmentier, St. Genis, and Olivier de Serres," the father of rural economy in France." It is, doubtless, amusing to read how the Abelard de la basse-cour can be trained to incubate and lead out chickens; and so it is also to be told-in Daniel's Rural Sports, to wit-how a talented sow was tutored to point at game; but an Englishman would no more choose the unclean to accompany him to the moors, than his lady would allow the hero of the Almanach des Gourmands to take the bread out of her hens' mouths. have been mongrels bred in the next street, so like those running there were they; an opinion could be given, by any practised poultry-fancier, of their degree of mongrelism. Many able scientific naturalists have been deterred from the study of domestic animals by the notion that their characters are perpetually changing-that they do not bring forth young after their kind, but their kind itself is unstable; so that it is of no use, they think, to try to fix and arrange in their systems things so ephemeral. Domestication, they say, is a sort of harlequin's sword; touch a creature with that and you convert a clown into a columbine. It is curious, however, that this potent agency of domestication, like that of mesmerism, should operate only on certain families and individuals, leaving others We beg leave to conclude this little discourse untouched. Thus, the blue rock pigeon is supposed with some account of an experiment which may to have been metamorphosed into the whole variety help to solve a problem of considerable importance; of forms exhibited by the large and heavy runt, the namely, whether the hybrids between two species pigmy tumbler, the trembling fantail, and the which may fairly be considered as distinct, are ruffed jacobin. Such may have been the case, capable, in any case, of producing between them- though neither the epoch of the change nor the selves an intermediate race of unvarying mixed process is recorded. But the collared turtle, which character, and with power of reproduction. The has been kept in much closer confinement for an reader will perceive the bearing which this has on equally long period over an equally wide geographthe grand question of the "origin" of our breeds ical range, has produced no such heterogeneous of poultry. That in most cases such hybrids are progeny. Why has not the guinea-fowl varied as not capable of doing so, is matter of long and much as the common fowl, if domestication really notorious experience. But there may be excep- has such magic power of working changes? Betions; and if there are, then we have two theories fore the Christian æra, the common guinea-fowl to choose from as to the great variety observable was as completely domesticated as it is now; and amongst some, not all, of our domestic animals; yet two thousand years have left the character of we may either suppose, as has been repeatedly the species unaltered, the few varieties we see asserted, that a single species-say, of dog or fowl being no greater than those which occur among -was created, and that all the various dogs and wild birds. Other species of guinea-fowl have fowls have been derived, altered and made, or been but rarely brought alive to this country; and created (as the French writers express it) from this we believe that the fertility of any hybrids (if such one species; or that the Almighty Creator thought have ever been reared) between two different that there should be, from the first, several orig-species of this genus has not yet been tested. inal species of dog and fowl intended for our But," it will be said, "do not forms vary?" domestic use, which should be capable of breeding Of course they do to a certain degree; but decidedly with each other; and that such genera of birds and not ad libitum. The following passage is from beasts should thus form each one large family, each Mr. Dixon's new Preface :prolific amongst themselves, for the service of mankind. In the first case, we must suppose many strange metamorphoses to have taken place at improbable times, in a way we do not see going on at present; there is, then, no real stability in organic forms; things are not multiplied after their kind, neither winged fowl, nor cattle, nor creeping thing, nor beast of the earth—but just the contrary. Natural historians, anxious to depict in haste each fleeting_zoological phantom, may in that case parody Pope and exclaim to each other Come, then, the colors and the ground prepare, Dip in the rainbow, trick them out in air; Take a firm cloud, before it fall, and in it Catch, ere they change, the poultry of the minute. But, in the second case, we have only to drop certain preconceived definitions of "species" and "variety," and a clue is given for harmonizing with other facts a very providential arrangement for the benefit of mankind, without admitting confusion into the order of things, or violating common sense and common observation. We are sorry to have no room now left to enlarge upon the topic. But why is not the variety observable among mongrels infinite, if the Lamarckian theory be the correct view of nature? Their variations, however, are the reverse of infinite. In a seaport town we lately saw a lot of mongrel fowls brought from To deny that animals vary at all, in either a wild or a domesticated state, is of course erroneous, and would, in fact, go to the extent of denying all individuality; but a strong suspicion may be reasonably entertained that such variations occur in prescribed cycles, and within certain limits, backwards and forwards, for which there exists a law, if we could but find it out, and that there is no progression or transmutation out of one species into another; just as, the comparison be allowed, the moon has her librations, and though a slight variation takes place, wo see, upon the whole, the same disk; or, as the orbits of the planets, though liable to perturbation, still do not deviate far from their general track, nor strike off into open space. if certain limits. Indefinite divergence from the original type is not possible; and the extreme limit of possible variation may usually be reached in a short period of time; in short, species have a real existence in nature, and a transmutation from one to another does not exist. *** Not only is the doctrine of transmutation of species in itself disproved by the best physiological reasonings, but the additional assumptions which are requisite to enable its advocates to apply it to the explanation of the geological and other phenomena of the earth, are altogether gratuitous and fantastical.-Indications of the Creator. If the limits of variation of species, breeds, races, sorts, or whatever they shall be called, could be defined (and most patient observation and industry alone can arrive at such a result) we might then begin to draw up a sketch of our catalogue of "originals." It will now be seen that-for us-the interest of any experiments in breeding is more retrospective than prospective; we are longing to make out the plan and history of what we see around us, rather than hopeful to do much that will alter the face of animated nature. We are thankful for a hint to guide us in the way of truth, and keep us from being bewildered in wandering, that is, in erring paths; but we do not entertain expectations of being able, by our knowledge thus acquired, to invent and set going any real zoological novelty. and one of the hybrid cocks, own brothers and own sisters together, whence thirty-four young; and, thirdly, one of the hybrid cocks with the common pheasant hens. Of these last only seven were reared, and as they were, in his lordship's opinion, the least important, he meant to let them take their chance in the coverts at large. The first lot may be in the eyes of many the most valuable, as having the greatest proportion of true Japan blood; but the second, as being exactly intermediate, i. e., the brothers and sisters, and therefore strictly to be called the second generation, are the most interesting in a scientific point of view; and, what is very remarkable, these proved the most prolific, not only in the final result, but during the whole season. All along, ever since the spring, these had been the most successful in hatching, and had taken the lead in thriftiness. And thus the matter stood in autumn; nothing further could be done to work out the problem until the results of another spring were apparent. But even thus the experiment is valuabie-as establishing the fact that the hybrids between some species which we must believe to be originally distinct, are capable of producing young inter se and of continuing their composite race. We cannot doubt the absolute distinctness of the Colchicus and the Versicolor, unless we consent to accept Buffon's notion that all pheasants (and all pigeons likewise) are derived from one original species of each by the effects of changed climate and more or less abundant diet. In the noble menagerie of the Earl of Derby, hybrids between the bernicle and the Canadian goose have been produced. They have never there The durability of the intermediate race, which (nor probably elsewhere) bred again inter se, though has thus been raised under Lord Derby's auspices, they have with the original stocks. But the hybrids is a point which it will be most interesting to between bernicle and white-fronted geese have bred watch. Whether they will continue in perpetuity again two years running. Becoming troublesome to exist as a family of unchanging half-and-half they were discontinued, and the opportunity lost of observing what would become of the new race. His lordship, however, has instituted another most interesting experiment of the same kind with pheasants, which we shall now detail as far as we have learned its progress. 66 There is a pheasant which only of late years has become known in Europe, called Phasianus versicolor-the changeable-colored pheasant. It is not mentioned by Temminck in his Pigeons et Gallinacées-he probably was not acquainted with it in 1813; but in his later work, the Planches Colorées, he has both described and figured it very well. It is also figured in the volume on gallinaceous birds in the Naturalist's Library (p. 200) as Diard's Pheasant. It is there accurately described as nearly of the size and form of the common naturalized breed, but the tail somewhat shorter in proportion." This feature strikes one at first sight, and is very convenient for birds that are to be kept in a small aviary. We cannot here detail the peculiarities of its exquisite plumage; but if the reader will suppose the coat of the common pheasant to be a piece of rich brown silk, and then imagine that silk to be shot with a lovely green of the color of wheat in a fine spring morning, he will have some idea of the general effect of this charming bird. Now, Lord Derby, being possessed of a male Versicolor, married him in 1849 to a hen of the common Colchicus kind, and obtained half-breed chicks. In 1850 the object was to ascertain how far these birds are capable of continuing their race; for which purpose three distinct crosses were made by parcelling them into three separate lots:-1st, the old Versicolor and two of his hybrid daughters-from which were reared, and in September 1850 were still living, twenty young birds; 2dly, between the hybrid hens personal character-whether they will revert to the type of one original ancestor or, perhaps, cease altogether to propagate-are questions for the settlement of which we must wait. In Temminck's trials of hybridizing the ring-necked pheasant of China with the common Colchicus, the offspring eventually went back to the Colchicus; the blood of the common sort gained the ascendency. We may therefore assume that the permanence of an intermingled specific form does require a few generations to test its influence as a possible means of multiplying species in a state of nature. Temminck The ring-necked pheasants, which I have caused to breed with common pheasants, have produced me hybrids, some of which resembled the former, and others were absolutely identical with the second. The produce of these hybrids, together with themselves, or with one of the two species, give the same varieties of plumage; nevertheless, the young pheasants of the of one of the two species of these birds; and it has second generation resume most frequently the plumage generally appeared to me that the most common livery of the pheasants of the second generation, and successively of those following as their number increased, was that of the common pheasant; still those retain the white collar, a character which, for many successive generations, distinguishes the descendants that proceed from this alliance. The white collar is the last point to wear out. This difficulty in perfectly amalgamating two distinct original kinds agrees with what we have ourselves observed in the unions of dissimilar fowls and pigeons. There is a decided preponderance of character to one parent or the other. Here the type, or blood, or indoles of the common pheasant is stronger than that of the ring-necked, and would | duced casually, with much the same degree of finally overpower and obliterate it. Temminck rarity as we see now-a-days, yet which would adds It is essential to apprize naturalists that by the ring-necked pheasant I do not understand those pheasants with white collars which people the menageries of several seigneurs in Germany-these only differ from the common pheasant by their white collar; they are the produce of the two primitive species, ringnecked and common pheasant, and form only a race which perpetuates itself for some time. He does not say "constantly" or "always"-which ought to be the case if we are to believe these possible crossings of species to be any explanation of the diversities of species now existing in the fauna of the world. It is quite confounding words with things to give the name of " species" to any particular set of forms, and then to deduce the fact of its originality or non-originality from the circumstance of its producing, or not, hybrids with another species. A sad chasm in the arguments of the Vestigiarians is, that the experience of breeders is much more against the permanence of such fertile hybrids than for it. Hence the great desire to continue them for several generations as a test. Temminck, writing before these questions had attained the importance which is attached to them now, or had been applied as they are now applied, shrewdly observes :— It is not always a certain consequence of an identity of species when individuals of these produce together fertile hybrids. This is not a fact in direct opposition to the infecundity of those males whose impotence alone serves as a proof of the great disparity which exists between the two species which have been employed in this production. amount to a visible multitude in the course of ages, failed to stock the earth. This argument will have many such monstrous combinations-but they have Others may, with reason, see little force in the idea a different degree of weight with different minds. that if hybrids did not go back we should see more of these cross-bred races than we do. It may be believed that these intermixtures do not often take place, if ever, in the wild state; and it must not be forgotten that, when they do occur in the captive state, many circumstances may arise to prevent due attention to the working out of the trial. Say that its originator dies before concluding it-his successors may care nothing about the question which he thought so interesting: the newly-raised creatures are neglected or scattered about, and the experiment falls to the ground. In the case of the hybrid geese, above mentioned, it originated certainly in an accidental intercourse, but one which most likely would not have occurred in a wild state, where the intriguers would have easily got away, and have joined others of their own kind; though the crossbreed was successfully continued for three successive years, yet it depended on Lord Derby's pleasure that they should be permitted to do so; and the end was that he, finding them to be troublesome by interfering with the breeding of the more regular and legitimate stocks upon the water, got rid of them before they run themselves out, as he is inclined to without waiting to ascertain how long it would be think would usually be the case-either by failure of fertility-or by going back to one or other of the original true breeds, with which they always readily mingled and associated, even whilst some continued to breed inter se as a separate race. The hybrid pheasants will probably not be thus cut short in their course of propagation. Some were to be granted to the Zoological Society, if care were taken that they should be kept distinct and separate, so as to run no risk of spoiling the experiment by the intermixture of other blood; others were to go to noblemen and gentlemen from whom we may expect all due attention, because they are known to take considerable interest in the long-vexed question Surely the continual and harmonious readjust- whether the crossing of species can ever produce a ment of nature is more shown by the occasional fertile progeny that will continue their breed and production of these fertile hybrids, without the possibly give rise to a future new sort. A curious world's fauna being yet the more in a state of con- fact relative to the chicks must not be omitted. fusion on that account, than even if such inter se Mr. Thompson, the superintendent at Knowsley, breeding were altogether impossible and unknown. professes himself able to distinguish to which of Fro rom conversations which we have had with the first two lots any of the young hybrids belong some of the Zoological Society's clever and ex--and this we quite believe-though Lord Derby perienced keepers, (at the head of whom stands Mr. himself cannot do so till they are at a considerable James Hunt,) their belief seems to be—in accord- age. Mr. Thompson also notices that the females ance with our own-that such amalgamations of generally have the brilliant markings at the end of species, when made, soon cease to continue in ex- the back feathers, which are the characteristic of istence, not merely by the young "crying back," the true versicolor hen-albeit no hen ever reached but by the regularly increasing feebleness and Lord Derby's aviary; for, though one was origi barrenness of the successive generations of young. nally sent with the cock, she unluckily died in It is very true that the Regent's Park, lying on the London en route and could only be stuffed for the London clay, and as yet most imperfectly drained, Knowsley Museum. This looks as if the hybrid is a locality unfavorable to the rearing of delicate breed were about to recur to the versicolor type, and birds; but the great skill and resources brought to gradually purge off the colchicus blood. It will be bear may be taken as a set-off against this difficulty. wonderful if a single bird, brought from the east, We must think it probable that, if the hybrid off-should be able to perpetuate his race here by makspring of birds and beasts did not " ery back" in ing it temporarily parasitical on another species. the same way as Temminck's pheasants, specimens It is as if a scion kept alive by being grafted on and evidences of such crossing would be much more some nearly allied tree, afterwards sent down roots common than they are. In the long, long years into the earth, and then assumed an independent that are past, there must, we fancy, have been pro- existence. It will suffice to allege here, as an example, the fecundity of the cocks and hens that are obtained from the union of different species, for we cannot reasonably dispute the existence of many very distinct species of cocks and hens; the details which I have given respecting these birds bear witness to this truth. The fecundity of the hoccos, (curassows,) which spring from two different species, offers a second incontestable proof in confirmation of what I have alleged. [We copy the following article from Chambers' | witnesses are numerous, their character unimJournal, and remind our readers that Robert Cham- peached, and the fact not physically or mathematbers was considered an unbeliever in Revelation. ically impossible, caution is not entitled to go And such persons are not good authority on subjects further than to say, 'I am not satisfied; I must of this kind, on account of their excessive credulity. inquire into these things.' If he [the sceptic] will -Liv. Age.] not or cannot investigate them, let him in decency be silent." It may be added, that Dr. Gregory disapproves of public exhibitions, and all regarding of the subject as a matter of amusement. He sees it to be a new and most important section of nature, and he desires it to be approached in a philosophic spirit, and brought to use only for the relief of suffering and the general benefit of mankind. PROFESSOR GREGORY ON CLAIRVOYANCE.* A VERY considerable portion of the thinking world will be startled in the midst of their settled incredulity and indifference towards what are called the higher phenomena of animal magnetism, when they find a professor of physical science in the Edinburgh University not merely expressing his belief in them, but treating them in a laborious work which aims at assigning them their proper rank and place amongst the recognized phenomena of nature. It will be at once apparent, that for a scientific man of good reputation to avow his reliance upon a set of alleged facts which are generally ridiculed, is “awkward" for him-few things being more damaging than an appearance of credulity. With generous minds, again, the very moral courage of the act ought to save him from being a loser by his avowal. This will more particularly be the case, if they give his book a perusal, for there they will find a calmness, a purity, and a geniality of feeling, as captivating to the affections of the reader, as the temperance of statement must be respectable in the eyes of his judgment. 66 A large portion of the volume is occupied with a detail of the lower phenomena, respecting which the public is already pretty well informed. The author afterwards goes on to treat of sympathy and clairvoyance. The former involves community of sensation and emotion between the patient and his magnetizer. It also, in many cases, involves thought-reading; a perfect consciousness on the part of the patient of the ideas passing through the mind of the operator, even those referring to past times. Of patients with this degree of lucidity, some have announced things once known to the experimenter, but forgotten. Dr. Gregory, however, surmises that this phenomenon may not be dependent on sympathy, but on that simple extension of knowledge which arises from clairvoyance. Another result of sympathy is the ability to tell of the bodily state of the operator-describing, for example, a diseased condition of the brain or heart, and announcing the sensations of those organs. "Professor Gregory assures us of his having himself fully ascertained that this may be done in the absence of the individual, through the medium of a lock of hair, or any object that has been in contact with the person; even a recent specimen of handwriting. Sympathy," remarks our author, "is widely diffused as a natural spontaneous occurrence. * How often does an inexplicable something warn certain persons that an absent and dearly-beloved friend or relation is in danger or dying! This is an effect of sympathy. Every one has heard, in his own circle, of numerous instances of it. I am informed, for example, by a lady nearly related to me, that her mother always had such a warning at the time when any near and dear friend died. This occurred so often as to leave no doubt whatever of the fact. It happened that this lady more than once made the voyage to and from India, and that during the voyage she on several occasions said to her daughter and to others, I feel certain that such a person is dead.' On reaching port, these perceptions were always found to be true." Nor, it must be owned, is the learned professor's logic to be despised. To allege of these phenomena that they are obviously incredible and impossible, and therefore to be rejected without inquiry,' involves, he says, a complete petitio principii, or begging of the question. A pretension to know what is, or what is not imposisble, is, in the present state of science, ludicrous. There are, indeed, some things which we know to be impossible-as that two and two could make more than four, or that the three angles of any triangle could make more than two right angles. But the facts in question are not of this character. They are at the utmost difficult to explain-which is the case of many facts which are admitted. A philosopher, for example, is entitled to assume, but he cannot explain, the law of gravitation. The laws of heat, light, electricity, magnetism, are in the same state. In answer to the allegation of deceit, it may be said, this being brought forward without inquiry, is merely one hypothesis against another. Some of the facts are irreconcilable with it; for example, the acceleration of the pulse, the fixed state of the pupil of the eye, and the cataleptic rigidity of the muscles. As to the many failures in public exhibitions" were any man," says the professor, Clairvoyance occurs both in the sleep and in a "to fail in the simple experiment of dipping his fin- conscious but still magnetic state, and it appears in ger, without injury, into red-hot melted lead, and to various degrees of lucidity and power in different burn himself severely, we should not be justified in persons. The number of specialities connected with denying the fact that it may be done with impunity. it is too great to be detailed here. The general A thousand failures could only prove that we did fact, however, is a power of seeing objects at a not perform, or know how to perform, the experi- distance, persons unknown to the patient in a ment properly; that we did not know, or did not waking state, and even individuals long dead. We attend to, the conditions necessary to success; and select a case of the simplest kind, referring to indione successful trial would outweigh them all. viduals, some of whom are known to ourselves. Precisely so is it," adds our author," with animal" At the house of Dr. Schmitz, rector of the High magnetism." What Dr. Gregory demands is only that the alleged facts should be inquired into. "When the *Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism. By William Gregory, M. D., F. R. S. E., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly. Pp. 528. School here, I saw a little boy of about nine years of age put into the magnetic sleep by a young man of seventeen. As the boy was said to be clairvoyant, I requested him, through his magnetizer, whom alone he heard, to visit mentally my house, which was nearly a mile off, and perfectly unknown to him. He said he would, and soon, when asked, |