ishing cantatrice, Martinuzzi, of your dinner of the day before being recherché, of your gens being insolent and inattentive, how shall plain men refrain from staring wonderstruck at your unfathomable discourse?

least double their amount. And it is possible | When you speak of the last faux pas, of poor that an accomplished public will be able to Miss Limberfoot's sad mésalliance, of the supply from their own recollection and expe- Reverend Mr. Caudlecup's being "so full of rience a goodly addition to my list. The soul," of the enchanting roulades of that ravarrival of every mail, the extension of every colony, the working of every Australian mine would swell it. Placers, squatters, diggers, clearings, nuggets, cradles, claims- where were all these words a dozen years ago? and what are they, till they are marshalled in a dictionary, but slang? We may say the same of the railway phraseology: buffers, switches, points, stokers, and coal bunks whence is their etymology and whence their authority? But slang does not end here. It goes higher to the very top of the social Olympus. If the Duchess of Downderry invites some dozen of her male and female fashionable acquaintances to tea and a dance afterwards, what do you think she calls her tea-party? A thé dansante a dancing tea. Does tea dance? Can it dance? Is not this libel upon honest Bohea and Souchong slang?-pure, unadulterated, unmitigated slang.

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And when your ladyship does condescend to speak English, it is only with a delightful mincingness of accent and a liberal use of superlatives. The Italian singer you heard last night was a "divine creature" if you are slightly tired or dull you are awfully bored" or "devoured with ennui;" if your face be pale you vow you are a perfect fright;" if a gentleman acquaintance volunteer a very mild joke he is a "quizzical monster" — a dreadful quiz, he is so awfully satirical; and the comic actor last night was "killing ;' and Julie, my child, hand me my vinaigrette, and take a shilling out of my porte-monnaie, and tell Adolfe to get some jujubes for Fido; and, let me see, if I go out in the pilentum today, or stay, the barouche (we have a char-dbanc down at our place, doctor), I will wear my moire antique and my ruche of Brussels lace, and my mantelet, and my chatelaine, with all the "charms" Lord Bruin Fitzurse brought me from Dresden, and then we will take a drive in the Park, and I will leave a card at Bojannee Loll's for my next "Thursday," for really my dear "lions" are so scarce now, that even Bojannee Loll will be an acquisition; and so on.

I believe the abominable slang practice of writing P. P. C. on a card of leave-taking, and R. S. V. P. at the bottom of a letter when you wish an answer to it, is gone out of fashion, and I rejoice that it has.

The slang of the fashionable world is mostly imported from France; an unmeaning gibberish of Gallicisms runs through English fashionable conversation, and fashionable novels, and accounts of fashionable parties in the fashionable newspapers. Yet, ludicrously enough, immediately the fashionable magnates of England seize on any French idiom, the French themselves not only universally abandon it to us, but positively repudiate it altogether from their idiomatic vocabulary. If you were to tell a well-bred Frenchman that such and such an aristocratic marriage was on the tapis, he would stare with astonishment, and look down on the carpet in the startled endeavor to find a marriage in so unusual a place. If you were to talk to him of the beau monde, he would imagine you Young Lord Fitzurse speaks of himself meant the world which God made, not half- and of his aristocratic companions as "fela-dozen streets and squares between Hyde lows" (very often pronounced "faywows"); Park Corner and Chelsea Bun House. The if he is going to drive a four-horse coach down thé dansante would be completely inexplicable to Epsom Races, he is going to "tool his to him. If you were to point out to him the drag down to the Derby." Lord Bobby RobDowager Lady Grimguffin acting as chaperon bins' great coat, which he admires, is "down to Lady Amanda Creamville, he would im- the road." An officer in the tenth hussars is agine you were referring to the petit Chaperon a man in the tenth;" a pretty young lady Rouge-to little Red Riding Hood. He might is a "neat little filly;" a vehicle which is not just understand what was meant by vis-a-vis, a drag (or dwag) is a "trap" or a cask;" entremets, and some others of the flying horde his lordship's lodgings in Jermyn Street are of frivolous little foreign slangisms hover- his "crib," his " "his diggings," or he "hangs ing about fashionable cookery and fashionable out there." His father is his "governor;" his furniture; but three fourths of them would bill-discounter a "dreadful old screw," if he seem to him as barbarous French provincial- refuses to do a "bit of stiff" for him. When isms, or, at best, but as antiquated and obso- his friend has mortgaged his estate, he prolete expressions picked up out of the letters of nounces it to be "dipped." Everything that Mademoiselle Scuderi, or the tales of Cribillon pleases him is "crushing, by Jove!" everythe younger. thing that displeases him (from bad sherry to But, save us, your ladyship, there are a writ from his tailor) is "infernal." thousands of Englishmen who might listen to Then there is the slang of criticism. Lityour ladyship for an hour without under-erary, dramatic, artistic, and scientific. Such standing half-a-dozen words of your discourse. words as aesthetic, transcendental, the "har

or

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monies," the unities, a myth; such phrases elegance and propriety in composition and as an exquisite morceau on the big drum, conversation. The result of this has been a scholarlike rendering of John the Baptist's that every work of literary excellence in great toe; keeping,' harmony, ," "iniddle France follows the phraseology, and within distance," "aerial perspective," "delicate very little the orthography, which we find in handling," "nervous chiaroscuro," and the the poetry of Racine and Boileau, and the like, are made use of pell-mell, without the prose of Pascal and Fénélon. And the French least relation to their real meanings, their has become, moreover, the chief diplomatic real uses, their real requirements. conversational and commercial language in the And the Stage has its slang, both before world. It is current everywhere. It is neither and behind the curtain. Actors speak of so copious, so sonorous, or so dignified as Engsuch and such a farce being a screamer,' "lish or German, but it is fixed. The Emperor and such and such a tragedy being "damned" of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey may write "goosed." If an actor forgets his part and speak (accent apart) as good French as any while on the stage, he is said to "stick" and Parisienne. But in Englund, an Englishman to "corpse" the actors who may be perform- even has never done learning his own laning with him, by putting them out in their guage. It has no rules, no limits; its orthogparts. A " part" has so many "lengths;"raphy and pronunciation are almost entirely a piece will run" so many nights. Belville arbitrary; its words are like a provisional is going in the country to "star" it. When committee, with power to add to their numno salaries are forthcoming on Saturday, the ber. A foreigner may hope to read and ghost does n't walk" - a benefit is a "ben," write English tolerably well, after assiduous a salary a "sal;" an actor is not engaged to study; but he will never speak it without a play tragedy or comedy, but to" do the heavy long residence in England; and even then he business," or "second low comedy," and when will be in no better case than the Englishhe is out of an engagement he is said to be bred Englishman, continually learning, con"out of collar." tinually hearing words of whose signification he has not the slightest idea, continually perplexed as to what should be considered a familiar idiom, and what inadmissible slang.

Thus through all grades and professions of life runs this omnipresent slang.

In the immense number of new words which are being continually coined and disseminated throughout our gigantic periodical press lies, I conceive, the chief difficulty of the English language to foreigners. The want of any clear and competent authority as to what words are classical and what merely slang, what obsolete and what improper, 'must be a source of perpetual tribulation and uncertainty to the unhappy stranger. If he is to take Johnson and Walker for standards, a walk from Charing Cross to Temple Bar, an hour at a theatre, or an evening in society, will flood his perturbed tympanum with a deluge of words concerning which Johnson and Walker are absolutely mute. How is the foreigner to make his election? Suppose the unfortunate Monsieur, or Herr, or Signor should address himself to write, as De Lolme did, a treatise on the English constitution. Suppose he were to begin a passage thus:

Though Lord Protocol was an out-and-out humbug, Sir Reddy Tapewax was not such a flat as to be taken in. He proved the gammon of Lord Protocol's move, and, though he thought him green, did him completely brown." How many young politicians would not think it beneath them to talk in this manner, yet how bitterly the foreign essayist would be ridiculed for his conversational style of composition!

To any person who devotes himself to literary composition in the English language the redundancy of unauthorized words and expressions must always be a source of unutterable annoyance and vexation. Should he adopt the phraseology and style of the authors of the eras of Elizabeth or Anne he may be censured as obsolete or as perversely quaint. Should he turn to the Latin tongue for the construction of his phrases and the choice of his language, he will be stigmatized as pedantic or with that grave charge of using hard words. And, should he take advantage of what he hears and sees in his own days and under his own eyes, and incorporate into his language those idiomatio words and expressions he gathers from the daily affairs of life and the daily conversation of his fellow-men, he will have no lack of critics to tell him that he writes insufferable vulgarity and slang.

Her Majesty Queen Anne is dead; but for her majesty's decease we should have had an Academy of Letters and an Academy Dictionary in England. There are two opinions in this country relative to the utility of acadomies; and, without advocating the formation of such an institution, I may be permitted submissively to plead that we really do want The French have an Academy of Letters, a new dictionary if not in justice to ourand the dictionary of that Academy, pub-selves, at least in justice to foreigners and in lished after forty years' labor, nearly two justice to our great-great-grand-children. centuries ago, is still the standard model of

.

A FEW REMARKS ON CURRENTS IN THE | covering, presents an appearance altogether

character.

ARCTIC SEAS.

BY P. C. SUTHERLAND, M. D.

uncongenial. On the former are found a tolerably abundant flora, hares, and deer; on the latter there scarce appears to be a spot to receive the roots of plants or the feet of these animals; and in the productions of the sea, both

is met with. Upon the whole, he considers complete the analogy that exists between the North Atlantic and Davis' Straits, both with respect to the climate of their shores, and to their inhabitants of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. With reference to the question

considers it difficult to decide whether the increase in the temperature of the water, and the consequent improvement of the climate, on the east side of the strait, arise from the disposition the ice has to leave the coast, by which means the water becomes exposed to the influence of the sea; or from currents of heated water from a more southern region. He further remarks that its density here cannot be restored, if once disturbed, without admixture with a large volume of water somewhat above the mean density.

THE author states that, during a voyage lately made in the Arctic seas, his attention was arrested by the power exerted by refrig-vegetable and animal, the same disproportion eration and congelation, in separating from water any saline ingredients it may contain, and of thus causing disturbances in the mean density of the waters of the ocean, which, after being influenced by currents, can be overcome only by subsequent intermixture with water from other localities where the disturb-how this analogy is brought about, the author ance in the equilibrium is of an opposite He considers that evaporation, which is so active within the tropical and temperate zones, obviously renders the sea more dense by depressing its surface, and thus gives rise to the necessity for currents from the two poles of the earth, where deposition of vapor predominates to a considerable extent over evaporation. This he illustrates by referring to the constant current from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, caused by the evaporation in this sea preponderating over the supply of fresh water. He then Again referring to the observations of Sir points out the necessity also of a current out Edward Parry and those recorded in the tables, of this sea, in order that its waters, by the the author remarks that from these it will be constant influx of saline matters, may not be-seen that refrigeration has the effect of precome a saturated solution of the salts of the ocean; and infers that counter currents into the polar seas must also exist to obviate the contrary tendency which the waters of these seas have to become fresh. He calls attention to the importance of ascertaining the differences that occur in many parts of the surface of the ocean in respect to its saline contents, that we may be enabled to determine to what extent the currents and countercurrents may be influenced by the comparative freshness of the iced water of the northern and southern regions, and the necessary saltness of the equatorial and other over-heated basins. On this point, with respect to the Arctic seas, he refers to observations by Dr. Scoresby, Sir Edward Parry, and those recorded in tables appended to his paper, which have been extracted from the Meteorological Journal kept in the North Atlantic and Davis' Straits during the late voyage in the Isabel.

The author next refers to the remarkable difference occurring in the climate of the east and west sides of Davis' Straits, that of the latter being much the colder. In the absence of thermometric registers for the west, to compare with those on the east side, he points out how the appearance of the land, and development of plants and land animals on the two coasts, enable us to determine which has the warmer climate. Looking from the top of Baffin's Bay, which commands a good view of both shores, the east side at the sea-const has many portions of land free from snow; whereas the opposite, by its snowy and icy

cipitating the salts of sea-water; and further, that it appears to him very probable that the temperature at which water begins to expand by the continued application of cold, is that at which saline and earthy matter begins to be precipitated in solutions of the density of sea-water.

From the immense depth to which icebergs extend in Davis' Straits, and also from their vast number, the author infers that the temperature of the water will be kept pretty uniformly the same throughout a considerable part of its depth, rarely exceeding +32°, except at the surface, where the action of the sun comes into operation, in which case the water of greatest density from saline contents would always occupy the lowest position. In illustration of his views, he describes experiments on the freezing of sea-water of the density 1.025, in glass tubes; and from these he infers that, not only does congelation precipitate the saline matter in water, but refrigeration also, at temperatures from 40° down to 32°. With reference to the influence of the density of the sea-water on currents, he remarks that after the warm season has fairly set in in the Arctic seas, nothing is more common than to observe the surface-water, in hollowed-out lanes or fissures of the land-ice, moving slowly towards the open water at the edge of the fixed ice; and this seaward motion is altogether independent of tidal motion or oceanic current, depending entirely upon the diminished density of the surface-water.

In conclusion, the author states that he

does not know that we are yet in a position to demonstrate the actual existence of currents into the icy seas as well as out of them, but that the necessity for them is obvious. It is not necessary, he remarks, that these currents, as in other parts, should occupy the surface, and probably also the bottom of one of the sides of the basins whose waters require to be renewed, as the Gulf Stream occupies the east side of the North Atlantic. It is plain that the cold and hot waters of two regions can be exchanged by the latter passing underneath the former; and although the Arctic current from the Greenland Sea does not contain much ice to the southward of Cape Farewell, it is more than probable its chilly waters pass over a fork of the Gulf Stream, which ultimately sweeps along the shores of West Greenland.-Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

ON THE COLOR OF HAIR.

BY DR. ALLEN DALZELL.

THE color of the hair, which, according to Griffith, was long attributed to pigment accumulated in the cells of the medulla, depends upon one or more of three causes. First, on pigment granules; second, on diffused coloring matter impregnating the entire tissue; and, third, on the presence of air-spaces within the fibres of the shaft. To these might be added the nuclei of the cells themselves, which, however, where pigment granules are present, are so surrounded by them, as to be scarcely, if at all, discernible. But where their isolation has been effected by boiling with moderately dilute caustic potash, they are shown as dark bodies of an elongated form. The color of the hair corresponds in intensity to that of the iris; as, for example, auburn with blue, and black with the darker tints. Nor are these relations at all confined to the human species, although especially remarkable in the Albino, whose choroid is destitute of pigment, and hair either very pale or entirely white.

fused. Most animals have hairs of this kind; good examples may, however, be found in the short hairs from the face of the hare, in the tapir, and yellow bear.

Air spaces in the shaft. - These cavities, from containing air, refract light beyond the field of the microscope, and thus, like the cells of the axis, give the idea of color; these are best seen in white hairs. Some authors have described them as fat granules. This is inaccurate, for, on boiling with ether or turpentine, they become filled with the fluid; and even when treated in a menstruum, which does not dissolve fat, they lose their refractive properties, and retain only their general outline. They are empty cavities situated in the cells of the shaft, produced, as Kölliker supposes, by the absorption of its granular piginent; for they are not found in any hair originally colorless, but only in such as have become so from some cause affecting their vitality. I examined a hair with one extremity entirely white, the other unaltered the former part I found filled with air cells, the latter pigment cells.

CHANGES IN THE COLOR OF HAIR.

The change of color in the hair is well seen in the common Alpine hare, and in many of the Mustella, in which the fur becomes white on the approach of winter. With age, also, its color disappears, and very generally, though not always, with the loss of its pigment, the vigor of this appendage declines. The hair is frequently tinged by the absorption of materials introduced along with the food. The hairs of a rat taken from a ship with a cargo of logwood were examined, and they were found to be deeply colored with the dye. The Chinese have long enjoyed the credit of being able to alter the color of the hair by the administration of certain drugs, either from white to colored, or from one color to another. At this moment, I know a gentleman in Paris who has for some years been engaged in the investigation of this curious subject, which the following incidents will sufficiently illustrate.

Many observers have described the granular At one of the meetings for 1839 of the ' pigment which forms the first class of coloring Society Philomatic of Paris, the case of M. matter, as if it was situated in interspaces of L'Abbé Imbert was detailed. He left for the fibres. I have, however, assured myself China in 1823, carrying with him a luxuriant of the fact that pigment is never lodged ex-crop of carroty locks. His friends in the teriorly in the cells, but always in some parts of the interior, as may be plainly seen in the hairs of some cervi, where the entire cells are dry and empty, except of traces of coloring matter which adhere to their walls. Changes, during the growth of hair, often take place at regular intervals in the color and amount of these deposits. This is seen in the hairs of many of the Quadrumana and Carnivora, to which classes it is, however, by no means confined.

In many hairs, the color is uniform or dif

celestial empire fearing, on that account, his detection as a foreigner, and his consequent expulsion from the country, shut him up on his arrival, and, by an internal course of constitutional treatment, speedily turned to black the hair on every part of his body.

At the same meeting, the case of the Abbé Voisin was related by M. Roulin. He had white hair on his arrival in China, but was subjected to a treatment consisting of internal remedies only, the result of which was, that it permanently became black.