which results of this kind are brought about. The Woolcombers' Union has been celebrated above a century, and several Acts of Parliament have been passed with the object of suppressing the power which it had acquired, and exercised with the usual bad consequences. Hence, many endeavours have been made to comb wool entirely by machinery, but with very partial success, till last year, when the whole of the combers in a large factory struck, upon which the proprietors turned their attention to this machine, applied their skill and capital to its improvement, and in a short time brought it to such perfection, as completely to su persede the employment of wool-combers. It consists of two large wheels, set with spikes, and which are made to approach and recede alternately from each other; the spokes, fellies, and axles are all hollow, by means of which steam is kept constantly flowing through every part of the machine, like the arteries in the human body, diffusing the required warmth to every corner of the engine. This invention is now daily coming into wider use; it performs its work both better and cheaper than by the old process, and before no long period has elapsed, the trade of wool-comber, like that of cottonspinner, will cease to exist.

*

Mr. Babbage, in his " Economy of Manufactures," has given two other instances of invention of modes for superseding human labour, owing to strikes among workmen ; one occurred in the manufacture of gun-barrels, and the other in that of iron tubes in general; and, doubtless, many other cases might be found, in which a similar process had taken place.

The obvious result of this forced and premature adoption of new machinery, is to displace labour with inconvenient rapidity; and, instead of improvement proceeding by those gently varying gradations, which characterise its natural progress, it advances, as it were, per saltum, and comes upon the workman unprepared for the change, which his course of life must subsequently undergo. The counter effect in retarding the improvement of machinery, sometimes caused by combinations, is so trivial, as hardly deserve mention. But whatever power they may

*Till within a few years of the time when this machine was introduced, it could not have been made, though it might have been imagined, and every part and principle necessary to its construction clearly and accurately described. The reason is, that the skill and nicety of execution necessary to the manufacturing of such a machine, or of any machine requiring delicate adjustments, did not exist. The principle of Bramah's press was known two centuries before its application, but was a barren truth, till mechanism had advanced sufficiently to give it an existence.-See Babbage on the Decline of Science.

have in this way, the end of it must be to increase still further the evil just alluded to, and to make the progress in the application of substitutes for labour more fluctuating and irregular. At one time they are unnaturally held back, at another pushed forward.

It would be a glaring absurdity to suppose that the improvement of machinery can be really hurtful to society, or lessen the demand for labour in the country which employs it, when we have the example of Manchester before us, where, within a radius of forty miles, more human beings are collected together, and substitutes for labour more extensively used, than on any other spot on earth, and where, in addition, wages are for the most part enormously high. It undoubtedly is productive of transient injury by the displacement, which it causes of manual labour in those operations to which it is applied. But this evil is trivial, if the displacement be slow, and is formidable only when it is pushed on, as in the cases above mentioned, with sudden violence.

We might view these inventions with un. mixed pleasure, on account of their use to society, and even-considering the force of example-without much regret for the retribution they inflict on the offenders, were it possible to put out of sight some of the evils which may for a season follow their intro duction. The community certainly gains by such mechanical improvements, which, since they spring from hostility to combinations, may be considered an indirect effect of them, and form, as far as we are aware, the only benefits those bodies have bestowed upon their country, in return for the violence and oppressions of which they have been guilty.

EXTRAORDINARY SHOWER OF FIERY

METEORS.

On the morning of the 13th of Nov. last, one of the most extraordinary showers of fiery meteors that, probably, ever was witnessed, took place in America. It appears to have been visible all over the United States, the newspapers and journals of which have ever since teemed with accounts of the phenomenon. We extract the following very picturesque description, from the American Journal of Science:

"Missouri, Lat. 39° 26′ N., Long. 919 W. * "On Wednesday morning, 13th Nov., we were awakened by a friend, and told that the stars were falling from the heavens, and flying about in all directions. We instantly hurried from our room, and found, to our

utter astonishment, that although not so in reality, the wonderful appearances in the heavens warranted the assertion. This place is situated on an elevated point of an extensive prairie, and presents an unbroken view of the horizon, and thus afforded us an excellent opportunity of observing the phenomenon; but language fails to convey an idea of the extraordinary and appalling scene. Above us, and all round the firmament, as far as the eye could reach, more numerous than the stars themselves, which were this night uncommonly bright-we beheld innumerable fireballs, of a whitish pallid colour, rushing down, and, to all appearance, crossing the sky in all directions-drawing after them long luminous traces, which clothed the whole heavens in awful majesty, and gave to the earth a lurid and death-like aspect. Our first look, after a hasty and general glance, was directed to the zenith, and at that instant an inconceivable number of meteors, or falling stars, as though the sky had just received a mighty shock, burst from the blue and cloudless arch, and shot, like so many burning arrows, toward every part of the horizon. We next turned our eyes to the west, and here they appeared to be flying in that direction; but we soon found that that was the case to whatever quarter of the heavens we directed our view.

"Though there was no moon when we first beheld them, their brilliancy was so great that we could at times read common-sized print without much difficulty, and the light which they afforded was much whiter than that of the moon in the clearest and coldest night, when the ground was covered with snow. The air itself, the face of the earth, so far as we could behold it, all the surrounding objects, and the very countenances of men wore a death-like hue, occasioned by the continued pallid glare of these countless meteors, which, in all their grandeur, 'flashed lawless through the sky.' There was a grand, peculiar, indescribable gloom on all around. There was scarcely a spot in the firmament that was not filled every moment with these meteors; and the long luminous traces which they left behind, like the train of some mighty rocket, would last for several seconds; and, at times, when the nucleus had entirely vanished, these streams of light, apparently from 50 to 100 yards long, would linger in the sky, and continue to shine in all their brilliancy for two or three minutes, and then expire in the twinkling of an eye. Their size was apparently as large as the disc of Jupiter-their velocity much greater than that of the common meteors-and from the place of their starting to where they expired was

*་་་་་ ་་་ན C

from 100 to 40°. Occasionally one would seem to burst into flames, and burn with great energy. The meteors vanished from sight without any audible explosion, and frequently without scintillations. One of the observers described a meteor seen at three o'clock as being far more brilliant than any of the others, appearing as large as the moon, and shedding a glowing light, which, for a few seconds, rendered even small objects visible."

POETICAL TRIBUTES TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

(From the last Number of the Quarterly Review.) I.

Lady! it was the wont, in earlier time,
When some fair volume, from a valued pen,
Long-looked for, came at last, that grateful men
Hailed its forthcoming in complacent lays;
As if the Muse would gladly haste to praise
That which her mother, Memory, long should keep
Among her treasures. Shall such custom sleep
With us, who feel too slight the common phrase
For our pleased thoughts of you, when thus we find
That dark to you seems bright, perplexed seems
plain-

Seen in the depth of a pellucid mind,

Full of clear thought-free from the ill and vain That cloud our inward light? An honoured name Be yours, and peace of heart grow with your grow. ing fame.

II.

(An Imitation.)

Three women, in three different ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn;
Rare as poetic minds of master flights,
Three only rose to science' loftiest heights.
The first a brutal crowd in pieces tore-
Envious of fame, bewildered at her lore;
The next, through tints of darkening shadow passed,
Lost in the azure sisterhood at last;
Equal to these, the third, and happier far-
Cheerful though wise, though learned popular-
Liked by the many, valued by the few,
Instructs the world-yet dubbed by none a Blue.

CUFF'S IMPROVED MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND CLEANSING COMMON SEWERS.

We described, in our 12th volume, page 60, a very important improvement in common sewers, which had been invented by Mr. Joseph Cuff, and adopted, in two or three cases, with great advantage.

The plan having been brought under the notice of the Commissioners of Sewers for the City of London, they referred it to their surveyor, Mr. Acton, who made a report upon it, from which the following is an extract:

"The utility of stench-traps in small drains, which convey little more than foul

out an admixture of which they cannot be, what he terms them, explosive.'

The Commissioners of Sewers, how. ever, still continue opposed to the general adoption of the plan; but they have so far departed from their original resolution of entire rejection, as to announce that, “if any individual complains of the states of the sewers, and requests Mr. Cuff's plan to be adopted, the request shall be complied with." Several individuals have accordingly availed themselves of this permission, to have stenchtraps, on Mr. Cuff's plan, attached to the gulley-holes of their premises, among others, Mr. Deputy Gorst and Mr. Deputy Farrance. In the Tower Hamlets' district, where the pavement trusts are not under the control of the Commis sioners of Sewers, the plan is coming into general use.

STATE OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES IN

PERSIA.

Mr. Fraser, the intelligent author of Travels in Khorassan," and "Tour through the Himala," but, perhaps, better known to general readers for his admirable tale of Khorassan, called

a

The Kusilbash," has contributed to the“ Edinburgh Cabinet Library very excellent Historical and Descrip tive Account of Persia."* It is not very well arranged, and in some parts brevity has been studied (to order, most likely) at the expense of clearness; but taken altogether it is the most authentic and accurate account of the Persian empire in the English language. We subjoin an extract from the portion devoted to the state of the arts and sciences:

"Among the sciences most cultivated are those of astronomy, judicial astrology, me. taphysics, logic, mathematics, and physic. In the first their efforts are contemptible; their theories, founded on the Ptolomæan system, with strange additions of their own, are utterly useless, unless it be to aid their still more childish dreams in astrology. No

"An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia, from the latest ages to the present time. With a detailed view of its resources, government, population, natural history, and the character of its inhabitants, particularly of the wandering tribes. Including a description of Afghanistan and Belochistan." By James B. Fraser, Esq. lifustrated by a map and thirteen e engravings, by Jackson. Oliver and Hoyde disquioxe yiianion

Persian will undertake the most trivial affair, far less any enterprise of moment, without consulting a professor of this delusive art; and when a mirza or a mollah has once established his reputation as an astrologer, he is in the sure way to become rich. Should a lucky day arrive before a traveller is ready for his journey, he leaves home, though he should remain for weeks in some incommodious lodging till his preparations are complete; satisfied that the favourable influence of the stars has been secured by making the move at the proper conjuncture. An ambassador about to proceed to India was induced by the representations of the Wise Men, although the ship in which he was to sail was not ready, not only to leave a comfortable dwelling at Bushire, and occupy a tent on the hot sands near it, but even to cause the wall of the town and several houses to be penetrated, that he might depart without facing a most malignant, though invisible constellation, which would otherwise have blasted the success of his mission."

Their metaphysics and logic are scarcely less puerile. The first consists of little more than a collection of disputations, so. phisms, turning on wild and unprofitable paradoxes; the second, in an ingenious me thod of playing upon words, the object not being so much to arrive at truth, as to display quickness of mind and readiness of answer in the discussion of plausible hypotheses. Geography is no better understood. Their knowledge of countries and their relative positions is extremely confused; nor can they lay down with any exactness even those places or regions with which they are most familiar.

*

manner, on no apparent principle. They combat each disease by an application of an opposite tendency, the virtues of the remedy being as vaguely determined as the nature of the disorder. They are totally ignorant of anatomy, and unacquainted with the circulation of the blood; so that their proficiency in surgery is no greater than their knowledge in medicine; and when patients recover under their hands, it is to be attributed to soundness of constitution, rather than to any ability of treatment on the part of the professional attendant.

Though they admire the skill of Europeans, they adhere obstinately to their own practice; and all the persuasion of the medical gentlemen who accompanied the British embassies, from the year 1800 to 1810, were insufficient to establish vaccination, although the ravages of the small-pox are often dreadful. In cases where calomel would, in the opinion of the English physicians, have saved many lives, they persevered in resisting its use, as a remedy which, being hot in itself, could not be advisable in a hot disease; ice and refrigerating draughts were given in preference, which cooled many effectually. Yet they have discovered a method of quickly affecting the system with mercury, by causing the patient to inhale, through the common calleeoon or water-pipe, a lozenge made of cinnabar and flour.

"There are persons, among the tribes particularly, who pretend to hereditary powers of curing certain distempers. Sir John Malcolm mentions a chief named Hedayut Kouli Khan, who banished agues by tying his patients up by the heels when the periodical attack was approaching, applying the bastinado severely, and abusing them bitterly all the time,-a process which, he asserted, produced heat and terror, instead of a cold fit.'

"The profits of science are confined to those who enjoy a name for high proficiency in divinity, astrology, and physic; but the latter is miserably paid. The two former, when combined, thrive best.

"In the fine arts the Persians have little to boast of; but there is reason to believe that in former ages their skill was much superior to what it is at present. Nor is it to be wondered that excellence in any department should be rare, when the professor runs the risk of being ordered to labour

A gentleman in India, whose servant was unwell, consulted a native physician. "Sir," said the doctor," the patient's illness arises from sixteen different causes; now, in this pill which I mean to give there are sixteen different ingredients, so arranged that each will operate upon its respective cause, and thus cure your servant.""

without payment for the king or governor to whom his acquirements might first become known. In painting and sculpture it is next to impossible they should ever become adepts, as, in the first place, they possess no models to imitate, and, in the second, it is repugnant to the Mahommedan faith to make representations of the human form. When we do meet with any such attempt, as in the delineations of battles or hunting-pieces, the total absence of all knowledge of drawing and perspective renders the effect ludicrous, if not disgusting. Ink-stands and small boxes are made at Shiraz and Ispahan, and adorned with painting, chiefly of birds and flowers, and occasionally of beautiful girls and boys, finished with an accuracy which, under better direction, might be successfully exerted for nobler purposes. The stone and seal cutters of the same city are famous for the excellence of their workmanship. Cashan is known for its manufacture of lacquered tiles, which ornament many of the gorgeous domes aud minarets in Persia. Coarse china and glass are made in various places. The sword-blades of Herat, Mushed, and Shiraz are highly esteemed, as well as their other work in steel; and gold and silver brocade, with silks of considerable beauty, are produced in many parts of the country." The " engravings by Jackson (in wood) are extremely beautiful; we have seen few things equal to them in this branch of art.

On Animal Instinct. A Lecture delivered before the Members of the Mechanics' Institute at Colchester. By the Rev. ALGERNON WELLS. Fenton, Colchester. 1834. 40 pp. Svo.

Philosophical, eloquent, interesting, and instructive. The author's opinion is, that

Consciousness, animal sensation, capability of feeling, implies voluntary active power, and that voluntary active power implies mind-is an attribute of mind, and can be possessed and employed only by mind; and that, therefore, that power or faculty by which the inferior creatures are guided in their various voluntary actions, and which we call instinct, is nothing mechanical, is no attribute of matter in any way, but is a species of intelligence with which minds is in brutes endowed, and in the use of which they are active, voluntary agents-an intelligence which we can explain in its appearances, relations, and results; but the nature of which, or the manner in which it is possessed by animals, we can no moree xplain