of sale for building purposes in the island, he began to dig in the hope of finding a lot of them, and in that way lighted on a sort of niche which was but seven or eight feet below the surface. In this niche had formerly stood a statue which the Greek found buried in the ground and broken by tumbling down.

While the peasant was far from appreciating the value of the treasure which fell into his possession so miraculously, he comprehended very well that he had hold of something more precious than building materials, and, aided by his sons, he carried home and hid inside a stable the upper part of the

statue.

There was then at Milo a Greek of the name of Brest, who was Consular Agent for France. To him the countryman showed his find and offered to sell it for a modest price. Mr. Brest, distrusting his own judgment in a matter of art, consulted Mr. Duval d'Ailly, commandant of the French royal storeship, The Emulation, which was stopping at the island.

Mr. Duval d'Ailly advised our Consular Agent to buy the marble immediately. If this advice had been followed, the statue, put on board the vessel by Government sailors, would have arrived in France forthwith without new mutilations or tribulations.

Mr. Brest did not follow the advice given him, and thus we came near losing the statue. He thought he ought to write and take the orders of the Marquis de Rivière, French Ambassador at Constantinople. The letter miscarried and did not reach its destination until a long time after its date. In the meantime, Commandant Gauthier, at the head of a hydrographic expedition in the Mediterranean, stopped at Milo. One of his officers, Mr. Dumont d'Urville, having gone on shore, was informed of the facts and went straightway to look at the two fragments of the statue; the upper part in the stable of the peasant, the lower part in the neighborhood of the niche. He perceived at once that the two pieces formed a single figure and lost no time in writing about the matter to the Marquis de Rivière. The letter of Mr. d'Urville reached the Marquis before that of Mr. Brest. The ambassador at once gave orders to one of his secretaries, who was about to visit officially the seaports of the Levant, to proceed promptly to Milo and buy the statue.

At the moment when the Secretary, who was the Viscount, since Count, de Marcellus, set foot on Milo, he was deeply chagrined to see the statue in a canoe which was taking the marble to a brig flying the Turkish flag. That had come about in this way.

The chiefs of the island heard of the discovery and of the market for it prepared by Mr. d'Urville. As, however, they knew that a Greek prince, since fallen from his high estate, a great amateur of, or speculator in, antiquities, would not fail to covet the marble, they thought it well to ward off his reproaches by getting possession of the treasure. A Greek priest, who happened to be on the island in the nick of time, negotiated the matter with the peasant on behalf of the chiefs, and the Venus was just starting for Constantinople when Mr. de Marcellus arrived.

He tried to prevent the brig getting under weigh, although such a step was unnecessary since the wind was contrary. The French Secretary hastened to the chiefs, and reproached and threatened them. The discussion lasted three days, during which Mr. de Marcellus thought it well to land on the beach thirty men from the Estafette, the dispatch boat which had brought him.

The island authorities were so vigorously pressed by our ardent Secretary that they thought it prudent to sell the statue to the highest bidder. The Greek priest was soon outbid, and Mr. de Marcellus became the owner of the marble, paying a hundred Turkish piastres more than the owner had originally agreed to take for it.

No time was lost in putting the statue on board the Esta

fette. As she reached the open sea she met the French corvette Esperance, come to lend a hand, if necessary. At the same moment the famous Greek prince entered the harbor, and boiled over with rage when he found the coveted treasure was at sea, escorted by French cannon.

Mr. de Marcellus accompanied his conquest to the soil which became her new and last country. He and She disembarked together at Marseilles, I will not say-for a good reason-arm

in arm. The goddess had received during her journey the homage and admiration of all lovers of art. Mr. Fauvel, who at that time was called the Nestor of French antiquaries, saw and admired her at Athens, where the vessel stopped, and declared she was worth her weight in gold. The Venus de Milo, after reaching Paris, entered the Louvre, and thence she has not since budged.

In conclusion I will describe the condition in which this admirable statue was when it arrived in France.

It was in two pieces, fitting to each other at the line where the nude part ended and the drapery, which covers all the lower part starting from the left hip, begins.

The nose was broken; the nostrils were, however, sufficiently complete to permit a restoration which is not apparent, the more easily, because all Greek noses are cast in the same mould.

There were some scratches on the chin and lower lip. The lobes of the ears were broken, doubtless done in tearing away formerly the precious stones which probably hung in the ears.

Here and there, on the breast and stomach, were injuries done by the strokes given by the pickaxe in digging. The nipple of the left breast was gone.

The shoulders bore traces of the ropes with which the statue was bound, in order to drag it to the Greek vessel.

I must, however, speak of the greatest damage: the absence of a part of the arms, a mutilation which has given, and will give, eternal torture to antiquaries and artists, on the subject of the true title of the statue: Venus, nymph, muse, Nemesis, or Sappho, and especially in regard to the act in which the Greek master, whom Mr. Clarac believes to be Praxiteles, has represented her. The Marquis de Rivière had careful search made, at the time, in the place where the statue was discovered, with the hope of finding these famous, these precious arms. Nothing was found save some shapeless remains, which afford ground for believing that, at some former timè, an attempt at restoration had been made of the divine figure even then mutilated.

IN

JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE.
W. J. STILLMAN.

Atlantic Monthly, Boston, November.

N whatever way we regard journalism, a deadly danger to culture in the noble sense threatens the beginner; and, except for those who deliberately choose it as their profession, and are willing to forego the chances of a purely literary success, it is a very Cerberus at the gate of the eternal abode; whatever one's function, one form of it awaits him. If it were possible to force culture into American journalism, and so make it the means of a higher national education, there would be, at least, the consolation of sacrificing one's self to the general good; but I do not believe this attainable in the present state of our social organization and political condition. The prime element in journalistic success in America is rapid popularity; its great reward, power to-day. If the journalist, even when he has gained the greatest of all achievements in journalism, a recognized individuality, succeeds in his ambition, he does but write on sands over which the tide flows every day.

Our present utilitarian journalism is the greatest foe to culture in literature and purity in art. Nothing in the range of Emerson's philosophy is better said than this: "A man is a beggar who only lives to the useful; and, however he may serve

as a pin or rivet in the social machine, cannot be said to have arrived at self-possession." The telegraph has put out of the field the chief point of culture in journalism which remained to our fathers, the cultivated correspondent's letter; the interviewer has vulgarized and turned into offense what once was the charm of personality. The morning paper read at breakfast or finished on the train to the city, has given the skimmings of the world's affairs; and letters, and arts, served to order by the most convenient member of the staff, are crowded into the space that can be spared for them, as things which must be alluded to pro forma, but have an altogether trivial importance, and having been treated in haste are regarded with a corresponding indifference; criticism being considered the prentice work of the office, and given to whoever is not better occupied. The frantic haste with which we bolt everything we take, seconded by the eager wish of the journalist not to be a day behind his competitor, abolishes deliberation from judgment, and sound digestion from our mental constitution. We have no time to go below surfaces, and little disposition. Shall we end this state of things, or will it finally eat out all reality from our national life? Shall culture or journalism enlist our powers, or shall culture finally transform the daily paper, allay the fever of our intellectual, and the insanity of our political lives?

It is a grave question for the young man who desires to follow literature, and must work for his daily bread how he shall pay his way. In fact the greater, far greater part of those who attempt it do not justify the experiment. But I will suppose that the individual in any one case, is justified in devoting his life and all its energies to letters; that his calling is irresistible, or at least so strong that he is willing to do all but starve and freeze to be able to follow it. Even then, I say, with all the energy of a life's experience put into my words, and a knowledge of every honorable phase of journalism to give them weight, do not go on a daily journal, unless the literature of a day's permanence satisfies your ambition. Now and then with the possible frequency of being struck by lightning, you may, as a special correspondent, find a noble cause for which you may nobly give your whole soul, but even this is not literature. Better teach school, or take to farming, be a blacksmith or a shoemaker, and give your leisure to the study you require. Read and digest. Get Emerson by heart, carry Bacon's essays in your pocket, and read them when you have to be idle for a moment, earn your daily wages in absolute independence of thought and speech, but never subject yourself to the indignities of reporterism, the waste of life of the special correspondent, or the abdication of freedom of research and individuality of the staff writer, to say nothing of the passions and perversions of partisan politics.

A HEBREW TRAVELER'S STORY. MARCUS LANDAU.

Zeitschrift für Vergleichende für Vergleichende

ED

Litteratur-Geschichte and Renaissance-Litteratur, Berlin, August. DWIN ROHDE, in his admirable work, The Grecian Romance and its Precursors," devotes a considerable chapter to Travelers' Stories, and ethnographical Utopias and fables, indicating oriental, and especially Indian influence; but he makes no reference to any Hebrew work of this class. Still, as little as the Jews harmonized with the Greek, they were subjected in the Middle Ages to the same oriental influences which operated on them, indeed, more directly and powerfully than on the Byzantine Romans. Like causes produced like results. The "Travels of Eldad the Danite" is made up partly of widely spread oral traditions of adventures in foreign lands, partly from Jewish and partly from international legends and myths, to which the author, or some later editor, has added a great deal concerning the rites and religious customs of the Jews in Abyssinia, which he had learnt either by a personal visit to the country or ascertained from other travelers.

The work itself professes to be an account of the travels of Eldad the Danite, who, in the course of his many adventures, reached the remainder of the lost Ten Tribes, and communicated to his brethren in North Africa what he had gathered as to their present condition and past history.

The name Eldad is mentioned only once in the Bible (Numbers xi: 26, 27), and was never, as far as I know, used by the Jews in later ages. Still it is doubtful whether it was really the author's name or whether he assumed it with a special object. The work was evidently written to amuse the reader with accounts of wonderful and extraordinary adventures and expe riences, and to satisfy his curiosity concerning the fate of the Lost Tribes, and his national vanity by accounts of their prosperity.

We cannot agree either with Gratz that the author was a missionary of the Karaites, nor with Fränkel that he was a swindler and charlatan. The rites and religious customs which he represents as in vogue among the Ten Tribes, are not those of the Karaites, but of the Jews in Abyssinia and neighboring countries. There is, moreover, a great deal more in the book which is not merely the creation of the imagination. It is a mixture of truth and romance, and the author may well have got the latter at second hand and regarded it as truth. But we must not include in this the story of his own adventures, in which he represents himself as a merchant who started on a sea voyage along with a companion of the tribe of Asher, and suffered shipwreck. He and his companion saved themselves and reached an unknown coast, while the ship's company all perished. Here they fell into the hands of cannibals who feasted on the son of Ascher, but finding Eldad too lean for the table, decided to fatten him for a future occasion. But the sly Eldad ate sparingly, and buried the surplus food. As a consequence they went on fattening him until they were attacked and conquered by another people. Eldad, along with some of the cannibals, was sold as a slave to a fire-worshiper; but after four years, or, according to another version, four months, he was taken to Azik or Azim (Axum ?) where a Jew of the tribe of Issachar bought him for thirty-two pieces of gold.

According to another version Eldad killed his cannibal proprietor, and, being pursued by the others, jumped into a river into which they dared not follow him, as their feet were spongy and absorbed water. Here he mounted a big floating cedar which bore him to Egypt, where he sold the costly timber for an enormous price. In this Karaitic version of Eldad's adventures there are accounts of gigantic apes, and of a battle between cranes and pigmies, as described in the Iliad III., 5.

According to the other versions, Eldad was taken by his Israelitish master to the dwellings of the tribe of Issachar, Zebulon, and Reuben, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. At this stage the narrative of his own adventures ceases, and in its place he enters on an exhaustive account of the fortunes and conditions of the long-lost Ten Tribes.

Here again, to use Rohde's expression, the "philosophic ideal" is placed in the foreground. Here, we have a reproduction of the Golden Age of fable; there, the Ideal State as sketched by Plato in his Atlantis, and by Theopompus in his History of Philip, and which reminds us also of modern Utopias. Still, everything is strongly Judaized. The descendants of the prophet Moses occupy an island ninety days' journey in length, and ninety in breadth. They have stately houses, and elephants which bear castles on their backs. No unclean animal, or serpent, or noxious insect is found there; only cattle and poultry. The people cultivate olives, and palms, and pomegranates, and sow wheat, barley, etc., which is harvested twice a year, and yields a hundred fold. The inhabitants are all learned and pious, speak only Hebrew, never swear, and attain the age of a hundred years. Children never die before their parents. They have no slaves, perform their own field work, and live on a footing of perfect equality.

There are no criminals or wild beasts, and the houses are left open at night.

This holiness and inoffensiveness is ascribed to the fact that they hold no intercourse with other people. Only occasionally they shout across the river Sabatjon which divided them from the four tribes, or communicate with them by means of carrier pigeons. This Sabatjon is the legendary Sabbath river which flows six days and rests on the seventh. It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as flowing through the country of the Lost Tribes, but Eldad appears to have been the first to attach a fabulous character to it. It has since found a place in both Jewish and Christian legend.

In the story of the Lost Tribes, the six Tribes on the hither side of the river were miraculously brought from Babylon under cover of a cloud, and the way lighted by a pillar of fire. The tribes of Dan, Napthali, Gad, and Ascher, wandered out of Judea to the Land of Kush (Ethiopia)—the Danites on the division of the kingdom, because they would not fight against Judah, the others following on the destruction of the Temple. These four tribes possess enormous wealth, being engaged in constant wars with their neighbors and invariably coming off victorious. Some of their stoutest warriors are the offspring of Samson and Delilah.

was his object to atone the antique Pompeiian painting with the Venetian of the Renaissance, two branches of art radically opposed to each other. He tried to draw the human figure from the Pompeiian-Greek statuary mould, and to express this conception in the powerful and rich form of the Venetian. His idea was, that the beauty extracted from those two schools and recast would be a marvel of art.

Filled with that idea he seeks his motives, and his artistic sense dictates to him what to paint. He avoids the modern life entirely and even neglects the mine of history in choosing subjects. He surrounds himself with antique models and paints only the nude human figure, calling his productions by mythological and allegorical names. Were we to look for a common name with which to classify his works among the arts, we would call them idyls, and the name would at once suggest his peculiar position and how well he has interpreted one side of ancient painting. His pictures are not epics, they are without action; they express conditions, states of existence, peace, quiet, and undisturbed naivete. Though Marées is so antique and Pompeiian in character, he has none of that vulgar sensuality which is so characteristic of the degenerate classical ages. He draws the nude human body for the sake of its simple grandeur, its plastic possibilities, and unique artistic value. When he has done that, he gives it a touch of the Venetian richness and paints a landscape for background.

The landscape was but little developed in the antique painting, on account of lack of love for nature, and the difficult technique of the fresco. But in Marées work the landscape plays a large and important part decoratively. The reason for this is found in his peculiar ideas of the object of art. He hated art exhibitions and rarely, if ever, exhibited anything. And this was not on account of whim or moodiness, but because he maintained that a painting must be seen in the light in which it is painted. He always painted in a light, and under conditions, which a picture gallery cannot offer. The picture on his easel can only be understood, when painted on a large wall. He always dreamt about decorating large rooms, with plenty of space for his figures. There he would make the whole wall one landscape and therein would be seen only noble nude men and women. He would paint only nature at large and the human form divine.

Following the antique, he painted his figures either sitting or standing upright, in order to get a statuary effect. He avoided all foreshortenings, which detract from the decorative architectonic effects. In the Pompeiian wall paintings, Zeus, Danaë, and Leda are presented in a standing position. Marées painted his lovers in the same style, in order to show fully the bodily form in its best light.

Hans von Marées was an indefatigable worker. In his endeavor to perfect his pictures he was never willing to cease painting upon them. It has been universally remarked among his friends, that were it possible to peel off the many layers of paint on his works, one would find work after work of art beneath, each one of which would be an ideal. He painted always on wood as a substitute for the wall he dreamt of decorating. He "painted under" in tempera, which he himself prepared with the white of eggs. He preferred that mixture, because it resembled the fresco-painter's material. Even pure pigments, thus prepared took a mild tone and a transparency like fresco paint, and yet did not demand so quick a use. With Michael Angelo, he believed that oil paint had degraded

art.

Marées was a remarkable man on account of his ideas and his relation to the antique, but he never acquired the free and easy manner of the ancients. Compared to the Pompeiians and the Venetians, he is but a dilettante. But, be he only a dilettante, he is worth more than a large number of other modern artists, who glory in self-adoration, yet never rise or make an honest attempt to lay hold of the ideal.

Hans von Marées was born in 1837, in Elberfeld, and died in the summer of 1887, in Rome.

FRE

"

SPIELHAGEN, BJÖRNSON, AND AUERBACH. Skilling-Magazin (No. 35), Christiania, August. REIDRICH SPIELHAGEN has lately expressed himself rather superficially about Bjöernstjerne Björnson in his Aus meiner Studienmappe. Among other studies' is one about Björnson's relation to Auerbach. Not a new theme, to be sure, for our own northern literary critics have treated it before him.

The question is really not one about a direct influence, neither does Spielhagen assert such a one. The subject matter of Björnson's novels offers many analogies to that of Auerbach, but Spielhagen sees mainly the "violent " differences between the two authors. Behind Auerbach there is a philosophical background, but there is none behind Björnson. The former must always turn the reader's attention from the simple act to the ethical background, only perceptible to philosophical reasoning." The latter, on the contrary, is "never troubled about philosophical schooling." The German critic does not see that his reproach contains a compliment to the Norwegian. Judging Björnson's works from a purely artistic point of view, it is to their credit that they point to no moral, but are expressions of true form only. Spielhagen observes later in his "study" that Björnson "has applied a philosophy, which often plays him some terrible tricks," referring probably to the late works of Björnson, which are so different from those of his early literary activity. We concede the German something on this point, but the case is not so bad as he makes it out.

Spielhagen has discovered another "violent" difference between the two authors; namely, Björnson's paucity in words and Auerbach's richness. Evidently he has not the faintest idea of Björnson's efforts to revive the ancient Saga style, with its limited use of words. And on this account it is not fair to compare Björnson's peasant novels to the modern Norwegian literature, as he does. Still Spielhagen seems to have a notion of their inner connection. He remarks that between 'A Happy Boy" and "The Wild Duck "the distance is not so far as it seems," but he does not know the length of the road, nor its nature, because he has never traveled it. Spielhagen seems unable to judge literary productions from a literary-historical point of view. Without such an ability one cannot understand Björnson.

"

IN

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

VIVISECTION.

FREDERICK GAERTNER.

American Naturalist, Philadelphia, October.

N this essay I propose to examine the question whether vivisection should be permitted in the interest of humanity and science; and, if so, with what restrictions.

What are the objects of vivisection? I answer: First, the increasing of our own knowledge of physiology; second, the confirmation of known facts; third, the acquisition of dexterity in operative surgery; and, fourth, the experimental application of inoculative medicine, including vaccination, and preventive and curative inoculation.

Without this process the sciences of surgery, medicine, anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, and pathology would even yet be in their infancy. By means of vivisection, the doctrine of, the circulation of the blood, the lymphatic circulation through the lymphatic vessels, and that of chyle through the lacteals were established. Our present knowledge of the nervous system is due also to vivisection, since the facts could not have been obtained by the most careful anatomical research. Our present rational mode of treating epilepsy, and the various forms of paralysis are due also to experiments upon the living animal. The Hunterian treatment of aneurism by ligature is due to the same cause.

The study and application of anesthetics, one of the greatest boons to mankind, could only be pursued by experiments upon the living animal.

By means of vivisection the great French chemist and bacteriologist, Pasteur, discovered his wonderful preventive inoculative treatment of hydrophobia.

Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., proved that the liver is an excretory as well as a secretory organ, and was thus enabled to study that class of blood poisoning due to cholesterine in the vital fluid. By means of vivisection we have been led to the present advanced state of knowledge in regard to the processes of digestion, assimilation, and nutrition.

The various surgical operations and procedures, especially as to their technique, have been developed and perfected by means of vivisection. Consider particularly the abdominal operations, such as those performed upon the intestines, stomach, liver, spleen, kidneys, etc. The honor of perfecting these operations is due principally to Prof. Billroth, of Vienna, Austria, the boldest surgeon that ever lived. Previous to his first operation on a human subject for cancer of the stomach the Professor and his assistant, Dr. Woelfler, performed the operation on ten living dogs.

In all the various surgical operations upon the intestines, there arose questions in regard to the technique, and principally as to the best application of stitches, sutures, instruments, antiseptic dressings. All these difficulties were overcome by experiments upon living dogs and cats.

Many of the most delicate surgical operations were first thoroughly studied by vivisection before they were applied to the human subject. In fact, without the confidence inspired by vivisection, many important operations would never be undertaken.

So, too, with medicine. By means of vivisection alone is it possible to determine the physiological action of drugs and preparations, of poisons and their antidotes, and the effects of hypodermic injections and inoculations.

Science cannot advance without vivisection, therefore vivisection must and will be practiced in spite of laws and governments. The Old World, leaning upon the staff of experience, is steadily advancing, climbing the lofty heights of science with a firm and certain tread, while we Americans are sitting idly by, shackled by false ideas of humanity, while over our heads

hangs an obscure pall, called "the laws prohibiting vivisection."

Congress should be urged to pass a law making the art of vivisection part of the curriculum of every reputable medical college. Our Government should assist and encourage scientific vivisectors in their researches and investigations, just aş England, Germany, France, and Austria have done during the last century, by offering capital prizes and honorary medals to scientists, microscopists, and physiologists. Why not? All is in the interest of science, and principally for the protection of humanity against diseases.

But at the same time, this process, this science of vivisection should not be free to every dabbler in science. It should be practiced only by expert microscopists, physiologists, and pathologists. If an ordinary physician, or other learned man, wishes to practice vivisection for study or experimental purposes, let him be compelled so do so under the supervision and instruction of a licensed vivisector, at his laboratory and under his personal supervision. Such a licensed vivisector should be connected with every reputable medical college having a pathological and histological laboratory. The practice of vivisection should not be prohibited. This will only lead to its being done in secret. It should be controlled and regulated.

THE

MILITARY BALLOONING.

FIRST LIEUTENANT A. HUEBER.

Der Stein der Weisen, Vienna, October.

HE first flying machine we have any record of was invented by Archytas, of Tarent, a friend of Plato, in the fourth century B. C., and was in the form of a dove; but nothing further appears to have been achieved in this direction until 1768 when Besnier invented a flying machine which worked with a measure of success. Since then there has been an unbroken series of efforts to utilize balloons in war, but without any very eminent success, until during the last FrancoGerman war, when the French balloons played an important part in the maintenance of communications. During the four months of the siege of Paris, the beleagured city sent out seventy hydrogen-filled balloons with ninety passengers, three million letters, and four hundred carrier pigeons, and of these only five balloons fell into the hands of the Germans. These results gave encouragement to France and other nations to bestir themselves earnestly for the development of aërial navigation. But before noting what the several nations have achieved in this direction, it will be in place to say a few words on the application of balloons to war purposes; and first of all we must bear in mind the distinction between the three kinds of aërial machines-the balloon attached to the earth, the free unsteerable balloon, and the free steerable balloon; and again between the use of balloons in the field and in fortresses. The only suitable balloon for an army in the field is the captive balloon, for its serviceability dedends on its availability at the required moment. While the balloon train, and the various appliances for inflating it, must be light enough to prove no serious impediment on the march, at the same time it is necessary that it can be got ready for use at short notice. Moreover the basket must not oscillate too much to admit of steady observation. The balloon need not be large: just large enough to carry a man up to five hundred meters high; but this man must be both an experienced balloonist and capable of making rapid and accurate observations: consequently an officer.

The fortress balloon may be larger, and the time occupied in filling is of less importance. Its purpose is the same, viz., that of reconnoitering. The balloon should not approach within three kilometers of the enemy, or it will sooner or later be riddled. It should be secured by a copper wire to admit of telegraphing the result of observations. If the beleaguering force has surrounded the fortress, it can send a free balloon with the wind, over it, and capture it by its cavalry on the other side.

The free balloon has the great advantage over the captive balloon that it is more difficult to aim at.

And now as to what arrangements the leading nations have made for the utilization of balloons in future wars.

France has a separate aëronautic establishment. Every French army-corps has its balloon-park, and at every great drill a captive balloon takes part. The arrangements for securing the stability of the basket have been so far perfected as to admit of photographs being taken from it. The balloon is filled with hydrogen generated in the field from a prepared plastic substance called gasëin, the discovery of Major Renard. Seven pounds of this substance yield a cubic meter of gas, and Major Renard has invented a machine capable of producing 400 centimeters an hour. The balloon is made of pongee silk, varnished, and the Nordenfeld method of filling is now under test. The staff is also trained in the management of free balloons. The French have also a naval balloon service, with captive balloons provided with electric lights, by means of which they can expose the movements of the hostile fleet without disclosing their own locality. The French have undoubtedly made greater progress in this department than any other nation.

The English balloons are made of gold-beater's-skin, which combines strength with lightness and imperviousness, but costs twice as much as a silk balloon. The gas is produced at central depots, compressed, and conveyed in Nordenfeld steel cylinders, which follow the balloon on wagons. Any number can be emptied into the balloon at once, and the filling occupies only a quarter of an hour. There is an aëronautic institute at Chatham similar to the French institute at ChalaisMeudon. Experiments have also been made for introducing a system of signaling by means of electric lights. The English system affords the utmost economy in transport; and, on the whole, it must be conceded that ballooning in England is on a very practical basis.

The Italians, in 1885, ordered a captive balloon train from Gabriel Yon in Paris; but the Italian officers who accompanied the English expedition to the Soudan and Bechuanaland having mastered the Nordenfeld system of filling, the government decided to adopt it, and a committee of Italian officers having been deputed to visit the Chatham aëronautic institute, secured balloon material from an English house-Howard, Lane & Co., of Birmingham. These balloons have a content of only 200 cubic meters but they suffice for reconnoitering purposes.

In Russia, too, the Nordenfeld system has been recently adopted, and an aëronautic staff has been organized at St, Petersburg. Under their former system the balloons took eight hours to fill, and the necessary material weighed twenty tons, requiring twenty four-horse teams for its conveyance. These figures indicate the enormous advance in ballooning made by the introduction of the Nordenfeld system. Free balloons were used by the Russians in the manœuvres of 1886.

The German aëronautic service was organized in 1887. The gas is generated on the system of Dr. Wilhelm Majert, in Berlin, and First Lieut. G. Richter, of Falkenberg; and the filling occupies two hours. August Riedinginger, of Augsburg, is building a navigable balloon which promises to compare favorably with Renard's,

The Spanish have introduced the Yon system. The balloon is ten meters in diameter and the whole material weighs eight tons.

Portugal, Holland, and Belgium have adopted the Lachambre system, which is very light but not very durable.

Austria appointed three officers, in 1888, to study the German and English systems. A military aëronautic course exists in the institute of the editor of the Vienna Sportzeitung, in which six officers have made from four to eight excursions. On the whole, the Austrians are disposed to wait develop

ments.

China ordered balloons from Yon, immediately after the conclusion of peace with France, and has experimented with very satisfactory results. The materials are Chinese silk, caoutchouc, Florentine taffeta, and varnish. The contents of the balloons range from 200 to 3,000 centimeters.

The United States have adopted the Yon system; and among South American States who have done something in this direction we may enumerate the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Brazil, Chili, and Peru. The Union army used balloons in the Civil War, and the Triple Alliance used them in the war against Paraguay 1866-67.

D

THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG.

P. MÉGNIN.

La Nature, Paris, September 19.

OES the dog which we know by the name of Newfoundland Dog really come from the island of that name? There are many dogs there, but they do not at all resemble, in height at least, our Newfoundland dogs in Europe; they resemble the dogs of the Esquimaux, but are black in color.

Formerly, according to Brehm, when the first English colonists went to Newfoundland, in 1622, they found no dogs there, and the island was without inhabitants, save that it was sometimes visited in the summer time by American savages or Esquimaux.

Richardson is disposed to trace the origin of our Newfoundland dogs to animals of a strong European race, still existing in Norway, where they are used for hunting wolves and foxes, and which are of a black color. It is well known now, that the first discovery of Newfoundland must be allowed to the Norwegians who, towards the year 1600, set sail from Greenland on a voyage of discovery. While admitting that the Newfoundland dog has been altered by crossing with the dogs of the countries of the Esquimaux and of Labrador, it is permissible to suppose that the race has sprung from the dogs left on the island by those hardy navigators.

Thus the Newfoundland would be a mountain-dog, which has become by adaptation a remarkable water-dog, of which the reputation, in respect to intelligence, is well established.

However that may be, the Newfoundlands have been for a long time a well-defined race of two varieties, one entirely black and the other pied, the latter having the more specific name of Landseer's Newfoundlands, because the artist of that name has popularized that variety in his pictures of inundation and life-saving, for which he chose particularly the pied sort, which lends itself better to pictorial effect than the variety entirely black.

There has been organized in England, as for all other races of dogs, a Newfoundland Dog Club, for the preservation of that race. This club has designated the characteristic points of the animal, of which the principal are: a body well put together, a back broad and vigorous, a deep chest, a large and massive head, strong and muscular limbs, large feet, well furnished with a palm greater than that of other dogs and thickly covered with hair between the toes; hair quite long at the neck, on the trunk, and behind the fore legs and the thighs, straight and not curled, coarse rather than fine; in conclusion, a height of twenty-seven inches as a minimum for the male and a little less for the female.

As will be observed, the English Club lays down the rule that the hair of Newfoundlands should be straight and coarse, and consequently, according to that club, it is a defect in Newfoundlands to have curled and silky hair. Well, begging pardon of the Club aforesaid, I prefer to share the opinion of the painter Landseer, who always chose for models handsome dogs of an intelligent aspect and with the hair fine and tightly curled. Such was also the opinion of the judges at the last dog show at the Tuilieries, who gave the first prize to the comely dog Rover, belonging to Mr. de Lancey-Ward, which