don, now destitute of employment, who would have esteemed your correspondent as a great benefactor, if, instead of inventing for them a new mode of setting to work, he had found them work to do in their own accustomed fashion: and any of these, if consult d, will inform him that there are far worse evils to be borne by them than the supposed injuries and inconveniences resulting from a cross-lecged posture. The invention of your correspondent is not only formed on very erroneous notions of the trade, but is altogether inapplicable. The injurious consequences he ascribes to the present mode arise from a different source, where they exist, and are incidental to all sedentary employments, where want of fresh air and exercise are to be complained of. That tailors are much subject to pulmonary and other complaints, in crowded places, is not owing to the manner of sitting, but to the length of time they have to sit together, in a room, the temperature of which (if in London) is much higher than the external air. To be confined in such a place the whole of twelve hours, with only one interval of an hour, which is at dinner time, must certainly be, in some respects, injurious to health; but not, I believe, so much as your correspondent imagines. In the country these evils are not so much the subject of complaint; and even in the cases referred to, the adage "what can't be cured must be endured," will still have its use, for what advantage your correspondents remedy holds out.

The mode of sitting, so long in use amongst tailors, is, according to a provision of nuture, without violence to the laws of physiology; nor can any plan be devised by which they could perform their work with greater facility and convenience. It does not tend to distort the bodily frame, but rather to rectify distortion: for instances have been known of crooked-legged boys having become straight by their being apprenticed to the trade. In fact, the principles of anatomy, as exemplified in the ball and socket articulation of the thigh and hip bones, are favourable to the posture alluded to; and, unless at the commencement of a lad's apprenticeship, there is no ill effect or inconvenience felt from it. But the method recommended by your correspondent, if it could be brought into practice for the sake of trial, would not only prove incon

venient and tiresome to the limbs, but would not enable the workman to execute his work with any degree of skill, neatness, or expedition, particularly as to the pressing part of it. By the crosslegged situation, he can use his iron with proper effect, because it is a mechanical operation, (do you laugh, reader?) which requires not only the weight of the machine, (spare your risibility,) but a considerable degree of manual force, which could not be adequately exercised by the cushion plan as it is well known that the more the arms are extended, the less they are within the line of direction for effectual movement; the law of gravitation retarding or aiding in proportion. With regard to the sewing process, the plan suggested is still more objectionable. By the present mode the work can be managed and acted upon (save the mark) to the greatest advantage, and without straining exertion, because it is placed on the knees, immediately under the eyes, and within the esaiest exercise of the hands. But supposing, for the sake of argument, the invention could be used by one or two individuals, how could it be applied in shops in which twenty, thirty, or forty men (if I may be allowed to use the term) are employed? The space required, as far as I can understand the description of your correspondent, for one man, would occupy the room of several, as now used; and on that account the invention would require enlarged dimensions in whatever shop it might be adopted, In fact, it appears to me impossible to bring it into use where more than one person would have occasion to sit, even supposing it calculated to answer the purpose for which the invention intended it.

Before I quit the subject I cannot help remarking, as not a little curious, that while one man attempts to remedy, by invention, imaginary evils for the poor tailors, another, by the same expedient, is making his fortune by bringing real ones upon them. An article of dress, called a Mackintosh, (after the name of the inventor,) more like a smock-frock than a coat, and which gives the wearer more the appearance of a smuggler, or Smithfield drover, than that of a gentleman, bids fair to supplant the well. shaped top garment with which nature, in many cases, has been improved by the unfortunate wights, of whom thou

sands must now be sufferers in consequence. The innovation, however, it is rumoured, is found to be objectionable on several grounds; and it is hoped that a desire to return to the wear of the respectable looking upper-benjamin, for the sake of giving due advantage to the human shape, will again soon bemanifested. ONE OF THE INJURED.

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA.

Sir, The attention given by you to the subject of steam communication with Judia, is deserving the gratitude of those interested in this measure, and particularly the mercantile classes of society. The merits of this case are now so fully known as to require no comment. The benefits to be derived from such a measure are attested by India, and are daily becoming more important in the eyes of all classes in this country. It may not, however, be generally known that an association has been formed, and considerable subscriptions entered into in London for carrying into effect this desirable object. *** No objection has yet been urged to the plan the means of carrying it into effect are ready. It is, therefore, matter of some surprise, as well as of reasonable complaint, that the necessary sanction of Government is still withheld. We know, indeed, that a body of men who rule the destinies of millions of our fellow subjects have hitherto affected to treat lightly this important measure; and we know, too, that in excuse it has been alleged that our exports to India have already attained their maximum, and that, consequently, they would not be increased by regular communication, and the means it would give of extending commerce and obtaining information as to the wants and resources of those coun

tries. In reply to such arguments, I would ask, what has been the result of opening the trade with India?—and I would take the article of cotton, in respect to which, before that experiment was tried, it was maintained, because cotton was the growth of India, it would be manufactured cheaper than it could be exported from this country. Let us see the result. The amount of cottonstuff exported to the Company's territories in 1814, the year free trade was opened, was no more than 109,000l., the

same articles exported in 1822 had reached upwards of one million sterling in value, and in 1832 this amount was increased to nearly two millions of our money. If such result has here produced capital and enterprise, being admitted in a partial way to the East, what may we not expect when every island and continent between British Malta and British Australia, becomes the seat of commerce, and has its resources known to the people of England? No less than this comprehensive plan is proposed by the merchants of this country. The Euphrates project is abandoned, and this is a resolution of a Committee of the House of Commons in favour of the communication to India and the East by the accessible route of the Red Sea. Let us hope, therefore, that official etiquette or mischievous monopoly will no longer be permitted to stand in the way of so useful an undertaking.

I have the honour to be,
A FRIEND TO STEAM NAVIGATION
AND TO INDIA.

[We have taken the liberty to omit from the preceding letter the resolutions of the East India and China Association, which have been already duly noticed in the Mechanics' Magazine (p. 304). The project alluded to by our correspondent appears to be that of the "East India Navigation Company," which must be generally known, at least to our readers, since it was referred to in the review of Captain Grindlay's pamphlet (p. 377). It was there remarked, that it was to be lamented the estimates of the Company should be in appearance so much at variance with those of the Madras Committee. The difference is in reality very trifling. The Madras Committee calculated that the whole expense to be encountered in the completion of the steamline, by extending it from Egypt, where it at present stops, to India, would be 22,000l. per annum :-the Company are willing to undertake the establishment of steam conveyance the whole way from England to India on an annual sum of 65,000l. being guaranteed to them; but this sum would also include their remuneration for performing the packet service between Falmouth and Alexandria, which now costs Government 40,000l. a year, so that the additional expense in the case would be only 25,000l.]

THE ELECTRICAL THEORY OF THE

UNIVERSE.

Sir,-Being at present engaged upon a particular subject, which engrosses almost the whole of my attention, I have been anxious to avoid discussion upon the electrical theory; but seeing that some of your correspondents have, in consequence of the publication of my attempt at perpetual motion (which, be it remembered, dates about fourteen years ago), taken up some very erroneous and, as it appears to me, superficial notions with respect to that theory, I am induced to offer some further remarks, with a view to remove these erroneous impressions. I have no wish to enter into any controversy with Trebor Valentine, upon the merits of the wheel in question, if it has any; although I must say that the view which he takes of it is not complete. When he says that "the friction between the ball and the wheel is greater than the friction on the axle of the wheel," his view is correct; but not so when he says "that gravity is completely neutralized by the power of the magnet."

However, I do not intend, as I have said, to discuss the merits of the wheel; my present business is with the concluding sentence of his short article. He says, "But the most extraordinary part of the affair is, that a rational being could be led by the failure of so futile an attempt, to conclude that gravity, in the hands of the great Creator, is insufficient to produce that (a perpetual motion, I presume) which he in his experiment had taken the most effectual means to prevent." (Vol. xxvi. p. 315.)

Now stop, Trebor Valentine. Who informed you that the Creator intended that the motion of the earth round the sun should be a perpetual motion? If the motion of the earth round the sun is never to come to an end, then it never had a beginning; and its motion, upon that supposition, cannot be accounted for by any known laws in natural philosophy

it is a standing, or rather a moving, miracle.

Again, that which is subject to change, that change continually tending to one point, cannot endure for ever. Geology teaches that the earth is, and has been for a long series of ages, tending to solidification; and if the earth is to re

main for ever, this process must go on for ever, which is absurd.

But this process of solidification must have had a beginning; however far back we may choose to fix that beginning, we come to a resting place at last. Infinite expansion or infinite contraction equally involve an absurdity.

Now, the point upon which the whole argument rests is simply this :-Is the earth tending to solidification? Geology says, in language which can neither be misunderstood nor misinterpreted, that this process has been going on for ages, and is going on still. Now, those who contend that the earth is to revolve for ever at the same distance from the sun, have to prove that geological facts are not facts, which I apprehend will be found somewhat difficult.

Trebor Valentine and Nautilus appear to labour under an impression that the perpetual motion of the earth was doubted, because the wheel and magnet had failed to produce that effect. This impression is altogether erroneous; these doubts rest upon much surer grounds. If Trebor Valentine, or any other of your correspondents, will refer to the reports of the lectures delivered upon the electrical theory, he will there find some remarks with respect to motion, which I think will set him right upon that point. (See Mechanics' Magazine, Nos. 687 to 692.)

It is not to be expected that either Trebor Valentine, or any other, should give up their preconceived notions all at once; but I should think that the controversy that has been carried on by your talented correspondent, Kinclaven, might have shaken his confidence in some of the existing opinions upon physical subjects.

It is some consolation, amidst the puerile nibblings of contemporaries, to find that so distinguished a philosopher as Sir Isaac Newton, for whose opinions I entertain the highest respect, although I do not hold him to be infallible, entertained notions almost exactly coinciding with those advanced in the electrical theory. A friend has put into my hands a pamphlet, in which I find the following words, as related by Newton's friend and relation, Mr. Conduit:-" He (Sir Isaac Newton) repeated to me very distinetly, that the vapours of light emitted by the sun, which had their sediment as water

and other matter, had gathered themselves by degrees into a body, and attracted more matter from the planets, and at last made a secondary planet, and then by gathering and attracting to them more matter became a primary planet, and then by increasing still became a a comet; which, after certain revolutions, by coming nearer and nearer to the sun, had all its volatile parts condensed, and became a matter fit to recruit and replenish the sun, as a faggot would the fire if put into it."

All the difference, then, between the opinions entertained by Newton, and those advanced in the electrical theory, is, that he considered that planets become comets, whilst, in the electrical theory, it is contended that comets become planets. If the process of either theory be reversed, they will be found identical. A little geological knowledge is sufficient to determine in what direction the process will terminate.

Yours respectfully,

T. S. MACKINTOSH.

NEW SCIENTIFIC ANNUAL.

A good Annual Register of Science has long been a desideratum. Dr. Thomson, whose monthly periodical, the Records of General Science, we noticed with as much approbation as could reasonably be extended towards it, on the appearance of its first number, has endeavoured to fill up the void by the publication of a volume of rather diminutive appearance,* * and very neat exterior; but we are afraid the article required is not yet in the market. From his second title, "Epitome of the Progress of Science," the reader is naturally induced to expect the very thing which has so long been looked for in vain; the body of the work, however, by no means makes good the promise of the title page. It opens with a "Calendar for 1837," which is followed by a long array of tabular articles, whose subjects bear no particular relation to the "time present," and might as well be treated of in works of the most permanent and improgressive character: many of them, in fact, are old favourites, who have already "done the

The British Annual, and Epitome of the Pro. gress of Science. Edited by Robert D. Thomson, M.P. London; 1837. Baillière, 12mo. pp. 375.

state some service" in divers situations; such are the "Tables of the Heights of Mountains, of the Comparative Elevations of celebrated Buildings," &c., to say nothing of the "Divisions of Time," and the Elements of the Solar System," which are, of course, to be met with at the very threshold of every school book of Astronomy. The remainder of this first part is impressed with an air of Frenchification which appears rather ludicrous when taken in juxtaposition with the rather gratuitously national leading title of the book; but which is fully accounted for by the very candid admission of the preface:

"The present attempt at supplying a scientific Annual to the British public origi nated in a suggestion made by the publisher to translate the Annuaire par le Bureau des Longitudes, a periodical which has acquired much popularity among our neighbours. Upon mature deliberation, the plan of the following work was adopted. Many of the tables comprehended in the first portion of the work have been reduced from the Annuaire par le Bureau des Longitudes, and likewise from the Annuaire de l'Observatoire de Bruxelles, par le Directeur A. Queteletand as they are all of a practical nature, it is hoped that they will be found useful to a large circle of society."

دو

Of a "practical nature many of the tables are, but we rather doubt the utility of many of them to a "circle of society peculiarly British, such, for instance, as that for the conversion of old French weights into new, and the succeeding one for converting new French measures into old, those for reducing the degrees of the centigrade thermometer to those of Reaumur, and a number of others which must have found themselves much more at home in the pages of the foreign Annuaires, than in those to which they have been injudiciously (because to the exclusion of more appropriate matter,) transferred. It is difficult, also, to imagine the practical usefulness, to a tarry-at-home reader, of the lists of the passes of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Cordilleras, and, always bearing the title in mind, rather ridiculous to turn over page after page, filled with tables of the weights and measures, not of our own country only and of France, but of Germany, Sweden, and Portugul, especially as due care is taken to give their relative values in French as well as English equivalents.