draws attention to the early mention of the telephone. "Just two hundred and ten years Robert Hooke ago Robert Hooke, Fellow of the Royal Society, published a work entitled 'Micrographia; or, some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses, with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon.' This, the first English treatise on the uses of the microscope, is still in high estimation. In the Preface (sig. b 4) occurs the following remarkable paragraph:-"Tis not impossible to hear a whisper at a furlong's distance, it having been already done; and perhaps the nature of the thing would not make it more impossible, though that furlong should be ten times multiply'd......I can assure the Reader, that I have, by the help of a distended wire, propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light.""

Prof. Wheatstone.

A sketch of The Origin of the Telephone' is given by Mr. William Chappell on the 5th of January, 1878, in which he gives the credit of its discovery to Prof. Wheatstone, and says that "all Wheatstone's acoustical discoveries and musical inventions may be dated within ten years, from 1825-about which time I became well acquainted with him-to 1835. ......One of Wheatstone's earliest discoveries

(one long before his electric telegraph) was that all the varying sounds of musical instruments might be conveyed to considerable distances by means of solid rods joined together. It was only necessary to bring the end of the topmost rod sufficiently near to the instrument to receive its vibrations, without touching it." On the 10th of May, 1855, the Queen and Prince Albert visited Experiment the Polytechnic Institution, when Prof. Wheatstone was engaged to bring the music of a band from a distant part of the building into the part of the room where Her Majesty was standing."

before the

Queen.

in use in

Burmah.

Mr. Chappell, on the 9th of March, 1878, states that Capt. C. H. A. Gower, of the Madras Staff Corps, writes: "The Burmans Telephone are well acquainted with the practical use of the telephone. More than a year ago, I found them using one in the town where I was then living, Maoobin, near Rangoon. The apparatus consisted of two short lengths of bamboo; one end of each was closed with strong paper, and the two were connected by a piece of strong cotton passing through the paper, retained in its place by a knot at each end. I ascertained by experiment that this simple apparatus answered perfectly for a distance of 100 yards, sounds being con

Medica of

veyed without any apparent loss. The lowest

whisper was heard quite distinctly."

'The Materia "The Materia Medica of the Hindus, comthe Hindus.' piled from Sanskrit Medical Works. By Udoy Chand Dutt. With a Glossary of Indian Plants by George King, M.B., and the Author," is reviewed on the 28th of July, 1877. The Athenæum states: "It is the first book on the subject of Hindu medicine which we have had from a scientifically trained native physician; and the thoroughness with which Mr. Dutt has accomplished his work, and its great value and interest, prove what fruitful harvests we may hope to reap in the almost limitless fields of Sanskrit research when once a sufficient body of Hindu students have been educated for the labour. Mr. Dutt has followed the Sanskrit texts literally, and gives in foot-notes the original Sanskrit verses from which he quotes. In the selection of prescriptions he, as a rule, gives preference to such recipes as are commonly used by native physicians. The works from which he quotes extend in date from the third to the fifth century before Christ to the fifteenth century A.D." One note, at p. 41, under the head of "Orpiment," is "of such special interest" that it is quoted at length: "The MSS. examined have mostly been written on country paper sized with yellow arsenic and an emulsion

of tamarind seeds, and then polished by rubbing with a conch shell......No insect or worm of any kind will attack arsenicized paper, and so far the MSS. are perfectly secure against its ravages......The MSS. which were originally copied on arsenicized paper for the College of Fort William in the first decade of the century, are now quite as fresh as they were when first written. I have seen many MSS. in private collections which are much older and still quite as fresh. This fact would suggest the propriety of Government records in Mofussil courts being written on arsenicized paper instead of the ordinary English foolscap, which is so rapidly destroyed both by the climate and also by white ants."

The advantages of arsenicized

paper.

Notes on Irish Architec

"ture,' by the

Earl of D'unraven.

Towers.

The second volume* of 'Notes on Irish Architecture,' by Edwin, third Earl of Dunraven, edited by Margaret Stokes, is also reviewed on July 28th. "On the origin and uses of the Irish Round Towers there is in this work a very valuable ish Round chapter. Miss Stokes and Lord Dunraven agree with those who think that these buildings, which are, every one knows, not peculiar to Ireland, were used for three purposes-as belfries, as watch-towers, as places for temporary refuge.' The death of Mr. William Longman is Mr. William noticed on the 18th of August. He was the Longman.

The first volume was reviewed April 15th, 1876.

Enters the firm.

third son of Mr. Thomas Norton Longman, "the third Thomas Longman who presided over the destinies of the celebrated publishing house in Paternoster Row. At an early age he entered his father's business, and in 1839 he was made a partner in the firm, and after Mr. T. N. Longman's death, in 1842, the chief direction of affairs passed into the hands of William Longman and his elder brother, the present Mr. Thomas Longman, who had been a partner since 1832......The year in which the two brothers succeeded to the control of the business was that of the production of the Lays of Ancient Rome,'* the first of the great Macaulay's 'hits' which made Macaulay such a hero in the eyes of booksellers. His 'Essays' from the Edinburgh, the first two volumes of the History, and, above all, the second two issued on December 17th, 1855. which produced the celebrated cheque for 20,000l., were all of them events of magnitude in the annals of the trade......Many other notable successes have attended the proceedings of the house in later times. Colenso's book on the Pentateuch, 'The Greville Memoirs,'

works.

* Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Rome' was first published at 9s. 6d, and Macaulay, never anticipating that the work would sell, made a present of the copyright to Mr. Longman, who most generously gave Lord Macaulay the full benefit of its great success.