Brown changed the face of botany. He gave life and significance to that which had been dull and purposeless. His influence was felt in every direction: the microscope became a necessary instrument in the hands of the philosophical botanist, and the history of development was the basis on which all improvement in classification was carried on. This influence extended from the vegetable to the animal kingdoms. The researches of Schleiden on the vegetable cell, prompted by the observations of Brown led to those of Schwam on the animal cell; and we may directly trace the present position of animal physiology to the wonderful influence that the researches of Brown have exerted upon the investigation of the laws of organization...... After the death of Dryander in 1810, Dr. Brown received the charge of the library and collections of Sir Joseph Banks, who bequeathed them to him for life. They were afterwards, by his permission, transferred to the British Museum in 1827, and he was appointed Keeper of Botany In that Institution." He received "the highest Prussian civil order 'Pour le Mérite,' of which his friend and survivor at the age of 88, the Baron von Humboldt, is Chancellor. Humboldt long since called him 'Botanicorum facile princeps,' a title to which all scientific botanists readily admitted his undisputed claim."

Prof.

Faraday

Prof. Faraday contributes a paper on the 3rd on science. of July 'On Science as a Branch of Education.' "The value of the public recognition of science as a leading branch of education may be estimated in a very considerable degree by observation of the results of the education which it has obtained incidentally from those who, pursuing it, have educated themselves. Though men may be specially fitted by the nature of their minds for the attainment and advance of literature, science, or the fine arts, all these men, and all others, require first to be educated in that which is known in these respective mental paths; and when they go beyond this preliminary teaching, they require a self-education directed (at least in science) to the highest reasoning power of the mind. Any part of pure science may be selected to show how much this private self-teaching has done, and by that to aid the present movement in favour of the recognition generally of scientific education in an equal degree with that which is literary; but perhaps electricity, as being the portion which has been left most to its own development, and has produced as its results the most enduring marks on the face of the The voltaic globe, may be referred to. In 1800 Volta discovered the voltaic pile; giving a source and form of electricity before unknown. It was not an accident, but resulted from his own

pile.

mental self-education: it was, at first, a feeble instrument, giving feeble results; but by the united mental exertions of other men, who educated themselves through the force of thought and experiment, it has been raised up to such a degree of power as to give us light, and heat, and magnetic and chemical action, in states more exalted than those supplied by any other means. In 1819 Oersted discovered the magnetism of the electric current, and its relation to the magnetic needle; and as an immediate consequence, other men, as Arago and Davy, instructing themselves by the partial laws and action of the bodies concerned, magnetized iron by the current. The results were so feeble at first as to be scarcely visible; but, by the exertion of self-taught men since then, they have been exalted so highly as to give us magnets of a force unimaginable in former Powerful times. In 1831 the induction of electrical currents one by another, and the evolution of électricity from magnets was observed, at first in results so small and feeble, that it required one much instructed in the pursuit to perceive and lay hold of them; but these feeble results, taken into the minds of men already partially educated and ever proceeding onwards in their self-education, have been so developed as to supply sources of electricity independent of the

magnets.

Mrs. Marcet.

voltaic battery or the electric machine, yet having the power of both combined in a manner and degree which they, neither separate nor together, could ever have given it, and applicable to all the practical electrical purposes of life......Electricity is often called wonderful-beautiful;— but it is so only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty of electricity, or of any other force, is not that the power is mysterious and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, not beneath it; and it is in such a point of view that the mental education afforded by science is rendered super-eminent in dignity, in practical application, and utility; for, by enabling the mind to apply the natural power through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man."

Mrs. Marcet's death at the advanced age of ninety is recorded on the 10th of July. “Popular as a scientific writer for the young (it is almost superfluous to name her 'Conversations,' on different subjects, so widely circulated have these been), Mrs. Marcet claims, too, record in a literary journal as one who, for something like three parts of a century, held a distinct place in the English and foreign worlds of Letters and Art. She belonged both to Eng

land and Switzerland, dividing her time betwixt the two countries; and there were few persons of any celebrity who, at one time or other, did not form part of her circle."

'The

Mummy.'

A notice of Mrs. Jane Loudon is given on the Mrs. Loudon. 24th of July. Thirty years previously, then Miss Webb, she made her first appearance in print in a remarkable novel called 'The Mummy,' "which passed through several editions, and secured her a name. This novel, which was original and clever, purposed to represent the condition of England in the year 2126, and amongst the various inventions and improvements mentioned as having been brought into practical use (many of which have now come to pass) was the steamplough. Mr. Loudon, the well-known botanist, who was interested in agricultural pursuits, struck with this suggestion, desired to become acquainted with the author of 'The Mummy,' which acquaintance ended in their marriage. During the first years of her married life Mrs. Loudon assisted her husband in the preparation of his works, but wrote little on her own account; when, however, his affairs became deeply embarrassed owing to the publication of the 'Arbo-' Arboretum et retum et Fruticetum Britannicum'-a work which, Britannicum.' when complete, left a debt of 10,000l. upon it,

and which, as publishers were unwilling to undertake the risk, Mr. Loudon published on his own

Fruticetum