paper given specially to the search after | boy, had been several times operated on; flummery, or humbug of any sort : We lately witnessed at Willis's Rooms, conducted by Dr. Darling, of Glasgow, a series of experiments in Electro-Biology,' the results of which, supposing the proceedings to have been perfectly bond fide-and we have no reason to doubt the fact-seems to show the possession by the experimenter of a control over the nervous and muscular system of other individuals, which we can only compare to the powers attributed to magicians and necromancers in fairy tales. 'Electro-Biology,' as the science, or process, or whatever it may be, is vaguely and inaptly called, seems a sort of first cousin of mesmerism. There are, however, distinct points of difference. Mesmerism is said to act by sympathy between the operator and the patient. Biology, according to its believers, infers the absolute power and control of one brain and nervous organization over another, without the existence of any sympathetic links whatever. Neither was there in these experiments any of the somnambulism, stupor, or dreaming, produced by mesmerism. The experimenter devoted him self to influencing and controlling the muscles and nerves of the patients, or their thinking faculties in a single department, particularly their memory of a certain fact, without producing or aiming at the production of a general abnormal mental condition. The results of the experiments made, and of the questions put, we shall detail in a few plain sentences. After some introductory observations, Dr. Darling called upon any of the audience who pleased to come forward and be experimented upon. About four and twenty individuals-all, with the exception of a boy of ten or so, adults-mounted the platform, and were ranged seated in a double row facing each other. To each the experimenter gave a small zinc medal to be held in the left hand, with the eyes, and as far as possible the attention, of the individual kept fixed upon it. Strict silence and abstinence from motion were also enjoined. During the pause which ensued the doctor paced silently between his patients, feeling their foreheads with his hand. Some appeared inclined to drowsiness, others were evidently wide awake, and a few tittered audibly. At the expiration of a quarter of an hour the doctor gathered up his zinc medals, and selected five patients, including the boy, as having become impregnated with the mysterious influence-a fact which he seemed to ascertain by gazing keenly into and passing his hands over the eyes of the experimentees. The obdurate gentlemen then descended amid the audience, and the experiments commenced with the favored five. "Of these, it is proper to say that one, the The that three, we think, had been once operated upon, but by Dr. Darling's colleague, Mr. Stone, at the Marylebone Literary Institution; and that one gentleman had never before been present at any seance of the sort. This latter individual manifested a medium degree of susceptibility. The highest degree was shown by the boy and one of the adults-both apparently of sanguine temperament. That of the other gentlemen appeared to be of nervous-bilious. particulars of the past experience of the patients were not stated by the doctor, but elicited by the audience. The susceptible adult had on a former occasion shown only a very modified degree of liability to the influence, but the doctor stated that his power generally increased with every series of experiments made upon the same individual. The first efforts were made on the muscles of the eyelids. One by one, the patients were told to shut their eyes, then to open them if they could, until the experimenter allowed them. The trial seemed successful in all the cases. Each gentleman assured the audience that the muscles were for the time perfectly paralyzed. The muscles of the tongue were next tried, and three, we think, of the five rendered unable to utter a word. The others stammered out a syllable or two with great apparent difficulty. Of the five, the power of memory, as regarded the ability to recal the words Willis's Rooms' and London,' seemed perfectly suspended in three. The strenuous mental efforts to call up the missing ideas were ludicrously portrayed in the faces of the individuals. One gentleman said, 'Stay, stay, I have it on the tip of my tongue, but I cannot bring it out. All of them joined in assuring the audience of the reality of the sudden and partial blank in their memories. In conducting his experiments, Dr. Darling assumed an air and attitude of rigid command, apparently summoning mind and muscle to powerful efforts of volition, making rapid and vigorous passes over the muscles to be affected, and loudly and authoritatively enouncing the orders of his will. Three out of the five were also made to stammer in speaking. Then the muscles of the arms were appealed to. Those of the boy and the sanguine-colored adult were perfectly obedient to the biologist's will, despite the efforts apparently made by the individuals to resist it, and which they declared produced muscular pain at the shoulders and elbows. The adult patient was as it were nailed to his chair by the volition of the operator-then prevented from sitting down, although every muscle quivered with the exertion; the chair was then made to feel so hot beneath him that he could not remain seated; and finally, the palate and the eye were affected. At the command of the operator water tasted hot, cold, bitter, | honeymoon of marriage to the public favor, and like port-wine-then the patient was made to see horrible reptiles crawling in the glass, coming over the edge, and wrig; gling up his arm. The seemingly natural energy with which he brushed off the imaginary beings excited a great deal of interest. Upon recovering, he said that he knew all along that what he saw was only a delusion, but that for his life he could not resist the natural impulse to beat the insects away. Finally, this gentleman was ordered to see and stated that he did see-a horse upon the platform. He passed his hand round the outline of the animal's form. Some curious experiments were also made upon the boy's powers of vision. He was made to mistake a halfpenny for a sovereign, and vice versa, and the latter coin being placed upon the ground, it was curious to see the impotent groping of his fingers as he vainly attempted to pick it up." THE BOOK WORLD. In this month of angling you will have been very apt to lay your hand upon HERBERT'S Fish and Fishing. If so, you will have found-what all the world has found it-a beautiful book; with nicely executed drawings of fishes, and some dozen or more of picturesque tail-pieces from the facile pencil of the author. HERBERT seems, by general consent, to have passed into the degree of Nestor, in the matter of American sports. This is not a new book I speak of, but a new edition of a two-year-old book; and, being such, has adjuncts of preface, pictures, and appendix, which make it even with the times. which I beg you to get ;-first, because it is Its author is a man of quite uncommon talso good, and second, because it is so cheap ent, and, ten years hence, his name will be well enough known to make any such information as I give you here, impertinent. He is a Westerner, and his name, M'CONHis book is the Glenns, and the publisher, CHAS. SCRIBNER. NEL. Have your eyes yet fallen upon the beautiful typography, and English-looking White Man's Journal? What it is to be is paper of a new journal, strangely called the hard to make out. It speaks in strong terms of the influence and importance of Mr. BENNET, and his Herald; and commends in flowing periods Mr. FOSTER'S books, and Mr. LESTER'S Illustrious Americans. It proposes to make a new era in American Journalism, and has a column or two upon Mr. LONG's Tom Racquet and Company. It is prob ably not intended for an abolition paper, or for a religious one. There is a beautiful little volume of Irish verse which it will do your heart good to read and to buy. It has been published by Mr. STRONG of Nassau-street, and is written by WM. MULCHINOCK. It is not of the ordinary riff-raff sort of verse, which sickens in the publishing and dies in the reading; but it has a vitality shining in the lines which tell of a warm heart with deep and broad pulsations, and of a ready brain, tempted by discretion. The words run out honeyedly, and carry a There are rare fish-stories set down in burden of feeling which makes you feel kindthe volume which will whet your appetite ly toward the man who wrote them, and give for the rod; and there are recipes for chow-to him a hearty thanking for a blessing. der, and what not, which you will study on your next yacht service upon the coast. HERBERT writes as if he loved fish-very well in the brook-better on the rod-but better still in the pan. I don't know but, like a good sportsman, he may resent this as a reproach. In that case, he should not have cooked his fish so well. It is an augury of new and deeper attention to the amusements of the field with the American world, when the publishersMessrs. STRINGER & TOWNSEND-are justified (as we learn they abundantly are) in giving such choice appearance to a sportsman's book. -There is another volume just in the I must not leave my talk of books without noting in addition, the appearance of a new tragedy by a Southern Lady, Miss LOUISA MCCORD. It is unfair to speak of a lady's book in the slight, gossiping way in which I reel you off my letters; but when my wit is dry, I shall do myself the pleasure of following CAIUS GRACCHUS to his exit. The first blush of summer is quickening us here in the city to a search for what-in the way of reading-will relieve the hotness of the coming weeks; and whatever shall be hit upon that "cools us to a charm" shall be named to you by me, with a summer blessing on the head of the author. I remain, yours, &c., THE ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION BUILDING. WE this week present our readers with | his friends know, and as all the admirers of the Portrait of Joseph Paxton, a man whose name will hereafter stand enrolled among those whose works have done honor to their time and country. Mr. Paxton, who, as all VOL. II-13 his character and genius will be glad to learn, is in the very prime and vigor of his age, and bids fair to enrich not only science but literature, with many contributions of the Victoria regia, was, however, the immediate parent of the Great Exhibition Building. A design for the latter structure had already been prepared, but had failed to impress the public with its fitness for the purpose; and Mr. Paxton, apprehensive that an irreparable blunder would be committed in the intended Building, proposed to the Executive Committee another design. Certain difficulties lay in the way, but Mr. Paxton was not to be deterred; his mind was worthy of his now great name, has acquired a reputation as wide as the civilized world, by the conception of the great idea of the "Crystal Palace," a building to which history offers no parallel, either in the past or the present. Whether we consider the noble and humanizing purposes to which that building is consecrated, the appropriateness, the elegance, the vastness, and the beauty of the design, or its simple, but most admirable novelty, we must acknowledge Mr. Paxton's high claims to the grateful appre-made up; "and" said the Duke of Devonciation of his contemporaries, and to that enduring place in the national annals which is the best reward of all true greatness in any and every department of public usefulness. Mr. Paxton, like most other men of note, is "self-made." He owes his high position to his own intellect and industry; and can say of his own right hand, and of his own courage and perseverance, and of the assiduous cultivation of his mind and heart, that they alone raised him from the humblest rank of the honest working-men of his country, to the enviable position in which he now stands. Mr. Paxton, whose original profession, as is well known, was, as it still is, that of a landscape gardener, was first employed in a responsible capacity by his Grace the Duke of Somerset, at Wimbledon. From that situation he passed, about twelve or thirteen years ago, as we are informed, into the service of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth; but that nobleman was not slow to perceive that Mr. Paxton possessed administrative faculties, and a knowledge of and skill in financial arrangement of a high order, in which capacities, we believe, he has been of essential service in the management of the Duke's estates, both in England and Ireland. There are indeed few instances of scientific application which present so many points of interest as the circumstances by which this gentleman has earned his present fame as the architect of the Great Exhibition Building. With the name of Mr. Paxton have long been associated the glories of Chatsworth, and the sole contrivance of the vast conservatory, which the King of Saxony graphically compared to "a tropical scene with a glass sky." The house built from Mr. Paxton's design, for the flowering shire at a public meeting held at Bakewell; "I never knew Mr. Paxton resolve to undertake what he did not fully accomplish.". On the morning of the 18th of June, whilst presiding at a railway committee, he sketched upon a sheet of blotting paper his idea for the great Industrial Building. He sat up all that night, until he had worked out the design to his satisfaction; and the elevations, sections, working details, and specifications were completed in ten days. Next morning, Mr. Paxton started from Derby by railway for the metropolis; and in the same train and carriage was Mr. Robert Stephenson, the engineer-a member, moreover, of the Royal Commission, and who, at Mr. Paxton's request, examined the plans. 66 "Wonderful!" exclaimed the engineerworthy of the magnificence of Chatsworth! -a thousand times better than any thing that has been brought before us! What a pity they were not prepared earlier!" Will you lay them down before the Royal Commission?" "I will," was the reply. Next day the Royal Commission met; but Mr. Stephenson had not an opportunity of submitting Mr. Paxton's plans to his colleagues and Prince Albert; the office was, however, delegated to an able hand, Mr. Scott Russell, one of the secretaries of the Commission. Mr. Paxton next waited upon Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace, to explain the details. The scheme was referred to the Building Committee, who could not entertain it, as they had devised a plan. However, Mr. Paxton appealed to the public judgment in the Illustrations and pages of this Journal, and the practicability, simplicity, and beauty of the scheme instantly became popular. Thus encouraged, Mr. Paxton next procured a tender to be sent in to the Building Committee for his design. This was prepared by Messrs. Fox and Hen to Thee, Thine can see; I seek Thee, and it cannot be that seeking will be vain, Because Thy servant does not stand within a cloister'd fane. derson; and at length Mr. Paxton's plan | Far from the busy world, alone, I bring my heart was tendered by them as an "improve- And bend in fervent homage where no eye but ment" on the Committee's design, and their offer proved to be the lowest. It will be recollected what followed: the Crystal Palace was eventually chosen unanimously, not only by the Building Committee but by the Royal Commission; and the many thousands who assembled within the fairy-like structure at its inauguration, on Thursday last, must have been impressed with the soundness of this decision. Such is a brief résumé of the circumstances which led to this fortunate adoption of Mr. Paxton's design: a more fitting temple for the world's industrial treasures could not be devised; and it was but a just recognition of its author's great share in contributing to the success of the Exhibition, that he led the inauguration pageant on Thursday. Mr. Paxton is a distinguished Fellow of the Linnæan and Horticultural Societies, Who will, may give the sacrifice, reeking in gory flood, And supplicate a God with hands all hot and dark with blood; I could not sue for mercy at a victim-laden shrineThe altar and the incense of the mountain-top be mine. I thank Thee, God! enough of joy has marked my span of days, words of praise: I have accepted at Thy hand much more of good and has produced a Botanical Dictionary of To thrill my heart with gratitude and wake the accredited worth, besides editing the "Flower Garden" and other botanical and horticultural works. The gardens at Chatsworth form an excellent finishing school for young men; and many foreigners having received here instructions in horticulture, has invested Mr. Paxton's taste and skill with European celebrity. The accompanying Portrait, an excellent likeness, is from a photograph by Kilburn. [Illustrated London News. A THANKSGIVING. BY ELIZA COOK. ALMIGHTY Spirit! Father, Lord! Thou worshipped! thou unknown! Whose mystic glory spreadeth round a universal throne; Whose breath is in the summer wind, and in the ocean's roar, I see the climbing sun disperse the misty clouds I watch the peeping star that gleams from out the And offer thanks to Him who gave his creatures hours of rest. I see the crystal dew-drop stand upon the bending stem, And find as much of glory there as in the diamond gem; I look upon the yellow fields, I pluck the wild hedge-flower, And pause to bless Thy lavish hand, and wonder at its power Thou, God! beneficent, supreme, all-bounteous! could I bring My trembling soul before Thee, as before a tyrant king? Never! my secret orisons are raptured as sincere ; Whose presence lights the saintly shrine and fills I love, I serve, I worship Thee, but never yet could the desert shore. Thou who dost guide the lightning shaft, and mark the rainbow's span ; fear. I see too much of happiness for human hearts to find, Creator of the reptile worm, and fashioner of To hold the Maker that bestows as aught else but man; Hear Thou my song of praise and love! Hear Thou my song, oh, God! My temple dome is Thy broad sky, my kneelingplace Thy sod. the kind: Let man be but as kind to man, and soon our woe and strife Would fade away like mists, and leave us well content with life. |