logne and Calais amounted to many thousand tons; that the interests of the country, the interests of the shareholders, the union between France and England, and the consequent peace of the world, demanded a railroad between Boulogne and Calais, with a branch to Guisnes; and that the capital was one million, to be raised in fifty-pound shares,-deposit, two pounds per share.

"There," said Smith, when he had made an end of the prospectus, "there, now your fortune is made. Don't deny it, because it is,—and you know it, you knowing dog,-you have seen it all at the first glance, -you always do,-you have such a head for business."

Now I must confess that I did not at all see how my fortune was made; but I did'nt like to tell Smith, for fear of losing his good opinion, wherefore I held my tongue, and tried to look as knowing as I could.

"Ah,"

said Smith again, "you want me to come to the point,-you won't speak first, you're cautious, very cautious,-well, you are quite right. In this sinful world you ought to be cautious," and he drew his hand across his eyes.

"My dear Smith," said I, but he stopped me immediately.

'Well, well, my dear fellow, I've got two hundred and fifty of these shares. They're yours,-don't say a word,-you shall have 'em, upon my soul you shall, at the market price,-just five shillings premium."

"But I can't rob you of this chance of making your fortune,” said I, quite melted by his generosity.

"Don't mention it," replied he, "I've no family, you have; take the shares, pay the money,-give me a check for the amount,-just five hundred pounds, and the premium of five shillings a share. In a month,—a fortnight, a week, they'll be up at six pounds a share,-some people say more, but I limit 'em to six,-you'll clear a thousand pounds,-it will go to your children, and I shall have served my friend."

Well, to make short work of a long story, I bought the shares next day, at two pounds fifteen per share, and Smith shook hands with me, saying as he did so, "Now, my boy, sell when they get to six pounds,-don't be rash, don't wait for more,-be content, and you'll make money."

I can't tell you how proud I felt when I had the scrip in my pocket. I was as pleased as if the shares were already up at a high premium. I showed them to my wife, who said I was a fool, and to Jones, who said just the same thing; but then women are so ignorant, and Jones is so spiteful, I know he is. I showed 'em to young Jones, who had been in France; and he said, "that about one hundred people went from Calais to Boulogne in the course of the week; that people would not go to Guisnes on a pic-nic by railway; and that if they did, their going would'nt pay the expenses." But then young men are so given to talk nonsense, and he is worse than his father; he shall not come near my daughter again, for he'll be no match for her; after my speculations. Besides she's too young to marry, although, to be sure, my wife was only eighteen when I married her; but then I think that people now are younger at eighteen than they were when I was a boy.

(To be continued.)

THE LATE HOUR SYSTEM.

A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE ISLINGTON AND PENTONVILLE LITERARY INSTITUTE,

BY EDWIN LANKESTER, ESQ, M.D., F. L. S., &C.

(Concluded from page 104.)

Let me point you to another organ, which is frequently the cause of disease in the whole body. The skin is placed over the other organs of the body. It is very complicated in its structure. In the first place, it is by means of this skin that the heat of the body is regulated: it is through its means that the heat constantly formed from the combustion of carbon in the body is given out, and its temperature is constantly fixed at 98°. This it does by giving off the heat from the body in the form of insensible perspiration. The perspiration also carries off with it matters that, if thrown back upon the system, act injuriously upon it, producing some of the most serious diseases of the body. In shops there are several causes acting and interfering with the healthy performance of these functions of the skin. In the first place, there is frequent exposure to draughts, which, acting upon the skin in an enfeebled state of the body, frequently produces inflammatory disease, and often a permanently diseased state of the skin. Again, in some places, stoves are used, by which the temperature of rooms is unduly elevated, a dry atmosphere is produced, and the skin per orms its functions irregularly. In a dry state of air, the skin performs its functions at first in an undue manner, and gives out a larger quantity of fluid than it ought; the consequence is, that a re-action afterwards takes place, and the system becomes burdened with a greater quantity of watery fluid than is required for health. It is thus that head-aches, vertigo, &c., are produced, arising from the incapability of the skin to throw off moisture to relieve the loaded blood.

But I must now draw your attention to the last set of organs affected by the pernicious custom of late hours. I mean the nervous system, which is the most important of all. This system consists of three separate parts: 1st. the brain; 2nd. the spinal cord, and 3rd. the nerves which proceed from the brain and the spinal cord. Now the functions of this system are various and most important. The brain is the seat of consciousness. We find, as the brain is developed, so is the consciousness of existence; and, when passing upward from the lower animals we arrive at man, we find it the most perfect. It is by means of this organ that we are cognizant of the external world, the organs of sensation convey their impression from external objects to the brain. When the brain is destroyed, all exhibition of mind ceases. It is also the seat of all those higher faculties of the mind, thought, reflection, moral feeling; so that it may be said to be the organ of all that distinguishes man as man. The spinal marrow and the nerves perform comparatively unimportant functions. Our minds would have no connexion with the body, but for the brain. Were I to have the nerves of sensation in my arm destroyed, I should not know, but for the nerves of special sense, that I possessed a hand. Thus it is this system which maintains the connexion between the individual and all his parts. Now what are the necessary conditions to preserve the healthy action of this organ? In the first place, it requires an original sound condition; this, however, we may suppose to be the case in all: we are not supposed to enter upon this life in an unsound condition. In the second place, the brain and nerves require, for the proper performance of their funetions, that blood should be supplied in a pure state; if the blood be not supplied to the

brain, it becomes imperfect. Any one may be convinced of this if they would try to read for several hours in a closed room, where his own breath contaminated the atmosphere, and no provision was made for obtaining a supply of fresh air. In the course of a short time his brain would become so oppressed, that he would not be able to pursue the subject; and this arises from the fact, that a close room will at last deteriorate the blood, and the blood will not be able to supply the necessary stimulus to the brain. Persons in the habit of reading ten or twelve hours would find no oppression in an open room with plenty of pure air; but they would have to give up in half that time in a close room, arising out of an impure supply of blood.

Now, another consideration for the perfect performance of the functions of this organ is, that it shall be duly exercised. Now, you will say, how is it that the brain can be equally exercised? Allow me to refer you to a science-I mean Phrenology-to whose details I by no means pledge myself, for a statement of the fact, that the brain is a series of organs, and if so, you may use some at the expense of the others. Now I have here written down all these organs. You will see they are divided into those of the intellectual faculties, including the ordinary operations of the understanding, as perception, reflection, and the moral feelings, which are again divided into sentiments and propensities. Now each of these faculties are said to have a distinct organ in the brain of man. I will not commit myself to this statement at all; but I will to the inferences which may be deduced from it, viz., that in order to preserve the healthy exercise of the brain, there must be a change of employment of the brain corresponding to the faculties of the mind of man. Men who are constantly occupying the mind on the perception of particular objects, will not exercise those faculties which perceive relation, or reflect, and compare; and if the whole life is devoted to the exercise of the perceptive faculties of man, then less will be given to the other faculties, and that man suffers materially, and the brain suffers for want of the proper exercise of all its functions. The brain may be compared to a piano-forte, which has a certain number of keys, and unless they are all struck occasionally, the instrument will get out of tune. Now we do not find in these occupations that there is any want of a certain amount of exercise of the mind. Persons in shops are sometimes over-exercised in this respect; but there is a want of proper distribution of this exercise-the lower faculties, and not the higher faculties of the mind, are exercised. Where is the opportunity, in these occupations, for the exercise of the functions of the nobler sentiments which give so much character to the mind of man? And can you be surprised if these young men are not in every respect such as they ought to be, and such indeed as they might be but for the obstructions which are thrown across their path by the cruel and pernicious system I now seek to expose? I think the wonder is, that they should maintain any moral character at all; that they do not despair altogether, and that their heads do not become fattened down like those people who are said to possess no moral faculties whatever. The consequence of the pressure of the details of business upon them is, that they have no opportunities of cultivating their moral feelings, and they become victims of those propensities which, before they sink them as their victims, render them pests in society.

I feel, however, that I have detained you a long time upon the subject; and if I have not pointed out all the evils of this system, I have pointed out some the most injurious in their results, and I trust that what I have said will produce a serious impression upon all who have heard me. Something ought to be done. These young men are placed in circumstances in which their mental and moral faculties cannot possibly have a full and fair development. Men who are not in a state to exercise all their bodily functions in a healthy manner-who are even precluded from properly digesting that food which is to become a part of their system by the pressure of this cruel system, cannot have the various functions of the mind carried on in a proper manner, and the consequence is they

must fail in the performance of their duties in life, as men, citizens, and Christians, And who is it that suffers from such a state of things? Not merely the young men themselves, but society also: the whole community must suffer. Men so situated cannot maintain the character of philosophers, nor of virtuous men, nor of religious men. They have no opportunity of exercising their reflective faculties or their moral and devotional feelings. It is madness in society to expect that its members should grow up virtuous and high-minded men while it exposes them to the influences of such a demoralizing system. There are none who hear me to-night who are not deeply interested in this question. There is not a mother who may not have a son in some shop exposed to all the evils which I have been endeavouring to point out; and I trust every one will de their best to do away with a system so fraught with injury and wrong. It appears that if the public would only come forward to assist the victims of this system in their efforts to emancipate themselves, the thing could be done. It is not to the interest of the employer that his shop should be kept open to such injuriously late hours; I have shown you it is not the interest of the assistant. If it is not to the interest of the employers, why then is it done? Because there is a system of doing business at unseasonable hours. Ladies go into drapers' shops after six o'clock, and thus they perpetuate this evil; and as long as that thoughtless custom is continued, will the evils complained of continue. When they cease to attend these shops at such hours as they now do, the masters of them will put out their gas lights; for it will not be worth their while to burn them, and they will find it their interest to let their assistants cultivate their minds, and not only to let them do so, but to encourage them to do so. But it will not be till then; it will not be till the public have resolved to forego the late shopping they have hitherto practised that this good result can be brought about.

But in this appeal to you, I do not confine myself to the advocacy of a particular class; I plead for all-all who are thus engaged in labour. I appeal to you, not only on behalf of the shop-keeper, but on behalf of the domestic servant also; and I feel that the subject ought to come home to every bosom. Domestic servants are too frequently treated worse than slaves; I believe no slave-holder would exact such an amount of toil from his slave as is frequently imposed upon domestic servants. I know many at this moment who work sixteen hours a day, without a moment to develope their better feelings or cultivate the higher faculties. I ask you also to extend your sympathy to the factory operatives to the poor votaries of the needle-to the whole world. Let us act as Christians in this matter, not as mere men of the world, as if we felt and acknowledged the common tie of brotherhood which binds us one to another; and even if it be necessary, let us rather retrench our superfluities than make our fellow-creatures suffer so much.

REVIEW OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL ESSAYS.

PHRENOLOGY of course, like every other question that presents itself for decision, must be judged of purely from the evidence it can present for its support. It is unphilosophical to denounce any system as untrue, because it may apparently be hostile to certain facts we may previously have ascertained either in science or religion. The truth of a newly-projected branch in scientific inquiry must not be tested either by its coincidence or contrariety to other points that have long been settled: because what may be to us paradoxical and contradictory, time and more complete research may en

tirely clear and harmonize; or if not, we may rest assured that, as truth must in its very nature agree with truth, the conflicting circumstances are not really discordant, but only in appearance, on account of the imperfect faculties that have to consider them, and the disjointed manner in which they are frequently viewed. All that we have to do is to examine, in a true and candid spirit, what is the nature of the evidence on which a proposition rests, and to receive or reject it accordingly. At the same time it must be remarked, that, if the truth of such proposition does appear palpably hostile to the truth of other well-proved propositions, it should render us doubly cautious in our investigations, inasmuch as from experience we have seen, on the grandest scale, newly ascertained phenomena not only unhostile to former discoveries, but beautifully confirming and elucidating them; and this it is indeed that constitutes the philosopher's greatest glory, and sheds the brightest lustre on modern science.

We are not, however, aware that Phrenology will stand in need of this sifting scrutiny, on account of the discrepancy that obtains between it and any other description of religious or scientific truth. There does not appear to be reason for assertions made respecting it,-that it has a tendency to favour the doctrines of materialism or necessity. The arguments by which these forms of infidelity could be supported, on phrenological grounds, would with equal force apply to the supposition that the brain is one undivided organ. They who contend for either of the opinions above mentioned must be aware that they are incapable of the least support from any description of physical development, and are, if at all, to be upheld solely by the assistance of abstract reasoning, and also that their most powerful and successful supporters have been men unacquainted with, or at least not believers in, the phrenological system. Dismissing therefore from our view all these unfounded prejudices, which we cannot but think have been too often caught with eagerness by phrenologists, and held up to public notice as the grand declamations by which their sober examination of facts and their calm unprejudiced reasonings have been met-dismissing, we say, every thing calculated to blind our better judgment to the claims of Phrenology, upon what grounds are we called to assent to its truth? And it is of course our first duty to consider carefully the evidence that has already been presented in its favour by our worthy essayist, Mr. R. Smith.

On examining attentively this gentleman's first argument, we are not quite certain of the precise meaning he attaches to the word "organ," page 106, and we give him the benefit of the doubt. Our first impression was that he desired to prove from the conclusion-that to organic structure we must trace individual differences-that diversities in character and acquirements were to be sought for in "specific diversities of the brain itself," which diversities were assumed to be, in fact, the phrenological organs. Of course such reasoning as this would equally involve Phrenology in a dilemma; for it is to be supposed that all men would have like mental manifestations, if all the organs of the brain were similar, so that diversity must here also be traced to "specific differences in the organ;" hence, if our interpretation of Mr. Smith were a correct one, there would be required a series of organs within a series ad infinitum. But we conclude that his meaning is, that to difference in size and development of specific organs must be placed peculiarity of mind. This is the point, and how is it proved? By the simple assertion, "that a difference in one particular part of the brain alone is the cause of the diversity of the particular phe