Outward forms O no; while humbly waiting in the passive state, To serve us for the morrow. We have need To be upon the watch; to guard on every hand good, Of every nation and in every age H. J. tleman, a member of the Royal Institution, took me to hear some of Sir H. Davy's last lectures in Albemarle street. I took notes, and afterwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume. My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes and a hope that, if an opportunity came in his way, he would favor my views; at the same time I sent the notes I had taken at his lectures. The answer, which makes all the point of my communication, I send you in the original, requesting you to take great care of it, and to let me have it back, for you may imagine how much I value it. You will observe that this took place at the end of the year 1812, and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of the situation of assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, then just vacant. At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I had before me, telling me that Science was a harsh mistress; and, in a pecuniary point of view, but poorly rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service. smiled at my notion of the superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave me to the experience of a few years to set me right on the matter. Finally, through his the good efforts, I went to the Royal Institution early in March of 1813, as assistant in the laboratory; and in October of the same year went with him abroad as his assistant in experiments and in writing. I returned with him in April, 1815, resumed my station in the Royal Institution, and have, as you know, ever since remained there. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, MICHAEL FARADAY, THE ENGLISH CHEMIST. The death of Michael Faraday, the eminent English chemist and natural philosopher, is announced. He was born in London, in 1794, and consequently was seventy-three years of age. The son of a smith, he received but little instruction in his youth, and was apprenticed to a bookseller. His tastes were averse to the trade, but led him to the study of books, the construction of machines, and the performance of chemical experiments. Hearing a course of lectures by Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1812, he sent to him a copy of the notes he had taken, and requested his assistance to enable him "to escape from trade, and to enter into the service of science." Faraday thus relates the circumstances in a letter to Dr. Paris, which was afterwards published in his "Life of Davy:" He M. FARADAY. SIR: I am far from displeased with the proof you have given me of your confidence, and which displays great zeal, power of memory, and attention. I am obliged to go out of town, and shall not be settled in town till the end of January; I will then see you at any time you wish. It would gratify me to be of any service to you. I wish it may be in my power. I am, sir, your obedient, humble servant, H. DAVY. Returning to the Royal Institution, with MY DEAR SIR: You asked me to give you which he has ever since been connected, Faraan account of my first introduction to Sir H. day became Professor of Chemistry in 1833. Davy, which I am very happy to do, as I think His earlier researches were eminently of a practhe circumstance will bear testimony to his tical character. He investigated the manufacgoodness of heart. When I was a bookseller's ture of steel, and the character of its alloys with apprentice I was very fond of experiment, and silver and platinum. In 1827 he published the very averse to trade. It happened that a gen-first edition of the work on "Chemical Manipu lation," of which the second edition appeared in 1886. It contained full descriptions of the apparatus, and was the only practical guide for the various operations of the laboratory. Experimenting upon gasses, as carbonic acid and others, which were regarded as permanent in form, he succeeded by liquifying and even solidifying them. In 1830 he published a valuable paper "On the Manufacture of Glass for Optical Purposes," and introduced a new variety, which he formed of silica, boracic acid, and oxide of lead. on animal bodies; and explained the wonderful differences in their manifestations resulting from its development in intensity or in quantity. Dr. Faraday's researches and discoveries raised him to the highest rank among European philosophers, while his high faculty of expounding to a general audience the results of recondite investigations, made him one of the most attractive lecturers of the age. Until quite recently he made it a practice to give lctures one evening in the week not exclusively for the benefit of the classes of the institution, and the interest he excited in these caused them to be regarded among the attractions of London in the winter season. He was early interested in electrical researches, assisting Davy in 1820 in prosecuting those first entered upon by Oersted on the relations of electricity and magnetisms; and in Few scientific men have received so many 1821 he performed for the first time the re-distinctions from learned societies and institumarkable experiment, developing the close con- tions. His great achievements were recognized nection of those two forces, of causing a magnet by the learned societies of every country in Eufloating on mercury to revolve continuously rope, and the University of Oxford, in 1832, round a conducting wire, and again a conductor did itself the honor of enrolling him among her to rotate round a fixed magnet. The magnet, doctors of law. The many distinctions, howstill more wonderfully, was made to revolve with ever, failed to tempt him from the post into great rapidity when an electrical current was which he was installed by his early patron, or passed over half its length. In 1831, the first to deprive him of the natural modesty and artof the series of papers, afterward collected and lessness of character that secured to him an espublished in separate form, under the title, teem more desirable than that called forth by "Experimental Researches in Electricity," ap- the highest talents. The Queen of England peared in the Philosophical Transactions. allotted to Dr. Faraday, in 1858, a residence at They were contained in this and other scientfic Hampton Court, and since 1835 he has received journals, and were finally collected in three a pension of £300 a year.-N. Y. World. volumes, 8vo. (London, 1839, 1844, and 1855.) They contain the results of a series of original The "Woman's Medical College of Pennsyl and systematically conducted investigations, ex-vania," already well known as the Female Meditended through many years in one of the most cal College of Pennsylvania, will open on the obscure fields of physical research, and they 16th of next month, and continue five months. abound in brilliant discoveries, the credit of which no one contests with Faraday. The From its Eighteenth Annual Announcement we most important of these researches relate to take the following extracts: electro-chemical decomposition; the induction of electric currents from other currents and from magnets, leading him to the discovery of magneto-electricity; the influence of the magnet on all bodies, leading to the division of magnetics and diamagnetics, and the optical changes induced by magnetism. We had hoped to note, ere this, some friendly attitude toward our movement on the part of the medical organizations of our City and State. A spirit of proscription, however, still exists, although many of our most efficient supporters are found in the ranks of the profession. This opposition is, professedly, prompted by regard His experiment showing that the amount of for the dignity and usefulness of the profession, any compound substance decomposed by an and the consequent welfare of the community, electrical current is proportional to the quantity by respect for the sacredness of family and maof electricity employed, and that the elements ternal relations, and by a concern lest the separated in the same time are in proportion of modesty and delicacy of woman should be intheir atomic weights, makes it highly probable juriously affected. that electricity is the same force as chemical Far be it from us to treat with the slightest affinity, and that it is generated by chemical disrespect any sincere conviction, however much action only. The fact which he discovered, opposed to our own deepest sense of what is that just enough electricity is generated by the right and fitting. The intelligence, devotion oxidation in the battery of one atom of zinc to and high moral tone of those who practice the decompose one atom of water, is additional healing art, contribute in no unimportant degree proof of the same conclusion. He proved, to the promotion of the public weal; but we moreover, the identity of the nature of elec- repel the insinuation, that the admission to the tricity, whether derived from the battery, the ranks of medicine of intelligent and pure-mindfrictional machine, thermal or magnetic actioned women-and the admission of such only is contemplated by our movement-should tend to degrade the dignity of the profession, or lessen its hold upon the public esteem. True culture in any department of learning is refining and ennobling in its influence alike upon man and woman, and we regard it as a libel upon the science of medicine to maintain that it forms an exception to the general rule. The friends of woman's education do not propose for her a usurpation of the field of medicine. They know full well that the designs of nature in setting men and women in families, impose obligations upon the latter, which they have neither the liberty nor the inclination to disregard. They know, however, that in every community, numbers of women remain unmarried, in plain fulfilment of providential indications; that early widowhood throws many a noble woman upon her own slender resources for her daily bread and that of the children whom God has given her; and that, in not a few instances, the strong arm, which should have been the support of the wife, has proved but a broken reed. It is estimated that, in our enlightened and refined community, fully one-half of all the women are obliged to earn their own livelihood. They are found in many avenues of labor-in stores, workshops, countinghouses, and as active proprietors of business which taxes their mental and physical energies in the same measure as those of men are taxed. The teacher's desk, in our public and private schools, is largely occupied by them. The sewing machine plies its busy needle almost entirely at their bidding, yet still leaves thousands unrelieved from the necessity of stitching from early dawn to the small hours of the night. Many other laborious avocations find their chief support and their only gains in the necessities of poor women, who must, day after day, leave their humble homes and their heart treasures, dear to them as the children of princes, that the pittance earned may satisfy their most pressing wants. When these facts are remembered, we may be pardoned our non-appreciation of that pseudogenerosity that would shield women from the strain of body and mind, the fatigues and mental anxieties incident to the study and practice of medicine. would choose rather to plod on in the round of the day-laborer, with remuneration barely sufficient to supply his most imperative necessities? Exception has been taken, in the discussions of learned bodies, to the attainments of women in general literature and science, as preparatory to their medical course. That this exception has been, in some instances, well founded, we do not deny. Avenues of learning have not been open to women as to men; but with literary colleges, as Oberlin and Antioch, now sending out every year a class of women as thoroughly instructed in every department of a liberal education as any of their male graduates, with Michigan on the eve of granting equal faculties to men and women in every department of her noble University, with Vassar founding its course of study upon the most substantial elements of collegiate learning, and with many other schools and colleges advancing in the same direction, we believe the occasion for unfavorable comparison will not long exist. We do not claim for our college facilities, in the way of apparatus and p reprations, equal to those possessed by long established and larger medical schools. Our museum is, however, well supplied with models and other means for illustration; and it has been the object with each Professor to make the course of lectures in the different departments as comprehensive and thorough as the time embraced in the lecture season would allow. The curriculum of study, and the requirements for graduation, we believe to be in all respects as high as those of the best medical schools in this country. We regard with satisfaction the proposed inauguration of a movement for securing more thorough and extended attainments to the graduates of medical schools; and our college, we believe, will not fall behind its honored coworkers, in its endeavors to provide facilities whereby its students may be enabled to go forth furnished unto every good work. MOUNTAIN GRASSES. The wild grasses are taken, as it were, under the special providence of God. In their perennial verdure in regions above the zone of man's cultivation, we have a perpetual proof of God's Women are charged, on the other hand, with care of the lower animals that neither sow nor being prompted to the pursuit of medicine by reap. The mountain grasses grow spontaneousno higher motive than the feeling that it is re-ly; they require no culture but such as the rain spectable, less confining; and more remunerative than any of the ordinary avocations open to them. We claim for medical women no immunity from the infirmities of our common nature, but admit their liability to influences such as may be supposed to govern the purest and best of men; but what man, we would ask, with the talent for a noble profession, and with opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of its principles, and of becoming expert in its practice, and sunshine of heaven supply. They obtain their nourishment directly from the inorganic soil, and are independent of organic materials. Nowhere is the grass so green and vigorous as on the beautiful slopes of lawn-like pasture high upon the Alps, radiant with the glory of wild flowers, and ever musical with the hum of grasshoppers and the tinkling of cattle-bells. Innumerable cows and goats browse upon them; the peasants spend the summer months in ma king cheese and hay from them for winter con- ' sumption in the valleys. This exhausting system of husbandry has been carried on during untold centuries; no one thinks of manuring Alpine pastures; and yet no deficiency has been observed in their fertility; though the soil is but a thin covering spread over the naked rocks. It may be regarded as a part of the same wise and gracious arrangement of Providence, that the insects which devour the grasses on the kuh and schaf alpen, the pasturages of the cows and sheep, are kept in check by a predominance of carniverous insects. In all the mountain meadows, it has been ascertained that the species of carniverous are at least four times as numerous as the species of herb eating insects. Thus, in the absence of birds, which are rare in Switz erland, the pastures are preserved from a terrible Scourge. To one not aware of this check, it may seem surprising how the verdure of the Alpine pastures should be so rich and luxuriant considering the immense development of insect life. The grass, whenever the sun shines, is literally swarming with them,-butterflies of gayest hues, and beetles of brightest iridescence, and the air is filled with their loud murmurs. I remember well the vivid feeling of God's gracious providence, which possessed me when passing over the beautiful Wengern Alp at the foot of the Jungfrau, and seeing, wherever I rested on the green turf, alive with its tiny inhabitants, the balance of nature so wonderfully preserved between the herb which is for man's food, and the moth before which he is crushed. Were the herbivorous insects allowed to multiply to their fullest extent, in such favorable circumstances as the warmth of the air and the verdure of the earth in Switzerland produce, the rich pastures which now yield abundant food for upwards of a million and a half of cattle, would speedily become bare and leafless deserts. Not only in their power of growing without cultivation, but also in the peculiarities of their structure, the mountain grasses proclaim the hand of God. Instead of producing flowers and seed, as the grasses in the tranquil valleys do, the young plants spring from them perfectly formed; they cling round the stem and form a kind of blossom. In this state they remain until the parent stalk withers and falls prostrate on the ground, when they immediately strike root, and form independent grasses. This is a remarkable adaptation to circumstances, for it is evident, were seeds instead of living plants developed in the ears of the mountain grasses, they would be useless in the stormy regions where they grow. They would be blown away far from the places they were intended to clothe, to spots foreign to their nature and habits, and thus the species would speedily perish.-Bible Teachings in Nature, by H. Macmillan. ITEMS. The Indian Peace Commission reached Fort Sully the river they would be unable to reach Fort Rice, on the 28th, and finding that at the present state of they determined to go to the mouth of the Big Cheyenne, which is only forty miles above Fort Sully, and examined the country there, and returning held ascertain what lands they claimed as reservations, a council on the 31st with the Indians, in order to and what complaints they had to make, and to learn, if possible, any facts that would throw light on the causes of the late Indian troubles. The council has been held; the Indians, more especially the Sioux, have declared what lands they claim, and some facts elicited of importance. Smithsonian Institution for the year 1866 has just The annual report of the board of regents of the been published from the Government printing office. It appears from the statement of Professor Henry, the Secretary, that by judicious investments, and the sale of coin received from England as the residuary terest from the United States, not only have the operalegacy of Smithson, as well as that of the annual intions of the institution been maintained, and the reconstruction of the building carried on, without any aid from the Government, but the finances have been improved, and are now in a better condition than at permit additions to be made to the principal on the any former period. If the petition to Congress to same terms as those on which the original bequest was received into the treasury of the United States be granted, namely, allowing the regents to increase the capital by savings, donations, and otherwise, to ent market value of the stocks in which it is invested, a million of dollars, then the extra fund, at the preswill be sufficient to increase the endowment from $515,169 to $650,000, and still leave enough to complete the general restoration of the building, provided the cost of the restoration be limited to $150,000. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT PARIS.-TWO the various anti-slavery societies was held at Paris. or three weeks ago an international conference of The session lasted three days, and there was much interchange of opinion. At the close of the session the following resolutions were introduced and passed: The international conference of the French, Spanmakes a new and earnest appeal to the justice of ish, English, and American anti-slavery societies sovereigns and the opinion of people in favor of the radical and immediate abolition of the slave trade and slavery, already declared by Great Britain, France, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, the United States of America, Mexico, the Republics of Central and Southern America, and the Regency of Tunis, but still practiced by Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Turkey and Egypt, without speaking of uncivilized countries. After reiterating various decisive results of the experience of different nations with regard to slamittees of the British, French, Spanish, and Amerivery, the conference further resolved, that the comcan Anti-Slavery Societies shall promptly, and in the name, and in the most earnest and respectful manner, address the sovereigns of Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Egypt, soliciting the immeditrade. This conference also charges the committees ate and absolute abolition of slavery and the slavespecially to address to the Sovereign Pontiff a respectful letter, in order that, following the example of Pius II., of Paul III., of Urban VIII., of Benedict XIV, and of Gregory XVI., he may be induced to raise his voice in favor of the unhappy slaves, which certain Catholic nations purchase, possess, sell, and delay to emancipate, imitating Pagan and Mussulman nations in the 19th century of the Christian era. FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. "" TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE." A short Account of ANNE RICHARDSON, who departed this Life on the 18th of Twelfth month, 1711, Ayed about Thirty-three Years. By her Husband. CONTENTS. A Short Account of Anne Richardson.................. Burdens...... Extracts from "The Power of Christianity". EDITORIAL OBITUARY. First Day School Conference.. Cruelty to Animals in Transit- 465 ..... 467 469 469 471 472 472 473 473 475 476 ... 477 477 479 430 Christ, and subjected her will to the will of God, which is a great work, yet requisite to the new birth, without which there is no regeneration; and without regeneration and being born again, there is no entering into the king After this great change was wrought in her, She was descended of an honest and considerable family of the Robinsons, at Hutton in-dom of heaven. the-Hole, in Yorkshire, and was convinced in her young years, and received the Truth in the it was evident through the remaining part of love of it, and it became valuable and precious her time that she was much preserved under to her above all things in this world; and the power, influence, and guidance of the through the blessed work and operation of the peaceable, meek, and quiet spirit of Jesus Grace and Holy Spirit of Truth, she was weaned Christ, and grew daily more and more in the from the world's pleasures, vanities and recrea- favor and love of God, and was much beloved tions, from taking any delight in them; and of God's people, and indeed of her relations, through the virtuous and most precious blood neighbors and acquaintance, who were not of of Christ, she came to witness her heart her persuasion; and she walked so wisely and sprinkled from an evil conscience, and in a prudently in all her ways, that she sought not good degree made able to serve the living God, her own honor and interest, but the honor of and bore a faithful testimony against the need- the Lord and inward peace with Him, which less and superfluous dresses and fashions of the she had a regard unto in all her undertakings; world, as also against the corrupt language so that even such who sought for an occasion. thereof; and came to be a great lover of virtue against Truth and the professors of it had nothand purity, and had great satisfaction in being ing to say against her, not even from her childin good Friends' company, and at Friends' hood to the day of her death, for she was meetings, and in much retirement and waiting generally beloved and spoken well of by all upon the Lord, who in great mercy and conde- who knew her, and many were deeply and sorscension to the desire of His handmaid, gave rowfully affected to part with her, both Friends her a large share, not only of the enjoyment of and others; the like hath not often been scen His living power and internal presence, but in those parts, and not without some cause, for also a knowledge and clear sight into those she was a woman of upright life, and exemplary things that appertained to life and salvation. conversation before all, and gave no offence to And after Truth thus prevailed over her, it Jew or Gentile, nor to the Church of Christ; brought every thought into the obedience of charitable to the poor, a true sympathizer with. |