a river is flowing. It was ascribed to Octavius and is said to have furnished seats for 23,184 persons.

At page 249 is a description of the dialect formerly spoken in the island of Sardinia.

At page 408 is given a description of two terrible earthquakes which occurred at Basle in 1346 and 1356, accompanied by a wood-cut representing the overthrow of the city; the church steeples, palaces and houses being raised in the air and cast upon the ground.

At page 431 mention is made of curiosities found in the mines of Alsatia, as follows:

"There Is in this region a lake extremely long and broad and deep, which contains many kinds of living animals and reptiles reproduced by nature in pure copper on the neighboring rocks so that they can be most easily recognized and known. That most learned man John Hobensack sent me a specimen of one of these stones which figure I have reproduced here."

According to the picture it is a very ugly looking fish, with a large head and fins close behind the junction of the head and body, and a single fin lower down; the body seems coated with plates like a crocodile, with a dividing line running up the back.

At page 488 occurs a description of the town of Mayence, in which is found a description of the invention of the art of printing, which is attributed to John Guttenberg.

At page 489 is a long description of the invention of cannon and gunpowder, which latter is ascribed to Bernhard Schwarz. A picture of the very rude artillery in use in those days accompanies the letter-press.

At page 493 occurs an account of the tradition of Bishop Hatto and the Mouse-tower, where it is stated that a similar tale is told of a king and queen of Poland (names not given) who, with their children, were devoured by mice. A woodcut shows the towe"r on an island in the Rhine, with the mice swarming up the walls, climbing into the windows, and gnawing at the foundations.*

A monster born in the, Palatinate is thus described on page 625:

"In the year 1495, in the month of September, a woman at Bierstadt gave birth to a monster in the form of two girls, whose bodies were joined together nt the forehead, so that they always looked into each other's eyes, but in all other respects were entirely distinct and separate. I (Munster) saw them myself at Mayence, in the year 1501, when they were about six years old. They were forced to have a common will, to walk together, to sleep and rise together; and when one went forward the other went backward. Their noses almost touched each other, and their eyes, instead of being straight to the front, were crooked to one side. They lived to be almost ten years old, at which time one of them dying, It was necessary from the decay of the corpse to cut them apart; but the wound mortified, and the survivor quickly followed her sister to the grave. The explanation given for this prodigy was that as a pregnant woman was conversing with another, a third suddenly coming up from behind knocked their heads together, and the impression of the fright was communicated from the mother to the fretus."

* Vide also Camerarlus, Vol. II, p. 45.

There is a wood cut representing these girls as joined at the forehead, and looking into each other's eyes.

A representation of the manner of coining money in rogue at that time, is found at page 693, and at page 703, men and women are represented bathing together, entirely nude, in one of the mineral bath resorts. The Vehm Gericht is described on page 743, the animals of Prussia at 7S4, and the martyrdom of John and Hieronymus Huss at page 801.

At page S20 is an engraving which recurs very frequently throughout the book. The subject is. "A great contention between two kings." Two men in regal paraphernalia are represented as hauling and mauling and pulling and tugging at each other, in a tremendous state of excitement, clutching at each other's beards and hair and garments. This probably conveyed to the readers, better than the mere force of words, the close and violent nature of a combat between sovereigns.

On page S33 is a description of Xorway, and of the monsters that abound therein. Among these the whale stands pre-eminent with a head shaped somewhat like that of a dog. with huge projecting tusks like those of a boar, and is shown in the act of swallowing a man. who is all out of sight except his head and anus. His comrade, more fortunate, appears on the mainland, naked and in full flight A vessel is being sucked down into a whirlpool, of which the text states that there are many on the Norwegian coast. The ocean is seen swarming with fishes, and a man is portrayed following the sport of angling with a bait that resembles a bundle of hay.

The Lord's Prayer in the language of the Lapps and Finns is given at page $47, and on the same page a description of Iceland occurs, with a representation of Mount Ilevla in full eruption.

A short description is given of Gre<nUtiul, at page 830, as follows:

"GiUnland means Green Land ri-ftut terra; so called on acconntof theluxuriant herbage found there. Of which, as well as of cat tie. there Is exceeding abundance, as mar be seen from the reports brought back by those who have voy»S<d thither that they make great amounts of butter and cheese, from which we may conjecture that that country Is not rough with mountains. It contains two Bishoprics, whose Bishops are ordained by the Archbishop of Nidross. The people* through the negligence of their spiritual pastors, have almost relapsed into heathenism, being ofrk-klcdlsposiUon.and greatly given to magic arts. By meansof incantations and spells, they are reputed to be able to raise, at will tempestuous storms, and to cause the shipwreck of foreign vessels whose remains they desire to plunder. Their own vessels being of skins, and very light, are quit* sale from collisions against their rocks."

An odd two-page illustration occurs at page 833 of the monsters which are to be found in the Northern Regions. So laughably absurd, so ridiculous and so diverse in their representations that no pen could ever attempt to describe them with the slightest approach to justice. On examining them one feels tempted to exclaim with Bottom, when he awoke from his asinine hallucination, "The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report" what these remarkable figures were intended to convew

Monsters of every conceivable age, shape, size, appearance and color; fish with the heads of owls; whales with crocodile's scaly backs and the heads and tusks of wild boars; pig-headed animals with fish's tails and elephants' bodies; fish with cats' faces and ruffles around their bodies; fish that look like turnips and carrots; fish swallowing young pigs; fish with leopards' heads and claws; fish with wolves' heads; fish with oxen's heads; griffln-headcd fish ; fish with heads of birds and bodies like dock leaves; fish attacking men; gigantic lobsters and crawfish; wonderful fish that look like crows; a sea serpent swallowing a vessel; and many other objects which the credulity and superstition of our ancestors accepted in good faith. A whale is represented as attacking a vessel whose mariners are vainly endeavoring in accordance with the established cnstoin to divert its attention from their ship by throwing overboard a number of small barrels or tubs; a usage from whence arose the saying of carting a tub to the whale, meaning to divert one by means of a lesser matter from a greater one. In one corner of the plate occurs the barnacle tree, already described, with its fruit.

At page 005 is the portrait of a monster who was born at Cracow in February, 1547, and lived three hours. It is a boy whose feet and hands terminate in four duck-like webs instead of fingers and toes. There grows out of each knee and out of each elbow a dog's head, being four in all, while from each of his breasts protrudes the head of a rain. At the bottom of the breast bone in his belly is an extra pair of eyes; a forked tail waves up to his head. He has a long and flexible elephant's proboscis in place of an ordinary nose; large and round, saucer-shaped eyes, and an extra pair of ears growing out of the corners of his eyes, which, as well as the ears in their usual position, are formed like those of a rabbit.

At page 1025 occurs the history of the Tower of Babel, apropos of which Munster gives the word bread in fourteen lang'uages, and speaks of Noah as being identical with Janus.

The Phoenix is described on page 1034, and at page 1045 the llyrcanian Tiger; the latter as follows:

"It is a large animal of various colors, which is quite tamo when its hunger is appeased. It sleeps three days at a time and upon awakening it washes itself and raises a cry and emits a peculiar scent that attracts to it all sorts of wild animals, for with all such does it preserve friendly relations save with the dragon and with the asp."

The Tartars are described at page 1060 as being anthropophagi, and one of them is delineated as superintending the process of roasting a human body impaled upon a spit over a fire, in the act of turning the viand carefully so as to cook it evenly on all sides.

At page 1000 is a description of India and its customs, one of which is represented by a woodcut of an elephant attached to a plough and serving as a tiller of the soil.

Dragons arc seen on page 1009 with all their usual fabulous horrors of scales and wings and jaws; duels between these animals are pictured as of

PKOC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XVIII. 105. 8F. P1UKTED MARCH 2, 1880.

frequent occurrence. Nor is the griffin forgotten among the prodigies which nature is supposed to have lavished upon the lands of the Orient.

At page 1073 a hippopotamus is figured as a horned horse with huge fangs, whose body is half concealed in the river. Snakes are also represented with several heads, each of which bears a regal crown. Still further on (at page 1080) we find the Cynocephali. *• the men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," the people who have but one ere and that in the centre of their forehead, a race of double-headed dwarfs and a nation whose feet are more than twice the size of the rest of their bodies. These last are represented as taking their ease on their backs under the shadow of their own feet, which they are holding propped in the air supported by their hands. The pygmies and their incessant warfare with their hereditary enemies the cranes, are not forgotten.

At page 1410 occurs a woodcut illustrative of the customs of Cathay which wiodVs'i'i* gratia is transcribed in the German of the edition of 1363:

"Waii elner seln tochter nlo kan ausstearn, nlmpt or (rumen und pfevn>n. und leucht mil seine tochtern u IT den mare kt. und so Jederiuan herxu lanffl als ill eiuem nnentllchen spectakel otter schawspll, hebt die tochter ire kieider dalitiulenaulTulssan dlosctiulU'rn, und lassesioli dahinden besehen, darnach heta ste sloh daroruen audi auff blss Ober die brust, und lasst ihre leib daforne aoeb sehen, und soetwann elnerdo 1st deni sle gefalt.der nlmpt sle xu dereh, und tbut Woln bltnden kauff."

The foregoing extracts will give a general idea of the work and its contents. To transcribe at greater length would be profitless, as the remaining matter for the most part presents no novelty either of subject or treatment There are narrations of the voyages of Columbus and Yespucius. but differing in no wise from the generally received accounts.

There is a very remarkable map of the New World, which, however, I pass over for the present, intending in the hereafter to make it a study by itself.

It is needless to dilate upon the pleasure to be derived from the perusal of old books. Cardan says with much truth:

"That as In traveling the rest go forward and look before them, an antiquarian looks around about htm, seeing all things, both the past, present and future, and so he alone hath a complete horlxon." "Such studies allure the miud by their agreeable attraction on account of the incredible variety and pleasantness or their subjects and excite to further steps toward knowledge. What greater pleasure can there be tban to peruse those books of cities put out by Braunns and Hogenberglus? To read those exquisite descriptions of Magnlus, .VkaMtar. Herrera, Laet, Morula, Boterus, Lcander, Ac* These famous expeditions of Chrlstoph. Columbus, Amerlcus Vespuclus? These liodo>porleons to remote and fabulous places of the world? To see birds, beasts, and Ashes of the sea. spiders, gnats, tiles, serpents, Jtc. all creatures set out and truly represented?"*

The book itself is one of those huge folios in which our ancestors so greatly had their delight; books with broad margins, heavy linen paper, good black ink, large type, bound in ponderous oak boards covered with stamped hogskin, and weighing several pounds. f"Scholars of a former

• Burton ■
t IMsmoli.

age regarded with contempt small books and a common reproach against a man was that ho was the author of such." But the very magnitude of a work has often been the occasion of its neglect, as but very few persons have either leisure or inclination to wade through long series of ponderous tomes; a fact only apparent to book publishers within the last one hundred and fifty years. Such sized volumes tempt the reader to cry out as Macaulay did in his celebrated criticism upon Dr. Nares' life of Lord Burleigh.

The learning which gave rise to such works was as weighty, as solid, and as substantial as the volumes themselves. The period in which it flourished was before the day of easy paths to knowledge, compends, abridgments and short cuts; the royal road had not yet beeii discovered, the quagmires filled up, nor the forests leveled that obstructed the pathway. The consequence was that those who were scholars were more thoroughly and deeply learned than those of the present day. The diffusion of knowledge has seemingly resulted in sciolism ; where once the few were educated, the many now are smatterers.

Knowledge is like a powerful stream, whose currents while checked within its banks flows deeply and strongly although silently; but when the obstructions which hem it on each side are removed, when the obstacles to its free dispersion are leveled, it spreads itself over the adjacent country, so that where once a noble river ran, naught now remains except a shallow babbling brook.

Diffusion of knowledge, as it is fashionable to call it in the cant of our day, is unfortunately frequently only a diffusion of ignorance.

On a New Synthesis of Saligenin. By Win. II. Greene, M.D. (Read bef&re the American Philosophical Society, January 16, 1880.)

The method by which I have obtained saligenin synthetically is an application of a general method for the preparation of phenolic derivatives, made known by Reimer and Tiemann. Indeed, since by the reaction of chloroform or of carbon tetrachloride on an alkaline solution of sodium phenate salicylic aldehyde or salicylic acid may be obtained, it may naturally be expected that, under the same circumstances, methylene chloride would yield saligenin. the latter being an oxybenzylic alcohol.

A mixture of 30 grammes of methylene chloride, 30 grammes of phenol, and 40 grammes of sodium hydrate dissolved in 50 grammes of water, was heated in a sealed matrass in a water-bath. The reaction is complete in about six hours, after which the contents of the matrass is neutralized with hydrochloric acid, and agitated with ether, which takes up the saligenin and the excess of phenol. The ethereal solution is decanted, and the ether distilled oft'; the residue is repeatedly exhausted with boiling water, which takes up the saligenin and leaves the greater part of the phenol undissolved. The aqueous solution is concentrated to a small volume, and the drops of