Vickipedia

POUND, in English -Law, means an enclosure, or which then was generally one in every parish, or at least every manor, ii Which stray cattle were put and detained until the damage done by them was paid for. Whenever a stranger’s or neighbor’s cattle trespass on another’s lands, the latter can seize them, am take them to the pound, or impound them, as it is called, damage feasant, and can keep them there till the expenses are repaid There was a distinction between pound overt, or common. pound, and pound covert, or close pound; in the former case, the owner of the beasts could go and feed and water his cattle while impounded, and it was his duty to do so; but not in the latter case. Now, it is compulsory for the impounder, in all cases, to supply the cattle with food, otherwise he incurs a penalty; and if impounded cattle are not sufficiently fed, a stranger who feeds them may not only trespass on lands to do so, but can recover the costs from the owner of the beasts, This was formerly an important head of law, and it is not obsolete, for the power to impound stray cattle still exists, though common pounds are disappearing-, for, in point of law, they art not necessary, since the impounder can put the cattle in his own stable or field.

ANTIPHLOGISTIC (Gr. anti, against, and phlego, I burn), a term applied to remedies, and also to regimen, that are opposed to inflammation; such as blood-letting, purgatives, low diet, &c.

PACKFO’NG, or PETO’NG, a Chinese alloy or white metal, consisting of arsenic and copper. It is formed by putting two parts of arsenic in a crucible with five parts of copper turnings, or finely divided copper; the arsenic and copper require to be placed in alternate layers, and the whole is covered with a layer of common salt, and pressed down. When melted, the alloy contains nearly the whole of the arsenic, and is yellowish-white in color when in the rough state, but takes a flue white polish resembling silver. It is not very ductile, and cannot be fused without decomposition, as the arsenic is easily dissipated. It was formerly much used in this country, as well as China and India, for making the pans of small scales, dial-plates, and a variety of other articles requiring nicety of make, such as graduated scales for philosophical instruments. It is probably never imported now, the nickel alloys of Europe having quite superseded its use; in China, however, it is still extensively employed.

ROTATION OF CROPS. The plants like the animals of the farm differ much in their habits, and in the different sorts of food on which they subsist. The broad-leafed clovers, turnips, and mangold abstract from the air a large proportion of the materials of their growth; whilst the narrower-leafed grains and grasses, especially if their seeds are ripened, partake more largely of mineral food withdrawn from the soil. The cereals require for their healthy nutrition large supplies of phosphoric acid and silica; leguminous plants devour a large share of lime; turnips, carrots, and clover take up a great amount of potash. Corn-crops, occupying the ground during the greater part of the year, favor the growth of weeds; well-tended root-crops, on the other hand, afford better opportunity for deep culture, for the extirpation of weeds, for the convenient application of manures; whilst, being in great part consumed on the land, they raise its fertility. Mainly’ from such considerations, the farmer of arable land is led to grow a succession of dissimilar plants, or, in other words, to adopt a rotation of crops. The cereals exhausting the farm, en account of their ripened seeds being sold off. are generally alternated with fallow, root, or cleansing crops, or with beans and peas, which occupy a kind of intermediate position between the cereals and the roots; whilst clovers or grasses are taken at intervals of six or eight years. The rotation most suitable for a particular farm is, however, greatly modified by various circumstances, and especially by the nature of the soil, climate, markets, available supplies of extra manures, amount of live-stock kept, £c. That course of cropping is evidently the most desirable which will economically secure, with thorough cleanness of the soil, a high and increasing state of fertility.

Many rotations are based upon the Norfolk or four-course system, which consists of (1) Clover or mixed grass seeds; (3) Wheat, or in many parts of Scotland, oats; (3) Turnips, Swedes, mangold, potatoes, or bare fallow; (4) Barley. The details of this system are generally as follows. The clovers or grasses are mown or grazed; when cut, they are either used green or are dried for hay; the second crop is carted home for the cattle or horses; near towns, it is sold off; or it is consumed on the ground in racks by sheep, which on most highly cultivated farms receive besides a daily allowance of cake or corn. In districts where town-manure can be obtained, a top dressing is applied as soon as the first crop of grass is cut. On the poor and worse cultivated soils, the grass-crop occasionally remains down for two, or even three years, thus extending a four into a five or six years’ rotation. The clovers or mixed seeds are ploughed up in autumn, and followed generally in England by wheat, and in Scotland by oats. These crops are now usually drilled, to admit of horse and hand hoeing. After harvest, the stubble is, if possible, cleaned by the scarifier, grubber, or plough and harrows; or, where the management for several years has been good, any patches of couch-grass or other weeds are best forked out by hand. The land, especially if heavy, or intended for mangold drilled on the flat, as practised in the drier parts of England, may then be manured and deeply ploughed : the grubber and harrows, in April or May, suffice to prepare for the drilling of mangold or Swedes. Heavy land, intended either for roots or barley, should, in spring, be ploughed or disturbed as little as possible. In Scotland, and the cooler moist climates of the north and west of England, turnips and potatoes are grown on raised drills or balks, in which the manure lies immediately underneath the plant.

Frequent horse and hand hoeing should insure the thorough cleaning of the crop. Unless in the neighborhood of towns, where it is greatly more profitable to sell off the whole of the root-crop, part of the Swedes or mangold is taken home for the cattle, but the largest portion is consumed by sheep in the field. After the fallow or cleaning crop, another cereal crop is grown : under the Norfolk system, this is generally barley, with which the clovers or seeds are sown out. Where sewage or tank water is available, Italian rye-grass is often used, and on land in high condition, early large and repeated cuttings are obtained; but rye-grass has the disadvantage of being a worse preparation than clover for the wheat-crop which usually follows. The chief failing of the four-course system consists in the frequent recurrence of clover, which cannot be successfully grown oftener than once in six or eight years. To obviate this difficulty, one-half of the clover quarter is now often put under beans, peas, or vetches, thus keeping the grass or clover seeds eight years apart.

The Norfolk four-course system is unsuitable for heavy land, where a large breadth of roots cannot be profitably grown, and where their place, as a cleaning crop, is taken by bare fallow, vetches, or pulse. Bare fallows are, however, less frequent than formerly, being now confined to the most refactory of clays, or to subjects that are so hopelessly full of weeds as to require for their extirpation several weeks of summer weather, and the repeated use of the steam or horse ploughs, the scarifier, grubber, and harrows. In such circumstances, winter vetches are often put in during September or October, are eaten off by sheep and horses in June or July, and the land afterwards cleaned: this practice is extensively pursued on the heavier lands in the mid-land and southern counties of England.

In such localities, the following system is approved of—(1) The clover leas are seeded with (2) wheat; then come (3) beans, pulse, or vetches, manured, horse or hand hoed; (4) On good land, wheat succeeds; (5) Oats or barley often follow, but, to prevent undue exhaustion of plant-food, this system requires considerable outlay in artificial manures, cake, and corn; (6) A fallow, or fallow crop, deeply and thoroughly cultivated, and well manured, comes to restore cleanness and fertility; (7) Barley or wheat is drilled, and amongst this, the clover-seeds are sown. On the heavier carse-lands in Scotland, the following plan of cropping is generally practiced—(1) Clover; (2) Oats; (3) Beans; (4) Wheat; (o) Bare fallow or fallow crop, usually including a considerable breadth of potatoes; (6) Wheat; (7) Barley, with which the clovers or mixed grasses are sown. Under this system, it is difficult, with so few cleaning crops, to keep the land clean; roots, besides, are not produced in quantities sufficient properly to supply either cattle or sheep during the winter. To remedy these defects, roots may be introduced after the oats, and would be followed either by wheat or barley. This extends the rotation from seven to nine years.

In all well-cultivated districts, whether of heavy or light land, stock-farming is extending, and a more vigorous effort, is being made to raise the fertility of the land. Root-crops are accordingly more largely grown; indeed, it is sometimes found profitable to grow two root-crops consecutively; thus, after turnips, Swedes, cabbage, or mangold, well manured from the town or farmyard, and eaten off by sheep, potatoes of superior quality are produced with one ploughing, and a dose of portable manure. Specialities of management occur in almost every locality. In Essex, winter-beans follow wheat, are got off in August, and are succeeded by common turnips. Near London, and in other southern districts, early potatoes or peas are grown for market, and are immediately followed by turnips. In ninny parts of England, where the soil and climate are good, rye or vetches sown in autumn are consumed in early summer, and a root-crop then put in.

Good rotations do not necessarily insure good farming; they are merely means to an end. By carefully removing weeds, by deeply stirring the soil, and by applying appropriate manures, wheat may be grown on the same soil for an indefinite number of years. At Lois-Weedon, in Northamptonshire, the Rev. S. Smith has for twenty years cultivated alternate three-foot strips of wheat and well-forked bare fallow; the land that is wheat this year being fallowed next. Although no manure whatever is applied, and only one-half of the experimental plot is each year under crop, the yield continues to stand at four quarters per acre, which is about four bushels per acre in excess of the average acreable produce of Great Britain.

The Lois-Weedon system, owing to the outlay which it entails for manual labor, probably could not be carried out with profit on a large scale. It demonstrates, however, the inherent resources lying dormant, especially in clay-soils, and indicates how they may be rendered available by thorough cultivation. It is mainly by such cultivation that steam-power proves so serviceable in our fields. The soil is turned up deeply to the disintegrating solvent influences of wind and weather; the necessary operations are rapidly overtaken in good season; much work is accomplished in autumn; treading and poaching of the surface is avoided; whilst a larger breadth of roots is attainable for the healthy and economical support of the sheep and cattle-stock, which not only directly enhance the returns of the farm, but also raise rapidly its manurial condition.

As agricultural education and enterprise extend, fixed rotations will be less regarded. The market-gardener, who extracts a great deal more from his land than the farmer has hitherto been able to do, does not adhere to any definite system of cropping. If the farm is kept clean and in improving condition, there can be no harm in growing whatever crops it is adapted to produce. Cropping clauses are only requisite during the three or four last years of a tenancy. The restrictions found in some agreements, preventing the growth of clover for seed, flax, and even potatoes, are inadmissible. Equally objectionable are clauses against the sale of particular sorts of produce, such as hay or roots.

The farmer, if he is fit to be intrusted with the use of the land, ought to be permitted to grow or sell off any crop he pleases, provided an equivalent in manure be brought back. On well-cultivated land, in good condition, it is now the practice of the best farmers to take oats or barley after wheat; indeed, some of the best malting barley in Essex, on the Scottish carse-lands, and elsewhere, is now grown after wheat. The frequent growth of cereals, and the heaviest of hay and root crops, even when removed from the farm, may be fairly compensated for by large doses of town-dung or of sewage. The plant-food disposed of in the more ordinary sales of the farm is economically restored by the use of bones or superphosphate, guano or nitrate of soda, or by keeping-plenty of sheep, penning them over the land, and supplying them liberally with cake and corn.

SIEGE (Pr. a seat, a sitting down) is the sitting of au army before a hostile town or fortress with the intention of capturing it. With certain elements, the success of a siege is beyond doubt; the result being merely a question of time. These elements are : first, the force of the besiegers shall be sufficient to overcome the besieged in actual combat, man to man. If this be not the case, the besieged, by a sortie, might destroy the opposing works, and drive away the besiegers. The second element is, that the place must be thoroughly invested; so that no provisions, reinforcements, or other aliment of war can enter. The third element is, that the besiegers be undisturbed from without. For this it is essential that there shall not be a hostile army in the neighborhood; or, if there be, that the operations of the besiegers be protected by a covering army able to cope with the enemy’s force in the field. The ancients executed gigantic works to produce these effects. To complete the investment, they built a high and strong wall around the whole fortress; and to render themselves secure from without, they built a similar wall facing outwards, beyond their own position. The first was circumvallation, the second contravallation. It was thus that Caesar fortified himself while besieging Alexia, and maintained 60,000 men within his ring. In modern warfare, it is considered preferable to establish strong posts here and there round the place, and merely sentries and vedettes between.

Let us now assume that a fortress of great strength has to be reduced, and that the force of the enemy in the vicinity has been either subdued or held in check by a covering army. By rapid movements, the place is at once invested on all sides, This step constitutes merely a blockade; and if time be of little importance, is a sufficient operation, for hunger must sooner or later cause the fortress to surrender; but if more energetic measures are required, the actual siege must be prosecuted. Advantage is taken of any hidden ground to establish the park of artillery and the engineers’ park; or if there be none, these parks have to be placed out of range. The besieging force is now encamped just beyond the reach of the guns of the fortress; and their object is to get over the intervening ground and into the works without being torn to pieces by the concentrated fire of the numerous pieces which the defenders can bring to bear on every part. With this view, the place is approached by a series of zigzag trenches so pointed that they cannot be enfiladed by any guns in the fortress. In order to accommodate the forces necessary to protect the workers, the trenches at certain intervals are cut laterally for a great length, partly encircling the place, and affording safe room for a large force with ample battering material. These are called parallels, and they are generally three in number. The distance of the first parallel will increase as small-arms become more deadly; but with the old smooth-bore muskets it was usual to break ground at 600 yards from the covered way of the fortress, while at Sebastopol, ground was broken at 2000 yards, and in the siege of Paris by the Germans, the lines were begun at least 4 miles from the city.

The locality of the parallel being decided on, a strong body of men is sent to the spot soon after nightfall. The attention of the garrison is distracted by false alarms in other directions. Half the men are armed cap-a-pie, and lie down before the proposed parallel; while the other half, bearing each pick and shovel, and two empty gabions, prepare for work. Each man deposits the gabions where the parapet of the trench should be. He then digs down behind them, filling the gabions with the earth dugout; and, after they are filled, throwing it over them, to widen and heighten the parapet. Before daylight, the working-party is expected to have formed sufficient cover to conceal themselves and the troops protecting them. During the day, they—being concealed from the garrison—widen and complete their parapet, making it of dimensions sufficient to allow of wagons and bodies of troops with guns passing along. During the same night, other parties will have been at work at zigzags of approach from the depots out of range to the first parallel, which zigzags will be probably not less than 1000 yards in length. The profile of a completed trench is shown in fig. 1, the shaded portion representing a gabion. As a rule, the defenders will not expend ammunition on the first parallel, for its extent (often several miles) will render the probability of doing material damage extremely small. For this reason also, the dimensions of the parapet and its solidity are of far less importance in the first parallel than in the more advanced works of attack.

The first parallel AAA, fig. 2, being completed, the engineers select points near its extremities, at which they erect breast-works, B, B, to cover the bodies of cavalry, who are kept at hand to resist sorties from the garrison. The length of the parallel is usually made sufficient to embrace all the works of two bastions at least. Sites are then chosen for batteries, C, C, which are built up of fascines, gabions, sandbags, and earth. They are placed at points in the parallel formed by the prolongation of the several faces of the bastions, ravelins, and other works of the fortress, which faces the batteries are severally intended to infilade by a ricochet fire. Other batteries will be formed for a vertical fire of mortars and shell-guns. By these means it is hoped that the traverses on the hostile ramparts will be destroyed, the guns dismounted, and the defenders dispersed, before the final approaches bring the assailants to the covered-way. The sappers will now commence their advance towards the points, or salient angles, of the two bastions to be attacked. If, however, the trench were cut straight towards the fortress, its guns could easily destroy the workmen, and enfilade the approach. To prevent this, it is cut in short zigzags—as at D—the direction always being to a point a few yards beyond the outmost flanking works of the garrison. The side of each trench nearest the fortress is protected by gabions and sandbags, as in the case of the parallel.

At intervals, short spurs of trench, incipient parallels, are cut, as at E, to contain small-arms-men, to act as guards to the sappers. The second parallel is about 300 yards from the enemy’s works, and has to be more strongly formed than the first. It often terminates in a redoubt, F, to hold some .light artillery, and a strong force of infantry, who could assail any sortie in flank; or it may run into the first parallel, as G-, giving easier access for troops than through the zigzags. The second parallel is riveted with sandbags, in which loopholes are left for musketry. After passing the second parallel, the angles of the zigzags become more acute, to prevent enfilading. At about 150 yards, certain demi-parallels, H, are cut, and armed with howitzer batteries, to clear the covered-way, while riflemen also act from it. The third parallel is at the foot of the glacis. Thence the place, after being sufficiently battered, is taken by a storming-party, who make their way over the glacis, or the covered-way is topped by the double sap, as in fig. 3; which is a safer plan for the army general, though much more deadly to the sappers. When the crest of the fig 3—Double Sap. covered-way has thus been reached, batteries of heavy artillery will be there established, for the purpose of breaching the walls of the ravelin and bastion; while at the same time miners will first seek to destroy the defenders’ counter-mines (which would otherwise be likely to send these batteries into the air), and then will excavate a tunnel to the ditch, at the foot of the counterscarp.

If the breach becomes practicable, a storming-party will emerge from this tunnel or gallery, and seek to carry the opposite work by hard fighting. If inner works still subsist, which would tear assailants to pieces, the double sap may be continued across the ditch, if a dry ditch, right up the breach, that counter-batteries may be formed. If the ditch be wet, means must be adopted for a causeway or a bridge. By these means, however obstinate may be the defence, if the besieging force be sufficiently strong, and aid do not arrive from without, the ultimate success of the attack becomes certain. Vauban raised attack to a superiority above defence, first, by the introduction of ricochet fire, which sweeps a whole line; and secondly, by originating parallels. Before his time, the whole attack was conducted by zigzag approaches; in which the troops actually in front could be but few, and were therefore unable to withstand strong sorties of the garrison, who, in consequence, frequently broke out and destroyed the works of the besiegers, rendering a siege an operation of a most uncertain character.

SOCIAL SCIENCE, a name that has of late years been given to the study of all that relates to the social improvement of the community. A society, called ‘The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science,’ was first organized at a meeting which was held under Lord Brougham’s auspices in July 1857, to consider the best means of uniting together all those interested in social improvement. The annual meetings have been held each year at a different place. The Association as now constituted comprises five sections—1. Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law (subjection, Repression of Crime); 2. Education; 3. Health; 4. Economy and Trade; 5. Art. The Association aims at promoting improvement in all matters falling within these departments, by means of bringing together, for free discussion, societies and individuals interested in social problems.

sociology is the somewhat barbarous name that has of late been used to denote the study of the origin, organization, and development of human society.

SOCIALISM, the name given to a class of opinions opposed to the present organization of society, and which seeks to introduce a new distribution of property and labor, in which organized cooperation rather than competition should be the dominating principle, under the conviction that the happiness of the race, and especially of the classes without capital, would be benefited thereby. Historically considered, Socialism, like many of the significant phenomena of our age, is a product of the French Revolution. That terrible outburst of popular discontent is most properly regarded as an anarchic attack on the social system that had its roots in the feudalism of the middle ages. The furious hatred of the court and the aristocracy, the passionate love of the ‘ people,’ of ‘ humanity,’ of ‘ liberty,’ though called forth by special circumstances, and never formally worked out into a theory of social life, virtually contained in themselves the germs of all later proposed organizations. In the middle ages, the right of freely and fully enjoying life, property, and political independence was limited to a favored few; while the great masses were condemned to dumb servitude, and a perpetual minority. Even the industrial population did not recognize the Socialistic idea. The members of the different guilds or fraternities claimed exclusive right to exercise certain branches of industry, and probably the great majority of the inhabitants of a town remained in a disregarded and dependent state. Amid such social conditions, resting, as they did, on a belief in the necessity of different distinct ranks, the free action of individual life, and even the vital progress of the whole community, became well-nigh impossible.

We have not space here to trace the course of the various minor reforms that weakened the authority of the medieval theory of life; but we must not omit to notice the speculations of the political philosophers of the 18th c. in France, England, and Germany, as operating powerfully in favor of a new social system, in which the idea of humanity (assuming, at the French Revolution, as we have observed, the concrete form of the ‘ people ‘) stands out prominently. Nevertheless, the first shape that the modern spirit of industry took, was not Socialistic, in the strict and proper sense of the term: it was rather individualistic, and found, as it still finds—for it is yet the prevailing theory—its natural expression in such proverbs as, ‘ A fair field, and no favor;’ ‘ Everyone for himself, and God for us all.’ But still, even this lawless individualism is to be regarded as a protest against the false class-legislation of preceding times, and as an assertion of the absolute right of each member of society to a share in the general welfare. That it has not universally commended itself to civilized mankind, as a perfect system, is demonstrated by the appearance and temporary popularity of such schemes of society as those of Owen (q. v.), Fourier (q. v.), St. Simon (q. v.), and the enthusiasm excited at intervals in different parts of Europe by the promulgation of extreme communistic opinions. See communism. It is objected to Socialism, under its various forms, that it makes human happiness too much dependent on material gratifications; that it robs man of that energy that springs from ambition; that it unphilosophically ignores an individualism and inequality to which Nature herself has given her inviolable sanction; and that, by the abolition of social rewards and punishments, it neither holds out any hope to the industrious, nor excites any apprehension among the indolent. On the other hand, we must admit that the vigorous assertion of Socialistic principles has led men to a more liberal and generous view of humanity as a whole. Moreover, it has forcibly called public attention to numerous evils that have sprung up along with the modern development of industry, for which no remedy—not even a name—had been provided; to the vital interdependence of all classes; and to the inadequacy of the individual or ‘ selfish ‘ system, as it has been called, to redress the wrongs or cure the evils that inevitably spring from its own unchecked operation. The recent spread of Socialistic opinions in Germany, taken in connection with the two attempts made on the life of the emperor, has led, in 1878, to special and stringent legislation designed to check the growth of Socialism. In 1878 it was computed that there were in Germany 75 Socialistic publications, with 135,000 regular subscribers.

SOCAGE, or SOCCAGE (originally hlaford-socn, seeking a lord; whence we have also soc, a right, of holding a court), a tenure of lands in England, of which the characteristic feature is, that the service is fixed and determinate in quality, thereby differing both from knight-service and from villeinage. It was originally peculiar to the Anglo-Danish districts of England. At the time when the allodial tenure was converted into immediate dependence on the crown, this tenure seems to have arisen out of the necessity for commendation or seeking a lord. In Domesday, socmen are often mentioned as bound ‘ to seek a lord,’ or free to go with their land where they pleased. The socmen of Stamford are said to be free to seek a lord, being only liable to the king for the toll attached to them as inhabitants of a borough. The obligation of socage in its origin has been compared to the mutual bonds of allegiance of later times so common in the Highlands of Scotland, and known as Bonds of Manrent (see manrent). Three kinds of socage have been enumerated as existing at a later period—viz., free and common socage, socage in ancient tenure, and socage in base tenure. The second and third kind are equivalent to tenure in ancient demesne and copyhold tenure (see DEMESNE, ANCIENT, and copyhold), and the first is what has generally and more properly been denominated socage, where the services were both certain and honorable. Besides fealty, which the socager was bound to do when required, he was obliged to give attendance at the court baron of his lord, if he held one, either for a manor or for a seigniory in gross.

By an act passed during the Commonwealth, and confirmed after the Restoration by 12 Car. II. c. 24, tenure by knight-service was abolished, and all lands except church-lands held in free-alms, were directed to be held in free and common socage, which is now (with that exception) the universal tenure of real property in England and Ireland.

Socage tenures are unknown in Scotland, where, unless at a very early period, they never existed.

PAINS AND PENALTIES. When a person has committed some crime of peculiar enormity, and for which no adequate punishment is provided by the ordinary law, the mode of proceeding is by introducing a bill of pains and penalties, the object of which, therefore, is to inflict a punishment of an extraordinary and anomalous kind. These bills are now seldom resorted to, and the last instance of an attempt to revive such a form of punishment was by the ministers of George IV. against Queen Caroline, an attempt which was signally defeated. When a bill of this kind is resolved upon, it is introduced, and passes through all the stages like any other bill in parliament, except that the party proceeded against is allowed to defend himself or herself by counsel and witnesses. The proceeding is substantially an indictment, though in form a bill.

RE’BUS, an enigmatical representation of a name or thing by using pictorial devices for letters, syllables, or parts of words. The term probably originates from the device speaking to the beholder non verbus sed rebus. Devices of this kind, allusive to the bearer’s name, were exceedingly common in the middle ages, particularly in England. In many instances, they were used by ecclesiastics and others who had not a right to armorial ensigns. Thus, on the rector’s lodgings at Lincoln College, Oxford, erected in the 15th c., to which Thomas Beckyngton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, liberally contributed, is carved the rebus of that prelate— a becon and tun, with T, the initial letter of his Christian name.

In Westminster Abbey, Abbot Islip’s chapel gives two forms of his rebus—one, a human eye, and a small branch or slip of a tree; the other, a man in the act of falling from a tree, and exclaiming, ‘ I slip ! ‘ Many of the monograms of the artists of the middle ages and early printers were rebuses. That of Ludger you King was the letter L inserted into a ring. A large proportion of the early coats of arms were rebuses on the names of the bearer of them, as, for example, three salmons for the name of Salmon, a lock and heart for that of Lockhart, three skenes or dirks for Skene. Family badges are also frequently of the nature of a rebus, and mottoes, as Ver non semper viret of the Vernons.

PA’LATE, the, forms the roof of the mouth, and consists of two portions, the hard palate in front and the soft palate behind. The framework of the hard palate is formed by the palate process of the superior maxillary bone, and by the horizontal process of the palate bone, and is bounded in front and at the sides by the alvolar arches and gums, and posteriorly it is continuous with the soft palate. It is covered by a dense structure formed by the periosteum and mucous membrane of the mouth, which are closely adherent. Along the middle line is a linear ridge or raphe, on either side of which the mucous membrane is thick, pale, and corrugated, while behind it is thin, of a darker tint, and smooth. This membrane is covered with scaly epithelium, and is furnished with numerous follicles (the palatal glands). The soft palate is a movable fold of mucous membrane enclosing muscular fibres, and suspended from the posterior border of the hard palate so to form an incomplete septum between the mouth and the pharynx; its sides being blended with the pharynx, while its lower border is free. When occupying its usual position (that is to say, when the muscular fibres contained in it are relaxed), its anterior surface is concave; and when its muscles are called into action, as in swallowing a morsel of food, it is raised and made tense, and the food is thus prevented from passing into the posterior nares, and is at the same time directed obliquely backwards and downwards into the pharynx.

Hanging from the middle of its lower border is a small conical pendulous process, the uvula ; and passing outwards from the uvula on each side are two curved folds of mucous membrane containing muscular fibres, and called the arches or pillars of the soft palate. The anterior pillar is continued downwards to the side of the base of the tongue, and is formed by the projection of the palato-glossus muscle. The posterior pillar is larger than the anterior, and runs downwards and backwards to the side of the pharynx. The anterior and posterior pillars are closely united above, but are separated below by an angular interval, in which the tonsil of either side is lodged. The tonsils (amygdalæ) are glandular organs of a rounded form, which vary considerably in size in different individuals. They are composed of an assemblage of mucous follicles, which secrete a thick grayish matter, and open on the surface of the gland by numerous (12 to 15) orifices.

The space left between the arches of the palate on the two sides is called the isthmus of the fauces. It is bounded above by the free margin of the palate, below by the tongue, and on each side by the pillars of the soft palate and tonsils.

As the upper lip may be fissured through imperfect development (in which case it presents the condition known as hare-lip), so also may there be more or less decided fissure of the palate. In the slightest form of this affection, the uvula merely is fissured, while in extreme cases the cleft extends through both the soft and hard palate as far forward as the lips, and is then often combined with hare-lip. When the fissure is considerable, it materially interferes with the acts of sucking and swallowing, and the infant runs a great risk of being starved; and if the child grows up, its articulation is painfully indistinct. When the fissure is confined to the soft palate, repeated cauterization of the angle of the fissure has been found sufficient to effect a cure by means of the contraction that follows each burn. As a general rule, however, the child is allowed to reach the age of puberty when the operation of staphyloraphy (or suture of the soft parts) is performed—an operation always difficult, and not always successful. For the method of performing it, the reader is referred to the Practical Surgery of Mr. Fergusson. who has introduced several most important modifications into the old operation.

Acute inflammation of the tonsils, popularly known as quinsy, is treated of in a separate article.

Chronic enlargement of the tonsils is very frequent in scrofulous children, and is not rare in scrofulous persons of more advanced age, and may give rise to very considerable inconvenience and distress. It may occasion difficulty in swallowing, confused and inarticulate speech, deafness in various degrees from closure of the eustachian tubes (now often termed throat deafness), and noisy and laborious respiration, especially during sleep; and it may even cause death by suffocation, induced by the entanglement of viscid mucus between the enlarged glands. Iodide of iron (especially in the form of Blancard’s Pills) and cod-liver oil are the medicines upon whose action most reliance should be placed in these cases, while a strong solution of nitrate of silver (a scruple of the salt to an ounce of distilled water), or some preparation of iodine, should be applied once a day to the affected parts. If these measures fail, the tonsils must be more or less removed by the surgeon, either by the knife or scissors, or by a small guillotine specially invented for the purpose.

Enlargement or relaxation of the uvula is not uncommon and gives rise to a constant tickling cough, and to expectoration, by the irritation of the larynx which it occasions. If it will not yield to astringent or stimulating gargles, or to the stronger local applications directed for enlarged tonsils, its extremity must be seized with the forceps, and it must be divided through the middle with a pair of long scissors.

REBE’LLION (Lat. rebellio, from bellum, war, a revolt by nations subdued in war), an openly avowed renunciation of the authority of the government to which one owes allegiance, or a levying of war to resist the authority of the government. Unlike insurrection, which may be merely an opposition to a particular law, rebellion involves a design to renounce all subjection to the state. A commission of rebellion is a commission awarded against a person who treats the sovereign’s authority with contempt, by not obeying his proclamation according to his allegiance, and refusing to attend his sovereign when required. It consists of four commissioners, who are ordered to attack the rebel wherever found. In Scotland, by legal fiction, a debtor disobeying a charge on letters of horning to pay or perform in terms of his obligation, was accounted a rebel, as being disobedient to the sovereign’s command contained in the writ. This disobedience was called civil rebellion, and the penal consequences of actual rebellion followed it, until they were abolished by 20 Geo. II. c. 50. By the old form of diligence (which is still competent), it has therefore been said that debtors were imprisoned not for debt but for rebellion. The fiction was discarded in the provisions of the statute 1 and 2 Vict. c. 114, simplifying the form of diligence and the steps by which imprisonment for debt is effected.

The expression ‘The Great Rebellion,’ is generally applied in England to the revolt of the Long Parliament against the authority of Charles I. It began with the votes of the two Houses regarding the militia in 1642, by which they endeavored to seize the military power of the country, and the departure of the king for York, which was immediately followed by the breaking out of hostilities. The civil war was, properly speaking, terminated by the submission of Charles to the Scots, in April 1646; but the period of the rebellion is usually held to include the Commonwealth or Protectorate, and to extend to the restoration of Charles II. in May 1660. The revolts in behalf of the House of Stuart in 1715 and 1745 ire often, particularly in Scotland, spoken of emphatically as ‘The Rebellion.’ The former rising in favor of the Chevalier de St. George, son of James II. of England, called the Old Pretender, was headed by the Earl of Mar, and put down in 1716: the latter was led by Prince Charles Edward, known as the Young Pretender, who, landing in the Hebrides, was joined by the Highland chieftains and numerous followers, and after taking possession of Edinburgh, and marching to Derby, retreated into Scotland, and was defeated with great slaughter by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden, on the 16th of April 1746.

ROULETTE (Fr. ‘a little wheel’), a game of chance which, from the end of last century till the beginning of 1838, reigned supreme over all others in Paris. It continued to be played at German watering-places till 1872, when it ceased in terms of an act gassed four years before. R. is still played at Monaco, in Italy. As much as £8000 a year used to be spent in the papers of Paris alone advertising this game, which is purely one of chance, and is played on a table (see fig.) of an oblong form, covered with green cloth, which has in its center a cavity, of a little more than two feet in diameter, in the shape of a punch-bowl. This cavity, which has several copper bands round its sides at equal distances from each other, has its sides fixed, but the bottom is movable round au axis placed in the center of the cavity; the handle by which motion is communicated being a species of cross or capstan of copper fixed on the upper extremity of the axis. Round the circumference of this movable bottom are 38 holes, painted in black and red alternately, with the first 36 numbers, and a single and double zero, as shown in the figure; and these 38 symbols are also figured at each end of the table in order that the players may place their stakes on the chance they select. Along the margin of the table and at each end of it are painted six words,’ pair, passe, noir, impair, manque, rouge, which will be afterwards explained.

Those who manage the table and keep the bank are called tailleurs. The game is played as follows: One of the tailleurs puts the movable bottom in motion by turning the cross with his forefinger, and at the same instant throws into the cavity an ivory ball in a direction opposite to the motion of the bottom; the ball makes several revolutions, and at last falls into one of the 38 holes above mentioned, the hole into which it falls determining the gain or loss of the players. A player may stake his money on 1, 2, or any of the 38 numbers (including the zeros), and shows what number or numbers he selects by placing his stake upon them; if he has selected a number or zero corresponding to the one into which the ball falls, he receives from one of the tailleurs 36 times his stake—viz., his stake and 35 times more—if he selected only 1 number, 18 times if 2 numbers, 12 times if 3 numbers, &c. The blank rectangles at the bottom of each of the 3 columns of numbers figured on the table, are for the reception of the stake of that player who selects a column (12 numbers) as his chance, and if the ball enters a hole the number of which is found in his column, he is paid 3 times his stake. Those who prefer staking their money on any of the chances marked¹ on the edge of the table, if they win, receive double their stake (their stake and as much more), and under the following circumstances : The ‘pair’ wins when the ball falls into a hole marked by an even number; the ‘ impair,’ if the hole is marked odd; the ‘ manque,’ if the hole is numbered from 1 to 18 inclusive; the ‘ passe,’ if it is numbered from 19 to 36 inclusive; the ‘ rouge,’ if it is colored red; and the ‘ noir,’ if it is colored black.

If the ball should fall into either of the holes marked with the single or the double zero, the stakes of those players who venture upon the 6 chances last described are either equally divided between the bank and the players, or as is more commonly the case, they are ‘ put in prison,’ as it is called, and the succeeding trial determines whether they are to be restored to the players or gained by the bank. Should it so happen that at this trial the ball again falls into one of the two holes (the chance against its occurring is 360 to 1) marked with zeros, then half of the stakes in prison are taken by the bank, and the remainder are ‘ put into the second prison,’ and so on. The tailleurs thus have an advantage over the players in the proportion of 19 to 18. The player who bets upon the numbers labors under a similar disadvantage, for although the two zero-points do not affect him in the same way as the player who stakes upon one of the other 6 chances, still (supposing him to bet upon a single number) as the chances are 37 to 1 against him, he ought to receive 37 times his stake (besides the stake) when he does win, whereas he only receives 35 times that amount, a manifest advantage in favor of the bank in the proportion of 37 to 35.

PERFU’MERY, PE’RFUMES (Fr. perfum, from Lat. fumus, smoke or vapor), delicate fumes or smells. Perfumes are of three distinct classes when derived from plants, and there is a fourth class, which are of animal origin.

CLASS I.—These are the most ancient, and have been in use from the earliest period of which there is record. They consist of the various odoriferous gum-resins, which exude naturally from the trees which yield them; and to increase the produce, the plants are often purposely wounded. The most important are benzoin, olibanum, myrrh, and camphor. No less than 5000 cwt. of these together are annually imported into Britain. Gum-resins form the chief ingredients in ‘ Incense,’ (q. v.), and in Pastilles (q. v.)

CLASS II. are those perfumes which are procured by distillation. As soon as the Greeks and the Romans learned the use of the still, which was an invention imported by them from Egypt, they quickly adapted it to the separation of the odorous principle from the numerous fragrance-bearing plants which are indigenous to Greece and Italy. An essential oil or otto thus procured from orange-flowers bears in commerce to this day the name of Neroly, supposed to be so named after the Emperor Nero. Long before that time, however, fragrant waters were in use in Arabia. Odor-bearing plants contain the fragrant principle in minute glands or sacs; these are found sometimes in the rind of the fruit, as the lemon and orange; in others, it is in the leaves, as sage, mint, and thyme; in wood, as rosewood and sandal-wood; in the bark, as cassia and cinnamon; in seeds, as caraway and nutmeg. These glands or bags of fragrance may be plainly seen in a thin cut stratum of orange-peel; so also in a bay leaf, if it be held up to the sunlight, all the oil cells may be seen like specks. All these fragrant-bearing substances yield by distillation an essential oil peculiar to each; thus is procured oil of patchouly from the leaves of the patchouly plant, Pogostemon patchouly. a native of Burmah; oil of caraway, from the caraway seed; oil of geranium, from the leaves of the Geranium rosa; oil of lemon, from lemon-peel; and a hundred of others of more infinite variety.

The old name for these pure odoriferous principles was Quintessence. Latterly, they have been termed Essential Oils; they are now, in modern scientific works, often termed Ottos, from the Turkish word attar, which is applied to the well-known otto or attar of roses. See oil.

All the various essential oils or ottos are very slightly soluble in water, so that in the process of distillation the water which conies over is always fragrant. Thus, elder water, rose water, orange water, dill water are, as it were, the residue of the distillation for obtaining the several ottos. The process of Distillation (q. v.) is very simple; the fragrant part of the plant is put into the still and covered with water; and when the water is made to boil, the ottos rise along with the steam, are condensed with it in the pipe, and remain floating on the water, from which they are easily separated by decanting. In this way 100 pounds of orange, lemon, or bergamot fruit peel will yield about 10 ounces of the fragrant oil; 100 pounds of cedar wood will give about 15 ounces of oil of cedar; 100 pounds of nutmeg will yield 60 to 70 ounces of oil of nutmeg; 100 pounds of geranium leaves will yield 2 ounces of oil.

Every fragrant substance varies in yield of essential oil. The variety of essential oils is endless; "but there are a certain relationship among odors as among tints. The lemon-like odors are the most numerous, such as verbena, lemon, bergamot, orange, citron, citronella; then the almond-like odors, such as heliotrope, vanilla, violet; then spice odors, cloves, cinnamon, cassia. The whole may be classified into twelve well-defined groups. All these ottos are very soluble in alcohol, in fat, butter, and fixed oils. They also mix with soap, snuff, starch, sugar, chalk, and other bodies, to which they impart their fragrance.

The principal consumption of the various fragrant ottos is for scenting soap. Windsor soap, almond soap, rose soap, and a great variety of others, consist of various soaps made of oil and tallow, perfumed while in a melted state with the several named ottos or mixtures of them.

Though snuff is by no means so popular an article in the reign of Victoria as it was in Anne’s time, yet the increased population, and the extended exports to colonies, cause a production of scented snuff positively greater now than fifty years ago; and it is especially in demand in the fur countries of Northern Canada. There is a large consumption of fragrant essential oils in the manufacture of toilet powders; under the various names of rose powder, violet powder, &c., a mixture of starch and orris, differently scented, is in general demand for drying the skin of infants after the bath.

Precipitated chalk and powdered cuttle-fish bone, being perfumed with otto of roses, powdered myrrh, and camphor, become ‘ Dentrifice.’ The ottos of peppermint, lavender, rose, and others, are extensively used in scenting sweetmeats and lozenges.

More than 200,000 pounds weight of various ottos have been imported into Britain in one year, and valued at over £180,000; to this must be added at least one-third as much again distilled in England. Of the imported articles enumerated, oils of lemon and bergamot, from the Two Sicilies, reached 128,809 pounds, valued at £57,054.

class III.—These are the perfumes proper, such as are used for perfuming handkerchiefs, &c. Contrary to the general belief, nearly all the perfumes derived from flowers are not made by distillation, but by the processes of enfleurage and maceration. Although this mode of obtaining the odors from flowers has certainly been in practice for two centuries in the valley of the Var, in the south of France, it is only by the publication of a recent work* [*Art of Perfumery, by Septimus Piesse, Ph. D., 8vo. 50 cuts. Longman. 4th] that the method has been made generally known. The odors of flowers do not, as a general rule, exist in them as a store or in a gland, but are developed as an exhalation. While the flower breathes it yields fragrance, but kill the flower, and fragrance ceases. It has not been ascertained when the discovery was made of condensing, as it were, the breath of the flower during life; what we know now is, that if a living flower be placed near to grease, animal fat, butter, or oil, these bodies absorb the odor given off by the blossom, and in turn themselves become fragrant. If we spread fresh unsalted butter upon the bottom of two desert-plates, and then fill one of the plates with gathered fragrant blossoms of clematis, covering them over with the second greased plate, we shall find that after 24 hours the grease has become fragrant. The blossoms, though separated from the parent stem, do not die for some time, but live and exhale odor; which is absorbed by the fat. To remove the odor from the fat, the fat must be scraped off the plates and put into alcohol; the odor then leaves the grease and enters into the spirit, which thus becomes ’scent,’ and the grease again becomes odorless.

The flower fanners of the Var follow precisely this method on a very large scale, with but a little practical variation, with the following flowers—rose, orange, acacia, violet, jasmine, tuberose, and jonquil. The process is termed enfleurage. In the valley of the Var, there are acres of jasmine, of tuberose, of violets, and the other flowers named; in due season the air is laden with fragrance, the flower harvest is at hand. Women and children gather the blossoms, which they place in little panniers like fishermen’s baskets hung over the shoulders. They are then carried to the laboratory of flowers and weighed. In the laboratory the harvest of flowers has been anticipated. During the previous winter great quantities of grease, lard, and beef-suet have been collected, melted, washed, and clarified. In each laboratory there sire several thousand chassis (sashes), or framed glasses, upon which the grease to be scented is spread, and upon this grease the blossoms are sprinkled or laid. The chasse en -verve is, in fact, 41 frame with a glass in it as near as possible like a window-sash, only that the frame is two inches thicker, so that when one chasse is placed on another, there is a space of four inches between every two glasses, thus allowing space for blossoms. The illustration shows the chasse with grease and flowers upon it (fig. 1), also a pile of the same as in use. The flower blossoms are changed every day, or every other day, as is convenient in regard to the general work of the laboratory or flowering of the plants. The same grease, however, remains in the chasse so long as the particular plant being used yields blossoms. Each time the fresh flowers are put on, the grease is ‘ worked ‘—that is, serrated with a knife—so as to offer a fresh surface of grease to absorb odor. The grease being enfleuree in this way for three weeks or more—in fact, so long as the plants produce blossoms—is at last scraped off the chasse, melted, strained, and poured into tin canisters, and is now fit for exportation. Fat or oil is perfumed with these same flowers by the process of maceration; that is, infusion of the flowers in oil or melted fat. For this end, purified fat is melted in a bain marie, or warm bath, and the fresh blossoms are infused in it for several hours. Fresh flowers being procured, the spent blossoms are strained away, and new flowers added repeatedly, so long as they can be procured.

The bain marie is used in order to prevent the grease becoming too hot from exposure to the naked tire; so long as the grease is fluid, it is warm enough. Oil does not require to be warmed, but improved results are obtained when it is slightly heated.

Jasmine and tuberose produce best perfumed grease by enfleurage, but rose, orange, and acacia, give more satisfactory products by maceration; while violet and jonquil grease is best obtained by the joint processes—enfleurage followed by maceration. In the engraving a. chasse en fer (2, fig. 1) is shown; this is for enfleurage of oil. In the place of glass, the space is filled with a wire net; on which is laid a molleton, or thick cotton fabric—moleskin, soaked with oil; on this the flowers are laid, just as with solid grease. In due time—that is, after repeated changing the flowers —the oil becomes fragrant, and it is then pressed out of the moleskin cloth. Oil of jasmine, tuberose, &c., are prepared in this way. In order now to obtain the perfume of these flowers in the form used for scenting handkerchiefs, we have only to infuse the scented fat or oil, made by any of the above methods, in strong alcohol.

In extracting the odor from solid fat it has to be chopped up fine as suet is chopped, put into the spirit, and left to infuse for about a month. In the case of scented oil it has to be repeatedly agitated with the spirit. The result is, that the spirit extracts all the odor, becoming itself ‘ perfume,’ while the grease again becomes odorless; thus is procured the essence of jasmine, essence of orange flowers, essence of violets, and others already named, rose, tuberose, acacia, and jonquil.

It is remarkable that these flowers yield perfumes which, either separate or mixed in various proportions, are the types of nearly all flower odors; thus, when jasmine and orange flowers are blended, the scent produced is like sweet pea; when jasmine and tuberose are mixed, the perfume is that of the hyacinth. Violet and tuberose resemble lily of the valley. All the various bouquets and nosegays, such as ‘ frangipanni,’ ‘white roses,’ ’sweet daphne," are made upon this principle.

The commercial importance of this branch of perfumes may be indicated by the quantity of flowers annually grown in the district of the Var. Flower Harvest: orange blossoms, 1,475,000 lbs.; roses, 530,000 lbs.; jasmine, 100,000 lbs.; violets, 75,000 lbs.; acacia, 45,000 lbs.; geranium, 30,000 lbs.; tuberose, 24.000 lbs. jonquil, 5000 lbs.

class IV. Perfumes of animal origin.—The principal are Musk (q. v.), Ambergris (q. v.), Civet (q. v.), and Castor (q. v.) The aroma of musk is the most universally admired of all perfumes; it freely imparts odor to every body with which it is in contact. Its power to impart odor is such, that polished steel will become fragrant of it if the metal be shut in a box where there is musk, contact not being necessary.

In perfumery manufacture, musk is mixed with other odorous bodies to give permanence to a scent. The usual statement as to the length of time that musk continues to give out odor has been called in question. If fine musk be spread in thin layers upon any surface, and fully exposed to a changing current of air, all fragrance, it is said, will be gone in from six to twelve months.

Civet is exceedingly potent as an odor, and when pure, and smelled at in the bulk of an ounce or so, is utterly insupportable from its nauseousness; in this respect it exceeds musk. When, however, civet is diluted so as to offer but minute quantities to the olfactories, then its perfume is generally admitted; this is so with gas-tar; but the fragrant principle is the same as that breathed by the beautiful narcissus. Castor is in our day almost obsolete as a perfume.

The average importation of musk per annum for a period of five years was 9388 ounces, value £10,688; export 1578 ounces, value £2143; leaving for home-consumption every year 7810 ounces, value £8545. Average importation per annum for a similar period; otto of roses 1117 ounces, value £13,561; vanilla 3525 pounds, value £12,568; ambergris 225 ounces, value £225; civet 355 ounces, value £300; orris root 420 hundredweight.

The works on perfumes are very few; that of Madame Celnart, in the Libraire Roret, is most worthy of notice among the French; a translation of it has been made by Mr. C. Morflt of Philadelphia. In England. The British Perfumer, by C. Lilly (1822), was the only work of the kind published in England prior to the Art of Perfumery by S. Piesse (1855). See also Rimmel’s Book of Perfumes (1875).

REAPING, the act of cutting corn, has been performed from . time immemorial with an instrument called a reaping-hook or sickle. The sickles in use among the ancient Jews, Egyptians, and Chinese appear to have differed very little in form from those employed in Great Britain. The reaping-hook is a curved instrument of about a foot and a half in length, tapering from a breadth of about two inches at the but-end, where it is fixed into a wooden handle. The edge is sometimes serrated, but, as a rule, it has long been made plain and sharp like a knife. In reaping, the harvester takes the corn in his left hand, and then with the hook cuts the stalks as close to the ground as possible; but when a grass crop has been sown down with the grain, the stubble is often left rather longer, in order to preserve the young grass The corn is placed handful by handful in a band usually made of the corn, and when as much has been cut as will form a sheaf, it is tied up by the ‘ bandster.’ The most expert reapers slash down the corn with the hook in the right hand, using the left merely to keep the corn from falling, until sufficient to make a sheaf has been cut, when the reaper places his hook under the corn, and supporting it with his left arm, deposits it all at once in the band. A bandster (one to every three or four reapers) binds the grain, and sets it up in stocks of generally 12 sheaves. It was surprising to see women of sixty years and upwards, handling the ‘ hook ‘ with great dexterity, accomplishing their 20 and sometimes 24 stocks of 12 sheaves each per day. After such a day’s work, these women appeared much fatigued, but a night’s rest seemed to set them on foot, vigorous as ever. They divested themselves of much of their clothing, and really worked hard for their money.

In the principal corn-growing districts of Scotland, a great proportion of the reaping by hand was at one time done by laborers from Ireland, who undertook the work at from 8s. to 15s. per acre, with board and lodging in addition. Their fare was of the simplest kind—consisting in the majority of cases, of porridge morning and evening, and bread and beer for dinner; their lodging at night was the barn or some outhouse, the farmer providing coarse blankets for covering. The quantity of porridge consumed at each meal by those people was sometimes astonishing—no less, as has been proved by actual weighing, than 5 lbs., with 1 ½ lbs. of milk besides. In England, most of the corn was cut by piecework, at prices varying from 10s. to 18s. per acre. On the stronger lands of the midland and southern counties, the stubble is some-times left knee-high, and afterwards at leisure cut by the scythe, or with a long hook, at a cost of 2s. per acre. In Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, and on many of the lighter soils in other counties, the operation of fagging or hacking, to be afterwards noticed, was preferred as being more expeditious than reaping. A good hand cut down from one-third to one-half of an acre of wheat, and often consumed, during his long day’s labor, two gallons of good ale.

The scythe in some counties, more than thirty years ago, was preferred to the sickle. The most common varieties were: the Hainault scythe—an importation from Belgium—the cradle scythe, and the common scythe fitted with a cradle. The Hainault scythe consists of a blade about 2 feet 3 inches long, having a handle 14 inches long. This the mower holds in his right hand, while in his left he carries a hook, with a handle of about equal length. ‘The reaping,’ says the late Mr. Henry Stephens, in his Book of the Farm, ‘is done by pressing the back of the hook with the left hand against the standing corn, in the direction of the wind, and by cutting with the scythe close to the ground against the standing corn with a free swing of the right arm,’ the hook keeping the cut corn from falling until a sufficient quantity to form a sheaf has been cut. This operation was practised in many parts of England, and especially on the lighter soils, under the name of fagging or hacking, the reaper sometimes using in his left band. instead of the hook, a stout crooked stick from 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. Beans and oats were the crops most generally fagged.

The cradle scythe is composed of a blade about 3 1/2 feet long, attached to a principal helve or sned about 4 feet long, into which another helve of about 2 1/2 feet in length is tenoned, thus making two handles. The cradle or bow is a piece of wood joined to the heel of the blade, into which are inserted three or four wooden teeth, in a line with the blade, the object of which is to secure the grain being laid evenly in one direction. As skill at the working of the scythe, however, increased, the cradle or bow was discarded in many cases. By the scythe, corn can be cut at a rather less cost per acre than with the hook; but the work is not so neatly done. As nice a stubble will be left by a good hand with the scythe, and often nicer than by the hook, but the sheaves are not, as a rule, so tidy after the scythe, though they will stack rather earlier. Of a fair working crop, an adept at the scythe would cut 2 or 2 1/4 acres per diem. The average area cut per day with the scythe does not exceed 1 1/2 acres. In fact, if the crop is heavy, that extent is a very hard day’s work. Those who contract for cutting the crops by the scythe, obtain the services of the best men, and thus generally get about 2 acres per day reaped, and reaped very well too. In the midland and southern counties, of England, the scythe, long in general use, was of larger size, and had only one long shaft, on which were fixed two handles. In Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and some of the eastern counties, the whole of the cutting, until the introduction of reaping-machines, was done by these scythes. The harvest operations then, from the cutting of the crop to the thatching of the ricks, cost from 18s. to 25s. per acre.

The process of reaping with either the sickle or the scythe is, however, both tedious and expensive; and hence, during the last three-quarters of a century, many attempts have been made to accomplish the work by machinery—attempts which, in the course of the last twenty years, have been crowned with complete success ‘ Reaping by machinery, however, is no modern invention. Pliny the elder, who was born in the 1st c. of the Christian era, found a reaping-machine in Gaul. He says : ‘ In the extensive fields in the lowlands of Gaul, vans of large size, with projecting teeth on the edge, are driven on two wheels through the standing corn by an ox yoked in a reverse position. In this manner the ears are torn off, and fall into the van.’ Palladius, about four centuries later, found a similar appliance for reaping corn in Gaul. He gives a more detailed but similar description of the machine. The annexed cut, copied from Mr. Woodcroft’s Appendix to the Specifications of English Patents for Reaping-machines, represents what is conceived, from the descriptions, to have been the form of this ancient reaper.

In modern times, the idea of a mechanical reaper appears to have originated with a Mr. Capel Lloft, who, in 1785, suggested a machine something after the pattern of the ancient one above described. Between that time and the Great Exhibition of 1851, in London, from which the general use of mechanical reapers may be said to date, the patents taken out for reaping-machines were very numerous. Among the most promising of these may be mentioned those of Mr. Gladstone of Castle-Douglas; Mr. Smith of Deanston; Mr. Kerr, Edinburgh; Mr. Scott of Ormiston; Mr. Dobbs, an actor in Birmingham; Mr. Mann of Raby, near Wigton; and the late Rev. Patrick Bell of Carmylie, Scotland. In 1826, Mr. Bell constructed an efficient and simple machine, which long continued in use, and several features of which are observable in the reapers of the present day. The inventor of this, the first machine of the kind in Scotland, received a public testimonial from agriculturists, in consideration of the services he thus rendered to agriculture. In America Mr. Hussey and Mr. M’Cormick took out patents for reaping-machines of superior character in 1833 and 1834 respectively.

The movements of the cutters of these machines were various. A few were advancing only, some sidelong and advancing, others reciprocating and advancing, a large number continuous and advancing, and others continuous and alternate. The reciprocating and advancing motion is that now employed on the machines in use. The principal difference in the machines now so largely used for cutting corn is in the form and character of the cutters, and in the mode of delivering the grain after it is cut.

The cutting-knives are of two kinds—one, obtuse-angled and serrated; the other, acute-angled and for the most part plain. Both are attached to a bar, and are made to-work through another bar of iron fitted with hollow fingers, called guard-fingers, which, projecting forwards, catch the standing corn, and retain it firmly until it is cut. The serrated knife saws through it; the plain knife clips it, as it were; the finger-guard forming the fixed blade of the scissors.

The delivery of the sheaves is effected either by manual or mechanical labor; but the vast proportion of the machines in use are what are termed manual delivery-reapers. The delivery of the sheaves by manual labor is now almost at the back of the machine, the side delivery being generally abandoned, unless in the self-deliveries. In delivering the grain, a man, with a short-handled rake in his hand, sits upon the machine almost opposite the cutting apparatus. With this he inclines the grain towards the knife; and when sufficient to make a sheave has been cut, he rakes it off the platform upon the machine, on to which it has fallen, and deposits it on the ground. The cut subjoined will illustrate the method of raking off. In making a neat and squarely-formed sheaf, the raker is greatly assisted by a hinge in the platform, which enables him, by pressure of the foot, to tip the board over, so as to let the corn slide gently down.

With the back-delivery, the sheaves must be tied up and removed out of the way of the machine before it comes round again. Such a reaper, therefore, always requires a full supply of hands to attend upon it. But it is the best for all that. It does require a skilful, careful man to ‘ tilt,’ but the fact that the course has to be kept clear for the horses every round, spurs the laborers, who thus do more work than they would otherwise accomplish. Besides, it is a very doubtful advantage to be enabled to slash down the crops irrespective of the gathering capacities. Moreover, with the self-deliveries, it is the distance gone over, and not the quantity of crops collected, that regulates the size of the sheaf. With uneven crops, this is an inconvenience. Sheaves of different sizes are very troublesome in the stock. They will not stand well, and in stacking it is difficult to keep uniformity in building. Large and small sized sheaves are not equally dried, and are not ready for stacking at the same time. Eight people ‘ lifting’ after the manual-reaper will do as much work as nine following the self-delivery, so that the saving of a man’s labor claimed by the self-delivery is doubtful. The sheaves are rather better formed by the manual machine than by the self-delivery. Each kind, has, however, and will likely continue to have its advocates, though the preponderance is in favor of the manual.

The mechanical or self-delivery machines, as they are generally called, are of two kinds—one lays the cut corn in swaths, the other deposits it in sheaves. The latter is decidedly the best and most fashionable of the two.

The automaton sheaf-deliverers best known to the public are those of Samuelson of Banbury; Hornsby and Son; Burgess and Key; Brigham and Bickerton, Berwick; Howard and Co., Bedford. We give a description of Samuelson’s sheaf-deliverer (largely used in Great Britain), which will be made plain by the accompanying cut. The self-delivering machinery consists of a series of four rakes—two toothed, and two plain—attached to an upright shaft, in such manner as to admit of a free ascending, descending, and horizontal motion. The two toothless rakes, or ‘ dummies,’ are shorter in the arms by six inches than the other two, and are merely employed to incline the grain towards the cutter. The platform upon which the grain fails after it is cut is of quadrant shape, and is surrounded, on the outer edge, by a rim of about a foot deep. The side of the earn next the platform is bent or depressed, so that the rakes on reaching this point, make a sudden fall, or eccentric motion, thus assuming the horizontal attitude necessary to sweep over the platform on the level. The rakes are adjusted so as to lay the sheaves about 12 feet apart, to the side, and out of the way of the horses. This machine has a, double-throw knife—an arrangement which reduces the driving speed, and consequently the wear and tear of the machinery.

In M’Cormick’s automatic delivery-machine, a rake is so used that ‘during one part of the revolution of the gathering-reel, it acts as one of the vanes of the reel in bending the standing corn to the cutting-blades. When the rake reaches the cutting-blades in front of the platform, it ceases to revolve around the reel-shaft (which continues its rotary motion), and is made to move horizontally upon a vertical hinge, to which one end is attached (the points of the teeth being near the surface of the platform), sweeping the cut corn off at the side, and depositing it on the ground in sheaves ready for the binder.’ The Messrs. Brigham and Bickerton’s improved machine has a deep upright board of sheet-iron to keep the corn on the platform. Iron rods on these sheets separate the corn. This firm has thrown off two branches lately. The first offshoot was Messrs. Lillie and Elder, and the last was Bickerton and Co. The three firms make good serviceable reapers. Howard and Hornsby’s reapers are substantially and simply constructed, embracing slight improvements every other year, formed on experience. Prices range from £20 to £35.

The makers of manual delivery-machines are numerous, including in a prominent degree Kemp, Murray, and Nicholson, Stirling; Jack and Sons, Maybole; Harrison, Macgregor, & Co.; Picksley, Sims & Co.; Ransome, Sims and Head, Ipswich; Sam-nelson & Co., Banbury; J. and F. Howard, Bedford; and many others of fame. The manual delivery-machines of the first named firm are very popular, strong and ingeniously manufactured, while those of the Maybole firm are not quite so strong, but work with great ease and tastefulness. Carefully handled, the manual delivery-reaper will take up laid and twisted crops admirably. Indeed, all the reapers nowadays, perfected as they are year by year, now do their work remarkably well, leaving a beautiful stubble and a nice sheaf. The sheaves from the reaper, however, are not so easily dried for the stackyard as those from the scythe, but they defend rain better, and are altogether preferable. The number of reapers now in use in Great Britain is enormous, and is growing rapidly every year. They are a most decided improvement. Indeed, they are one of the most valuable introductions that have been made in rural agriculture in this country. At almost every farm of ordinary or even comparatively small dimensions, there is a reaper, and three or four engaged on the larger holdings. The cost of the manual delivery ranges from £18 to £30.

The cost of reaping by machinery is much less than either by scythe or sickle. Mr. Wilson of Woodhorn, Morpeth, found that the cutting of wheat with the sickle (binding and stocking included) cost him from 11s. to 15s. per acre, and with the scythe 8s., whilst with the machine it only cost him 5s. 9d., exclusive of wear and tear. From data supplied by a large number of their customers, Messrs. Samuelson & Co. make out that the saving by mechanical over hand labor is, as compared with reaping, 4s. per 1 acre, and with mowing, Is. 9d. per acre; and most farmers who have tried reaping-machines set down the saving at from 20 to 30 per cent. Besides, there is about a like economy in time, which is of immense importance in a variable climate like that of Great Britain.—See Woodcroft’s Appendix to Patents for Reaping-machines; Mr. Jacob Wilson’s ‘ Essay on Reaping-machines,’ in Transactions of Highland Society for January 1864; Book of Farm Implements, and Book of the Farm, by Henry Stephens; J. C. Morton’s Cyclopaedia of Agriculture.

ROUGE ET NOIR (Fr. ‘red and black’), TRENTE-UN (’thirty-one’), or TRENTE ET QUARANTE (’thirty and forty ‘), is a modern game of chance, which is played by the aid of packs of cards on a table covered with green cloth. The table is of a form similar to that shown in the figure. It is divided into four portions, each marked in the center with a diamond, the diamonds being alternately red and black; and these quarters are further separated, two and two, by bands which cross the table at its narrowest part. At the end of the table are a series of concentric bands painted of a yellow color (not represented in the figure). The game is played as follows : one of the tailleurs (or dealers, who manage the table, take charge of the bank, and keep an eye on the players) takes up his position at one side of the table, opposite to the croupier (another tailleur), and unseals, in the presence of the players, six packs of cards, which are first counted, then shuffled by several tailleurs, and returned to the first tailleur, who presents them to one of the players to be cut. This is performed by the insertion of a blank card in any part of the pack, which is then adjusted, and the game proceeds. Each player must stake his money on some one of the four chances, denominated noir, rouge, couleur, and I’inverse, which will be afterwards explained.

After the stakes have been laid on the table (those for the noir being laid on either of the quarters marked with a black; and those for the rouge, on either of the quarters marked with a red diamond; those for the ‘ couleur ‘ on one of the transverse bands; and those for the ‘ inverse’ on one of the yellow circles at the end of the table), the tailleur takes a handful of cards from the top of the pack, and deals first for the noir, taking one card after another from the top of the handful and placing them on the table side by side, till the number of pips on them amounts to more than 30, when he stops. He then deals out another row in a similar manner for the rouge, till, as before, the number of pips amounts to more than 30. In reckoning the number of pips, the ace is counted as one, the other plain cards according to the number of pips, and the court-cards 10 each. It will thus be seen that the number to which each of the two rows of cards amounts, must be more than 30 and not more than 40. If the value of the first row is nearer 31 than that of the second, then the first row, or noir, wins, if the contrary is the case, then the second row, or rouge wins. Couleur wins if the first card tabled by the tailleur is of the winning color; thus, for instance, if the first card laid down is a ‘ spade ‘ or ‘club,’ noir wins; but if the first card dealt be not of the winning color, then inverse wins, and couleur loses. Two (and no more) of the four chances can be winning chances at one time; and the winning players have their stakes increased by an equal sum from the bank, and then withdraw their stake and winnings, while the stakes of the losers are raked by the tailleurs to the bank in the center of the table. When the value of the first, or noir-row, is equal to that of the second, or rouge-row, it is a refait, and the dealer must commence to deal anew from the cards remaining in his hand; when the refait occurs, the player may either withdraw his stake, or stake on a different chance, with the same or more or less money as he thinks proper.

The game of Rouge et Noir would be an even one between the players and the bank, were it not for the following regulation : When the points dealt for the noir and the rouge each amount to 31 (’ un refait de Trente-et-un ‘) the half of all the stakes on each of the chances belongs to the bank, and this the players may either pay or have their stakes ‘ put in prison,’ the next deal determining whether they shall belong to the bank or be restored to the player. If a second doublet of 31 occurs in the deal immediately succeeding, the stakes which were in prison are diminished by one half, which goes to the bank, and the other half is ‘put into the second prison,’ from which it requires two successive winnings of the player to regain them. The chance of ‘ un refait de trente-et-un’ is about once in 64 deals.

This game superseded Faro (q. v.), and Biribi in France about 1789, but along with Roulette (q. v ), was forbidden by law in 1838.

PAIN is an undefinable sensation, of the nature of which all persons are conscious. It resides exclusively in the nervous system, hut may originate from various sources. Irritation, or excessive excitement of the nervous system, may produce it; it frequently precedes and accompanies inflammation; while it sometimes occurs in, and seems to be favored by, a state of positive depression, as is seen in the intense pain which is often experienced in a limb benumbed with cold, in the pain which not unfrequently accompanies palsy, and in the we’ll known fact, that neuralgia is the common result of general debility. Hence, pain must on no account be regarded as a certain indication of inflammation, although it rarely happens that pain is not felt at some period or other in inflammatory diseases. Moreover, the pain that belongs to inflammation, differs very much, according to the organ or tissue affected; the pain, for example, in inflammation of the lungs, differs altogether in character from that which occurs in inflammation of the bowels, and both these pains from that occurring in inflammation of the kidneys.

Pain differs not only in its character, which may be dull, sharp, aching, tearing, gnawing, stabbing, &c., but in its mode of occurrence; for example, it may be flying or persistent, intermittent, remittent, or continued. It is not always that the pain is felt in the spot where the cause of it exists. Thus, inflammation of the liver or diaphragm may cause pain in the right shoulder, the irritation caused by stone in the bladder produces pain at the outlet of the urinary passage; disease of the hip-joint occasions pain in the knee, disease of the heart is often accompanied with pain in the left arm, and irritation of the stomach often gives rise to headache. Pain is differently felt by persons of different constitutions and temperaments, some persons being little sensitive to painful impressions of any kind, while others suffer greatly from slight causes. There even seems to be national differences in this respect; and before the introduction of chloroform, it was a matter of common observation that Irishmen were always more troublesome subjects for surgical operations than either Englishmen or Scotchmen; and the negro is probably less sensitive to pain than any of the white races.

Although in most cases we are to regard pain merely as a symptom to be removed only by means which remove the lesion which occasions it, there are cases in which, although it is only a symptom, it constitutes a chief element of disease, and one against which remedies must be specially directed. As examples of these cases, may be mentioned neuralgia, gastralgia, colic, dysmenorrhoea, and perforation of the intestines; and in a less degree, the stitch of pleurisy, which, if not relieved, impedes the respiration, and the pain of tenesmus, which often causes such efforts to empty the lower bowel, as seriously to disturb the functions of the intestine, and to exhaust the strength.

For the methods of relieving pain, the reader is referred to the articles on the different diseases in which it specially occurs (as colic, neuralgia, pleurisy, &c.), and to those on chloroform, ether, indian hemp, morphia, narcotics, opium, &c.

PERFE’CTIONISTS, or BIBLE COMMUNISTS, popularly known us FREE-LOVERS, or preachers of Free Love, a small American sect who are equally remarkable for the doctrines which they hold, and for the unfaltering way in which they curry them out in practice. The founder of the sect. John Humphrey Noyes, was born at Brattleborough in Vermont, 11th September 1811, and practised as a lawyer. He then studied theology at Andover and Yale, and became a Congregationalist preacher. He soon adopted new views, and lost his license to preach. The opinions of St. Paul, he held, had been completely misconceived by all the Christian churches; all our ecclesiastical organizations were accordingly blunders. He believed that Christ, on his second advent ‘ in the spirit,’ in 70 A.D., abolished the old Law, and closed the reign of sin which began with Adam; and that he lias thenceforth set up His kingdom in the hearts of all willing to accept His reign. For such persons, there was no longer an}’ law or rule of duty; neither the Mosaic code, nor the Sermon on the Mount, nor the ordinances or institutions of civil society, were binding upon them; they were a law unto themselves; they were free to do as they pleased, but—with exceptions which, however, could not invalidate an eternal truth—under the influence of the Divine Spirit which dwelt in them, they could only do that which was right.

His early efforts at establishing a church, made at New Haven, were very discouraging, but he was more successful at Putney He and his converts, men and women, with their children, put their property into a common stock; they gave up the use of prayer, all religious service, and the observance of the Sabbath; those who were married renounced their marriage ties, and a ‘ complex marriage ‘ was established between all the males and all the females of the ‘ Family.’ To get rid of the inconveniences which had been found attendant upon the exercise of Christian liberty, Noyes had set up a new principle, viz., sympathy, by which the individual will was to be corrected, which practically imposed, upon individuals the duty of deferring to the feelings and opinions of the brethren. He now taught that the Family was wiser than the individual, who might stray from the path of grace; that the individual was erring when he differed from the Family; and that the inclinations of individuals must be submitted to the opinion of the Family.

Having dispensed with law, he set up public opinion as a controlling power in its stead; and free criticism of one another by the members of the society became an important feature of his system. Quarrelling, however, broke out among the members: their differences were brought before the law courts; and when the details of the Family system became known, the people of Putney made the place too hot for the Perfectionists. Then establishment was broken up; but a portion of the Putney Family —about fifty men, as many women, and about the same number of children—soon established themselves in a new home, in the sequestered district of Oneida, in the state of New York. Among the things which first drew attention to the Putney Family was a controversy which Noyes maintained with the leaders of another society of P. established at Oberlin. The P. were divided upon the question, whether of the two leading features of their system, the profession of holiness and the right of Christian liberty, the one or the other was the more important—some were ‘ Liberty-men,’ others ‘ Holiness-men.’ Noyes took up the controversy on behalf of the latter.

At Oneida Creek, the new ‘Family ‘ purchased about 600 acres of forest-land, and proceeded to bring it under cultivation. They have made it one of the most productive estates in the Union; they have also established manufactures of various kinds; and in the course of 30 years, they have become a prosperous, and even a wealthy community of about 250 persons, who live together in a state of great harmony and contentedness. Being already sufficiently numerous, the ‘ Family ‘ has to reject frequent applications which are made for admission to membership. A similar society has been established at Wallingford. Their neighbors have become accustomed to the P. and their ways, and let them live in peace. On settling at Oneida, the controlling function of criticism was strengthened by being made more systematic; and a regard for the common good, grown strong through habit, has made persons who disavow all laws perfectly submissive to the unwritten laws of public opinion.

In the smallest, as well as in important affairs, the Perfectionist practises submission to the opinion of his brethren : in small matters, he usually gathers it by consultation with some of the older members of the body; important ones are submitted to the ‘Family’ at their evening meetings. All are busy; and they work as hard for the general interest as men do in the hope of enriching themselves. The men wear no particular garb, but usually dress like the country people around them; the women have their hair cut short, and parted down the center; abjure stays and crinoline; wear a tunic, falling to the knee, and trousers of the same material; a vest, buttoning high towards the throat; and a straw hat. The ‘ Family ‘ lias breakfast at six o’clock, dinner at twelve, and the evening-meal at six in the afternoon; the more advanced of its members abstain from animal food; they drink no beer, and only a weak home-made wine; and like most of the new American sects, they will have nothing to do with doctors. The women are allowed a good deal of influence.

While all the males and females of the ‘ Family ‘ are united by a ‘complex marriage,’ their intercourse—which, in theory, is unfettered by any law—is, in practice, subject to a good deal of regulation. Like everything else, it is subject to the opinion of the society, and certain principles have been so steadily applied to it, that they have gained the force of laws. First, there is the principle of the ascending fellowship. There should be contrast, the P. say, between those who become united in love. That there should be difference of temperament and of complexion has, they say, been well ascertained by physiologists. They hold that there should be a difference in age also, so that the young and passionate may be united to those who have, by experience, gained self-control. In virtue of this principle, the younger women fall to the older men, and the younger men to the older women. A second principle is, that there should be no exclusive attachment between individuals; a third, that persons should not be obliged to receive the attentions of those whom they do not like; and lastly, it is held indispensable that connections should be formed through the agency of a third party—because, without this, the question of their propriety might be withdrawn from criticism, and also, because this affords a lady an easy opportunity of declining.

The human heart, the P. say, is capable of loving any number of times, and any number of persons at the same time, and the more it loves the more it can love. The system of the ‘ complex marriage ‘ is therefore suitable to, while monogamy imposes a restriction upon, human nature; and they believe that marriage will be spurned by the churches as soon as they get rid of the false notion of the essential sinfulness of love. They are confident that, when they have worked out a few details, still incomplete, their system will be perfect, and that it will, before long, be imitated throughout the length and breadth of America. There are four things, according to Noyes, necessary to the organization of a true family : (1) the reconciliation of its members with God; (2) their salvation from sin; (3) recognition of the brotherhood and equality of man and woman; (4) community of labor and its fruits; and communism can only prosper when the previous conditions exist. The P. hold that for reconciliation to God and salvation from sin nothing is necessary but faith; let a man believe that he is reconciled to God, and his sins are immediately washed away.

PAINTING (HOUSE), is one of the useful arts, combining much that is artistic with much that is absolutely necessary. The primary object of painting houses, or parts of them, either internally or externally, is to preserve them from decay—to cover the parts liable to suffer from exposure with a durable composition. That now used is made of ground white-lead mixed with linseed oil. This produces white paint, which forms the basis of all others. The various colors given to it are produced by the grinding of pigments (or stainers) along with the white-lead. The commonest of these are ochres (yellow and red earths), lampblack, Venetian red, umber, Prussian blue, chrome, vermilion, &c. Substances called driers are also mixed with the paint, such as spirits of turpentine, boiled oil, litharge and sugar of lead ground in oil. Paint may be laid on any material—stone, wood, iron, and plaster being the most usual in buildings. It has the effect of preserving these, by filling up the pores in them, and forming a coating on which the moisture of the atmosphere does not act. The paint is laid on in several coats or layers, each being allowed to dry before the next is applied. The usual number of coats for new wood or plaster varies from three to six. Five coats form a good and lasting protection from the weather. Plain painting is generally finished with a coat prepared with a mixture of oil of turpentine, which takes off the gloss from the paint, and leaves the surface quite mat or dead. This is called flatting.

A very common form of decoration in all ages has been to imitate the veins or colors of marbles, and the grains or marks of growth of various woods. In modern times, these arts form a separate branch of house-painting, some men being grainers, others marblers, &c. The mode in which these imitations are produced is by forming a grounding of several coats of plain paint—usually four —and applying the coloring coat over this. In marbling, the coloring matter is marked and veined with feathers, in place of brushes; and in graining, steel combs are used. When the surface is dry, it is protected with one or more coats of copal varnish.

Besides painting, the decorater uses paper-hangings for adorning the walls of houses. These are applied to the walls with paste. Size-coloring is also used; the coloring matter in this case being mixed with strong Size (q. v.) in place of oil; but this has the disadvantage of being easily acted on by moisture. It is often used for the ceilings of common rooms, and for the walls of kitchens and servants’ apartments, being much cheaper than oil-paint. In ancient times, in Greece and Rome, wax was used for mixing the colors with; but although there are many very fine specimens of Roman paintings still preserved on the walls of the houses of Pompeii, the mode in which these decorations were applied is not now known.

READING AND SPEAKING. Reading is the delivery of language from writing; speaking is the utterance of spontaneous composition. Reading is merely mechanical when words are intelligibly but unimpressively delivered; and it is oratorial in effect when the sentiment proper to the utterance is expressed by pauses, tones, emphasis, &c. Recitation from memory is another form of reading, the matter being delivered from a mental transcript. This mode is highly favorable to oratorical effect, but it is limited in application, and untrustworthy where exactness of phraseology is important. Speaking from spontaneous composition is the highest form of oratory. The qualities requisite for these are very different.

To read well involves a perfect understanding of the construction of sentences, and ability to analyse complex forms of composition, and discriminate between essential and expletive words; it also involves a nice perception of the qualities of modulation, and their relation to expressiveness, together with ability to regulate the voice so as exactly to suit the sound to the sense. The study of the art of reading is thus valuable as a means of improvement in composition, as well as for its influence in refining the taste, and exercising all the faculties of perception, expression, and adaptation.

In good reading, the thoughts of the writer must first be taken into the reader’s mind, and then delivered as the writer himself might have uttered them immediately on their conception. Children, when set to read language above their comprehension, are of necessity merely mechanical readers; and in this way they acquire habits of unintelligent reading, which are seldom perfectly thrown off in after-life. In silent reading, or the perusal of language for our own information, we gather the sense as we proceed, and correct misapprehensions by reflection; in reading aloud for the information of others, we must perfectly comprehend the matter before we utter it, so as to avoid misleading the hearer. A practised reader can, no doubt, exercise sufficient prevision at the time of reading, by keeping his eye in advance of his utterance, to read any ordinary composition fairly at first, sight; but for public reading this would be insufficient. Whatever is to be read in public should first be well studied in private. The reader thus knowing definitely what he has to express, will give forth no uncertain sounds, and his manner will have the freedom of memoriter delivery, without the disadvantage of its constraint upon the mind. His whole attention will be concentrated on the object of his reading, the effective conveyance of the-matter and spirit of the composition. The presence of the book before him will be necessary chiefly to give confidence, and prevent the possibility of rambling. The eye. assisted by memory, will take in clauses and even sentences at a glance, so that it may be freely raised during utterance.

If the eye of a reader is fixed on the book, be seems to be perusing it for his own information; but if he looks his hearers in the face, as, with due preparation, he should be able to do, his delivery may have all the qualities of spontaneous oratory, and be to the hearers speaking rather than reading. This effectiveness is rarely exemplified, because the requirements for public reading are so little understood, and so habitually neglected in our systems of education. The tameness, monotony, and rythmical singsong so generally associated with reading, have created a prejudice against the use of ‘paper’ in pulpit addresses, in consequence of which, in some churches, the practice of reading sermons is discountenanced, while in others it is positively interdicted. The quality of sermons, as compositions, is seriously impaired under such circumstances; but the cure for bad reading—against which the prejudice is directed—is good reading. All men cannot be orators, but all maybe taught to read oratorically; and were students systematically trained in this art, the services of the church would be rendered far more attractive and influential. In the absence of this training, preachers are the most ineffective of public speakers; and discourses prepared to be delivered from memory are among the meanest species of literary compositions.

The chief points of difference between ordinary reading and the utterance of spontaneous composition, are the uniform force and time, and continuative tones of the former, as contrasted with the reflective breaks and varying modulations and emphases of the latter. The speaker feels what he wishes to say, and he conveys with definiteness the felt relation of each word to the idea which is dominant in his mind. Expletive and explanatory phrases are given parenthetically; ellipses, interpolations between grammatically related words, similes, quotations, and all other elements of rhetorical style, are indicated by changes of modulation; and the point of every sentence is made unmistakably apparent. The reader sees all the parts of a sentence level to his eye, and he is apt to deliver them with a corresponding indiscriminativeness of manner; either without variety of time, tone, and stress, or with mere alternation of force and feebleness, or the equal indefiniteness of emphasis on every phrase.

The first requisite for effective reading is a clear conception of the author’s intention, together with such a command of the voice as may enable the reader to express that one meaning to the exclusion of all other possible meanings. For every cluster of words is like a many-sided crystal, which may be made to throw light from any of its facets, according as one or another of them is present uppermost. The most prominent word in the utterance of a sentence is not necessarily the most important grammatical word, but that which is new in reference to the context; and such words as are already before the mind—whether directly stated, inferentially included in former expressions, or otherwise implied—are pronounced with subordinateness of manner. Thus, in the following lines:

The quality of mercy is not strained,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

If the first line were read independently, it would be emphasized as follows:

The quality of mercy | is not strained;

but if read in connection with the preceding context, the emphasis would be different. Thus:

Portia. Then must the Jew have mercy.

Shylock. On what compulsion must I ? Tell me that.

‘ Mercy’ and the ‘ compulsion ‘ of mercy being thus already before the mind, the chief point in Portia’s reply will now be:

The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth, &c.

But, as to ‘drop’ is the natural characteristic of ‘rain,’ and as rain always falls ‘ from heaven,’ and necessarily ‘ upon the place beneath,’ these implied words will be pronounced subordinately, thus:

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath.

Bearing in mind, further, that mercy is of necessity ‘ blessed,’ the reader will proceed:

It is twice blessed :

and as the object of the speech is to solicit mercy, he will give prominence to the word that advances the suit. Thus:

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

On this principle, the reader shows that he has, in his own mind, performed the writer’s process of thought, and so made the language which he interprets virtually his own. But in order to express with definiteness the thoughts and sentiments thus adopt