Part 57

The scientific pedant of the Middle Ages displayed his profundity by continually quoting Aristotle and other “ancients.” His modern successor does the like by decorating his pages with displays of algebraical formulæ. In order to secure the proper respect of my readers I here repeat the equation that I enunciated many years ago, “c = s/p” where c stands for civilization, s for the quantity of soap consumed per annum, and p the population of a given community.

Geologists who may be interested in seeing the results of this experiment, will find on the Edgbaston Vestry Hall, in Enville Road, near the Five Ways, Birmingham, some columns, massive window pieces, doorways, and ornamental steps cast from the fused Rowley Rag and slowly cooled.

In each of my three visits to America 1 lost about thirty pounds in weight, which I recovered within a few months of my return to the “home country” (of English-speaking nations).—RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

Since the above was written, a correspondent in Paris tells me that a caricature exists, representing a Frenchman enjoying an open fire by standing on his head in the middle of the room.

See foot-note, page 365.

I tried the seeds given to me by Messrs. Carter, and find them to produce the same plant as my own, which I still cultivate very successfully. I now sow it in the spring as a kitchen garden border.

Subsequent experiments induce me not to recommend this economy, on account of the bagging which results from excessive width between the frames; 3 feet should not be exceeded.

I have followed up Mr. Trewby’s hint, and find that more than one quality of scrim is made. The best, made entirely of flax, costs rather more than the 2¼d. stated in the estimate, but it is the cheapest practically. The best I have seen is that used in the Houses of Parliament.

Watt’s own figure for the latent heat of steam at 212° was 950°, but I adopt that which is now generally accepted.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

The original text contained many typographical errors. The simple ones were corrected without comment here; others are noted below.

Unbalanced quotation marks were corrected, as proper placement always could be determined.

Some typographical errors probably remain undetected.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.

Text uses both “Acadamy” and “Academy”; both retained here.

Page 336: “The disagreeable sensation experienced by Dr. Siemens in the stove-heated railway cars, etc., were probably due to this” was printed that way. Either “sensation” should be “sensations” or “were” should be “was”.