be correct, we have at once valuable data by which to test the
question of increase of magnitude. The matter will shortly be
discussed by one of our scientific societies. Meantime, the
reclamation of a new county from the sea is going on on the
Lincolnshire coast; and there appears to be a prospect of a similar
work being undertaken on the western shore--at Liverpool. Mr G. Rennie
has prepared a plan for a breakwater five miles long, to be
constructed at the mouth of the Mersey, stretching out from Black Rock
Point. If carried into execution, it will reclaim a vast extent of
sandbanks lying within it, and greatly improve the navigable channel
of the river. A proposal has been made to apply sewage manure to the
reclaimed land, in such ways as will constitute a satisfactory trial
of this means of fertilisation; and also to reserve suitable portions
as sites for building societies. Such a project as this would be
worthy of the enterprise of Liverpool; but it would be well for the
promoters to bear in mind a fact which has lately been urged, that by
encroaching on the space of an estuary, you prevent the inflow of the
tide, and consequently diminish or weaken the outflow, whereby the
whole harbour becomes shallower, and the bar at the mouth augments in
bulk.

Although there is nothing extraordinary to talk about in the way of
scientific discovery at present, workers in science are not idle, and
are steadily pursuing their investigations. Faraday has added another
chapter to his 'Experimental Researches in Electricity;' Mr Grove has
contributed somewhat to our knowledge of the 'Polarity of Gases;' a
paper by Mr Wharton Jones, entitled 'Discovery that the Veins of the
Bat's Wing (which are furnished with Valves) are endowed with
Rythmical Contractility, and that the Onward Flow of Blood is
accelerated by each Contraction,' is considered to be decisive of a
question of some importance in physiology--namely, that the
circulation of the blood in the wings is independent of the motion of
the heart. Mr Huxley's paper in the Philosophical Transactions is also
a remarkable one--one of those which really constitute progress.
Although it is not easy to give a popular exposition of it, I may tell
you that it discusses the subject of 'alternate generation;' a
favourite one, as you will remember, with several naturalists,
according to whom, certain of the _Medusae_ are of one sex at one
period of their lives, and of the other sex at ano