t have people so deluded themselves as with the barometer.
Meteorology having become almost an official monopoly, the officials
seem to have made the readiest and largest amount of reputation out of
the barometer as a weather glass; for all that they have had to do is to
compile rules from a number of authors, without any necessity of
acknowledgment, print as much as they please at the Government expense,
give it away freely, and the notoriety of authorship is secured easily
and expeditiously. Thus the British nation has been officially supplied
with about eighteen different editions of the Barometer Manual, widely
differing from each other according to the views of the authors; for
although the book remains the self-styled authors change, much the same
as with the Cambridge books on mathematics. A study of the edition,
"Coast or Fishery Barometer Manual," teaches that the barometer
foretells coming weather; that it does not always foretell coming
weather; that only few are able to understand much about what it does
tell us; that it may be used by ordinary persons without difficulty;
that its indications are sometimes erroneous: that any one observing it
once a day may be always weatherwise; that its warnings do not apply
always to the locality of the instrument; that storms frequently occur
without its giving any warning; that barometer depressions happen with
and without gales; and similar ambiguous or contradictory assertions ad
nauseam. It is perfectly astounding to contemplate that official
authority sanctions such inconsistent teaching, and moreover
disseminates it far and wide, forcing its circulation by giving it away
gratuitously on humane and eleemosynary grounds. Where only such
confusing advice and direction can be given is it becoming to stamp it
as official? it is lamentable inconsiderateness to expect fishermen to
be able to dodge the weather by such guidance; and it is time to stop
this easily concocted nostrum for notoriety; for it is vague and
inconclusive in every precept, and has scarcely an assertion which is
not contradicted by some other.--_Engineering._

A Remarkable Electrical Discovery.

The London Times of recent date states that a new electrical contrivance
has been perfected by Mr. A. St. George, the inventor of the telephone
which bears his name. This invention, which is really supplemental to
the telephone, will enable every description of conversation carried on
through the instr