of its most pleasing
features. This style flourished principally in Italy and France. Farnese
Palace and the tombs of the Medicis are noted examples.

3. _The Louis Quatorze._--This style succeeded the Cinquecento, but was
far inferior to it. It arose in Italy, and while preserving generally the
materials of the style that preceded it, it added as characteristic
features the scroll and the shell. Its principal object was to create
brilliant and startling effects in light and shade. Color was, in
consequence, decidedly secondary, gilding being used everywhere. The Palace
of Versailles, near Paris, is a gorgeous example of this style. Everything
in it is glittering and sparkling. Mirrors are everywhere placed to
intensify this effect. This style was followed by the Louis Quinze,
inferior to it in every respect, and in which symmetry, at least in detail,
seems to be carefully avoided. It still further degenerated into the
Rococo, the most extravagant and exaggerated of all the historic styles,
and which prevailed in the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the
19th century.

The present century cannot boast of any great characteristic style in
either architecture or ornament. Whether it is only in a course of
development, and what will be the results, time only can show. All styles
are now in vogue, hence the importance of accurate knowledge on the
subject. To be able to judge of and appreciate the best, and to profit by
the labors of those gone before us, at the same time imparting
individuality and character to our own design, should be the aim and object
of the study of decoration, and it should enter into any scheme of general
education and culture.--_Journal of Education_.

* * * * *

THE MONTAUD ACCUMULATOR.

This accumulator is of the Plante type, and is modified so as to obtain a
more rapid formation, a larger surface, and a symmetrical distance of the
plates from each other. If into an alkaline bath saturated with litharge
(added in excess) we plunge two lead electrodes and pass in a current of
suitable tension and intensity, there is deposited upon the anode a layer
of peroxide of lead varying in thickness with the intensity of the current,
and more or less rich in oxygen according to the intensity of the bath,
while the cathode is covered with a stratum of reduced lead. The liquid of
the bath supplies material for both deposits, while in galvanoplastic
operati