cannot
eat lobsters, either fresh or tinned. Serious results have followed the
eating of not only oatmeal or shell fish, but salmon and mutton;
_hydrate_ (misreported _nitrate_) of tin being gratuitously suggested as
being contained in the salmon in one case. Possibly there were cases of
idiosyncrasy in the eater, possibly the food was unsound, possibly other
causes altogether led to the results, but certainly, to my mind, the tin
had nothing whatever to do with the matter.

In my opinion, given after well weighing all evidence hitherto
forthcoming, the public have not the faintest cause for alarm respecting
the occurrence of tin, lead, or any other metal in canned foods.--_Phar.
Jour, and Trans., March 8, 1884, p. 719_.

[In reference to Prof. Attfield's statement contained in the closing
paragraph, we remark: It is well known that mercury is an ingredient of
the solder used in some canning concerns, as it makes an easier melting
and flowing solder. In THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for May 27, 1876, in a
report of the proceedings of the New York Academy of Science, will be
seen the statement of Prof. Falke, who found metallic mercury in a can
of preserved corn beef, together with a considerable quantity of
albuminate of mercury.--EDS. S.A.]

* * * * *

VILLA AT DORKING.

The house shown in the illustration was lately erected from the designs
of Mr. Charles Bell, F.R.I.B.A. Although sufficiently commodious, the
cost has been only about 1,050_l_.--_The Architect_.

[Illustration: SUGGESTIONS IN ARCHTECTURE.--AN ENGLISH COTTAGE. COST,
$5,250.]

* * * * *

Valerianate of cerium in the vomiting of pregnancy is recommended by Dr.
Blondeau in a communication to the _Societe de Therapeutique_. He gives
it in doses of 10 centigrammes three times a day.--_Medical Record_.

* * * * *

[Illustration: ARM CHAIR IN THE LOUVRE COLLECTION, PARIS; FLENISH
RENAISSANCE.--_From The Workshop._]

* * * * *

TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

If there is one point more than another in which the exuberant youth and
vitality of the American nation is visible it is in that of education,
the provision for which is on a most generous scale, carried out with a
determination at which the older countries of the Eastern Hemisphere
have only arrived by slow degrees and painful experience. Of course the