DIVISIBILITY.

THE actual subdivision of bodies has, in many cases, been carried to a prodigious extent. A slip of ivory, of an inch in length, is frequently divided into a hundred equal parts, which are distinctly visible. But, by the application of a very fine screw, five thousand equidistant lines, in the space of a quarter of an inch, can be traced on a surface of steel or glass with the fine point of a diamond, producing delicate iridescent colours. Common writing paper has a thickness of about the 500th part of an inch; but the pellicle separated from ox-gut, and then doubled to form gold-beater's skin, is six times thin

ner.

square inches. This wire being now flatted, the golden film suffers a farther extension, and has its thickness reduced to the four or five-millionth part of an inch. It has been asserted, that wires of pure gold can be drawn of only the 4000th part of an inch in diameter. But the late Dr. Wollaston, by an ingenious process, advanced much farther. Taking a short cylinder of silver, about the third part of an inch in diameter, he drilled a fine hole through the axis, and inserted a wire of platinum, only the 100th part of an inch thick. This silver mould was now drawn through the successive holes of a steel plate, till its diameter was brought to near the 1500th part of an inch, and, consequently, the internal wire being diminished in the same proportion, was reduced to between the four and five thousandth part of an inch. The compound wire was then dipped in warm nitrick acid, which dissolved the silver, and left its core, or the wire of platinum. By passing the incrusted platinum through a greater number of holes, wires still finer were obtained, some of them only the 30,000th part of an inch in diameter. The tenacity of the metal, before reaching that limit, was considerable; a platinum wire of the 18,000th part of an inch in diameter, supporting the weight of one grain and a third. Such excessive fineness is hardly surpassed by the filamentous productions of nature. Human hair varies in thickness, from the 250th to the 600th part of an inch. The fibre of the coarsest wool is about the 500th part of an inch in diameter, and that of the finest only the 1500th part.

A single pound of cotton has been spun into a thread seventy-six miles in length; and the same quantity of wool has been extended into a thread of ninety-five miles; the diameters of those threads being hence only the 350th and 400th part of an inch. But the ductility of some metals far exceeds that of any other substance. The gold-beaters begin with a riband an inch broad and one hundred and fifty inches long, which has been reduced, by passing through rollers, to about the 800th part of an inch in thickness. This riband is cut into squares, which are disposed between leaves of vellum, and beaten by a heavy hammer, till they acquire a breadth of more than three inches, and are therefore extended ten times. These are again quartered, and placed between the folds of gold-beaters' skin, and stretched out, by the operation of a lighter hammer, to the breadth of five inches. The same process is repeat- The silk line, as spun by the worm, is about the ed, sometimes more than once, by a succession of 500th part of an inch thick; but a spider's line is, lighter hammers; so that three hundred and seventy-perhaps, six times finer, or only the 30,000th part of six grains of gold are thus finally extended into two an inch in diameter; insomuch, that a single pound thousand leaves of 3.3 inches square, making in all of this attenuated substance might be sufficient to eighty books, containing each twenty-five leaves. encompass our globe. The red globules of the huThe metal is, consequently, reduced to the thinness man blood have an irregular, roundish shape, from of the 282,000th part of an inch, and every leaf the 2500th to the 3300th of an inch in diameter, weighs rather less than than the fifth part of a grain. with 'a dark central spot. The trituration and leviSilver is likewise capable of being laminated, but gation of powders, and the accidental abrasion and will scarcely bear an extension above half that of waste of the surface of solid bodies, occasion a disgold, or the 150,000th part of an inch thick. Cop-integration of particles, almost exceeding the powers per and tin have still inferiour degrees of ductility, and cannot, perhaps, be beat thinner than the 20, 000th part of an inch. These form what is called Dutch leaf.

of computation.

Emery, after it has been ground, is thrown into a vat, filled with water, and the fineness of the powder is distinguished by the time of its subsidence. In In the gilding of buttons, five grains of gold, which very dry situations, the dust lodged near the corners is applied as an amalgam with mercury, is allowed and crevices of ancient buildings is, by the continual to each gross; so that the coating left must amount agitation of the air, made to give a glossy polish to to the 110,000th part of an inch in thickness. If a the interiour side of the pillars and the less prominent piece of ivory or white satin be immersed in a nitro- parts of these venerable remains. So fine is the sand muriate solution of gold, and then plunged into a jar on the plains of Arabia, that it is carried sometimes of hydrogen gas, it will become covered with a sur-three hundred miles over the Mediterranean, by the face of gold hardly exceeding in thickness the 10, sweeping sirocco. Along the shores of that sea, the 000th part of an inch. The gilt wire used in em-rocks are covered by the pholas, a testaceous and broidery is formed by extending gold over a surface of silver.

A silver rod about two feet long and an inch and a half in diameter, and weighing nearly twenty pounds, is richly coated with about eight hundred grains of pure gold. In England, the lowest proportion allowed is one hundred grains of gold to a pound of silver. This gilt rod is then drawn through a series of diminishing holes, till it has stretched to the vast length of two hundred and forty miles, when the gold has, consequently, become attenuated eight hundred times, each grain covering a surface of 9500

edible worm, which, though very soft, yet, by unwearied perseverance, works a cylindrical hole into the heart of the hardest stone. The marble steps of the great churches in Italy are worn by the incessant crawling of abject devotees; nay, the hands and feet of bronze statues are, in the lapse of ages, wasted away by the ardent kisses of innumerable pilgrims that resort to those shrines. What an evanescent pellicle of the metal must be abraded at each successive contact! The solutions of certain saline bodies, and of other coloured substances, exhibit a prodigious subdivision and dissemination of matter.

A single grain of the sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol, will communicate a fine azure teint to five gallons of water. In this case, the copper must be attenuated at least ten millions times; yet each drop of the liquid may contain as many coloured particles, distinguishable by our unassisted vision. A still minuter portion of cochineal, dissolved in deliquiate potash, will strike a bright purple colour through an equal mass of water. Odours are capable of a much wider diffusion. A single grain of musk has been known to perfume a large room for the space of twenty years. Consider how often, during that time, the air of the apartment must have been renewed, and have become charged with fresh odour! At the lowest computation, the musk had been subdivided into three hundred and twenty quadrillions of particles, each of them capable of affecting the olfactory organs.

The vast diffusion of odorous effluvia may be conceived from the fact, that a lump of asafoetida, exposed to the open air, lost only a grain in seven weeks. Yet, since dogs hunt by the scent alone, the effluvia emitted from several species of animals, and from different individuals of the same race, must be essentially distinct. The vapour of pestilence conveys its poison in a still more subtile and attenuated form. The seeds of contagion are known to lurk, for years, in various absorbent substances, which scatter death on exposure to the air. But the diffusion of the particles of light defies all powers of calculation.

A small taper will illuminate the atmosphere to the distance of four miles; yet the luminous particles, which fill that wide concavity, cannot amount to the 5000th part of a grain, which may be the effort, as there is now upon one of them, named Gowhole consumption of the wax in light, smoke, and nong Api, a volcano, constantly emitting smoke, and ashes. Animated matter likewise exhibits, in many often flames. The first island, Banda Neira, is the instances, a wonderful subdivision. The milt of a chief settlement, and contains two forts: its harbour codfish, when it begins to putrefy, has been compu- is spacious, but difficult of access. The second isl ted to contain a billion of perfect insects; so that and is Banda Lantoir; the third and fourth in imthousands of these living creatures could be lifted on portance are Puloway and Pulorum. These four the point of a needle. But the infusory animalcules islands were the only places where the cultivation display, in their structure and functions, the most of the nutmeg was allowed by the Dutch, but there transcendant attenuation of matter. The vibrio undula are several others under that same government. found in duck-weed, is computed to be ten thousand What these islands produce in superfluities they want million times smaller than hemp-seed. The vibrio in necessaries. The soil was a rich black mould, lineola occurs in vegetable infusions, every drop con- but it produces no corn, the natives subsisting chieftaining myriads of those oblong points. Of the mo- ly upon sago. The nutmeg-tree grows like a pearnas gelatinosa, discovered in ditch water, millions tree in form and size; its leaf resembles that of the appear in the field of a microscope, playing, like the laurel, being of a bright green colour on the upper sunbeams, in a single drop of liquid. Insects have surface, and grayish underneath; when bruised it been discovered so small as not to exceed the 10, diffuses an aromatick perfume. The flowers are 000th part of an inch, so that 1,000,000,000,000 of small, white, and have no smell. The fruit is simi them might be contained within the space of one lar to a walnut in form, but more fleshy and full of cubick inch; yet each animalcule must consist of juice. This external pulp dries up to a crust of a parts connected with each other, with vessels, with deep yellow colour, which, opening at one side, disfluids, and with organs necessary for its motions, for closes a membraneous coat of a beautiful red teint, its increase, for its propagation, &c. How inconceiv-known to us by the name of mace, which lies imably small must those organs be! and yet they are, unquestionably, composed of other parts still smaller, and still farther removed from the perception of our

senses.

THE NUTMEG.

THIS tree, Myristica moschata, grows principally in a group of islands forming a part of the Moluccas, and called the Isles of Band; a cluster which seems o have been thrown up by the sea in some volcanick

mediately over the thin and brittle shell of the nut meg. This is the time to gather the fruit; if left longer upon the tree the mace would get loose, and the nutmeg would lose that oil which preserves it, and which is one of the great excellences of the fruit. The nutmegs which are gathered before they are perfectly ripe are preserved in vinegar or sugar, but are esteemed in Asia only. The nutmeg-tree yields three crops annually, the first in April, which is the best, the second in August, and the third in December, yet the fruit requires nine months to ripen

it; thus the tree bears fruit and blossoms at the same time. After the fruit is gathered the outer covering is stripped off, and the mace having been carefully separated from the kernel, is laid in the sun to dry. The nuts require more preparation; they are spread upon hurdles, and dried for six weeks before a slow fire, in sheds erected for that purpose. After this, they are separated from the shell and thrown into a strong mixture of lime and water, which is a necessary precaution to preserve them from worms: with the same intention the mace is sprinkled with salt water. After this process the fruit is cleaned, and packed up for exportation.

It appears from experience that only one third of the nutmeg-trees bear fruit, but this cannot be discovered until the twelfth or fourteenth year of their growth, therefore they must not be cut down at any earlier age. The fruit-bearing quality is of short duration, as the tree will yield only from the twelfth to the twentieth year, and generally perishes at the age of twenty-four years.

sea. It is thus, no doubt, that plants are conveyed from one island to another without the assistance of man. Where there are no rills to carry fruits to the sea, the want of moisture prompts these trees to bend over the ocean, and obtain from its evaporation the nourishment they require.

TOMB OF COLUMBUS.

THE cathedral church at Seville, which is so magnificent in its exteriour, and so richly furnished within, is highly deserving a place among the noblest edifices of the kind in Europe. It is four hundred and twenty feet in length, two hundred and sixty-three in breadth, within the walls, and one hundred and twenty-six in height. At one angle of the building rises a tower of Moorish workmanship, three hundred and fifty feet high, on the top of which is the Giralda, a brazen image, weighing nearly a tun and a half, yet so admirably poised as to turn with the gentlest breeze.

The ascent to the top of this lofty tower is rendered easy by a spiral path in the inside, of so gentle an inclination that a horse might trot up it, and so wide, that two horsemen may go abreast. While the traveller is lost in admiration of the external grandeur of this pile, he is equally astonished, on entering, to view its internal splendour and wealth. Eighty windows of beautifully painted glass shed their mellow light over fine paintings, noble statues, and altars of solid silver.

The nutmeg-tree delights in a damp soil overgrown with weeds, and even shaded by large trees, provided it be not stifled by them.. Under the shelter of the Canarium commune it thrives very well, and bears the cold which sometimes prevails on the tops of the mountains. The nutmeg differs in quality according to the age of the tree, the soil, and the method of culture. The round nutmeg is preferred to that which is oblong, though they are specifically the same fruit. It ought to be fresh, moist, heavy, of a good smell, and an agreeable though bitter flavour, and it should yield an oily juice when pricked. The islands are divided into a number of plantations under the management of a mixed race of Europeans and Indians. The Dutch made use of many illiberal means to secure to themselves the exclusive pos- The organ exceeds the famous one at Haarlem in session of these valuable productions; many trees the number of its stops; the former having one hunthey destroyed, reserving sufficient only to produce dred and ten, and the latter only sixty. Yet so efa certain quantity of nutmegs; but finding the cli- fective are the bellows of this mighty instrument mate of Banda very unhealthy, and that a great num-that, when completely inflated, they will supply the ber of their servants yearly fell victims to it, they full organ for fifteen minutes. None but they who attempted to transfer the culture of this spice to Am-have heard it can conceive the effect of this astonboyna; these experiments have, however, proved ishing combination of sounds when managed by a unsuccessful. master-hand.

Of this metal there is a profusion in this cathedral the statues of St Isidore and St Leander, as large as life, and a tabernacle for the host, twelve feet in height, adorned with columns, being of silver.

In 1774, the English navigator, Forrest, found in But the most interesting object to the intelligent a small island near New Guinea, called Manaswary, American is the tomb of the great Columbus, the a nutmeg-tree, the fruit of which was of an oblong discoverer of the New World. It is in itself unworform, but well flavoured. This enterprising man thy of the great man who sleeps beneath it, consistplucked up about a hundred stems of the tree, and ing of only one stone with this inscription—“ A planted them in 1776, on the island of Bunwoot, which Castella y Arragon otre mundo des Colom. ;" that is, had just been ceded to him for the East India Com-" To Castile and Arragon Columbus gave another pany by the Sultan of Mindanno. Bunwoot is situated to the northeast of Borneo, and is a fertile healthy spot, covered with beautiful trees.

Labilliardiere also found the nutmeg-tree upon the little island of Cocos, near the northern extremity of New Ireland. The fruit, which was unripe when he saw it, was oblong. This island is covered with evergreen trees, among which the Barringtonia speciosa is conspicuous. It extends its branches laden with flowers horizontally a great way over the sea. There are few cocoanut-trees, but many figs of different kinds. The crew observed floating along the shore, the fruits of several species of Pandanus (the screw pine,) of the Barringtonia, and of the Heritiera, which trees stretched their branches, and even their trunks, in a very remarkable manner over the

world." But no monument, however splendid, no inscription, however pompous, could have added to the fame of that illustrious man, or atoned for the base ingratitude with which he was treated; indeed, had a sumptuous cenotaph been erected over his remains, it would have ill agreed with the fetters which once loaded his limbs, and which are buried in the same coffin with him.

Besides this noble cathedral, Seville contains twenty-five parish-churches, five chapels, thirty-five monasteries, twenty-nine nunneries, with hospitals, and houses for other religious communities. Many of these convents are remarkable for the beauty of their architecture, and, as well as the churches, contain a profusion of fine paintings, among which are some by the celebrated Murillo.