lecturer was warmly applauded for the intelligent and familiar manner in which the subject was treated. He showed that heat affected material bodies in many wonderful ways, producing vast results by the most insidious means. It was the most powerful agent subservient to man. It drove his engines, blasted his rocks, melted his iron, preserved his life, and ministered in a thousand ways to his comfort and happiness. The lecturer then proceeded to explain some important features in connection with the sun as the primary source of heat from without, and as being seven times that of our most powerful furnaces, to which was added the heat derived from the so-called fixed stars. Glancing at the sources of heat from within, Mr. Savery remarked that far back in the lapse of time, the globe sped forth from the hands of its Maker a ball of liquid fire, gradually cooling down as it flew onward through space, until in course of time life was found on its surface. Even now we were living on a cooled surface of a globe of fire, it being calculated that at 40 miles below our feet there was a fluid mass of red-hot metal. This showed how easily the exact words of scripture could be fulfilled when “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and all that is therein shall be burnt up.” Having disposed of the natural sources of heat, Mr. Savery next referred to its artificial production, dividing it into two classes, mechanical and chemical, and here he illustrated his remarks with numerous experiments, using for his purpose potassium, phophorus(sic) and other substances. Closely connected with his theme was animal heat, in which it was stated that man was supposed to generate as much heat in the recesses of his frame in 24 hours as was equal to 50 ounces of charcoal, &c., &c., &c.
“Ancient Rome” was the heading of a lecture given at the Mechanics’ Institution on the 12th of February , by Mr. Drayson, previously of Canterbury, but then of St. Leonards. The period embraced by the lecture was from the birth of Romulus to the first Punic war. The lecturer was quite a young man, engaged in mechanical pursuits, but who, having his evenings unemployed, meritoriously set himself to work for a lecture that he might respond to the desire of the committee for some of the young members of the institution to help on the work of mutual improvement.
“Frictional Electricity” was ably dealt with in a lecture which Mr. J. Banks delivered at the Mechanics’ Institution on the 19th of February. He was however disappointed by the failure of some of his experimental illustrations, the moist condition of the atmosphere rendering his labours abortive. Two nights later, with the same lecture delivered in the Alfred-street Reading-room, Mr. Banks was altogether successful in manipulating a brilliant series of experiments. Mr. Banks’s lectures were always of an entertaining and instructive character, and the one here noticed was not exceptional in that notable feature.
