centimes--a little more in Paris, and less in coal districts. If,
consequently, we fix the price of the cubic meter of gas at 50
centimes, we shall preserve a sufficient margin. In localities where a
natural motive power is at our disposal, this estimate will have to be
greatly reduced. We may, therefore, expect to see hydrogen and oxygen
take an important place in ordinary usages. From the standpoint alone
of preservation of fuel, that is to say, of potential energy upon the
earth, this new conquest of electricity is very pleasing. Waterfalls
furnish utilizable energy in every locality, and, in the future, will
perhaps console our great-grandchildren for the unsparing waste that
we are making of coal.--_La Nature._

* * * * *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 818, page 13066.]




MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND CAPABILITIES.

By A.J. HIPKINS, F.S.A.

LECTURE II.


I will now invite your attention to the wind instruments, which, in
Handel's time, were chiefly used to double in unison the parts of
stringed instruments. Their modern independent use dates from Haydn;
it was extended and perfected by Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber; and the