s are comparatively a
harmless relic. In Paris we remember seeing a round-frocked peasant,
apparently just from the plough, pacing the polished floor of the Louvre
gallery with rough nailed shoes, and then resting on the velvet topped
settees; and he was admitted _gratis_. Would such a person,
tendering his shilling, be admitted to the Exhibition at Somerset House?

* * * * *

DOMESTIC CHEMISTRY.

_Elements of Chemistry familiarly explained and practically
illustrated_.

This is an excellent little work by Mr. Brande: it is not avowedly so,
although everyone familiar with his valuable Manual of Chemistry will
soon identify the authorship. The present is only the first Part of this
petite system, containing Attraction, Heat, Light, and Electricity.
It is, as the author intended it to be, "less learned and elaborate
than the usual systematic works, and at the same time more detailed,
connected, and explicit than the 'Conversations' or 'Catechisms.'"
It avoids "all prolixity of language and the use of less intelligible
terms;" and, to speak plainly, the illustrative applications throughout
the work are familiar as household words. Witness the following extract
from the effects of Heat:

_Ventilation--Heating Rooms_.

"In consequence of the _lightness_ of heated air, it always rises
to the upper parts of rooms and buildings, when it either escapes, or,
becoming cooled and _heavier_, again descends. If, in cold weather,
we sit under a skylight in a warm room, a current of cold air is felt
descending upon the head, whilst warmer currents, rising from our bodies
and coming into contact with the cold glass, impart to it their excess
of heat. Being thus contracted in bulk, and rendered specifically
heavier, they in their turn descend, and thus a perpetual motion is kept
up in the mass of air. This effect is attended with much inconvenience
to those who inhabit the room, and is in great measure prevented by the
use of double windows, which prevent the rapid cooling and production of
troublesome currents in the air of the apartment.

"We generally observe, when the door of a room is opened, that there are
two distinct currents in the aperture; which may be rendered evident
by holding in it the flame of a candle. At the upper part it is blown
outwards, but inwards at the lower part; in the middle, scarcely any
draught of air, one way or other, is perceptible.

"The art of ventilating rooms