HOLY WATER AND BACTERIA.

The London "Lancet" has recently cited some instances where diseases were communicated by holy water, and many samples were taken from churches in different towns in Holland. The result was the discovery in most cases of abundant bacterial growth, with the occasional presence of staphylococci and other pathogenic forms. Two guinea pigs that were injected with the sediment from a font of a church in Amsterdam died in thirty hours. Mr. Bruns, of Arnhem, Holland, devised a means of completely avoiding contamination. The water is stored in a narrow-necked jar inverted in a shallow basin, so that the overflow from the jar ceases as soon as the water in the basin covers the neck of the jar. One end of a bent tube filled with hair is immersed in the water in the basin, and the other end, overhanging the edge delivers a constant stream of small drops raised by the capillarity of the hair. All these parts are inclosed in an ornamental open case so that the congregation have merely to hold their fingers for an instant in the stream. The apparatus has been sanctioned by ecclesiastical authority.

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CAN ANTS HEAR?

Whether ants can hear is a question which has engaged the attention of Mr. Weld, of Iowa University, for some time, and he has recently published an account of some of his experiments in science. He states that for many years it has been the accepted opinion among naturalists that these insects are not endowed with an acoustic sense, at least within the range of sounds perceptible to the human ear. This opinion is based upon the failure of experiments which showed that loud and shrill noises do not produce the slightest effect upon

ants. Mr. Weld, however, finds that this was not the case with several American species of these insects. He confined an ant in a test tube and brought it near a milled disk rotating in the air. At each sound which was produced, the ant showed unmistakable signs of agitation, quickly moving its head and antennae. Shrill noise were produced close to a colony protected under a glass, and the ants immediately showed signs of alarm. These experiments lead to the conclusion that at least some species of ants are capable of perceiving vibrations conducted through the air or other media which are audible to the human ear. This does not necessarily demonstrate that they hear in the strict sense of the word, but merely that they are capable of perceiving ordinary sounds.

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A NEW ORE OF NICKEL.

It

A new nickel, believed to be of great commercial value, has been discovered in the copper ore district of Houghton, Mich. It has been named Mohawkite, from the mine in which it was found. It was at first supposed to be a copper sulphide, but chemical examination indicated that it was a new mineral. possesses a silvery metallic lustre when freshly broken, with very irregular fractures. Chemical analysis shows that it is an arsenide of copper, similar to the domeykite, in connection with which is also found an arsenide of nickel. The possibilities offered by this combination are very great. Copper is more than ever a valuable metal, and is now commanding a high price, and nickel is now used in a large number of industries where twenty-five years ago a few tons only were used, in the subsidary coinage of the United States, so that the discovery of new ores and new bodies of an ore of nickel, may be regarded as of the greatest possible importance.

of the Scriptural texts relating to baptism. A Carnarvon Baptist says:-"This is the best news received from South Africa for a long time."

White, in his "Natural History of Selborne," notices that the people about him call the pigs with the word "Sic, sic." The word may be peculiar to Hants. The Welsh have their own way of calling domestic animals, viz.:Horses "cup, cup;" cows, "dewch, dewch;" pigs "beuks, beuks," and "soch," when you drive them from you; geese, "toole, toole;" ducks "bill, bill," &c.

When will people have done with analyzing and diagnosing the Celt? The Celt has suffered much from the generalisations of men imperfectly acquainted with him. What a crop of half-truns about him we have had recently! To Matthew Arnold's dictum that the Celt always reacts against the despotism of fact a glaring half-truth-is now to be added that of his relative, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, "the Celt shrinks from all active competitive existence." Is this half a truth even?

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A bewildered correspondent wishes us to solve a difficulty in his search for a "Cymro o waed coch cyfan" in Cardiganshire. According to Dr. John Rhys, the Cardigan substratum was Aryan race. On top of that came the Gwyddel, next the Brython, then Roman, next the Saxon and Dane; then, in more recent years, the Flemings and a large importation of Cornishmen and Englishmen to work the mines, and now there is a large consignment of Italians in the northern division of the county for the same purpose. Yet, in course of time the mixture always talks Welsh.

The Bard of Ammanford, spends his leisure time these days in composing the words of an opera for Dr. Joseph Parry, the subject being "The Maid of

Cefn Ydfa," which "Watcyn Wyn" treats in an original and striking manner. The work when finished will be translated into English by that genial musical critic, Mr. Joseph Bennett, of the "Daily Telegraph," the one Englishman who has a thorough knowledge of Welsh tastes, having attended the National Eisteddfod for the past quarter of a century. "The Maid of Cefn Ydfa" will be performed at Liverpool.

The fallacious idea widely prevails that voice is everything. True, no singer can be evolved but of one who does possess a suitable vocal organ. But that organ must be exercised and developed. Of late years we have made great strides in solo singing, due chiefly to a few talented teachers amongst us who have devoted themselves to this branch of the art, and it needs no repeating that, whenever possible, our young singers should place themselves under such tuition. But, as already indicated, we are now concerned chiefly with the case of those to whom such like assistance is not feasible.

In the Welsh Chronicles we read that in the year 1135 a hard-fought battle took place at Aberdyfi, between the Welsh, under the command of the sons of Gruffydd ab Cynan and Gruffydd ab Rhys, and the united forces of the Flemings and the Normans, the latter being Numbers defeated with immense loss.

of them were slain, many were drowned, many were trodden to death, and large numbers fled away and attempted to escape to England. But they were met in the Vale of Neath, where, according to the Book of Aberpergwm, 3,000 of them were slain, the remnant driven back took refuge in Gower, under the protection of the castles which had been erected by Henry Beaumont.

An interesting study for the historian of the future will be the various instruments and implements and pretexts

employed by Welshmen in attempts to get around and through the Welsh Sunday Closing Act. What with tin belly cans, secret pockets, shebeens supplied by taps from next door, stables furnished with gas jets leading from the beer cask on the floor above, clubs, indoor and outdoor, and a multitudinous assortment of verbal excuses, the Act has been assaulted and bombarded with every conceivable kind of ingenuity. And now an Irish lady at Penydarren has added, one more curious effort to the list, for she has made use of her stockings to secretly carry away brandy. On being searched no fewer than four small bottles of brandy were found concealed in the lady's hose.

The time and place of St. David's birth no one knows; so that North and South Wales have equal right to claim him as its own. He died in 601, and so lived during the remarkable political revival of Wales under the sons of Cunedda Wledig, in the sixth century, and the equally great religious revival described by Gildas, which gave to Wales its seven bishoprics. Two of these bishoprics were in Mid-Wales-one in Llanafan Fawr in Brecon, and the other in Llanbadarn Fawr in Cardigan. Both these have long disappeared, the former for a reason unknown, the latter for a reason which brings a blush of shame with its very recollection. For in 720 the rowdy inhabitants of Llanbadarn rose in revolt against their bishop, Idnerth, and slew him within the precincts of the Church, when, as a punishment, the bishopric was merged in the see of St. David's.

The impression of foreigners respecting our popular institutions are always interesting. The magazine of the University College of North Wales gives in its last number several interesting excerpts from an article written by Professor Schuchardt, who toured North Wales some time ago. One week he

seems to have given to sermons; the next he gave to the songs and secular pleasures of the National Eisteddfod. He was veritably impressed by the sermons; he was delighted with the songs. Welsh sermons, he declares, are better than German sermons. Welsh preachers deliver their sermons with confidence, vivacity, earnestness. But they did not altogether convince him.

It is a pity that greater care has not been exercised by the Ordnance Survey in the matter of Welsh place-names. These, as they appear on the ordnance map, are frequently misleading, and confusion has at times been made worse confounded by the efforts of amateur advisers to set the English officials right. The authorities have at length begun to recognise the fact that it requires a Welsh scholar, and a scholar who can personally cover the ground contained in any map, to produce anything like correct renderings of placenames. Some districts of North Wales (says the "Liverpool Mercury") are now being systematically worked in this fashion by competent local scholars, and the results in many instances amply justify the additional cost. The same principle might with advantage be applied to every part of Wales.

In continuation of his articles on Wales in "Les Cloches Breton," M. Jaffrennou has now written a very fine appreciation of the works of the Welsh poet Ceiriog, to whose lyrics Professor Zimmer the other day paid so remarkable a tribute. In his study of the life and works "Du Barde Ceiriog," M. Jaffrennou devotes his warmest praises to the sorrows and charms of "Myfanwy." No one, he says, can read "this magnificent poem, touching history of a young maid of Llangollen, without being seized by an emotion at once powerful and natural. All is there called together that can move heart and mind. It is superb in its beauty and its simplicity,

while at the same time it paints faithfully the old Welsh traditions."

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In Glamorganshire we had the set measure, the old Welsh "Triban," measure, says Lewys Morys o Fon, as old as the Book of Job. The following translations of the old tribanau may serve to give the English reader a faint idea of Welsh tribanau, which are most of them ke these, remarkable for their quaintness as well as for the epigrammatic point with which they terminate: No cheat it is to cheat a cheater; No treason to betray the traitor; Nor is it theft-I'm not deceivingTo thieve from him who lives by thieving.

Three things there are that ne'er stand still,

A fog upon a high-top hill;

A snail the naked stones among;
And Twm the Miller's rattling tongue.

Three things 'tis difficult to scan-
The day, an aged oak, and man;
The day is long, the oak is hollow,
And man-he is a two-faced fellow.

oxen were

In the "Oswestry Observer" for 1882 is a most interesting communication respecting the songs sung to oxen in Radnorshire long ago, when yoked to the plough. It reads:-"Seventy years or so ago the Vicar of Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant had oxen working on his farm. The driver, Edward Humphreys, sang to them a rhigwm (doggerel rhyme), made up of penillion suitable to the occasion, the following being part of the interminable song:

Yn syth ac yn union,
O dan y coed ceimion,

Fy ngweision aur i;

Tair blynedd i hyn Buoch yn yfed y llefrith gwyn. And occasionally he would talk to the oxen, thus: 'Dowch, druain; dowch, druain; heddyw fel doe, a doe fel heddyw, ac fel y diwrnod o'r blaen.' It was considered necessary that the driver, armed with a long stick (which was

called 'yerthyd' in Glamorganshire) or rod, be a good singer, and have his memory well stocked with appropriate penillion (stanzas) in order to soothe and encourage the oxen to work steadily."

This is the way the "Cardiff Times" compliments the ability of our friend, the "Drych:" "No one, we imagine, would accuse the American 'Drych' of any want of loyalty to Wales and the Welsh. Our contemporary, however, has a knack of saying some very unpalatable things about Welsh characteristics, and, as a rule, the statements have a pretty solid foundation. Thus in a recent article on "Our National Defects' the 'Drych' leader writer observes:-'Our horizon is too restricted. We are content with small achievements. We like not aims and objects that demand persistent effort. We magnify small things, and belittle things that are great. We are more anxious to preach than to learn to preach; fonder of singing than of learning music, and have a greater 'esire to become poets than to master the rules of poetry.' And concluding the 'Drych' applies to Welshmen the remark made by Bacon of another nation:-'Our wisdom is loquacious and unproductive of effects.""

The fourth part of the "Life and Letters of Dr. Lewis Edwards" carries the correspondence up to the year 1848. Most of it relates to business matters concerning the "Traethodydd," but there are one or two typical passages. Writing to Mr. Matthews, of Aberystwyth, (the grandfather of Mr. Roderick Matthews, of the electrical department of the Cardiff Post Office), he says:-"I really do not know what will become of our connexion. The wretched way in which our ministers are paid is a burning shame to us, and I must confess that I am not sorry to see Caledfryn's exposure of us in the 'Carnarvon Herald.'