Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

NICOTIANA . ' A genial professor once said to his students , " Smoke away , gentlemen ; it does not annoy me in the least . I look on tobacco in the same light as on bay . I don't eat it myself , but I like to see others enjoy it . " There is a neatly veiled hint behind the professor ' s seemingly affable observation , that , in his opinion , the youths were merely making beasts of themselves by indulging in this seductive habit j for habit it undoubtedly is , and a curious

one too , since we are quite unable to tell in the dark whether our pipe is alight or not , or , for that matter , our cigar or cigarette either , except for its glowing tip . However , could everyone regard the weaknesses of his fellow men in the same amiable and unselfish light as this dear old professor what a happy world this would be ! Thus writes one of its ardent

devotees" Sublime tobacco ! which from east to west , Cheers the tar's labour , or the Turkman ' s rest . " The first account of tobacco was published in 1496 by a Spanish monk , Romanus Pane , who had accompanied Columbus to America ; but it does not seem that Europeans smoked it until 1535 . It is , however , a question whether it did not find its way into Europe , like everything else , from the

East rather than from the West , for we find in Ulloa's " Voyage to America" : "It is not probable that the Europeans learnt the use of tobacco from America j for as it is very ancient in the Eastern countries it is natural to suppose that the knowledge of it came from those regions to Europe by means of the intercourse carried on with them by the commercial States of the Mediterranean Sea . Nowhere , not even

in those parts of America where the tobacco plant grows wild , is the use of it , and that only for smoking , either general or very frequent . " Some seed of the plant was sent from Portugal to Paris , by Jean Nicot , then French envoy to Queen Catherine de Medicis , in 1559 ; hence the name Nicotine . Its importation into this country is ascribed to Sir Francis Drake , about 1560 ; and the practice of smoking it to Sir Walter Raleigh ,

some 24 years later , when it was a luxury that could only be indulged in by the most wealthy . John Aubrey says that it was sold for its weight in silver , and that men preserved their biggest shillings to lay in the scales against the tobacco . The chemical qualities of the plant are peculiar . It owes its active character to the presence of a vegetable alkali , not found in any other plant , which has been named Nicotine , as stated above , and , as

will be noticed , from its equivalent ( C 10 H . N . ) it differs from most others in the absence of oxygen ; as also in its liquid condition at the ordinary temperature . Another peculiarity of the plant is the very large quantity of ash that it leaves when burnt , about one-fifth the weight of the dried leaf ; while a further distinguishing property is the great amount of nitre ( nitrate of potash ) present , to which is due its peculiar smouldering combustion ,

The scientists are much exercised nowadays as to whether smoking is injurious , for , except in rare cases , it cannot be either necessary or beneficial ; and even then it must be indulged in with caution . A Major Chalmers died some years ago , at Southampton , under remarkable circumstances . For many years he was alllicted asthmatically , and sought relief in smoking tobacco , steeped in turpentine .

One day , on applying a match an explosion occurred . His beard was burnt oft and serious injuries in the region of the chest sustained , with a fatal result . Since we are told that the enormous sum of ^ , 14 , 000 , 000 is puffed away each year in tobacco smoke , the question of its influence for good or ill on the world's health is of considerable importance . On one point there appears to be little doubt—namely , that Nicotine is fatal to a

large number of the microbes that cause some of our most serious sicknesses . The Italian Professor , Dr . Vincenzo Tassinari , finds ( 1 ) That the smoke of Cavour , Virginia , and Tuscan cigars , and all black and chopped tobaccos , possesses a very pronounced bactericide power , especially against the bacillus of Asiatic Cholera . ( 2 ) This microbicide action may , in all

probability , be attributed to the products of Nicotine . ( 3 ) In epidemics of cholera and typhus , the use of tobacco may be rather useful than hurtful . ( 4 ) Tobacco smoke merits special consideration on the hygiene of the mouth as a prophylactic means of combating microbian affections of the buccal cavity .

" Non-smokers have hitherto turned and declared , That the succus of baccy will kill us , But what say they now , Tassinari has proved That the sucking it slays the bacillus . " Sucking or drinking tobacco were the terms applied to smoking on the first

introduction of the plant into England . The native of India , to this day , says"Tamaku pita hai" ( He is drinking tobacco ) , which forms another link in the chain of argument , that the weed came to us from the East and not from the West . The earliest pipes were nothing but long leaves , rolled up into the shape of a funnel , still much in use among the natives of Hindustan . ( To be continued . )

Minor Artists And Architects In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

MINOR ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH .

( Continued . ) In the more ancient cities and towns houses of timber frame , but in a peculiar and not less ornamented style of carving , were frequent ; and in their fronts , towards the street and in the wainscoting of the apartments , the supporting figures were of extremely whimsical forms . It is not easy to determine what they were intended to represent . Those which have

remained to our own times might have been seen at Chester , Shrewsbury , Coventry , and Bristol , but in the last mentioned place most have vanished in the course of the last century , and their representations are preserved only in the portfolios of local antiquaries . On the Continent , although more ancient , as we have been merely imitators , they have been better preserved to the present day . All the eccentricities of the Burgundian

manner have been adopted in their buildings of timber-frame , as well as of brick and stone . Numerous and remarkable specimens may still be examined and admired at Rouen , Bruges , Nuremberg , and Strasburg , to which we could , at ho period , have offered examples of equal excellence . The age of Queen Elizabeth introduced so total a deviation from the plan of sepulchral monuments in the preceding reigns that it may be considered

Minor Artists And Architects In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

as a new style . Upon a large altar tomb of marble was erected an open arcade , having a very rich and complicated entablature . The columns were marble shafts , with capitals white or black of the Doric or Corinthian order . Small pyramidal figures , the sides of which were richly veneered with variously coloured pieces , disposed in ornamental squares or circles , supporting globes or balls . Armorial bearings were emblazoned , and the effigies painted and gilt in exact resemblance to the armour or robes in

which the noble deceased were invested during life . When these monuments were placed against a wall , which was more commonly done , the plan was accommodated to it , and the alcove , with its columns , universally retained . Not to mention inferior instances , the monuments of Ratcliff e , Earl of Sussex , at Boreham , before noticed ; of the Countess in Westminster Abbey ; of Dudley , Earl of Leicester , at Warwick ; and of Carey , Lord Hunston , in Westminster Abbey , will amply confirm 'these observations . The taste in which these monuments are executed

is alike cumbrous and confused ; and to the figures the anomaly of form with colour is indiscriminately applied . Of late years the drawings and plans of an unknown architect have been discovered . He was John Thorpe , who has left a folio of plans , now in possession of the Earl of Warwick . There are not many upright , but several ground plans of some of the palaces , and many of the seats of the nobility extant ,. erected or altered , at that period . Of some he

names himself the author ; of others he either designed , supervised , or proposed alterations ; though , according to the negligence of that age , hs is not circumstantial in particulars . There are ground plans of Somerset House ; of Buckhurst House , in Sussex , an immense pile ; of Woolaton , Copthall , Burleigh House , Burleigh-on-the-Hill ( the Dake of Buckingham ' s ) ;

Sir Walter Cope ' s , now Holland House , at Kensington ; Gidd y Hall , in Essex ; Audley Hill ; Ampthill , now called Houghton ; and Ampthill Old House , another spacious palace in which Catharine of Arragon some time resided , and of which he says he himself gave the plan of enlargement ; and Kirby , of which he laid the first stone in 1570 . ( To be continued . )

St. John's Wood And Some Of Its Celebrities.

ST . JOHN'S WOOD AND SOME OF ITS CELEBRITIES .

When one reflects on the possibilities of the garden grounds along the Regent ' s Canal , and the vast spaces of tree and turf in the residential portions of St . John ' s Wood , sacrificed to a line of railway that was not necessary , and will never pay—anyhow , within the next quarter of a century . —it is pitiable to think that such an opportunity of beautifying one of the most delightful of London suburbs has been wasted . Right on the frontier

of the ' grimly gay" corner of the Wood lived and died the author of " Adam Bede . " Her house , with its gables and quaint windows , still stands . Mr . Wilson Barrett rented the place after George Eliot ' s death , and gave many pleasant parties there . When he was moving to other quarters , during the dinner hour of the workpeople , a van arrived and loaded his very best examples of Chippendale and other eminent

cabinetmakers , and carried them safely away . The servants never thiueht of questioning the thieves ; a policeman , looking on , actually assisted them . Thomas Landseer , the distinguished engraver , lived near George Eliot . He crowned his career by a fine production of Rosa Bonheur ' s " Horse Fair . " The house of his illustrious brother—Sir Edwin—was round the corner . Mr . Pettie . R . A ., the great Scotch artist , did some of his best work

when he was a neighbour of Landseer in St . John ' s Wood-road , and Mr , Phil Morris won his A . R . A . almost next door , with Leslie , Wornum , Herbert , and other artists as neighbours . A little further north lived Santley and Harrison . Santley , whose grand voice still retains much of its beauty , Harrison , who , with Miss Pyne , did so much to advance the popularity of English opera , and Madame Titiens and Colonel Mapleson , who will always

be remembered in connection with Italian opera and Her Majesty s Theatre . Literature counted amonst its representative dwellers in St . John ' s Wood Theodore Hook , Tom Hood , Tom Moore , Douglas Jerrold , Hepworth Dixon , and Sir Thomas Hardy , while science and literature combined had an illustrious resident in Professor Huxley . Ledru . Rollin , Louis Blanc ,

Kossuth , and Karl Blind were foreign refugees in this artistic suburb . If you want to go back into early history there is plenty of interesting material . Still , keeping in the world of literature and art , you might walk in the footsteps of Sir Richard Steele , who , with Addison , may be said to have originated " periodical literature " with The Spectator . Travelling further afield to Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm , we run into the romance of very stirring times .

General Notes.

GENERAL NOTES .

The run of " Herod , " at Her Majesty's Theatre , will terminate on the evening of the 26 th instant , and Shakspere's comedy of " Twelfth Night " will be produced by Mr . Tree , on Thursday , 31 st . Taking " What you will , " the sub-title of the camedy , as the note of the production , Mr . Tree will endeavour to infuse into this version the " high fantastical " note which Shakspere evidently intended should permeate the piece .

Mrs . Patrick Campbell ' s next production at the Royalty Theatre will be a revival of " The Notorious Mrs . Ebbsmith , " by A . W . Pinero . During the season a few matinees will be given of " Pelleas and Melisande , " and " Mariana . "

We regret that the Great Queen-street Theatre should have been closed owing to the serious indisposition of Mr . Penley . We trust that the talented actor may soon be sufficiently recovered to again resume his professional duties .

BRO . THE LORD MAYOR and the Lady Mayoress will distribute the prizes awarded by the National Society of French Masters after the 16 th competition among English colleges and schools , at the Mansion House on Saturday , February 23 rd , at four o ' clock . Mons . Cambon , the French Ambassador , will bj ] present . THE ALDERSGATK PAST OFFICERS' CLUB . —The monthly m : etinr ot this club

was held last week at the Manchester Hotel . Bro . V . I . R . Longmin , C . C ., the president , occupied the chair , and there were also present : Bros . Deputy Goodin ^ e , T . Brings , L . C ., Rupert Smyth , and the Honorary Secretary ( J . Mayhen ) , and others . An excellent concert was subsequently given , under the management : A Mr . G . VV Weathersby , the president of the City Musical Union , whose health was drunk with musical honours on the proposition of the President .