nail was discovered close by that door; the thief might have dropped it on putting out his light, which, by the valet's account, he must have done, when he was near the door in question, and required the light no more. Another circumstance in Losely's favour. Just outside the door, near a laurel-bush, was found the fag-end of one of those small rose-coloured wax-lights which are often placed in lucifer-match boxes. If this had been used by the thief, it would seem as if, extinguishing the light before he stepped into the air, he very naturally jerked away the morsel of taper left, when, in the next moment, he was out of the house. But Losely would not have gone out of the house; nor was he, nor any one about the premises, ever known to make use of that kind of taper, which would rather appertain to the fashionable fopperies of a London dandy. You will have observed, too, the valet had not seen the thief's face. His testimony rested solely on the colours of a cloak, which, on cross-examination, might have gone for nothing. The dog had barked before the light was seen. It was not the light that made him bark. He wished to get out of the courtyard; that looked as if there were some stranger in the grounds beyond. Following up this clue, the lawyer ascertained that a strange man had been seen in the park towards the grey of the evening, walking up in the direction of the house. And here comes the strong point. At the railway station, about five miles from Mr Gunston's, a strange man had arrived just in time to take his place in the night train from the north towards London, stopping there at four o'clock in the morning. The station-master remembered the stranger buying the ticket, but did not remark his appearance. The porter did, however, so far notice him as he hurried into a first-classcarriage, that he said afterwards to the station-master, Why, that gentleman has a grey cloak just like Mr Losely's. If he had not been thinner and taller, I should have thought it was Mr Losely.' Well, Losely went to the same station the next morning, taking an early train, going thither on foot, with his carpet-bag in his

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hand; and both the porter and station-master delared that he had no cloak on him at the time; and as he got into a second-class carriage, the porter even said to him, Tis a sharp morning, sir; I'm afraid you'll be cold.' Furthermore, as to the purpose for which Losely had wished to borrow of the money-lender, his brother-in-law stated that Losely's son had been extravagant, had contracted debts, and was even hiding from his creditors in a county town, at which William Losely had stopped for a few hours on his way to London. He knew the young man's employer had written kindly to Losely several days before, lamenting the son's extravagance; intimating that unless his debts were discharged, he must lose the situation in which otherwise he might soon rise to competence, for that he was quick and sharp; and that it was impossible not to feel indulgent towards him, he was so lively and so good-looking. The trader added that he would forbear to dismiss the young man as long he could. It was on the receipt of that letter that Losely had entered into communication with the money-lender, whom he had come to town to seek, and to whose house he was actually going at the very hour of Gunston's arrival. But why borrow of the money-lender, if he had just stolen more money than he had any need to borrow?

"The most damning fact against Losely, by the discovery in his possession of the £5 note, of which Mr Gunston deposed to have taken the number, was certainly hard to get over; still an ingenious lawyer might have thrown doubt on Gunston's testimony-a man confessedly so careless might have mistaken the number, &c. The lawyer went, with these hints for defence, to see Losely himself in prison; but Losely declined his help-became very angry-said that he would rather suffer death itself than have suspicion transferred to some innocent man; and that, as to the cloak, it had been inside his carpet-bag. So you see, bad as he was, there was something inconsistently honourable left in him still. Poor Willy! he would not even subpoena any of his old friends as to his general character. But even if he had, what could the Court do since

he pleaded guilty? And now dismiss that subject, it begins to pain me extremely. You were to speak to me about some one of the same name when my story was concluded. What is it?"

"I am so confused," faltered Lionel, still quivering with emotion, "that I can scarcely answer youscarcely recollect myself. But-but -while you were describing this poor William Losely, his talent for mimicry and acting, I could not help thinking that I had seen him." Lionel proceeded to speak of Gentleman Waife. "Can that be the man?" Alban shook his head incredulously. He thought it so like a romantic youth to detect imaginary resemblances.

"No," said he, "my dear boy. My William Losely could never become a strolling player in a village fair. Besides, I have good reason to believe that Willy is well off; probably made money in the colony by some lucky hit for when do you say you saw your stroller? Five years ago? Well, not very long before that date -perhaps a year or two-less than two years I am sure-this eccentric rascal sent Mr Gunston, the man who had transported him, £100! Gunston, you must know, feeling more than ever bored and hipped when he lost Willy, tried to divert himself by becoming director in some railway company. The company proved a bubble; all turned their indignation on the one rich man who could pay where others cheated. Gunston was ruined-purse and character-fled to Calais; and there, less than seven years ago, when in great distress, he received from poor Willy a kind, affectionate, forgiving letter, and £100. I have this from Gunston's nearest relation, to whom he told it, crying like a child. Willy gave no address; but it is clear that at the time he must have been too well off to turn mountebank at your miserable exhibition. Poor, dear, rascally, infamous, big-hearted Willy," burst out the Colonel. "I wish to Heaven he had only robbed me!"

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Sir," said Lionel, “rely upon it, that man you describe never robbed any one-'tis impossible."

"No-very possible !-human na

ture," said Alban Morley. "And, after all, he really owed Gunston that £100. For out of the sum stolen, Gunston received anonymously, even before the trial, all the missing notes, minus about that £100; and Willy, therefore, owed Gunston the money, but not, perhaps, that kind, forgiving letter. Pass onquick-the subject is worse than the gout. You have heard before the name of Losely-possibly. There are many members of the old Baronet's family; but when or where did you hear it?"

"I will tell you; the man who holds the bill (ah, the word sickens me), reminded me when he called that I had seen him at my mother's house-a chance acquaintance of hers

professed great regard for megreat admiration for Mr Darrelland then surprised me by asking if I had never heard Mr Darrell speak of Mr Jasper Losely."

Jasper!" said the Colonel; "Jasper!-well, go on."

"When I answered 'No,' Mr Poole (that is his name) shook his head, and muttered-A sad affair-very bad business-I could do Mr Darrell a great service if he would let me;' and then went on talking what seemed to me impertinent gibberish about 'family exposures' and 'poverty making men desperate,' and better compromise matters;' and finally wound up by begging me, ‘if I loved Mr Darrell, and wished to guard him from very great annoyance and suffering, to persuade him to give Mr Poole an interview.' Then he talked about his own character in the City, and so forth, and entreating me not to think of paying him till quite convenient; that he would keep the bill in his desk; nobody should know of it; too happy to do me a favour'-laid his card on the table, and went away. Tell me, should I say anything to Mr Darrell about this or not?"

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Certainly not, till I have seen Mr Poole myself. You have the money to pay him about you? Give it to me, with Mr Poole's address; I will call and settle the matter. Just ring the bell." (To the servant, entering) "Order my horse round." Then, when they were again alone, turning

to Lionel abruptly, laying one hand on his shoulder, with the other grasp ing his hand warmly, cordiallyYoung man," said Alban Morley, "I love you-I am interested in you --who would not be? I have gone through this story; put myself positively to pain-which I hate- solely for your good. You see what usury and money-lenders bring men to. Look me in the face! Do you feel now that you would have 'the moral courage you before doubted of? Have you done with such things for ever?"

"For ever, so help me Heaven! The lesson has been cruel, but I do thank and bless you for it."

spoiled by women-if Charles Haughton, on entering life, could have seen, in the mirror I have held up to you, the consequences of pledging the morrow to pay for to-day, Charles Haughton would have been shocked as you are, cured as you will be. Humbled by your own first error, be lenient to all his. Take up his life where I first knew it; when his heart was loyal, his lips truthful. Raze out the interval; imagine that he gave birth to you in order to replace the leaves of existence we thus blot out and tear away. In every error avoided say "Thus the father warns the son;' in every honourable action, or hard self-sacrifice, say-Thus the son pays a father's debt.'

Lionel, clasping his hands together, raised his eyes streaming with tears, as if uttering inly a vow to Heaven. The Colonel bowed his soldier-crest with religious reverence, and glided from the room noiselessly!

BLOOD is a mighty river of Life, the mysterious centre of chemical and vital actions as wonderful as they are indispensable, soliciting our attention no less by the many problems it presents to speculative ingenuity, than by the many practical conclusions to which those speculations lead. It is a torrent impetuously rushing through every part of the body, carried by an elaborate network of vessels, which, in the course of the twelvemonths, convey to the various tissues not less than three thousand pounds' weight of nutritive material, and convey from the various tissues not less than three thousand pounds' weight of waste. At every moment of our lives there is nearly ten pounds of this fluid rushing in one continuous throbbing stream, from the heart through the great arteries, which branch and branch like a tree, the vessels becoming smaller and smaller as they subdivide, till they are invisible to the naked eye, and then they are called capillaries (hair-like vessels), although they are no more

to be compared in calibre with hairs than hairs are with cables. These vessels form a network finer than the finest lace-so fine, indeed, that if we pierce the surface at almost any part with the point of a needle, we open one of them, and let out its blood. In these vessels the blood yields some of its nutrient materials, and receives in exchange some of the wasted products of tissue; thus modified, the stream continues its rapid course backwards to the heart, through a system of veins, which commence in the myriad capillaries that form the termination of the arteries. The veins, instead of subdividing like the arteries, become gradually less and less numerous, their twigs entering branches, and the branches trunks, till they reach the heart. No sooner has the blood poured into the heart from the veins, than it rushes through the lungs, and from them back again to the heart and arteries, thus completing the circle, or circulation.

This wondrous stream, ceaselessly

circulating, occupies the very centre of the vital organism, midway between the functions of Nutrition and the functions of Excretion, feeding and stimulating the organs into activity, and removing from them all their useless material. In its torrent upwards of forty different substances are hurried along: it carries gases, it carries salts-it even carries metals and soaps! Millions of organised cells float in its liquid; and of these cells, which by some are considered to be organic entities, twenty millions are said to die at every pulse of the heart, to be replaced by other millions. The iron which it washes onwards can be separated. Professor Bérard used to exhibit a lump of it in his lecture-room-nay, one ingenious Frenchman has suggested that coins should be struck from the metal extracted from the blood of great men. Let no one suggest that we should wash our hands with the soap extracted from a similar source ! Although to the naked eye the blood appears as a homogeneous fluid, having a colour more or less scarlet, the microscope assures us that it is a fluid which carries certain solid bodies of definite shape and size-so definite, indeed, that a mere stain, no matter where, will, to the experienced eye, betray whether it be the blood of a mammal, a bird, a reptile, or a fish. Prick your finger with a needle, place the drop on the glass-slide under your microscope, cover it with a thin glass, and look. You will be surprised, perhaps, to observe that the blood which had so deep a tint of scarlet in the mass, is of a pale reddish yellow, now that it is spread out on the slide; whereupon you conclude that the depth of tint arose from the dense aggregation of those yellow discs, which you observe scattered about, some of them adherent together, and presenting the appearance of piles of half-sovereigns. It is these "floating solids" of the blood upon which your attention must now be fixed. They are variously named Blood-corpuscles, Blood-glo

bules, Blood-cells, and Blood-discs. It is a pity that one term is not finally adopted; and blood-discs seems on the whole the best, as being descriptive, without involving any hypothesis. Meanwhile, since physiologists use all these terms, the reader must be prepared to meet with all in this paper.

The first person who saw these blood-discs was undoubtedly Swammerdamm, in 1658; but as his observations were not published till many years afterwards, and as in Science priority can only rightfully be awarded to him who first publishes, the title of discoverer is given to Malpighi, who saw and described them in the blood of a hedgehog in 1661. He saw them, but did not understand them. They appeared to him to be only globules of fat. The commencement of accurate knowledge dates from Leewenhoek, who, in 1673, detected them in human blood. "These particles," he says elsewhere,

are so minute, that one hundred of them placed side by side would not equal the diameter of a common grain of sand; consequently, a grain of sand is above a million times the size of one such globule." * We have now the exact measurement of these discs, which was not possible in his day. Extending his observations, Leewenhoek found that in birds and fishes, as well as in quadrupeds, the colour of the blood was due to these discs. He seems to have been puzzled by the fact, that in fishes the discs are not round, but oval; and he at first attributed this to the compression exercised by the vessels. It is instructive to hear him confess that he could not persuade himself" that the natural shape of the particles of blood in fishes was an oval; for inasmuch as a spherical seemed to me the more perfect form." He was too good an observer, however, to permit such metaphysical conceptions long to mask the truth, and, accordingly, he described and figured the blood-discs in the fish as oval.‡ It is to Hewson that science is

indebted for the most accurate and exhaustive investigation of the blood which has been made from 1770 down to our own time; and it has been even asserted by one whose word is an authority,* that Hewson's works contain the germ of all the discoveries made in our own day. There is something at once painful and instructive in the fact, that, after the publication of researches so precise and important as those of Leewenhoek and Hewson, the whole subject should have been suffered for many years to lapse into ignorant neglect; and instead of any progress being made, we find the most eminent physiologists at the beginning of the present century (Richerand and Majendie, for example) denying positively that the blood-discs existed, or that the microscope could tell us anything about them.f Nevertheless, there is not an amateur of the present day who is not familiar with them. Science has carefully registered the exact measurements and form of these discs, in upwards of five hundred different species of animals! Contempt of microscopic research seriously retarded the progress of Physiology; it has its parallel in a similar contempt inspired by the great Linnæus respecting the application of the microscope to Botany; and as the physiologists of this century have had to rediscover what was known to Leewenhoek and Hewson, so also have the botanists had to rediscover what was familiar to Malpighi.

There must assuredly be some relation between the form and size of these discs and their function; but what that relation is, no one has yet made out. In general, the larger discs are found in the less advanced organisms that is to say, they are larger in the embryo than in the adult, larger in birds than in mam

mals, larger in reptiles and fishes than in birds. But they are largest of all in the Triton and Proteus, which as reptiles are exceptions to the rule. Nor can the rule be taken absolutely, even within those limits we have named, since although reptiles are less advanced in organisation than mammals, and have larger discs, it is not the least advanced among the mammals that have the largest discs;-for instance, the ruminants are less advanced than the quadrumana, yet among mammals the ruminants have the smallest discs; and in man they are as large as in rodents.‡

The structure of these bodies is

necessarily difficult of study. Leewenhoek, and others, observed that in the discs of the fish and reptile there is always a central spot, which appears dark, or clear, according as it is viewed by transmitted, or reflected, light. This appearance was interpreted as indicating a perforation in the discs, which would consequently imply that they were like quoits. But Hewson settled this doubt by proving the central spot to be a solid nucleus, which he saw escaping from its envelope, to float free in the liquid-an observation subsequently confirmed. It is worthy of remark that this nucleus is seen with difficulty when the blood is newly drawn from a vessel, although it speedily becomes distinct, especially if a little water be added. This has led Valentin, Wagner, Henle, Donders, and Moleschott to the conclusion that the nucleus is not present normally, but arises from internal coagulation on exposure to the air: a conclusion rejected by Mayer and Kölliker, the former averring that he has seen the nucleus while the blood-discs were still circulating in the capillaries of a young frog's foot. We have not ourselves been able to see this in the

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