THIS noble fowl, though not a native of this country, has been domesticated with us so long as to be familiar with all our readers. The genus, which contains but two recognised species, is distinguished by the following characters: the beak is convex, rather stout, curved towards the tip, smooth at the base; the cheeks partially naked; the nostrils, situated at the base of the beak, are open; the head surmounted with an erect crest of slender, peculiarly formed feathers; the wings are short, the sixth quill the longest; the tail-coverts very long, broad and erectile, in the male. The Common Peacock is mentioned as known in Greece in very early times; Eupolis and Athenæus, who flourished in the fifth century before Christ, speak of it; and even five centuries farther back, it was regularly imported into Judea from the east in the fleets of Solomon: while, at an era still more remote, its beauty is appealed to, as a thing commonly known on the southern border of the same country.* It seems scarcely necessary to describe a bird so familiarly known; to dilate upon its light coronet of lance-tipped feathers, its taper neck, and swelling breast of changeable purple, its back and wings of brassy-green, or its superb lengthened tail-coverts, with their dilated tips marked with eye-spots of the richest purple, surrounded by rings of green, black, and chestnut, radiant with gem-like reflections. These feathers do not constitute the tail, for they begin to grow far up on the back, so that when erected and spread, scarcely more than the head and neck of the bird appear *Job xxxix. 13. in front of them. The true tail is situated beneath, and is commonly concealed by these, consisting of eighteen brown, stiff feathers about six inches long. Immense flocks of these splendid birds in a wild state exist in the forests of India and the great adjacent islands: and these have been ascertained to be specifically identical with our domestic races. Colonel Sykes describes the species as abundant in the dense woods of the Ghauts; it is readily domesticated, and many Hindoo temples in the Deccan, as he informs us, have considerable flocks of them. Colonel Williamson also, in his account of Peacock-shooting, states that he had seen about the passes in the Jungletery District, surprising numbers of wild Pea-fowl. He speaks with admiration of the whole woods being covered with their beautiful plumage, to which the rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. Small patches of plain among the long grass, most of them cultivated, and with mustard then in bloom, which induced the birds to feed, increased the beauty of the scene. "I speak within bounds," observes the Colonel, "when I assert that there could not be less than twelve or fifteen hundred Pea-fowls, of various sizes, within sight of the spot where I stood for near an hour." From the same respectable authority we learn that it is easy to get a shot at these fine birds in the jungle, but where they flock together, as they do to the number of forty or fifty, there is greater difficulty. Then they are not easily flushed, and run very fast; so fast, indeed, that the Colonel doubts whether a slow spaniel could make them take wing. Their flight is heavy and strong, generally within an easy shot; if merely winged, they frequently escape by swiftness of foot. They roost on high trees, into which they fly towards dusk. The flesh of the Peacock, when not old, is juicy and savoury, and though not often eaten now, was in former times an important addition to great banquets. It was served up by the sewer with much ceremony, dressed in its own brilliant plumage. The adventurous knight of the days of chivalry was accustomed to make his solemn vows, "before the Peacock and the Ladies." SUGAR-CANE. THE USEFUL ARTS AND MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE pose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet-cane from a far country?" It has been argued, that if the cinnamon mentioned in the passage of Exodus were true cinnamon, it must have come from the East Indies, the only country in the world from which it is obtained; and that it is, therefore, highly probable that the sugar-cane was exported from the same country. As sugar is most abundantly supplied xliii. 24. Jer. vi. 20. Ezek. xxvii. 19. Among the ancient writers of Greece, Herodotus alludes to the honey made by the hands of man." Nearchus, Alexander's admiral, relates, that "the reed in India yields honey without bees." Theophrastus describes three kinds of honey; one from flowers, another from the air (referring probably to honey-dew), and a third from canes or reeds. Other ancient writers are more or less precise in their mention of sugar, until we arrive at the time of the Roman Emperor, Nero, when Dioscorides uses the word saccharum, or sugar: his description refers to a species of sugar-candy, but he was evidently not aware of the mode of preparing it. He says: "There is a sort of concreted honey, which is called sugar, found upon canes in India and Arabia Felix it is in consistence like salt, and it is brittle between the teeth, like salt." Seneca was also ignorant of the real character of sugar: he describes it as honey found on the leaves of canes, and produced by the dew or the sweet juice of the cane itself concreting. Pliny describes sugar as brought from Arabia and India: "It is honey collected from canes, like a gum, white, and brittle between the teeth; the largest is of the size of a hazelnut; it is used in medicine only." Galen, who wrote in the second century, also speaks of sugar; and in the seventh century, Paulus Egineta quotes an earlier writer, who describes sugar as "the Indian salt, in colour and form like common salt, but in taste and sweetness like honey." produced in abundance, although its quality was very inferior, from ignorance of the means of preparing the juice. In 1420, the Portuguese introduced the sugar-cane from Sicily to Madeira; and, during the same century, it was probably carried from Spain to the Canaries. So successful was the cultivation, that the sugar of these countries was preferred to any other. The Portuguese also successfully transplanted the sugar-cane to the island of St. Thomas, and other islands on the African coast. Soon after the discovery of the New World, the Spaniards established sugar-works in Hispaniola, or St. Domingo: wkromen were sent from the Canaries to manufacture the sugar, and the cane flourished so well, that its produce afforded a large revenue to the mother country. In 1641 the cane was transplanted from Brazil to Barbadoes, and thence to the other West India Islands. For a long period the use of sugar in England was confined to medicines and feasts; and this continued until 1580, when it was brought from Brazil to Portugal, and thence to our country. Mr. Porter remarks, that "The merchants who introduced the cane from India certainly neglected to bring, also, the necessary instructions as to the methods of preparing the juice; and the difficulties which the It appears that, during a long period, the sugar-cane was confined to the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the kingdoms of Bengal, Siam, &c., and that the sugar was imported with perfumes, spices, and other merchan-Arabian dise, to the countries on this side of the Ganges. The traffic in sugar being lucrative, the Indians concealed the knowledge of the sugar-cane: they informed the merchants of Ormus that they extracted sugar from a reed, whereupon many attempts were made to obtain it from the reed-like plants of Arabia; but these were all un successful. The doubts respecting the real nature of sugar were not resolved until the year 1250, when Marco Polo visited the country of the sugar-cane. On his return, the merchants, who had hitherto purchased sugar at Ormus, repaired to the country of its growth. They brought away the sugar-cane and the silk-worm, and from Arabia Felix these valuable productions passed into Nubia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, where sugar was soon cultivators experienced, doubtless caused them to try the use of all kinds of ingredients for its purification, and to invent conical vessels for crystallizing and cleansing the sugar.' The Venetians introduced the art of sugar refining into Europe, at the end of the fifteenth century. At first they imitated the Chinese, and sold the sugar which they purified in the shape of candy, cleaning and refining the coarse sugar of Egypt three or four times over. They afterwards adopted the use of cones, and sold refined sugar in the loaf. This example was soon followed by the establishment of sugar refineries in all the commercial cities of Europe. VARIETIES AND SOURCES OF We are accustomed to associate sugar only with the sugar-cane, yet it is one of the most abundant productions of the vegetable world. It is found in a liquid state in most plants; it is manufactured from beet-root, from the sap of the maple, and other vegetable bodies; and this wide distribution of so valuable an article of food is one out of the many instances of the bounty of Providence in supplying our wants. Of the numerous varieties of sugar, some can be made to ferment, others not; some can be formed into crystals, others not; but it often happens that two kinds of sugar are mixed, as in the sugar-cane, the juice of which yields the finest crystals, and also molasses, or treacle.* The size of the crystals, however, depends greatly upon the mode of treatment: when they are rapidly formed, as in common refined sugar, the crystals are small and confused; but when obtained by the slow evaporation of a strong solution, they are large and transparent, as in sugar-candy. Sugar is the principal food of the vegetable world. It exists largely in the succulent parts of plants and seeds when they begin to shoot. It is formed in several kinds of seed in the process of malting, which consists merely in steeping seeds in water until they sprout. In the ripening of many fruits there is a similar change. When palms are about to flower, the starch contained in their stems is changed into sugar. If plants are allowed to flower, the gum and sugar disappear from the roots or stems: this change applies to such common roots as the parsnep, carrot, beet, &c., as well as to the sugar-cane, maize, and other plants rich in sugar matter. The stems of grasses are also sweet at an early stage of their growth, when they are most nutritious and palatable to cattle, a circumstance which ought to regulate the time for making hay In certain trees the starch formed in autumn is converted into sugar by the ascending sap in spring, and sugar is formed in considerable quantities from the sugar maple. The sap of the birch-tree, on being fermented, *An eminent French chemist is of opinion that the whole of the sugar furnished by the cane might be converted into crystals, molasses being formed, according to his view, by the boiling and other processes which the juice undergoes. yields an agrecable beverage, called birch-wine. The juice of grapes furnishes a peculiar kind of sugar, called grapesugar, which has been traced in many fruits, such as pears, peaches, cherries, melons, dates, figs, and the chesnuts which grow in warm countries. Grape-sugar is also formed in the nectaries of many flowers, and is collected by bees; hence honey belongs to this variety of sugar. Grape-sugar can be procured from starch by the action of dilute sulphuric acid. Lignin or woody fibre, or any substance containing it, can also be converted into sugar by the same means. If sawdust, linen rags, paper, or other ligneous substance, be rubbed up with sulphuric acid, and the acid afterwards removed by adding an alkali or some powdered chalk, the ligncous body will be changed into a species of gum, which, being boiled for some hours in a week acid, is gradually converted into sugar.* It has been well observed, that," however clumsy and inconvenient this process is in our laboratories, being, as we are, but Nature's journeymen, Nature herself carries on these transmutations with the most wonderful results, as we see in the ripening of fruits, when the hard woody texture gradually softens down into sweet and luscious pulp, as in the ripening of the pear, the grape, the strawberry, and, in short, almost all fruits." The above varieties of sugar are granular or crystalline, and are all capable of undergoing the vinous fermentation. The only sugar which refuses to crystallize, but which can be fermented, is the molasses which remains after refining cane and other sugars, and this is largely used in the distillation of rum. Sugar of milk than their weight of sugar has been regarded *The conversion of old rags into more as one of the marvels of modern chemistry; but the wonder ceases on comparing the ultimate composition of lignin, or woody fibre (of which rags are only an example), with sugar. that all the varieties of lignin are similarly It appears from Dr. Prout's experiments, constituted. 1000 parts of lignin consist of 500 of carbon or charcoal, and 500 of water; 1000 parts of cane-sugar contain 421 of carbon and 579 of water. The different varieties of sugar contain variable proportions of Carbon and water. and manna sugar do not ferment. The former, sometimes called Lactine, is obtained by evaporating the whey of milk: the latter, also called Mannite, is contained in the manna which exudes from several species of ash it is also found in the bark of the olive tree, in some species of pines, in the root and leaves of celery, in the bulb of the onion, in many kinds of seaweed, and in couch grass. By long exposure to the air the juices of many plants, such as beet, carrot, &c., generate manna sugar. Sugar is extensively employed to preserve animal and vegetable substances, such as meat, fish, fruits, jellies, and many medicinal substances; and in some cases is preferable to salt in not destroying the true flavour of animal food. The sugar which is naturally formed in many fruits is sufficient to preserve them, as in raisins, figs, and other dried fruits. In temperate climates sugar is rather a luxury than a necessary of life; but in tropical countries it is extensively used as an article of food, and has been ranked inferior only to corn. Enormous quantities of sugarcanes are sent from the sugar islands to the markets of Manilla, Rio Janeiro, and the surrounding countries. The crude plant is called by Dutrone, "the most perfect alimentary substance in nature," and this praise does not seem to be exaggerated when we consider its effects upon the negroes at the time of cane-harvest. The time of crop in the sugar islands," says Mr. Edwards, "is the season of gladness and festivity to man and beast. So palatable, salutary, and nourishing, is the juice of the cane, that every individual of the animal creation, drinking freely of it, derives health and vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among the negroes exhibit a surprising alteration in a few weeks after the mill is set in action. The labouring horses, oxen, and mules, though almost constantly at work during this season, yet, being indulged with plenty of the green tops of this noble plant, and some of the scummings from the boiling-house, improve more than at any other period of the year. Even the pigs and poultry fatten on the refuse." In separating the sugar from the juice, some of the nutritive substances are removed; and it should not be forgotten, that the praises bestowed on sugar by different writers on this subject apply to the fresh juice of the cane, and not to the crystallized sugar in use among ourselves. HOUSES AND INHABITANTS OF LONDON. ACCORDING to a parliamentary return of the late census, just printed, it appears that the houses and inhabitants of the City of London, and the parliamentary boroughs are in Inhabited Houses. Population. This gives as an average eight persons for each house: but, as houses differ so greatly in size, it does not lead to any estimate as to the overcrowding of the dwelling-houses of the poorer classes. Thus, in Westminster, which includes many squares and streets occupied by the higher and wealthier classes, there are ten persons living in each house, while the Tower Hamlets and Southwark have only an average of seven persons in each house. |