of disciples, to make it the starting-point of his conquests. But for this exposure of his plans, Borri might, perhaps-there is much virtue in an if-have become the Mahomet of Europe, and have carried his Rosicrucian philosophy from land to land at the point of the sword. Europe is not a fit field for fanatics of the largest size; those of smaller stature prosper exceedingly, but, although we have had Thomas of Munster, our Mahomet has yet to come.

The Inquisition solemnly condemned Borri to the stake, and confiscated his goods to their own pious uses. The would-be Mahomet having no taste for martyrdom, did not wait to learn the verdict, but having got an inkling of his danger, and wisely thinking that the better part of valour is discretion, conveyed himself beyond their jurisdiction with all possible speed. We soon find him at Strassburg, where he lived for some time in great éclat in his double character of a great chemist and victim of the Inquisition. From there he removed to Amsterdam, where a wonderful cure performed upon a burgomaster laid the foundation of a fame which soon made His Excellency the Chevalier Borri the lion of the place.

Here Sorbière saw him, but that acute observer was not to be blinded by the grand house, the hospitality, and the position which Borri had gained as an adept in the alchemical art, and he does not hesitate to paint in fitting colours the character of the charlatan. The most wondrous stories were current about him: he had given the elixir of life to one, had transmuted baser metals into gold for another, had refused money from a third, and had performed the most wonderful cures possible without reward.

People of all ranks flocked to his house, attracted by his reputa tion, and Sorbière was probably one of a very small minority when he ventured to doubt the honesty of the spagiric and the entire truthfulness of the marvels accredited to him by the popular voice. Borri continued at Amsterdam two years. Towards the latter end of that period His Excellency's reputation had become somewhat the worse for wear. Credit was not so easily procured as at first, and many expedients had to be resorted to in order to gain supplies.

At last the place became too hot for comfort, and so our Chevalier betook himself to Hamburg, and there met with a royal dupe in Christina, Queen of Sweden, who, after the mortification of her second renunciation of the crown, had come to Hamburg in the course of her eccentric travels. As she patronised Voss and Huet without knowledge to appreciate their talents, as she bought pictures by Titian, and had them cut down to suit the panels of her gallery; in short, as it was her whim to be thought a patroness of literature, art, and science, so we find that she patronised Borri,

the famous chemist, with an afterthought in his case, however, of obtaining for herself some benefit from the hermetical secret which he was still on the eve of discovering. Christina was not the scion of royalty who was victimised by our adventurer. Whilst at Hamburgh he received from Frederick III., of Denmark, an invitation to Copenhagen. Borri flattered his new patron with golden dreams of laying in his coffers, in a short time, treasures to which the massy riches of the east should be as beggar's baubles. Borri blinded him with the glitter of prospective diamonds, but meanwhile money must be had for alembics and retorts, for Lulli's works, and Faber's Arcana,-money for the experiments and for the experimenter. Costly is the process of keeping the fire burning under an alchemist's furnace, particularly one of Borri's character, and so the courtiers looked but shyly at the smooth Italian who had got such a hold on their king's affection. Even now courtiers do not believe in free trade, but wish to protect royalty from all foreign spoilers. Borri was, therefore, anything but popular at the Danish Court; and, on the death of Frederick, in 1670, he thought it prudent to retire at once into Turkey. With this view he set off, and reached the little village of Goldingen, where his further course was stopped by the governor of that place, who, for some unknown reason, suspected him of being concerned in that disastrous Hungarian conspiracy, of which Frangipani, Nardad, Zrini, and the Palatine Veselengi were the leaders. Borri, knowing the groundlessness of this charge, at once informed him of his name and history; but the governor being of a cautious and methodical turn of mind, thought it safest to detain him prisoner until he had communicated with the Imperial Court. Accordingly, news of Borri's arrest was sent to Kaiser Leopold, and, by a strange coincidence, it reached him while giving an audience to the papal nuncio. The name of Chevalier Borri having been mentioned, Monseigneur at once recollected the Milanese heretic, and claimed him as the prisoner of the Holy Office. Leopold consented to hand him over to the Inquisition, but with a stipulation that his life should be spared. He was transferred to Rome, and immured in the cells of the Holy Office, and, in 1672, made a solemn renunciation of all his former heresies, sylphs and all. When he had been some time in the care of the Inquisition, the Duc d'Estrees, French Ambassador at the Court of Rome, who was was afflicted with a malady seemingly desperate, was induced by the alchemist's fame to consult him, and the result was that, under Borri's directions, he became restored to perfect health. In gratitude, the Duc obtained the transference of the prisoner to the Castle of St. Angelo, where his captivity does not seem to have been very stringent, since he was occasionally allowed for a

brief space to quit his prison-house, and was also indulged with a laboratory, wherein he pursued eagerly that phantom which had eluded his grasp through life. Ere he had succeeded in wresting the secret of immortality from Mother Nature, and ere he had discovered that other secret which should place all the wealth of the universe at his command, Death came and took him from his retorts and alembics, and ended alike the deceptions he had practised upon others and upon himself. He died on the 10th of August, 1695.

That Borri was a man of remarkable natural talents need not be disputed; had he been an honest man, he might have been a benefactor to the human race. The great gifts with which he was endowed he perverted to mean and sordid uses, and he had his reward. Knowledge, says an old moralist, is by much short of wisdom; and Borri, who was versed in alchemical lore, and in all the science of his age, had not learned the grand and simple truth, that he who "pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own destruction."

6.

A GOSSIP ABOUT FISHES.

BY DR. ANDREW WILSON.

THERE is no word more widely applied or more carelessly used in the English language than the word "fish." From being employed to denote peculiarities in man himself, under the designation queer fish," to designating beings so low in the scale of creation as "starfishes," and the like, the word has attached to it very varied and equally diverse meanings. As naturalists we certainly should limit the term to denote the lowest group of that great sub-kingdom of animals to which man himself belongs. This division everyone must know as that of the Vertebrata, a word which may be used in a popular sense, as corresponding to the expression "back-boned" animals. At the head of this group man stands, whilst the fishes form the lowest grade in the division.

There are few groups of the animal world more interesting to the ordinary observer than that of the fishes. To survey the various forms and shapes presented by these animals, as displayed in a great museum, must leave a sufficient incentive to gain a more intimate acquaintance with the class; and when, even in a popular sense, we investigate the structure and habits of fishes, the study only grows in its fascination and interest. Whilst if we reflect that on a knowledge of the habits of fishes, and their distribution in our oceans and seas, and of the special parts which many of them offer for our use and luxury, the commercial success of our fisheries depend, it can need no further argument to convince us that, after all, there is something of great practical benefit to be derived from the due study of zoological science.

It is not our intention in the present paper to say anything regarding the commercial aspects of fishes, and even their habits must be very lightly and casually touched upon. We rather aim at giving a brief popular account of the structure of the fishes, and at noting such peculiarities in that structure as appear most worthy the attention of our readers. Primarily, then, we find that fishes may be recognised by having the body usually, but not always, covered with scales, of various forms and kinds. secondly, we have the limbs, represented by certain fins; and, thirdly, we find fishes to breathe by gills during the whole of life. These three points are, in the main, sufficient to distinguish fishes from their higher, as well as their lower, neighbours. The scales that

Then

cover the bodies of fishes are well worthy a little study. Some fishes, as we all know-the eel, for example-have the scales so small as to be scarcely apparent; and others, such as the little lancelet (lowest of fishes), and the lamprey and hag-fishes, want scales altogether. On the other hand, we find some members of the group possessing so great a development of their scaly covering that they appear as veritable knights clad in an armour-casing. The bony pike, found in North American lakes, has its loly in. vested in bright scales, from each of which a little "mother-ofpearl" button may be stamped in Birmingham factories. And the curious-looking trunk-fishes appear as if they were enclosed in bony boxes, so hard and firmly-welded together are their scales. Where scales are wanting, as in the eels and hag-fishes, we find the power possessed of throwing out a large quantity of a thick glutinous secretion or mucus, which covers the body and protects it, as by a kind of natural oil, from the action of the water.

Our common fishes (such as the herring and their neighbours) possess scales in the form of simple thin horny plates, which in some cases come easily off when the body of the fish is touched by the finger. In the perches another kind, called "comb-like" scales, is found, and those latter present their hinder edges cut into spines, like the teeth of a comb. In sharks, skates, rays, and docfishes, we see curious little bony plates serving as scales; and sometimes each little plate has a little spine projecting from its centre. When we draw our finger along the back of a doefish from the tail to the head-as when we stroke a cat's back the "wrong way "we may feel our finger arrested by the numerous little sharp points of scale spines. And this tough, spiny skin forms the material known as "shagreen," used so extensively to make spectacle-cases and as a material for polishing woed. Lastly, certain fossil fishes which have totally passed out of existence, many of which were first discovered in the old red sandstone rocks by the gifted Hugh Miller, possessed, like the living bony pike, a brilliant armour of hard shining scales. These scales were called yanoid scales; the same being derived from the Greek word ganos, splendour; and in the famous sturgeons of our own day and oceans, we also see the same kind of scales, as well as in other of the so-called "ganoid" fishes.

It seems somewhat strange to talk of the "limbs" of fishes, but the expression is nevertheless strictly correct. Fishes, like most other vertebrate animals, possess limbs, only their limbs are adapted for swimming, and hence appear in the shape of "fins." In fishes we find two series of fins; those corresponding to the limbs exist in pairs-like the limbs in all vertebrates-and hence are termed "paired" fins. Thus the pair of fins representing the fore