14. “Pneumatic Dispatch.” The packages are placed on easily rolling carriages which are nicely fitted within tubes. The force necessary to move them is produced by the alternate compression and expansion of air in large reservoirs. This compression and expansion is caused by forcing the water into, and then allowing it to run out of a connecting reservoir, the action being changed by a system of cocks. 15. “Gay-Lussac.” (1778-1850.) A Frenchman, one of the most distinguished chemists and physicists of modern times. In 1804 he made a balloon ascension of 23,000 feet, and Humboldt examined with him the air brought down from that height, for the purpose of discovering the intensity of the magnetic force. In 1839 Gay-Lussac was created a peer of France. 16. “Lockyer.” (1836-⸺.) An English astronomer. He invented a method of observing the red flames of the sun without being obliged to wait for an eclipse. In 1870 and 1871 he was sent to Sicily by the English government, as the chief of the eclipse expedition. A CHAPTER OF BLUNDERS. Pass, certificate, and competitive examinations are, no doubt, all sufficiently serious affairs to examinees, and sufficiently trying ones to examiners. To the outer public, however, to those “who have no son or brother there,” such “exams.” are, as a rule, nothing if not a source of amusement. The “results” aimed at in examinations are, for the most part, admirable; but in the course of the processes, in the answering of examination questions, the unexpected constantly happens, and it is the unlooked-for results, the “surprises” of the occasions, that make sport for the Philistines. The situation on this head is easily explicable. It is a natural result of the modern system of preparation for examination—the cram system. Examinees bent only on “getting through” will answer questions on the hit-or-miss principle, while others, whose brains have become more or less addled under the pressure of “memory work,” will evolve from their unbalanced inner consciousness replies fearfully and wonderfully made.