From the length to which this article has extended, I must reserve an account of witch-finders, charms, dreams, and confessions, &c. for the next and concluding paper.  VYVYAN.

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Spirit of Discovery.

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Paper from Straw.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, there were exhibited some specimens of paper manufactured from straw, by a new process.

Hardening Steel.

From the observation of travellers, that the manufacture of Damascus blades was carried on only during the time when the north winds occurred, M. Anozoff made experiments on the hardening of steel instruments, by putting them, when heated, into a powerful current of air, instead of quenching them in water.  From the experiments already made, he expects ultimate success.  He finds that, for very sharp-edged instruments, this method is much better than the ordinary one; that the colder the air and the more rapid its stream, the greater is the effect.  The effect varies with the thickness of the mass to be hardened.  The method succeeds well with case-hardened goods.—­ From the French.

Detection of Blood.

A controversy has recently taken place in Paris, relative to the efficacy of certain chemical means of ascertaining whether dried spots or stains of matter suspected to be blood, are or were blood, or not.  M. Orfila gives various chemical characters of blood under such circumstances, which he thinks sufficient to enable an accurate discrimination.  This opinion is opposed by M. Raspail, who states, that all the indications supposed to belong to true blood, may be obtained from, linen rags, dipped, not into blood, but into a mixture of white of egg and infusion of madder, and that, therefore, the indications are injurious rather than useful.

Cedars of Lebanon.

Mr. Wolff, the missionary, counted on Mount Lebanus, thirteen large and ancient cedars, besides the numerous small ones, in the whole 387 trees.  The largest of these trees was about 15 feet high, not one-third of the height of hundreds of English cedars; for instance, those at Whitton, Pain’s Hill, Caenwood, and Juniper Hall, near Dorking.

Leeches.

In the Medical Repository, a case is quoted, where some leeches, which had been employed first on a syphylitic patient and afterwards on an infant, communicated the disease to the latter.

Stinging Flies.

There is a fly which exteriorly much resembles the house-fly, and which is often very troublesome about this time; this is called the stinging fly, one of the greatest plagues to cattle, as well as to persons wearing thin stockings.

Mont Blanc.

The height of Mont Blanc and of the Lake of Geneva has lately been carefully ascertained by M. Roger, an officer of engineers in the service of the Swiss Confederation.  The summit of the mountain appears to be 4,435 metres, or 14,542 English feet above the Lake of Geneva, and the surface of the Lake 367 metres, or 1,233 English feet above the sea.  The mountain is, therefore, 15,775 feet above the level of the sea.