came ’from the regions of space beyond our system;’ having, as is estimated, occupied more than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium!  This is another addition to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of further results.  Certain members of the same society are still at work on what has been a tedious task—­the restoration of the standard yard, rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years ago.  The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and graduations being read off with a microscope.  When finished, it will be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom.  This restoration of the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 degrees.  Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly identical with the modern French metre; whence a suggestion of ’the possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of barbarism.’  Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree of the earth’s surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the side of one of the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time.  Modern science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a remarkable incident in the history of philosophy.

The appearance of extraordinary spots on the sun has attracted a more than ordinary degree of attention to that luminary, and to Mr J. Nasmyth’s ‘views respecting the source of light,’ which, though published a few months since, are now again talked about.  Mr Nasmyth, after several years’ observation, comes to the conclusion, ’that whatever be the source of light, its production appears to result from an action induced on the exterior surface of the solar sphere;’ and he believes it reasonable to ’consider the true source of the latent element of light to reside, not in the solar orb, but in space itself; and that the grand