MRS BRITTEN'S LECTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1449, 30 August 1879, Page 17

MRS BRITTEN'S LECTURE.

The Cause and Cube op Crime and POVEUTT Was the subject of Mrs Hardinge Britten's lecture last Sunday evening; and she commenced her address by claiming that often as the subject had been treated by social reformers, it was generally dealt with by the proposition for palliation, rather than radical methods of prevention. To arrive at the basic causes of poverty the lecturer deemed it necessary to study the physiology of crime ; and to Bound the prof oundest depths of caußation in this respect, three primal source« of psycho logical influence must be considered. The first of these consisted in hereditary tendencies; and in order to direct them into the purest and most healthful moral channels, better and more considerate marriages should be formed. The lecturer pointed to the care taken to improve the breed of domestic animals, to elevate even plants and fruits that administered to our use and luxury, all of which obeyed any laws of progress the intelligence of man brought to bear upon them. Whilst a science of the most all lower, forms of life, the noblest and the most important— the science of human character through ante-natal conditions— was utterly ignored, or fastidiously orowded out of general observation. Physiology and psychology alike had revealed the stupendous formative effects of ante-natal conditions, and yet human souls were launched on the ocean of eternity through the impure and unholy alliances contracted between estates, titles, and fortunes, rather than hearts, minds, and temperaments. So long as our young ■women were mere objects of traffic, adorned like merchants' wares with such accomplishments as would fit them for a matrimonial market, and' young men .married a j-retty face instead of. a noble mind, it would be in vain to look for noble characters i and elevated minds as the result of such unions. The lecturer considered the lack of a living morality, as part of our educational systems, to be the next primordial source of crime ; and the crowd of unfavourable circumstances and surroundings to be the third. Poverty, she urged, arose as much from the crimes of profligacy and excessive lnxury in the rich, as from the intemperance or vices of the poor. If rich as well as poor ,were instructed to. the solemn duties of parentage, and educated in the strictest sense under high moral influences, ■ unfavourable circumstances and surroundings, would disappear, inherited tendencies to vice would end, life would be a practical religion, and religion a living practice. Mrß Britten spoke some eloquent and highly significant words in favour of the distribution of land, homes for all, and' the principal of cooperation in trade and commerce, concluding: a singularly practical address with a poem, which she essayed to read, but in reality improvised with thrilling effect. CALEDONIAN SOCIETY'S COURSE OF LECTURES UPON CHEMISTRY. Fourteenth Lectoke, — leon. Mr W. H. Wicks delivered his fourteenth lecture last Friday, the 22nd inst , in the High School laboratory. He said that iron was the most useful of the metals, and fortunately for man, was widely distributed over the earth. Its specific gravity being 7'B, it was therefore one of the lightest of the common metals. The principal ores of iron were, red and brown hcematite, Spathose iron ore (Fe CO 3 ), clay ironstone fan impure carbonate), and Magnetic ore (Fe 3 O 4 ).. The common forms of commeicial iron were Ist, cast ironj 2nd, wrought iron, and 3rd, steel. The first is very impure — containing carbon, silicon, gulphwr, etc., and was got by reducing the ore with carbon and limestone is large blast furnaces. Cast iron was very brittle and easily fusible. Wrought iron was obtained from cast by burning out the carbon and other imparities, in specially constructed furnaces. This process was called " puddling." The pure iron obtained is much less fusible than the cast, and consequently thickens. It is then collected into masßeo, _ hammered into blocks", and then rolled into bars and rods. There are various processes for producing steel, that called " cementation" consisted in heating wrought iron bars, and powdered charcoal together for some time, when the iron was found to have combined with some of the carbon (about lor 2 per oent ) ; and was thus converted into steel. In Bessemer' s process, cas; iron wag converted into steel by sending a blast of atmospheric air through the molten metaljUntil the whole of the carbon was oxidised. Iron containing carbon is then added in sufficient quantity to convert the pure metal thus obtained into Bteel. By this method six tons of caßt iron can be made into steel in 20 minutes. Bessemer steel was largely used for railway axles and rails. (Diagrams of the furnaces, etc., and ipecimens of ore were shown, together with the method of testing for iron on combination.)