O. MISCELLANEOUS. 005 



take advantage of several directions of wind. It is not known 

 yet whether he will practice his method for traveling in Eu- 

 rope or in America. 12 ^4, X., 16. 



LADY MATHEMATICIANS. 



The instances of able mathematicians among ladies are so 



CD 



rare that considerable interest attaches to a letter from Miss 

 Christine Chart, of Oakland, California, recently published in 

 the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, 

 and dealing with a problem which many years since excited 

 some attention in Great Britain. The author of the present 

 solution has submitted it to Professor Sylvester, and very 

 modestly remarks that since the direct solution was, after a 

 long discussion, concluded to be impossible, and not having 

 been able to discover that any person has offered a satisfactory 

 one during the past twenty years, she gives her own, think- 

 ing that every mistake cleared up in science is a step toward 

 truth. The problem may be stated thus : In a given trian- 

 gle two angles are bisected, and the included bisecting lines 

 are found to be equal : required to prove that the angles bi- 

 sected are also equal. The solution of this problem offered 

 by Miss Chart is acknowledged by Professor Sylvester to be 

 thoroughly sound. V A, 1874, XL VII, 362. 



THE USE OF THE DIVINING -KOD. 



Messrs. Pass & Towney, of Bristol, England, communicated 

 to the Naturalists' Society the results of an investigation 

 made by them into the curious superstition attending the use 

 of the divining-rod. As the use of this instrument is by no 

 means obsolete in our own country, it may be worth while 

 to state that Messrs. Pass & Towney were successful in ob- 

 taining the attendance of two reputed operators, and both 

 expressed themselves willing and able to find the money 

 which the authors were to conceal. The conjurors main- 

 tained that the instrument was available not only in the field 

 but in the mine, and that by it they could detect metal 

 wherever placed. An English shilling being placed under one 

 of a series of objects, such as hats and handkerchiefs, lying on 

 the floor, the master of the divining-rod, or "dowsing fork," 

 guaranteed to find it if there were no disturbing: causes. "When 

 asked what the latter might be, he said springs of water or 



