Study of Meteorology recommended, 357 



nothing but the deductions of observation. The stories of the 

 rustic naturalist are, however, not only allowable, but amusing. 

 The country people of Smoland believe that the bite of the 

 Gordius causes the whitlow, and they give to the worm and 

 the disease the same name : acting on this belief, they cure the 

 disease by making an incision into the part with a knife, 

 which must have been previously used in cutting the worm 

 itself into pieces. Our own country people are convinced 

 that the Gordius is merely a horse-hair animated by being 

 steeped in water; and, if you hesitate to believe the story, 

 they will tell you, as I have been told repeatedly, that they 

 have, often in their boyish days, performed the experiment with 

 success, having been witnesses to the fact of the hair growing 

 into the living worm. [VIII. 108.] Stanihurst, in his account 

 of Ireland, adduces it as an example of animals " ingendred 

 without seed," — "and chieflie by the secret influence and 

 instillation of the celestial planets, as the sunne and such 

 other ; as, if you put the haire of an horse taille in mire, 

 puddle, or in a dunghill, for a certain space, it will turne to a 

 little thin spralling worme, 'which I have often seene and ex- 

 perimented. ,f (p. 19.) 



Linnaeus tells us, that the rustics of Smoland say, that all 

 the pieces of the worm of this kind that have been divided into 

 many, on being kept immersed in water, will each grow into 

 a perfect body. On this slender authority, apparently, other 

 less cautious naturalists have stated this as a fact : but the cir- 

 cumstances observed by us in our experiments would appear 

 to militate against its truth. — Berwick upon Tweed, May 28. 

 'ti'iij'QnxIsiD ion Q'/Bii £'io; ; 



[I. 223. The story of Kircher's snake-making (I. 223.) 

 brings to my mind a trick which was played by a schoolfellow, 

 who had discovered some specimens of a Gordius in a butt 

 of rain-water, and used to sell them in bottles to his compa- 

 nions as animated horse hairs. Many a time has some tra- 

 velling stallion been stopped, and his tail robbed; for no other 

 would answer. The hairs were committed to the tub, accord- 

 ing to his advice, but with the same success as accompanied 

 the experiments of Redi (II. 223). — Lansdown Guilding 

 St. Vincent, May I. 1830.] 



Art. VII. An Advocation of the Prosecution of Meteorology ; and 

 Considerations on Lunar Halo, viewed as a Prognostic of Weather. 

 By J. G. Tatem, Esq. 



I send you some observations [given below] on the lunar 

 halo as the harbinger of rain, and, generally, on meteorology. 



d d 3 



