290 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



practised betting-men, and to decide ' which of those 

 men they are most likely to get the better of in turf 

 transactions. 



(From Chambers's Journal, July 1869.) 



SQUARING THE CIRCLE. 



THERE must be a singular charm about insoluble 

 problems, since there are never wanting persons who 

 are willing to attack them. We doubt not that at 

 this moment there are persons who are devoting their 

 energies to Squaring the Circle, in the full belief that 

 important advantages would accrue to science and 

 possibly a considerable pecuniary profit to themselves 

 if they could succeed in solving it. Quite re- 

 cently, applications have been made to the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, to ascertain what was the 

 amount which that body was authorised to pay over 

 to any one who should square the circle. So seri- 

 ously, indeed, was the secretary annoyed by applica- 

 tions of this sort, that it was found necessary to 

 announce in the daily journals that not only was the 

 Academy not authorised to pay any sum at all, but 

 that it had determined never to give the least atten- 

 tion to those who fancied they had mastered the 

 famxms problem. 



It is a singular circumstance that people have even 

 attacked the problem without knowing exactly what 

 its nature is. One ingenious workman, to whom the 



