Feb. 20, 1879] 



NATURE 



3^5 



This theory being accepted, for an explanation of the aberra- 

 tion in question we have only to suppose some shght physical 

 alteration in the contents of the cochlea, which would cause the 

 sound wave to strike or afifect the wTong portion of the lamina 

 spiralis, and thus a false impression would be carried to the 

 brain. Urban Pritchard 



Now attention is drawn to the above allow me to give another 

 experience. 



On two separate occasions while playing the English concertina, 

 and more particularly when single notes or simple chords were 

 struck, I noticed that each was followed by a loud and distinct 

 note an octave lower which appeared to be that of its funda- 

 mental tone. The musical tones of the voice of any person 

 addressing me, also, had their deeper reverberations in a similar 

 manner, these being numerous and of rapid succession j the con- 

 fusion arising was very like that which is heard in a hall unsuit- 

 ably constructed for sound. 



The nuisance, for such it amoimted to, I was troubled with 

 for a couple of days each visitation, the abnormal state of hear- 

 ing being peculiar to the left ear only. John Harsier 



Wick, near Anmdel 



i*. Intellect in Brutes 



The following case will perhaps interest those who believe 

 that the reasoning faculty in man and animals differs in degree 

 only, and is essentially the same in kind. Some years ago a 

 plumber told me that he had, on several occasions, been called 

 in to examine into the cause of leakage of water-pipes imder 

 the flooring of houses, and had found that the rats had gnawed 

 a hole in the leaden pipe to obtain water, and that great numbers 

 of them had made it a common drinking-place, as evidenced by 

 the quantity of dung lying about. The plumber brought me a 

 piece of leaden pipe, about J inch in diameter and \ inch in thick- 

 ness, penetrated in two places, taken by himself from a house 

 on Haverstock HiU. There are the marks of the incisors on the 

 lead, as clear as an engraving ; and a few hairs and two or three 

 of the rats' vibrissae have been pinched into the metal in the act 

 of gnawing it. This crucial proof of brute intelligence — a rat 

 will not drink foul water — interested me so much, that I ven- 

 tured to send an account of it to Dr. Chas. Darwin, asking his 

 opinion on the means by which the rats ascertained the presence 

 of water in the pipe. To this he replied : "I cannot doubt 

 about animals reasoning in a practical fashion. The case of 

 rats is very curious. Do not they hear the water trickling?" 

 It may be conceded that this explanation is the most probable, 

 and if it be the true one we have an example of an animal 

 using his senses to obtain the data for a process of icasunlng, 

 leading to conclusions about which he is so certain that he will 

 go to the trouble of cutting through a considerable thickness of 

 lead. Ob^-iously man could do no more under the same con- 

 ditions, Arthur Nicols 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Companion of Algol. — There are grounds for 

 suspecting that the light of the small star about 80" distant 

 from Algol in the S.P. quadrant is also variable. 

 Schroter in his letter to Bode, wherein he first drew 

 attention to this object, mentions that he detected it with 

 a 7-feet reflector on October 12, 1787, and although small 

 it was distinctly seen. Soon afterwards he estimated its 

 distance from Algol at i' 30". On April 9, 1788, the star 

 was not to be found, and he therefore concluded that it 

 must be variable. In 1792, when he was in possession of 

 a 13-feet reflector, which he describes as the most power- 

 ful instrument then available in Germany, he re-examined 

 the vicinity of Algol, and on March 9 saw the companion 

 much brighter than before, and compares its distinctness 

 in the larger telescope with its faintness in the smaller 

 one with which he had discovered it. But on April 5, in 

 a state of atmosphere at least as favourable as on March 9, 

 with the same instrument and magnifying power, not the 

 slightest trace of the companion could be perceived ; on 

 increasing the power to 370, with the utmost straining of 

 the eye, the faintest glimmering was now and then sus- 

 pected in its position. Schroter then, in this second com- 



munication to Bode, expresses himself more confidently 

 as to the variability of the small star. 



In the early part of the year 1874 the writer of these 

 lines made several ineffectual attempts to observe the 

 companion, using various powers on a 7-inch refractor ; 

 though the skies were favourable enough, nothing could 

 be glimpsed in its place. It was not therefore without 

 surprise that upon re-examining the vicinity under similar 

 conditions on September 9 of the same year, the com- 

 panion w^as caught at once, and seen with great distinct- 

 ness. It was measured with Mr. J. G. Barclay's lo-inch 

 refractor at Leyton, by Mr. Talmage, on October 2 fol- 

 lowing, when the angle was found to be i94°'4 and the 

 distance 79" "02 ; the magnitude was estimated 11 -12. An 

 observation by Smyth in 1835 is recorded, but his distance 

 is much too small ; it is not stated whether he found the 

 companion himself or whether his knowledge of its exist- 

 ence was due to Schroter's communications to Bode. It 

 does not occur amongst the objects in the " Bedford 

 Cycle," which were re-measured by Secchi. 



While upon the subject of variable stars we may ju^ 

 mention that t Andromedae, to w-hich attention is directed 

 in the last number of the Monthly Notices of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society as "a new variable star," is no 

 novelty : we referred to the star as almost certainly 

 entitled to insertion in the catalogues of such objects, fouc. 

 years since (NATURE, vol. xi. p. 308). 



" A MISSING Star."— From a letter addressed by Prof. 

 C. H. F. Peters, Director of the Observatorj-, Clinton, 

 New York, to the Superintendent of the Naval Observa 

 tor>', Washington, which Admiral Rodgers has communi- 

 cated to the Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 2240), it 

 appears that he has strangely misinterpreted a note with 

 the above heading, which was lately printed in this 

 column. We referred to an object observed at Wash- 

 ington, with Hygeia in 1850, and afterwards sought for at 

 that observatory and elsewhere on the assumption that it 

 might possibly have been a trans-Neptunian planet, and 

 in view of the failure of a careful search on this hypothesis, 

 we remarked : "the only likely explanation appears to be 

 that there was a variable star in this position, anjl *Vt*' 

 the observations in right ascension wpi-»» d-iiected vath 

 greater error than might b*» ^-^ected, considermg that 

 on two of thf -iaj-c or observation several comparisons 

 ■were made." Prof. Peters, however, explains the diffi-- 

 culty by referring several transits to the first instead of to 

 the second wire of the movable plate of the micrometer 

 employed, in w^hich case the star is identified with 

 Lalande 36613, and Prof. Hall has found, on examining 

 the original observing-books, that Mr. Ferguson had 

 altered several correct observations to correspond with 

 erroneous ones, and Admiral Rodgers accepts the expla- 

 nation as satisfactor>\ But Prof. Peters is alarmed about 

 the matter now that Nature " stirs it up again," and 

 writes to the Superintendent of the Washington Obser- 

 vatory "in order that nobody thereby might be in- 

 duced to spend months and years upon a renewed 

 search," and to "stop any further perpetuation of 

 the credence, that a trans-Neptunian planet is re- 

 vealed by the Washington Observations." It will 

 be seen that our suggestion was that a variable star 

 might exist in the observed position, and was in no way 

 connected with a renewed search for a trans-Neptunian 

 planet. Prof. Peters must entertain rather odd notions 

 as to the probable knowledge of his astronomical con- 

 freres respecting the contents of the ecliptical region of 

 the sky, if he believes that any one would be induced, by 

 remarks that we might offer, to undertake in these days a 

 search for a distant planet close to the ecliptic amongst 

 stars of the ninth magnitude ! 



Comet 1871 V.— Dr. B. A. Gould, with his usual 

 energy-, has secured an excellent series of post-perihelion 

 places of the comet discovered by Dr. Tempel on 

 November 3, 1871, which in a fortnight's time sank below 



