Feb. 27. 1879] 



NATURE 



385 



helm " turning great ships, is here outdone. The wheel stands, 

 in all simplicity, between two uprights, or a slitted upright, 

 fixed on the deck (or a raised platform) ; there is nothing behind 

 or before the outer surfaces of the uprights. But an essential 

 part of ordinary steering-wheels is the drum or axle extending 

 generally a little way behind (and covered, it may be), on which 

 are wound ropes or chains passing round pulleys to the tiller. 

 A more modem form well known is a screw shaft with 

 levers, &c. The omission in question in these cartoons leaves 

 the scientific mind decidedly "at sea," and with little confidence 

 in the steersman. I suspect the artistic type of mind is rather 

 apt to neglect such details. 



It is remarkable, indeed, how many matters belonging to 

 simple observation escape notice by artists. I may perhaps be 

 allowed to note a few points which have occurred to me in 

 glancing over Punch from November to the present time, and the 

 three books of cartoons of the Punch series. 



The electric machine sometimes makes its appearance in 

 Punch. In No. 53 of the Beaconsfield cartoons, that gentleman 

 (as a professor) is arranging a circuit between an aristocrat and 

 a working man for a shock. The electric machine behind is 

 evidently meant for one of the Ramsden type, but the brass-work 

 with points to collect the electricity is wanting, and the glass 

 plate seems to have great concealing power. Again, the clever 

 and fantastic sketch at the beginning of the Almanack shows an 

 electrical machine of quite indescribable type, unless it be a 

 Holtz, but it defies all mechanical conception. Perhaps it is not 

 allowable to apply scientific rules to the brilliant insanity of such 

 drawings, but I think there shoidd be more basis of real exist- 

 ence than this one presents. 



From many pictures we might be led to infer that left- 

 handedness is much more common than it really is. Thus, a 

 pince-nez is held in the left hand by Mr. Bright (in No. 19 of the 

 Bright cartoons), by a church dignitary speaking to his daughters 

 {Punch, December 21, p. 282), and by an old gentleman who 

 receives a letter on the road on a snowy day (Punch, February I, 

 p. 39). In the Almanack (p. 5) a workman holds a cup in his 

 left hand and a saucer in his right. Reins are frequently held 

 in the right hand (which, I imderstand, is wrong) — one example 

 is the cartoon of Punch, December 14, "Post Equitem." If 

 something might be said for these cases, it is difficult to see how 

 an artist can be justified in putting a quill pen behind the left ear, 

 as in the case of Gladstone, when meeting Bismarck (last of 

 Gladstone series), unless, indeed, the right ear were already 

 occupied with one (which is not here the case). A similar 

 remark seems apphcable to a caricature of Ruskin by Samboume 

 {Punch, December 7, p. 254). 



In an ingenious sketch {Punch, February I, p. 37), in which 

 a complex pocket-knife or sort of viultum in parvo is made to 

 take the aspect of a formidable animal, the spiral of the cork- 

 screw turns the wrong way. 



In one of the Bright cartoons (No. 33), that gentleman appears 

 in court costume before a mirror which slants away from him 

 upwards, but the image, I think, hardly corresponds to this. 



One word more, and of a somewat different order of criticism. 

 Heat of certain intensities and in certain circumstances may, of 

 course, be very unpleasant But, as we have had good reason 

 to know lately, heat may be very welcome and agreeable. 

 Therefore I venture to indict the cartoon of /"mw^tA, February 15, 

 " Hot water, sir ! " as flagrantly at fault. Beaconsfield is bring- 

 ing in the morning's hot water to John Bull in bed. In the 

 session of 1879 John Bull may very likely find himself "in hot 

 water ; " but in the connection to which the picture refers, hot 

 water is a pleasant mitigation to the inevitable discomfort of 

 washing. So John Bull's horrified look could not possibly refer 

 to that. If he were being awoke, as I have been, in a hydro- 

 pathic establishment, about 6 A.M., by a fiend in human shape, 

 who showed a c)mical determination to pack him in a cold wet 

 sheet, the man's implements might arouse some horror. In the 

 Beaconsfield cartoon. No. 90, "The Turkish Bath," the meta- 

 phor is, of course, all right : " You made it so confoundedly 

 hot for me ! " 



Some of the foregoing are little points, but they prove this 

 much, that there is room for improvement among artists of this 

 class as regards correctness of observation and strict fidelity to 

 fact. A. B. M. 



been called in to examine into the cause of leakage of water- 

 pipes under the flooring of houses," and then records a single 

 instance of rats having knawed through a pipe. It is important 

 to know whether the plumber knew of another case : for the 

 idea at once suggests itself that the pipe had cracked through 

 frost, and the rats then discovering the leakage gnawed it to get 

 more water. 



It has always seemed to me that brute reasoning is always 

 practical but never abstract. They do wonderful things suggested 

 by the objective fact before them ; but, I think, never go beyond 

 it. Thus, a dog left in a room alone rang the bell to fetch the 

 servant. Had not the dog been taught to ring the bell (which on 

 inquiry proved to have been the case) it would have been abstract 

 reasoning, but it was only practical. The Arctic fox— too wary 

 to be shot like the first who took a bait tied to a string, which 

 was attached to the trigger of a gun — would dive under the snow 

 and so pull the bait down below the line of fire. This is purely 

 practical reasoning ; but had the fox pulled the string fir.-,t out 

 of the line of fire in order to discharge the gun, and then to 

 get the bait, tJiat would have been abstract reasoning which he 

 could not attain to. 



This practical reasoning is just what young people do, before 

 they can reflect. A boy the other day found the straps of his 

 skates frozen. The fact only suggested cutting them. Not one 

 of his schoolfellows reflected upon the abstract fact that the ice 

 would melt if he sat upon his foot a few minutes. Hence brutes 

 and boys are just alike, in that nothing occurs to either beyond 

 what the immediaU fact before them may suggest. The one 

 kind I call purely practical reasoning, w hich both have ; the 

 other, abstract, which brutes never acquire ; but the boy will as 

 his intelligence develops. George Henslow 



In Central Park one very hot day my attention was drawn to 

 the conduct of an elephant which had been placed in an inclosure 

 in the open air. 



On the ground was a large heap of newly-mown grass, which 

 the sagacious animal was taking up by the trunkfull, and laying 

 carefully upon his sun-heated back. He continued the operation 

 until his back was completely thatched, when he remained quiet, 

 apparently enjoying the result of his ingenuity. 



It seems to me that i«j/»«<r/ should have prompted the elephant 

 to eat the grass, and that it was reason which caused him to use 

 it for the purpose of diminishing the effect of the sun's rays. 



New York, February 8 James J. Furniss 



Bees' Stings 



Will yon allow me, as possessor of a couple of score of hives, 

 to say a word respecting the discussion in your columns as to the 

 effect on Apis viellifica of the loss of its sting and appendages. 



As far as my observations go, the bee is not seriously injured 

 by the loss, for though imprisoned and watched for some hours, 

 as soon as released it flies back to its hive, and apparendy resumes 

 its work as before. However, any one sufficiently painstaking 

 can settle the question finally by marking some such bees, and 

 watching for their departure, and return laden with honey or 

 poUen. 



May I ask if any of your readers have yet determined the 

 identity of bee poison and formic acid. The former is said, on 

 exposure to the air, to solidify to a white crystalline mass, but 

 formic acid requires, I believe, a temperature of 0° C. to effect 

 this modification- J- P- Jackson 



Bull's Mill Apiary, Hertford, February 18 



Intellect in Brutes 

 In Mr. Nicols' instance of intellect in brutes (Nature, vol. 

 Lx. p. 365) he tells us that a plumber " had on several occasions 



P. LE NEVE FOSTER 



AVERY numerous body of friends will have heard 

 with regret of the sudden death of Mr. Le Neve 

 Foster, the secretary of the Society of Arts. Though 

 not himself an original worker in science, there were 

 few men better known in scientific circles, or so uni- 

 versally liked where he was known, as Mr. Foster. His 

 connection with the Society of Arts threw him amongst 

 men working in nearly aU lines of research, and there are 

 probably few recent instances of the practical application 

 of any new scientific discovery to industrial purposes in 

 which he did not take some interest Coming "P to London 

 with a fellowship from Trinity Hall, he was called to the 

 bar in 1836, and practised for some fifteen or sixteen years 



