460 



NATURE 



\March 20, 1879 



course no one taught the donkey to do this ; but the quadruped 

 gave the biped a practical lesson, from which I am not aware 

 that they drew the abstract verbally formulated conclusion that 

 reason may be exercised without rhetoric. 

 • -March 14 'Hbnrx MuiRHEAD 



I BELIEVE that instances of^rats gnawing through water-pipes 

 are frequent. Two have come to my knowledge during the past 

 fortnight. The one instance occurred at the house of a gentle- 

 man near West Hartlepool ; in the other case a large hole, 3I 

 inches long, and varying from \%\h% of an inch to i^th inch in 

 breadth, was gnawed in the fresh-water pipe of the screw- steamer 

 Mary Ccroerdalc. A portion of tliis pipe, containing the hole, 

 was cut off, and is preserved by me ; it is a stout leaden pipe, a 

 quarter of an inch thick, and with a diameter of 2,\ inches. It 

 is very doubtful vvkether there was any flaw before the hole was 

 begun. R. Morton Middleton 



West Hartlepool 



Distribution of the Black Rat 



Perhaps some of the readers of Nature may be able to throw 

 some light on the present geographical range of the Black Rat 

 (Mils rattus, L.). In the early part of 1877 some individuals of 

 this species came on board the steamship Lady Frances either at 

 Bombay or at Rangoon, but, as the captain believes, at the latter 

 port. The animals multiplied on board the vessel, and in August 

 last I had tlie pleasure of receiving from the: ship a living speci- 

 men, W'hich was at once forwarded to the Zoological Gardens in 

 Regent's Park, where, I believe, it may still be seen. In a " Cata- 

 logue of the Mammals of the Sahara," by my friend, Canon 

 Tristram, F.R.S. ^dide "The Great Sahara," p. 385), the author 

 states that the " Far el Kla," as the black rat is called by the 

 Arabs, "still maintains its position" in the Algerian Sahara. 

 And I was yesterday presented by Mr. F, Donald Thompson, 

 of Seaton-Carew, with a skin of Mus rattus from New Zealand. 

 This example, like those from Burmah, was brought over by a 

 vessel (the Trevelyan) which loaded grain at Lyttelton, in the 

 province of Canterbury, New Zealand, where the rats embarked. 

 In August, 1878, Dr. Sclater, F.R.S. , was good enough to 

 inform me that " Mus rattus has rather an extensive range over 

 Europe and Western Asia," and^added, " I fear it would not be 

 possible to state it very exactly." But it is evident that the 

 range of the species is much wider, as it is known to occur in 

 North Africa, British India, and New Zealand ; and it is also 

 said, by Prof. Bell and Mr. Macgillivray, to have been carried 

 to America and the South Sea Islands by ships. I should be 

 glad to have further evidence as to its occurrence in Burmah, 

 and it would be also desirable to know if it is found in the 

 Malay Archipelago, China, Japan, or Australia. Dr. Peters, 

 of the Zoological Museum at Berlin, assured me, in June last, 

 that the species was extremely rare, if not actually extinct, in 

 Grermany, and showed me the only specimen in the fine collec- 

 tion under his care — an old and faded skin from Hanover. 

 The animal lingers in one old building at Stockton-on-Tees, 

 and there is clearly a possibility of its being reintroduced in 

 many seaport towns through the agency of ships. 

 West Hartlepool, March 11 R. Morton Middleton 



The United States Fisheries 



In your review of the report of the United States Commission 

 of Fish and Fisheries, you say you are of opinion there is almost 

 no difference between Salmo salar and Salvia quintiat. My 

 friend Prof. Baird sent me his report some time since, and also 

 forwarded several thousand eggs of Salmo (juinnat for experi- 

 ment in the hatching tanks of the Southport Aquarium. The 

 eggs hatched out remarkably well, a very small percentage only 

 being lost, and have proved much more hardy and tenacious of 

 life than any Salmo salar I ever had to do with, and very much 

 easier to feed. Salmo salar have never done well except when 

 fed on the minute red worms found on the mud in the beds of 

 some rivers and streams (our supply was obtained from the 

 Thames). Salmo quinnat, however, live well, and grow faster 

 on the roe of fish (refuse from the fish market), such as whiting, 

 than S. salar will on anything. From what I have seen of 

 them I quite agree with Prof. Baird in his admiration of this 

 mcnber of the salmon family, and I share his surprise that it has 

 attracted so little attention among English fish-culturists. It 

 would certainly be a most valuable addition to our food-fishes. 



stronger, and apparently of more rapid growth than our native 

 species. On the continent, and in New Zealand and other 

 countries, it is most greedily sought after, and each season for 

 several years past an agent has carried from America to France, 

 Germany, and other countries, large consignments of the ova. 

 In England, so far, it appears to have been quite neglected. 

 Hill Fold, Bolton, March 15 Ghas. L. JTacKSON 



Plovers in the Sandwich Islands 

 I CAN vouch for the truth of the visit of golden plovers to the 

 Sandwich Islands mentioned by Prof. A. Newton in Nature, 

 vol. xix. p. 433. They are very numerous during the winter 

 from November until March. I do not know the scientific name, 

 but I have shot a great many on Oahu and Hawaii. 



If it will help Mr. Newton in the solution of the very interest- 

 ing question he raises I may mention that M. Bailliere, Cpnsul- 

 General for France at Honolulu, is in the habit of sending speci- 

 mens of birds to (I think) the jardin des Plantes, Paris, where 

 doubtless a specimen might be found. S. EoNG 



Hertford, March 15 



Unscientific Art .. i iw ^. 



In the Graphic for December 28 there appeared a stetch of a 

 man taking a reading on a marine barometer, on board the 

 Sarmatian, during the voyage of the Marquis of Lome to Canada. 

 To see the scale better by the light of his lantern, the observer 

 is represented as sloping the barometer at an angle of about 30° 

 from the vertical, John W. Buck 



New Kingswood, Bath 



ON THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPLAINING THE 

 CONTINUANCE OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 

 CONSISTENT WITH THE TENDENCY TO 

 TEMPERA TURE-EQ UI LIBRIUM 



n^HE idea of the ultimate final cessation of all physical 

 •'■ change and life in the universe ^ has been contem- 

 plated by many physicists with some dissatisfaction, and 

 with the desire if possible to find some explanation or 

 physical means by which so apparently purposeless an 

 end is averted, and of avoiding the necessity for assuming 

 in past time a violation of physical principles at present 

 recognised to exist. ^ Several attempts have been made 

 to surmount the difficulty,^ but apparently with no gene- 

 rally satisfactory result. Having given much time to 

 physical problems having a relation more or less to this 

 question, and having always kept the question itself in view, 

 I should like to submit the following conclusion to the 

 readers of Nature as an attempt to solve the difficulty, 

 though what I have to bring forward is probably not 

 entirely new, as considerations partially tending towards 

 the same final result have already been published by 

 Mr. James Croll, Phil. Mag., May, 1868, " On Geological 

 Time ; " * and Mr. Johnstone Stoney, '■ On the Physical 

 Constitution of the Sun and Stars," Proc. of the Royal 

 Society, 1868-69. The groundwork of what I have to 

 suggest may be described in a few words.'' 



Taking a general view of the universe, we may consider 

 it as so much matter, which contains a certain quantity 

 of energy. Let us suppose for illustration the energy of 



' Thomson, " On the Universal Tendency in Natiu-e to the Dissipation of 

 Mechanical Energy," Phil. Mag., October, 1852 ; Clausius, Ninth Memoir, 

 Pogs- Ann., July, 1865; see also Tait, "Recent Advances in Physical 

 Science," second edition, p. 22. 



^ The allied idea of the whole universe tending to agglomerate into one 

 mass under the action of gravity, the notion of instability thus involved, all 

 this has something incongruous and unnatural about it that appears to be 

 scarcely in harmony with the orderly working of physical phenomena, and 

 would seem to point to the necessity for some additional explanation. 



3 Grove, " Corr. of Physical Forces," p. 67; Rankine, " On the Reconcen- 

 Uation of the Mechanical Energy of the Universe," Phil. Mag., November, 

 1852, &c., &c. 



4 Also Quarterly yournal of Science, July, 1877- 



5 The same problem was considered by the writer in special reference ta 

 Le Sage's theory of gravitation in the Quarterly Journal 0/ Science for July 

 last, but my present object is to deal with the question entirely independently 

 of any special theories, and solely on the basis of generally accepted facts, 

 or facts which if not known would be in harmony with or deducible from 

 those which are known. 



