Feb. I, 1877] 



NA TURE 



^95 



bringing water, but its position in Teneriffe during summer is 

 favourable for making it deposit any which may be present." 



I think from these extracts, which are supported by other 

 passages in Prof. Sm} li's work, I am quite justified in arguing 

 that the trades and counter- trades are not similar in their con- 

 stituents, that their degrees of electricity and of saturation are 

 not the same, and that therefore it is not reasonable to suppose 

 that their upper currents intermingle at the belts of tropical 

 calms, and that their mixed volume descends and is then drawn 

 oflf north and south as required, to restore the equilibrium of the 

 atmosphere. 



As these opposite currents flowing in the northern hemisphere 

 from the north-east and the south-west (approximately) do not 

 intermingle, and their mixed volume does not descend in the 

 calms of Cancer it must necessarily follow that the south-west or 

 return equatorial current, does descend to the surface of the 

 ocean on the polar side of the calms of Cancer, and equally that 

 the north-east upper current does descend on the equatorial side. 



I have by no means exhausted what I have to say on this sub- 

 ject, but Mr. Ley will doubtless imderstand that I am unable to 

 treat it at greater length in your columns. The same line of 

 argument would have enabled me to answer Mr. Ley's questions 

 separately had space permitted. Digby Murray 



Mind and Matter 



Permit me to correct a mistake on the part of Mr. Tupper 

 (Nature, vol. xv. p. 217), who, though starting with a correct 

 notion that my letter (Nature, vol. xv. p, 78) was intended to 

 solve a problem, immediately fell into the error of regarding it 

 as intended to prove an alleged fact. 



The fact alhged, that consciousness depends on nervous 

 organisation I assumed to be a fact, and undertook to indicate 

 how the dependence might be conceived, or regarded, to exist. 



First, I alleged that the hypothesis of matter being as sus- 

 ceptible of consciousness as spirit, was quite conceivable, as a 

 hypothesis, whether or not it should be proved afterwards to be 

 a wrong hypothesis. 



Second, the connection of two so dissimilar entities as matter 

 and subjectivity had not the objection of being anomalous or 

 unique ; for energy and matter were equally dissimilar and yet 

 invariably united. The parity of mystery was not intended to 

 establish "parity of probability as to the facts/* but merely 

 tariiy of conceivabiiity. For it is surely some help to our enter- 

 taining a new conception if we can point to an existing similar 

 conception. 



Third, if such a mysterious entity as energy could be divided 

 and combined (using the words in a loose sense) why should 

 there be a difficulty in conceiving of the division and combination 

 of subjectivity. By this I meant that as division of matter in- 

 volved division of energy, as to amount, so division of matter 

 might be conceived involving division of subjectivity, as to antou7it: 

 so with combination. 



Thus far, however, I had only cleared away difficulties "real 

 or apparent " in the way of our conceiving the relation of conscious- 

 ness to matter from the " materialistic" stand-point. 



The essential part of my solution which indicated roughly the 

 modus of the connection between matter and consciousness and 

 which dealt with the great difficulty of the question — How to 

 account for the tivo aspects of matter, the unconscious and con- 

 scious ? — has not been touched by Mr. Tupper. This portion 

 he excused himself from examining because he regarded it as 

 based on the assumption that "the probability of subjectivity 

 being a property of matter equals the fact of energy being related 

 to matter," whereas it is based on the fact, or alleged fact, or 

 assumption, that " the dependence of consciousness on nervous 

 organisation seemed by the science of nerve-physiology to be 

 fairly established." To mistake allegations of the conceiv- 

 abiiity of a notion for assumptions or intended proofs that the 

 notion is true, as has been done by Mr. Tupper, is surely not 

 equivalent to pointing out fallacies in the solution of a problem. 



Will he admit that, if a " pointer " could " tell us " he scented 

 a fox and immediately thereafter follow the scent of a hare, 

 such would be an admirable analogy of how to practise " sound 

 logic by the old h priori method ? " 



Stafford, January 17 W. S. Duncan 



American aborigines migrated from the Old World. This may 

 be the case with the Red Indians, but we know that they drove 

 out an earlier people — the mound-builders. However, both 

 mound-builders and Red Indians were certainly post-glacial in 

 their occupation of the northern parts of America, and the 

 oldest traces of their existence may not date back to an earlier 

 time than a late stage of the Neolithic period in Europe. 



Palaeolithic man in America holds the same relative position 

 to these later peoples as he does in the Old World, and we have 

 so far obtained no evidence to show whether he occupied Europe 

 or America first. The position of his remains in the auriferous 

 drift of California is the same as in that of Siberia ; in the loess 

 of the Mississippi as in that of the Danube and the Rhine ; in 

 the caves of Brazil along with extinct mammalia as in those of 

 Europe ; and in the lowland gravels of Virginia as in those of 

 France and England. 



The question of the post or preglacial age of palaeolithic man 

 depends in America as it does in Europe on that of the aga of 

 the depo-its in which they are found, and this is at present a 

 matter of inquiry and discussion which might be set at rest, as I 

 have pointed out in the Quarterly yournal of Science for July of 

 last year, by a thorough examination of the brick clays at Hoxne 

 where palceolithic implements were first found in England. 



Cornwall House, Ealing, January 27 Thomas Belt 



Pre- Glacial Man in America 



Dr. Abbott, in his interesting letter on the traces of pre- 

 glacial man in America, supposes that it may be correct that the 



Holly Berries 



Reports of the scarcity and abundance of holly berries have 

 appeared in Nature from the south-east of England and west 

 of Scotland respectively. It may be interesting to note the con- 

 dition of the holly crop at a point somewhere about midway 

 between these two places. In North Staffordshire and Derby- 

 shire the holly berries are by no means scarce. They are not r.o 

 plentiful as they were last year, but there is a fair average crop. 



I have seldom seen such crops of them as I saw in several 

 places in South Wales about a month ago. It may be also 

 worth adding that the most teeming bush I saw was at a place in 

 Cardiganshire, which was as far as I could learn — and I made 

 diligent inquiries — between four and five miles from the nearest 

 hive of bees. I questioned closely several children on the spot 

 who were intelligent enough to give me a minute description of 

 most of the common birds and insects ; not one of them had ever 

 seen a bee. D. Edwardes 



Denstone College, Staffordshire 



The Meteor of January 7 



Among the "Notes" in Nature, vol. xv., p. 244, there is 

 a description of a large meteor, of which I was fortunate enough 

 to secure a good observation ; but on comparing the apparent 

 path, as observed by myself, with that recoided in the paraj^raph, 

 I find the latter somewhat imperfect ; the apparent path, as seen 

 from near London, seems to have been curtailed both at begin- 

 ning and at end of flight ; probably the observer in question 

 could further amplify his remarks, or some other correspondent 

 send an observation. The following is an abstract from my 

 note-book : — 



" Birmingham, January 7, 10 '31 p.m. G.M.T. — Meteor pear- 

 shape, deep yellow merging into ruby-red towards the tail ; com- 

 menced as a luminous point near 1] Hydras, gradually increased 

 in size, motion very slow and unsteady, appeared to force its 

 way with difficulty, and slight undulation. Near o Leonis it 

 attained the apparent size of Venus, the forward hemisphere 

 now showing signs of internal commotion by the projection of 

 ebullition prominences, which were swept back towards the tail, 

 then 8° long, and vaporous. The latter portion of its flight 

 was intercepted by houses, but on emergence it burst with a 

 flash below j8 Leonis at A.R. 182°, D.N. 16°. Length of path, 

 52° ; time of flight, five to six seconds ; radiant point (in Flu- 

 vius Eridanus), No. 96 Tupman, or No. 164 of the B. A. 

 Catalogue. W. H. Wood 



Balsall Heath Road, Moseley Road, Birmingham 



Spectrum of New Star 

 The spectrum of the new star in Cygnus is changeable, and 

 is now very unlike Cornu's representation of it in a recent num- 

 ber of Nature (vol. xv., p. 158). Your readers may not be 

 aware that it is easy to see several of the bright lines without a 

 powerful instrument, though not to measure them accurately. 

 As observed with a Browning's " miniature spectroscope " at- 

 tached to a 4|-inch refractor, the brightest line is now about at 



