152 



NA TURE 



[December 19, 1895 



Globular Lightning. 



A GREAT deal has been written recently on the various forms 

 of lightning, and the subject itself has so much scientific interest, 

 that it may be worth while to place on record an observation of 

 my own on globular lightning, made years ago, in which the 

 main facts are different from any I have seen described. 



On Tuesday, July 23, 1878, I was on board a large yacht at 

 anchor in the harbour of Southampton, England. About two 

 o'clock in the afternoon, when we were about to sail, a violent 

 thunderstorm came up from the west, and as it passed over 

 Southampton, several bolts descended, one of which, as I after- 

 wards learned, struck a church. As the first drops of rain 

 came down on the yacht, I was standing in the after-companion- 

 way, looking forward, when my attention was attracted by a 

 bright light apparently near the upper part of the foremast. 

 When I first saw it distinctly, it was about half-mast high, and 

 was falling slowly and directly toward the deck. This light 

 was a ball of fire, a delicate rose-pink in colour, pear-shaped in 

 form, with the large end below, and appeared to be four or five 

 inches in diameter and six or eight inches in length. 



When it struck the deck, about forty feet from where I was 

 standing, there was a loud explosion, and it was some minutes 

 before it could be ascertained what damage had resulted. The 

 mate, who stood near the mainmast, about twenty-five feet from 

 where I was, was knocked down, but soon recovered. The 

 same bolt, or part of it, also passed in front of the foremast, 

 down a windsail ventilator, into the galley, where it knocked a 

 large tin pan from the hands of a cook, and upset things 

 generally throughout the culinary department, but injured no 

 one seriously. Of the crew, some were on deck, and others 

 below, but none were really injured, although a few were badly 

 demoralised. A strong ozone-like odour was observed immedi- 

 ately after the explosion, and this remained perceptible for 

 some time. 



The officer in charge of the yacht. Captain Matthews, who 

 was forward at the time, and escaped without injury, stated 

 that just after the stroke, he saw " streaks of lightning running 

 around on deck like snakes." I was myself only dazed for a 

 moment by the explosion, and saw distinctly that the deck for- 

 ward was illuminated with a bright confused light. The owner 

 of the yacht, George Peabody Russell, and his other guests, 

 had gone below when the storm began, and suffered no injury, 

 except possibly from fright, as they were still further away from 

 the stroke. 



As soon as the storm had passed, I made careful notes of the 

 whole occurrence, with drawings and measurements, as I was 

 much interested in the subject, and it was the first instance of 

 the kind I had seen at close quarters. An inspection showed 

 that the vessel itself had sustained no material damage, and 

 there were not even permanent marks left on the deck where 

 the ball of fire exploded. A number of other yachts were at 

 anchor quite near our vessel at the time, among them the 

 white Sunbeam, just home from her well-known voyage, but we 

 saw no indications that any of these had been struck. I had no 

 time to inquire, as immediately after the storm we sailed on a 

 cruise to the eastward. O. C. Marsh. 



Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, December 4. 



Large Human Femora in the Church of S. Eustachius, 

 Tavistock. 



Tavistock Abbey was founded a.d. 961 by Orgar, Earl of 

 Devonshire, and endowed and completed by his son Ordulf a.d. 

 981. Some bones, said to have been found in an ancient stone 

 coffin in the Abbey ruins, are locally believed to have once 

 formed part of the skeleton of the said Ordulf, a reputed giant. 

 According to William of Malmesbury, this Ordulf could stride 

 across a stream ten feet wide, and he is said, by the same 

 authority, to have torn off the bars from the town gate of Exeter 

 with his hands, and to have wrenched away the hinges with his 

 feet. 



The relics, which are preserved under glass in Tavistock 

 parish church, consist of three thigh bones which originally 

 belonged to three different individuals. 



Whilst at Tavistock recently I had an opportunity of measuring 

 these bones : the extreme length of one is i ft. 9g in., the second 

 I ft. 8| in., and the third i ft. 5! in. The heights of the 

 original owners were therefore 6 ft. 8^ in., 6 ft. 5^ in., and 

 5 ft. 5^ in. The two larger bones appear to have belonged to 

 strong well-developed men, the other bone is more delicate. 



Dunstable. Worthington G. Smith. 



A Lecture Experiment in Surface Tension. 



Wishing to demonstrate to a fairly large audience the well- 

 known disastrous results of attempting to remove grease stains- 

 by placing ether or benzol on them, instead of round i\i<trc\, and 

 then spirally approaching their centres, I hit on the following 

 plan, which gives not only unmistakable but beautiful results. 



A circle of paraffin or olive oil is painted on the centre of a 

 filter-paper, which is then dusted over with bone-black. Alight 

 blast of air on the paper removes the bone-black from all portions- 

 of the paper except the oiled portion, which looms up jet-black 

 on a pale grey ground. The filter-paper is then folded in four 

 wings, so that its edge forms a curved cross, and it is secured irk 

 this position by a penholder which has two longitudinal slits cut 

 at right-angles. (This method of folding and securing will be 

 familiar to all who can recall their school-days to the minutiae of 

 " penholder darts.") 



The tip of the oiled apex of the filter-paper is dipped for a 

 moment or two in ether. The paper is then unfolded, dried, 

 and subjected to a second treatment with bone-black, when it 

 will be found that the ether has chased the oil from the apex, 

 and spread it towards the circumference of the paper in a 

 symmetrical pattern. 



It is scarcely necessary to add that there is no virtue in the 

 special method of folding described above, and that a great 

 diversity of beautiful patterns may be obtained by folding the 

 filter-paper, and distributing the oil in other ways. 



The Leys School, Cambridge. Douglas Carnegie. 



An Examination Question in Physics. 



In the subject of Experimental Physics, B.Sc. Examination 

 for Honours of the University of London (Deceinber 5), the 

 fifth question of the second paper stands as follows :— 



"A plate of uniaxal crystal, cut with the {■&.c&% parallel \.o the 

 axis, is placed between a polariser and an analyser. How would 

 you arrange a source of light and lenses to show a system ot 

 rings on a screen ? 



" Explain how the rings are formed when the polariser and 

 analyser are crossed and the axis is in the plane of polarisation, 

 of the incident light." (The italics are my own.) 



As the B.Sc. Honours is the highest examination of the 

 University, the questions set therein are naturally regarded by 

 students as important tests of knowledge ; and I think it would,, 

 therefore, be of considerable scientific interest if the examiners, 

 would kindly state their intention in setting this question, and 

 the nature of the answer they expected to receive. 



Queen's College, Harley Street, W. E. F, Herroun. 



NO. 1364, VOL ^2>^ 



" Linotsenia maritima" (Leach). 

 Will you kindly allow me to put on record a new locality for 

 this marine centipede ?— Bexhill, just above high-water mark. 

 The single specimen taken was kindly identified for me by Mr. 

 R. I. Pocock, of the British Museum (Natural History). 



Henry Scherren. 

 9 Cavendish Road, Harringay, N. 



THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



SO much special work has been done during the last 

 thirty years upon the transformations of insects, that 

 I lately resolved to spend some time in reviewing the 

 most important facts which have been ascertained re- 

 specting the structural changes which take place before 

 or during pupation. I had not gone far before I found 

 it necessary to clear up my own thoughts as to the nature 

 of insect metamorphosis, and the way in which It had 

 come about. Some preliminary considerations upon 

 these points, inferred from facts which have long been 

 known, I now propose to discuss, leaving the more 

 special facts to some future occasion. 



Three naturalists, Fritz Miiller (1864),^ Friedrich 

 Brauer (1869),^ and Sir John Lubbock (1874)^^ have in 



1 " Facts for Darwin" (Fiir Darwin). 



-• Verh. Zool. bot. Ges. IVien (1869). Of less importance is Part 2 (1878). 

 3 "Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects." (Appeared originally m 

 Nature, 1873). 



