366 



NATURE 



[February 20, 1896 



much faster than without the wings ; then raising the front edge 

 a little, I am able to take a long soar down a slight incline. 

 The only slopes on which I was able to practise, were not steep 

 enough to make it possible for me to soar for any great distance ; 

 and therefore I have at times, on days when the wind was 

 fairly steady, attached a string to the front of the machine, with 

 which a boy has run and kept me in the air for about half a 

 minute. I never used a line when there was enough wind to pick 

 me up without forward movement, on account of the strong 

 winds at Cardross being so very squally. 



I had to stop experimenting at the end of September ; but 

 when I left off, I was pretty sure of my balance in the air, and 

 was able to land without damage and without falling, even 

 when soaring over the ground very fast. And this was the 

 whole object of my work, so that I should be pretty sure of my 

 balance before putting motive power into the machine to make 

 horizontal flight possible. This I hope to do this year, with a 

 petroleum engine, either working the screw propeller in the front 

 of the machine, or two screws, one placed under each wing, so 

 that the machine will then practically become a Maxim machine 

 of the smallest size possible for one man to fly with. 



Mr. Maxim has shown most clearly that his large machine at 

 Bexley will rise on the underneath side of rails put down to 

 prevent its rising further ; and what is possible for this large 

 machine, is just as possible for a small one. And I am confident 

 that I could maintain horizontal flight with wings similar to 

 those I have been using, or, better still, similar to those I am 

 now making, which vary chiefly only in mechanical detail from 

 the first, if driven forward as I propose. 



Herr Lilienthal, who most kindly showed me his apparatus, 

 and let me see him practise last April, has kept me informed of 

 what he has been doing. 



Mr. Lawrence Hargrave, of New South Wales, kindly wrote 

 to me suggesting that \ should use double surfaces, and advocated 

 the construction he uses in his cellular kites, as being simple 

 and light. 



Although with the double surfaces now used by Herr 

 Lilienthal a machine with the same area of sail can be made of 

 less extreme dimensions, and a considerable saving can probably 

 be made in weight, it has the disadvantage of having less area 

 to act as a parachute in the event of speed through the air being 

 lost, either by a sudden lull in the wind, or through want of 

 skill on the part of the flyer. And I am as yet not at all sure 

 that the upper surface with a puffy wind would not, from the 

 very fact of its high position, prove a source of danger rather 

 than the reverse. 



My reason for saying this is because I tried a machine at 

 Cardross with the wings just above my head, but found the 

 machine with the low wings very much more easy to handle, 

 especially when the wind was puffy ; but in order to make more 

 sure of this, I shall probably make a double surface machine 

 at once. 



It is quite possible that what is best at Herr Lilienthal's ideal 

 practising place, where he has his cone-shaped hill and flat 

 country for miles round, so that his wind is unbroken and 

 steady, is not best in the proverbially squally district of the 

 Clyde, where I have had to experiment. 



The accompanying illustration will probably make my letter 

 more clear. 



Percy S. Pilcher. 



Science and Morals. 



A HABIT has been growing of recent years among certain 

 scientific men, which many of those with whom I have discussed 

 the subject join with me in regretting. It is this :— After the 

 announcement of an interesting discovery, a number of persons 

 at once proceed to make further experiments, and to publish their 

 results. To me it appears fair and courteous, before publication, 

 to request the permission of the original discoverer, who prob- 

 ably has not merely thought of making identical experiments, 

 but who has in many instances made them already, and has 

 deferred publication until some grounds exist for definite 

 conclusions. 



The late President of the Chemical Society, Dr. Armstrong, 

 has sought to justify- such conduct. On p. 225 of the Proceedings 

 of that Society for 1894, these words are reported as having been 

 used by him :—" After having been told so much, chemists could 

 not be expected to remain under the imputation that they had 

 been eyeless for a whole century, and they would undoubtedly 



NO. 1373, VOL. 53] 



inquire into the matter. Although no one would seek to take 

 the discovery out of the hands of those who had announced it, 

 chemists unquestionably had the right, not only to exercise entire 

 freedom of judgment, but also to critically examine the state- 

 ments which had been made." 



These words related to the discovery of argon by Lord 

 Rayleigh and myself; and, as we were otherwise occupied, no- 

 notice was taken of them. Events, I think, have justified the 

 course which we then took. But now that all personal element 

 has been removed, I feel free to raise the question— Is this 

 recommendation precisely consistent with the highest view of 

 scientific morality. 



An analogy will perhaps help. If a patenthas been secured 

 for some invention capable of yielding profit, and some person 

 repeats the process, making profit by his action, an injunction 

 is applied for and is often granted. Here the profit of the busi- 

 ness may be taken as the equivalent of the credit for the 

 scientific work completed ; no original idea, undeveloped, is of 

 much value ; before it produces fruit, much work must be 

 expended ; and it is precisely after the publication of the original 

 idea, that sufficient time should be allowed to elapse, so as to- 

 give the author time to develop his idea, and present it in a 

 logical and convincing form. 



Should such trespassing on newly-sown ground come to be the 

 rule, instead of, as I fervently hope, the exception, the result 

 will be this : — Scientific men will provide their private 

 laboratories with a good lock ; they will communicate their 

 ideas to none, until they are worked out ; and the pleasant and 

 friendly intercourse, which is now universal, must be aban- 

 doned. Such a state of matters would be greatly to be regretted ; 

 and it is obvious that the progress of scientific discovery would 

 be not immaterially hindered, if every scientific man were 

 obliged to protect himself against what, after all, comes near to a 

 breach of the Eighth Commandment. William Ramsay. 



University College, February 14. 



The Former Northw^ard Extension of the Antarctic 

 Continent. 



Mr. Beddard, in Nature for December 12 (p. 129) has 

 called attention to a new fact, " loading still further the already 

 over-weighted scale which now dips so deeply in favour of the 

 Antarctic continent." Permit me to add another fact bearing 

 on the question, but whose significance has been quite overlooked, 

 hitherto. 



The most characteristic of types which occur in the cold and 

 temperate fresh waters of the southern hemisphere is the genus 

 Galaxias — a type whose representatives are popularly known as 

 trout in New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia. Species nearly 

 related (in one case claimed to be identical) are found in South 

 America, and furnish the most cogent testimony in fayour of a 

 former connection of the several now isolated areas. None have 

 been found elsewhere, and none were looked for from Africa ; but 

 in 1894 a species was described by Dr. Steindachner {Sitzurgsb. 

 k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, ciii., abth. I, p. 460, pi. 3, f. 2) as 

 Galaxias capensis, and there is no apparent reason to doubt 

 that the generic allocation is correct. The geographical range 

 of Galaxias is then somewhat analogous to the worm genus 

 Acanthrodilus, which is the theme of Mr. Beddard's note. His 

 remarks are applicable with even greater force to the fish genus. 

 " It is clear that, if the former northward extension of the An- 

 tarctic continent is not believed, some explanation of these 

 remarkable facts is much wanted ; on that hypothesis they are 

 perfectly explicable." 



Lest some may think the argument in question is invalidated 

 by the so-called Galaxias indicus of Day, I may add that I do 

 not think that fish has any relation to the genus to which it was^ 

 referred. Theo, Gill. 



Washington, January 24. 



Children's Drawings. 



There are two little boys in my circle (nephews, in separate 

 families), who at an early stage in their attempts at drawing, 

 have drawn things upside down. Thus a locomotive would be 

 drawn with funnel pointing downwards, and wheels at the top 

 of the figure. Has this peculiarity been noticed before, and is 

 it common ? It seems to me interesting in relation to the 

 subject of erect vision, for the retinal image is, of course,. 

 inverted. 



