94 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Febeuaey 1, 1888. 



to the excellent and thoroughly practical little volume now 

 before us, " It has been sniil, and not untruly, that in all 

 probability half the t-rippleil limbs and stitiened joints that 

 are met with every day date their starting-point from the 

 occurrence of some apparently trivial accident of this 

 description." It is, then, to a practically exhaustive account 

 of the nature and treatment of this grave form of lesion 

 that our author devotes his work ; and, although addressed 

 primarily to the surgeon, it is written in such perspicuous 

 and untechnical language that the layman may read it both 

 with pleasure and protit. Dr. Moulin advocates more active 

 modes of treatment (including galvanism, massage, pressure, 

 &c.) than those ordinarily .adopted ; and no one can, we 

 think, rise from the perusal of his book without being con- 

 vinced that his ideas on this subject are justified alike by 

 science and by common-sense. 



Sound, Light, and Heat. By Mark R. Wright. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, & Co. 1887.) — Earth Knoic- 

 ledge. By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., and H. New- 

 land Wakefield. (London : Blackie & Siou.)^Mineralog>/. 

 By Frank Rutley, F.G.S. (London : T. Mm-h j.)— Euclid, 

 Book II. Arranged by A. E. Layng, M.A. (London : 

 Blackie & Son. 1887.) — JVew Explmiatory Headers, 

 No. YI. Geography for Standards I. to VII. (London : 

 Moffatt ife Paige.) — Problematic Arithmetic. Edited by 

 Rev. A. D. Capel, M.A. (London : Joseph Hughes.) 

 — The mass of educational works whose titles we have 

 grouped above are all more or less directed to the fur- 

 therance of that vicious system of examination whose 

 ultimate result can only be that of cramming the rising 

 generation with everything and teaching them nothing. 

 The first three books on our list, however, are I'eally too 

 good for their professed purpose. Mr. Wright has boiled 

 down Tyndall, Sedley Taylor, and Ganot in a fashion calcu- 

 lated really to impart a considerable amount of sound infor- 

 mation. The " Earth Knowledge " of Messrs. Harrison and 

 Wakefield is an honest and readable treatise on the bastard 

 science of " physiography," and as absolutely superior to a 

 volume bearing the latter title, recently issued from South 

 Kensington itself, as it is possible to imagine. Mr. Butley's 

 " Mineralogy," too, contains a very large amount of informa- 

 tion indeed compressed between its two covers. The rest of 

 the works specified demand no special notice. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR FEBRUARY. 



By F.R.A.S. 



[IE sunspot minimum having now passed, tbe 

 ob.<!orver m.av scrutinise tbe solar disc for spots 

 and facul:L' on every available opportunity, with a 

 fair prospect of occasionally picking up both. 

 Tbe zodiacal light may be seen, somewhat to tbe 

 south of west, after sunset, towards the end of 

 tbe month. The night sky will be found de- 

 picted on map ii. of "The Stars in their Seasons." 

 Minima of Algol (" The Stars in their Se.asons," 

 map xii.) will occur at lb. 30m. a.m. on the 10th; at lOh. 19m. 

 P.M. on tbe 12tb ; at 7h. 8m. P.M. on tbe 15th ; and at other 

 dates less convenient for tbe amateur for whom these notes 

 are intended. Mercury is an evening star all through February, 

 and attains bis greatest elongation east of the sun (18° 5') on tbe 

 16th. About this time he may be detected close to tbe horizon 

 after sunset with tbe naked eye. He will be over a point to the 

 south of wesf. Venus is a morning star, but is becoming more and 

 more insignificant. Moreover, she is very badly placed for the 

 observer. Neither Mars nor .Jupiter has yet come into view during 

 the working hours of the ordinary amateur's night. Saturn, how- 

 ever, is visible from sunset to sunrise, and is a glorious object for 

 the observer with the telescope. He is in a blank part of Cancer 

 to the west of tbe Prsesepe ("Tbe Stars in their Seasons," map ii.). 

 Uranus is, for our present purpose, invisible. Neptune is in that 

 void part of the sky some G° south of the Pleiades ("Tlie Stars in 



their Seasons," map i.). Tbe moon enters her Last Quarter at 

 7h. 25-8m. p.m. on the 4th; is New at lib. 52om. P.M. on the 11th; 

 enters her First Quarter at lb. 59-2m. A.M. on the 20th, and is Full 

 2 1 minutes before noon on the 27th. She will occult three stars 

 during February, but one of them only at an hour when the 

 phenomenon is fairly observable. Tliis is tbe 6th magnitude star 

 rf' Cancri, which will disappear at tbe moon's d.ark limb on tbe 

 night of tbe 21th at 9h. 30m., at an angle of 112° from tbe moon's 

 vertex, reappearing at her bright limb at 10b. 28m. P.M., at a 

 vertical antle of 226°. At noon to-d,iy tbe moon is in Virgo 

 ("The Seasons Pictured," pl.ate xsv.), which constellation she 

 quits at 4h. A.M. on the 4th for Libra (" The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xxvi.). Travelling across Libra, she, at 8h. 30m. P.M. on tbe 

 Gth, arrives at the western edge of the narrow northern spike of 

 Scorpio. When, by 5 o'clock tbe next morning, she has crossed this, 

 it is to emerge in Opbiucbus. Her passage through Ophiucbus is 

 completed by 8b. 30m. P.M. on the 7th, at which bom- she passes 

 into Sagittarius. Her journey over Sagittarius terminates at 

 4b. A.M. on the 10th, .and she enters Capricornus (" The Seasons 

 Pictured," plate xxi.). She rem.ains just 48 hours in the constella- 

 tion last named, and at 4h. A.M. on the 12tli quits it for Aquarius. 

 Here she continues until Ob. 30m. A.M. on the 14th, when she enters 

 Pisces (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxii.). Travelling through 

 that part of Pisces where it is conterminous with Cetus, she enters 

 tbe last-named constellation at 2h. A.M. on the 15th, to re-emerge 

 in Pisces at llh. A.M. on tbe 16th. Proceeding in her onward path, 

 she once more enters Cetus at lOh. A.M. on tbe 17th ; and when she 

 fin.ally quits it, at 5h. A M. on tbe 18th, it is to come out into Aries 

 (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). She is in Aries until 

 5h. A.M. on tbe 19tb, at which hour she enters Taurus. In the 

 course of her journey across the constellation last named, she comes, 

 at 3h. 30m. A.M. on the 22nd, to the western boundary of the 

 northern prolongation of Orion. It takes her exactly 12 hours 

 to cross this, and, at 3h. 30m. in the afternoon of the same day, she 

 emerges in Gemini (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiv.). She is 

 in Gemini until 10b. 30m. A.M. on the 24th, at which hour she 

 passes into Cancer. At llh. P.M. on the 25tb she le.aves Cancer for 

 Leo, as she does Leo in turn for Virgo at lOh. A.M. on the 281 h 

 (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxv.). She is in Virgo when these 

 notes terminate. 



Dark and Fair. — Statistics tell rather a curious story about the 

 relative attractiveness of dark hair and fair hair. A modern author 

 states that, .according to statistics, for every two dark- haired women 

 who are unmarried there are three fair-haired ones. This in itself 

 b.as no particular value, being, in fact, one of the customary 

 stupidities of statistics. It tells nothing as to the relative number 

 of dark and fair women who may marry, simply because it takes no 

 account of tbe relative number of dark and fair women who exist 

 in tbe community. It there were three fair-haired women for every 

 two dark-baired women, the observed proporlion between the fair 

 and diirk unmarried women would indicate no preference for one or 

 the other hue. But as it is probable that there are more dark-haired 

 women than fair-haired women, and even a great relative excess in 

 the number of tlie former, the relatively smallnumber of dark-haired 

 women among the unmarried seems to indicate a well-marked pre- 

 ference on the part of the harder sex for the darker sisterhood. 

 Albeit tbe evidence requires to be carefully analysed before this can 

 be reg.aided as a demonstrated fact. 



©MX Cftee!^ Column. 



By " Mephisto." 



A pretty game played at the Frankfurt Tournament. 

 French Defence. 



