JOLT 17, 1885.] 



♦ K N O W^ IL E I>aE -^ 





("Coleford's") theory, if Mr. and Mrs. Jones have four childr 

 there must be four fathers and four mothers altogether !—E. G. 

 I do not know of any dictionary devoted expressly to the expla 

 tion of scientific terms. A considerable proportion of them will 

 found in such books as Ogilvie's " Imperial Dictionary." Im 

 add, though, that it is a rule that all contribntors 

 should explain every technical term they employ whei 

 and hence that readers of original articles in those i 

 never need to refer to any extraneous source (it all for t,no meunmg^ 

 of vfords which occur here.— J. W. ALEXA.\iij-:K. I am sorry that I am 

 unable to print your letter, but the " ilind and Matter" discussion 

 l^as now dragged out to such a woary length, and has been so 

 whplly barren of any fmilful result, that I am compelled to close 

 it.— C. Ifrrt. I do not insert your circnlar because I am firmly 

 convinced that the opening of nniseume, ic, on Sunday would be 

 a very groat national boon. As for your idea that it would lead to 

 Sunday l.abonr, the Trade Unions w'ill take exceedingly good 

 that it docs not do that. — / 



! Tiaily Mail, 



a CouuEspoNiii 



: (fr, 



L the 



Sheffield Slur) of the finding of a live toad in a block of coal! 

 The " silly season " seems to have set in very early and with nnii.snal 

 '^oVerity in ShelKeld this year. — Wit.maM Mattiie\v,s. So far I have 

 OnTy received your letter, the " accompanying communication " 

 not having reached me.— Commentator. I do not reproduce M. 

 , ^amus's article because it is utterly unsound. The axis of the 

 iiarth can never have been per]>e'ifli<'n'ir to the plane of the 

 eoHptic for dynamical reasons. Its variation is secular, and the 

 extreme possible limits of it are 2° 37' 22'. What does the fly-leaf 

 oil "Titles" mean? Thanks again for photograph.— Arnold 

 Reed. You can scarcely hope to pass -well in honours in electricity 

 ■without some knowledge of m^ithematics, that is if the examination 

 isvrhat it ought to be. Prof. Thompson's " Elementary Lessons in 

 Kloctricity and Magnetism " will give you a good insight into the 

 atibjact. It is, of its kind, the best in the market. 



Sd-'S^6' <^«^ ^aratior Column. 



the author of 

 itained reason- 

 u explain what 





[I print the subjoined letter from our 

 the " P. D. Theory " as a specimen of ch 

 ' ' tipjyion a soientiiio subject ! Perhaps soni 

 I '!0n earth it is all about. No, one to bo alioweu moi 

 •' aneesos.^Kii.]. 



July 2nd 18S5 



EniToR Dear Sib If the "Tit Bits" in Knowledge June 

 I9th, 2iith; came from Hallyards, Commentator, Gamma, A 

 Welshman, F. W. H. and othcr.^,— If they would read their IJook 

 of Time, which is composed by the matter of thought and printed 

 only on The mind of man, —They would surely have one and the 

 • game idea about " Darwinism or Protoplasm or the immanence of 

 Life in matter," Mr R. A. Proctor say.n, men were once deceived 

 ■ ■•itb regard to time. They thought tho duration of this earth 

 ' i represented all time — w.as, at least, central in time; But, they 

 know it now as infinite time ; What Bay.M the Book,— I ' - 



l.Sltbsti 



:)ablo of li 



.iriugofli: 

 jiMg-bQsli, to fancy that dura 



the^inoJ^W '^ Bometliiug e; 



i' M o'«^ way so must thin 





i I a 



@ur SSa&isit Column. 



By " Five op Club-s." 



DECLINE AND FALL OF WHIST. 

 NDER this title, Pembridge, author of the lively treatise, 

 " Wliist or Bumblepuppy," has published a jeremiad — an 

 old-fashioned view, as he calls it, of new-fangled play. He rejects 

 the developments of modern whist as tending to the injury and 

 eventually to the destruction of the fine old game. There is so 

 much truth in what he says, though it is not all truth, that I take 

 pleasure in helping to make as >videly known as possible hia 

 protest against tho mischievous tendencies of some of the modem 



V 



mbridge first attacks tho i 



(I I 



t the c 



mpoBitors not 



IB. And truly when 



a to substitute the 

 cannot wonder, I say, if a 

 ■ail against the abuse of a 

 laable. The signal ought 



strong player should be disposed t 

 signal which, properly used, is very 



is an unwise ])rocIamation of trump strength. To such a pitch haa 

 foolish signalling passed, that for my own part, I decline to respond 

 to the signal until I have become satisfied by a sufficient amount of 

 play, that my partner knows when he ought to signal and when 

 he ought to refrain. Pole's perfectly preposterous rule 

 that you should always signal from five trumps,— ft rule 

 which he gives as gmeral for all e.^cept strong players! 

 — and the absurd misinterpretation of Clay's correct rule, have 

 done more to make weak players mischievous than perhaps any 

 thing since the modern conventions were first started. Clay's mle, 

 •which ought to act as a corrective of Pole's later absurdity, is used 

 by many to intensify tho mischief. Says Clay, correctly, you 

 should make it a rule never to signal from less than five trumps 

 one honour, or from four trumps two honours. The tyro adopts 

 instead as his rule, always signal from five trumps one honour, and 

 from four trumps two honours. Yet Clay was careful to say, in S9 

 many words, that he would by no means roooram6"nd signalling from 

 a hand containing the specified strength in trumps. (I note here 

 in passing that in America, Clay's negative rule, even, woald not 

 be sound ; for in American Whist honours aro not counted, and thus 

 the conditionsfor signalling are entirely altered. When in England 

 and Europe generally, for instance, yon hold four trumps two 

 honours, tho odds are in favour of your holding, with partner, two 

 by honours, in which case only three tricks are required — supposing 

 the score at "love" — to win; and again, with five trumps one 

 honour, you know that the odds are in favour of honours being 

 either "easy" or in your favour. It should, indeed, be always 

 remembered by Americans, in reading English liooks on Whist, and 

 especially on "Short Whist," that American Whist and English 

 Whist are different games.) 



But " Pembridge " would not bo justified in Ids opposition to the 

 sigtial if the following conditions for signalling wi?ro always 

 obeyed :— A player should only signal for trumps when, holding at 

 least five trumps, or four headed bv Ace, King, bv Ace, Queen, by 

 King, Queen, or by Quoen, Knave," Ten, he has (or sees that liis 



in the ( 



f tho 



>re requires that a 

 , win the game, 

 i regarded as abso- 



,i)W,yiiig,your adversaries' game. 



