lis 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



vania, and Virginia, New England and the I<]asterii 

 provinces, not one, so far as lieard from, occiirrcil 

 north of tlie eastward course of the low centre ; anil, 

 with few exceptions, all were east of a line droinieil 

 southward from it. 



The precedents apparently established last year were 

 closely followed in two other resjiects : the" tract of 

 country visited by the rain, hail, lightning, gales, and 

 tornadoes widened, fan-like, as it extended eastward ; 

 but the hail generally kept within two or three hundred 

 miles of the low centre. In Dakota the belt of afflicted 

 territory was scarcely a hundred miles wide. Near the 

 Atlantic the storms occurred at intervals from Port 

 Hope, on the Canada side of Lake Ontario, to Wood- 

 .stock, Va. The hailstorm in north-eastern Pennsylvania 

 was probably the one furthest from the low centre, 

 which at the time was a little west of Ottawa. 



Whether any of these local storms travelled more 

 rapidly than the low centre to which they were related, 

 as the Signal Office reports might have led one to expect, 

 does not clearly appear from the ciirrent new,s despatches. 

 Another "preliminary deduction" of the Weather 

 Bureau which was not altogether verified at this time 

 IS that the activity of storms dies down at evening and 

 revives in the morning. There were some lively demon- 

 strations in this State and Canada on the Sunday night. 

 A point about which there will be some differenc'e of 

 opinion, too, is whether the destructive waterspouts in 

 Southern Mexico on the Saturday and Sunday were con- 

 nected with the S3'.stem of storms" niidor consideration. 



How far a conflict bct:\ ecu ( wn L:i-oat air currents of 

 widely different temperatures is t.. hu considered a cause 

 of thunder-storms is n,.t ^■,•t (Iru-n, lined by scientists. 

 Such a strugijle, however, seems to have been closely 

 associated with this particular o-roup. A wave of almost 

 abnormally warm weather which extended from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to Dakota on Friday last rolled steadily 

 eastward the next three days, clcsi'ly jiressed by a cold 

 wave of such intensity tliat 'in luaiiy places in the North- 

 West the temperature" in a I'cw Im.uVs fell 40° or 50°, and, 

 in at least one instance, CQ-'. Xear the Atlantic seaboard 

 the change was less decided, yet clearly marked. 



The number of visitors to the International Inventions Exhi- 

 bition for the week ending Ang. 1, was 147,661 ; total since the 

 opening, 1,866,080. 



The following statistics refer to numbers of locks and keys made 

 during the Jast seven years by Messrs. Hobbs, Hart, & Co.— viz., 

 1,734,000 locks, 3,876,000 keys, 8,483,000 screws and stumps for 

 jarious locks, and 6,700,090 rivetting stumps for inside work. Also 

 ' " 8 strong-room doors and frames, and 397 ventilating 



gate 



The wages paid during the period amounted to £195,000. 

 Are Stays Necessary ?— Many women assert that they derive 

 pport the body admirably. 



great comfort from stai 

 and that without them the wearer feels 



pieces." All this may be perfectly true. But what signiticance 

 must we attach to the statement that certain women cannot 

 possibly do without stays ? Do they mean for one moment to 

 assert that the human body is so ill-constructed and so badly 

 adapted for its purpose in life that it has to depend for its integrity 

 upon the productions of a corset-maker ? Such an assumption is 

 simply outrageous, the true explanation being that by the per- 

 sistent use of stays the muscles of the back have become so 

 <>nfeebled (from prolonged disuse) that they are no longer able to 

 support the spine. Those who declare, therefore, that they cannot 

 do without stays, adopt the argument of the opium-eater, who 

 inaintains that he cannot do without his opium. The long-con- 

 tinued use of the drug has so impaired his system that he feels a 

 constant craving for it. And those who cannot exist unless braced 

 up by corsets have so enfeebled a part of their system that they 

 cannot do vrithont the support upon which they have so Ion" 

 depended.— T/ie Book of Health for August. ^ 



»eb(etofi!* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



Ileal Property Statutes : comprising those passed during 

 the years 1874-1884 inclusive. By Harrt GREENWOOD, 

 M.A., LL.M., Barri.ster-at-Law. 2iid <dition. (London: 

 Stevens it Sons. 1884.) 'I'l.is is .mr i.f the numerous 

 books evoked by the cliau'jrs in Uir la-\vs that regulate 

 Conveyancing practice, 'flu- notes seem practical and 

 full. Till' system of printing sections of an amending 

 Statute in the middle of the Statute amended, of course 

 exliil>its the jiresent state of the law at a glance; but it 

 \v(aild seem to us to be liable to confuse the student of 

 a. Statute who may overlook the fact that he has parts of 

 two before him at the same time, and the trouble of 

 turning to another page for the amendment is not in- 

 superable. It of course adds to the bulk of the book, as 

 the amending Statute is printed in full elsewhere, e.g., 

 the whole of the Settled Land Act of 1884 appears in 

 objections are rather of 



this way twice o 

 a theoretical than "i 

 held to be show i 

 has already run ii' 

 that his general an'; 

 decidedly good. 



Bepresentation. B] 

 F.R.S. (London: i 

 — Every one who 

 Englishmen will be n 



il nature may perhaps be 

 at Mr. Greenwood's work 

 ( dition, and we may add 

 of his subject-matter is 



Sir JoHX Lubbock, Bart., M.P., 

 ran Sonnenschein & Co. 1885.) 

 ishes to learn how thoroughly 



;represented under the new Redi.s- 

 Act should obtain this little book, which forms 

 the second volume of Mr. Sydney Buxton's " Imperial 

 Parliament Series." As the result of a most careful 

 discussion of the various modes of election adopted in 

 those countries which possess representative institutions, 

 our author decides upon the single transferable vote as 

 that caleulated to ensure the fairest expression of popular 

 o|.iiiion ; aial ^ve may avow our own idea that no impartial 

 ami un)ii-eiiulii-e(l readt'r can fail to be convinced by his 

 argumeiiis. The philologist, alike with the politician, 

 will read with interest the account of the real historical 

 origin of the term " (Jerrymander, " which is given on 

 pp. 10 and 11. 



The Hilton/ of Herod. By John Vickees. (London : 

 Williams & Norg.ate. 1885.)— That the monarch of an 

 ultra-tropical locality is not so black as he is painted, is a 

 proverb dating from medifeval times ; and in days when 

 Henry VIII. is exhibited to us as a gallant and virtuous 

 Englishman, with possibly merely a little too prominent 

 tendency to uxoriousness to mar his otherwise spotless 

 character, and Bacon is shown to have been above any 

 conceivable temptation, pecuniary or otherwise, it is not 

 surprising to find that that much-abused man Herod 

 should find a defender — and a defender of considerable 

 abilitj- to boot. It is almost superfluous to say here that 

 knowledge — or presumed knowledge — of the chief 



Josephi 

 credulity, 

 trenchant 

 he does 1.. 



a the 1 

 whc 



the 



;fe of Herod the Great, we are indebted t 

 ? bigoted sacerdotal prejudices, unfairness, 

 liisiorical uutrust woi-ihiiiess Mr. Vickers 

 I ^ ,-e,~. Tliai llti-, (1 was '^'uilty of cruelty 

 ,N, l.ni lie sliows e. a, elusiyely the difficult 

 I'ilay, ami draws a tellln- )iarallel between 



ellin 



Antij.atrf nile.l, ;,,m1 fl,r. (>,,-call 

 of the ja-esent .lay. S.n,u' of 

 attributed to Herull are .sliuwn L 

 foundation whatever. Among t] 

 the Innocents, in connection 



have no 

 of 



