Aug. 14, 1885.] 



KNO^A^LEDGE 



"W." might have quoted two lines which really would have 

 rather hit me on the raw : 



"Gnofulus eauriens, in ca?lum, jusseris, ibit 



But it is hard in paper war, as in others, to have to put the shot 

 in one's opponent's guns. 



I never said that my father, though an " Ancient Mariner," had 

 "shot the albatross" — in this case the condor — nor that he had 

 " called the lands after his own name." 



Perhaps, after all, my need for index may be obviated by 

 gathering my letters into a volume, " Letters of ' Hallyards,' " the 

 Junius of the twentieth century. " Who was ' Hallyards' ? " The 

 Conductor of Kn'owledge, and its Editor (himself a veiled prophet) 

 passed hence and made no sign — they alone were in the secret. 

 The only material evidence is a few scraps, bearing French stamps, 

 found in an old waste-paper basket (purchased at its weight in 

 coppers). Why did he sign these ? Is it the halyards of a ship ? 

 Clearly so — E.N. origin ; but then, why not binnacle, or bowsprit, 

 or flying-jib ? From internal evidence, one will prove that " H." 

 was Mr. Bradlangh ; another, Cardinal Newman; a third, Lord 

 Shaftesbury ; while a fourth will establish beyond all doubt that 

 no one but F. C. Bnrnand could have written letters containing so 

 many Happy Thoughts. Hallyards. 



LETTERS RECEITED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 

 H. 0. Don;. Last year my own bees and those of all my neigh- 

 bours produced curiously-dark and discoloured honey. This was 

 universally attributed in my own neighbourhood to the honeydew 

 and concomitant " blight" on the plants frequented by the bees. — 

 J. S. There are no such tables as you ask for, but you may make 

 the calculation for yourself, most simply, thus : Divide the circum- 

 ference of the earth's orbit in miles by the number of seconds 

 in one revolution, which will, quite obviously, give the length 

 of the arc described in one second. For our purpose we may 

 consider this arc and its chord as coincident. Now, by geometry, 

 twice the radius vector of the earth's orbit : this chord:: 

 chord : distance through which the earth falls towards the 

 sun in a second. See also Chapter IL of " The Sun," 

 by the Conductor of this journal.— J. R. L. Your letter will 

 be handed to " Five of Clubs" the moment he returns to England. 

 — Chas. J. ilAUKKLV. Wholly needlessly detained through being 

 addressed to the Editor instead of to the Publishers.— Da. Lewi.ns. 

 Received ; but you merely reiterate what you have said x times 

 previously. — E. G. S. In reply to you on p. 59, I, in some occult 

 way, entirely forgot the existence of Brando's " Dictionary of 

 Science, Literature, and Art." It is a rather costly work in 

 three volumes, and is published by Longmans.— R. R. Oblebar. 

 Had the comet recently discovered by Barnard been fairly ob- 

 servable with any moderate telescope, or possessed the 

 slightest popular interest, I should have at once requested 

 " F.R.A.S." to furnish a descriptive article upon it. When 

 discovered, it was described as " not more than 1' in diameter ; 

 11th magnitude or fainter (1), and as having some central 

 condensation, but no tail." It is travelling rapidly south, and its 

 theoretical intensity of light is decreasing. At its brightest, it was 

 imperceptible in any telescope of less than 2i inches aperture, and 

 could not be fairly seen save in a largo one. — Slim. Any exercise 

 "three minutes' moderate practice" of which is " generally suc- 

 ceeded by bringing up a little blood from the lungs " should be 

 discontinued forthwith. Try the work reviewed on p. 52. You 

 may certainly increase your present very defective chest measure- 

 ment by properly-regulated exercises, such as was described in the 

 book referred to.— W. H. Greene. Your extract from "Old 

 Stones" is in no legitimate sense whatever an answer to 

 theory of Evolution. In fact, it is simply a begging 



of the 



It i 



thai 



for 



been destroyed. The hard frame of a crastaccan lib 

 may, under certain circumstances, be preserved ; bu 

 the conditions of formation of the earlier strata, t 

 •s of that have not all bcnn obliterated. 



.illioi 



pect t 



find 



rocks (!) ? 

 andelectrici 



affor 





in Chemistry" and Thompson'i 



and M-agnetism." They are published at 4s. (jd. each by Macniilliin 



investigation. Obtain and carefully read Tomlinson's " Introdi 

 tion to the Study of Natural Philosophy," an admirable litt 

 eighteenponny book which forms No. 2 of Weale's " Series 



published by Crosby Lockwood & Co. — Lrx asks for " the titles of 

 works, 4c. (or of the pictures themselves) containing pictures and 

 illustrations teaching moral truths and lessons learned from the study 

 of good and evil as a science." Surely nothing^surpasses Hogarth's 



vorks for this 



purpose 



?— Rev. G. 1 



D Wright. la 





ing Laws a little foreign to the purpose of 

 a journal devoted to the exposition of popular science ? — T. Bola"; 

 AND W. K. Burton-. It would simply waste space to discuss your 

 wholly Utopian scheme here. Any attempt to confiscate property 

 Ic'ialhj held (whatever the moral aspect of its original acquirement 

 may have been) in this country could only lead to civil war, in 

 which the army, navy, police, and the overwhelming majority 

 of the Volunteers would be found ranged on the side of law 

 and order. How many weeks is it since a number of 

 Socialists in the great French Republic had the bayonets of 

 the troops in their stomachs in the streets of Paris ? — 

 W. 51. K. You are apparently under the illusion that you prove a 

 statement by merely reiterating it. If everything is to be abolished 

 which " does mischief," the law of gravitation, inter alia, will have 

 to go, inasmuch as it is by its operation that the wretched hodman, 

 should he make an unfortunate slip, falls from a five-story scaffold, 

 and is smashed to pieces. It is a gross and scandalous libel upon 

 the millions in this country who habitually take alcohol in strict 

 moderation to say that "their temperate consumption of what 

 undoubtedly benefits them ''leads to drunkenness." If any 

 habitual drunkard becomes a nuisance to himself and to society 

 generally, by all means legislate for having him locked np like any 

 other lunatic; but don't talk nonsense about the hard-working 

 labourer consuming his well-earned pint of beer. I read Loid 

 Wolseley's speech at the llansion House, and a very £ 



The s 



t of alcohol •( 





__ temperate 

 IS under a semi-tropical 

 3US diet does. Spirits, 

 shade, are apt to be 

 iver touch spirits from 

 3, though, and beer — to a 

 sterical shriekings of the 



harmless, but positively beneficial, 

 climates becomes hurtful and injurioi] 

 sun ; just as a too strictly carnivon 

 with the thermometer at 9S in the 

 injurious. Speaking for myself, I n£ 

 January to December in any form. Wini 

 small extent— I do take, and, pace the hy 



total abstainers, shall continue to take. Xoa say tnai so-anu-su 

 " has been proved over and over again," when all that you really 

 have the slightest right to predicate is that it has been so asserted. 

 Your "most of the leading athletes of tho world" statement 

 is another example of utterly reckless assertion. I have 

 heard of Edward Payson Weston. Favour me with only sir 

 more names. As I may assume as absolutely certain that 

 the opinion of a medical man of such indisputable eminence 

 as Sir James Paget will have more weight with nine hundred and 

 ninetv-nine thousandths of rational men than any mere fanatical 

 statements unsupported by proof, I will, in conclusion, quote 

 what he says on the subject : " I would maintain this, and all that 

 can reasonably be deduced from it, namely that the best, and in 

 proportion to numbers, the largest quantity of brain work has been, 

 and still is being, done by the people of those nations in which the 

 use of alcoholic drinks has been and is habitual. Further, I would 

 maintain that, so far as I can judge of the brain work of different 

 persons, they have done best and most who have habitually and 

 temperately taken alcoholic drinks." Rev. S. T. F ~ 

 certainly did only read your letter through once (amm a 

 so) but I as certainly imagined that I had mastered the se 

 I can only regret to find that I have misinterpreted you, and that, 

 for example, what I took for antithesis in your expressed idea 

 concerning shutting our Bible and opening ou ^ "" 

 itended by you as such. No apology 





le of it. 



needed for 



the 1 



of ; 



pearc, Dryden, 

 peroration, may 

 digest an artirli 



There are now 1,045 .- 

 politan area that are un! 



The Manchester Ship C,i;-1 i --! 

 the House of Commons. The schoii 

 mentary Committees no loss than six ti 



