♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Ski 



, 4, 1885. 



mistftkc iu estimating tlie time wlieu tlie liand was near 

 XII. than at any other time, because then its end 

 changes very slowly in height, and a minute more or less 

 makes very little difference. On the contrary, when the 

 hand was near III. and IX., we could in a very few 

 seconds note any change in the height of its extremity. 

 In one case we could not tell the time within a minute 

 or two ; in the other we could tell it within a few 



But the noon observation would be wanted to com- 

 plete the determination of the longitude ; for until the 

 latitude was known, the captain could not be aware 

 what apparent path the sun was describing in the 

 heavens, and, therefore, would not know the time cor- 

 responding to any particular solar observation. So that 

 a passenger, curious in watching the captain's work, 

 would be apt to infer that the noon observations gave 

 the longitude, since he would perceive that from them 

 the cai^tain worked out both the longitude and the 

 latitude. 



It is curious that another and critical portion of the 

 same entertaining novel, is affected by the mistakes of 

 the novelist on this subject. After the scuttling of the 

 Froserpine, and other events, Hazel and Miss RoUeston 

 are alone on an island in the Pacific. Hazel seeks to 

 determine their position, as one step towards escape. 

 Now, " you must know that Hazel, as he lay on his back 

 in the boat, had often in a half-drowsy way, watched the 

 effect of the sun upon the boat's mast : it now stood, a 

 bare pole, and at certain hours acted like the needle of 

 a dial, by casting a shadow on the sands. Above all, 

 he could see pretty well, by means of this pole and its 

 shadow, when the sun attained its greatest elevation. 

 He now asked Miss Rolleston to assist him in making 

 this observation exactly. She obeyed his instructions, 

 and the moment the shadow reached its highest angle and 

 showed the minutest symptom of declension,* she said 

 ' Now,' and Hazel called out in a loud voice" (a soft voice 

 would have served as well) "'Noon!' 'And forty-nine 

 minutes past eight at Sydney,' said Helen, holding out 

 her chronometer ; for she had been sharp enough to get 

 it ready of her own accord. Hazel looked at her and at 

 the watch with amazement and incredulity. 'What?' 

 said he, ' Impossible. You can't have kept Sydney 

 time all this while.' ' And pray why not ? ' said Helen. 

 ' Have you forgotten that some one praised me for 

 keeping Sydney time ? it helped you, somehow or other, 

 to know where we were.'" After some discussion, in 

 which she shows how natural it was that she should 

 have wound uj) her watch every night, even when 

 " neither of them expected to see the morning," she asks 

 to be praised. "'Praised!' cried Hazel, excitedly, 

 ' worshipped, you mean. "V\Tiy, we have got the longi- 

 tude by means of your chronometer. It is wonderful ! 

 It is providential. It is the finger of Heaven. Pen 

 and ink, and let me work it out.' " He was " soon busy 

 calculating the longitude of Godsend Island." What 

 follows is even more curiously erroneous. " ' There,' 

 said he. ' Now the latitude I must guess at by certain 

 combinations. In the first place, the slight variation in 

 the leMgth of the days. Then I must try and make a 

 rough calculation of the sun's parallax.' " (It would 

 have been equally to the purpose to have calculated 

 how many cows' tails would reach to the moon.) " ' And 



* This would be a most difficult matter to determine: Hazel 

 should liave taken the task himself (even he would have made 

 nothing out of it, though Mr. Reade makes so little of it): he 

 might safely have left Miss EoUeston to call out " Noon " for him 

 when he had noted it. 



then my botany will help me a little ; spices furnish a 

 clue ; there are one or two that will not grow outside 

 the tropic,' " and so on. He finally sets the latitude 

 between the 26th and 33rd parallels, a range of nearly 

 500 miles. The longitude, hawevcr, which is much more 

 closely assigned, is wrong altogether, being set at 103| 

 degrees ivest, as the rest of the story requires. For 

 Godsend Island is witliin r.i "^ nrmy days' sail of Val- 

 paraiso. The mLst:!.!.! ' ; ' ' ' . ;. risen from setting 

 Sydney in west loir_ I :; '. I nf cast longitude, 



151° 14'; for the diH. v :- < \ iin.r, 3h. 11m., corre- 

 sponds within a minii'.' t- ilif JilT.rence of longitude 

 between 151° 14' wt>t -avA 1i>:'J, west. The whole 

 account is crowded witli mi-t.ilo s. 



Mere mistakes of calculiti^'ii, Iniwever, matter little 

 in such cases. They do not affect the interest of a story 

 even in such extreme cases as in " Ivanhoe," where a 

 full century is dropped (in such sort that one of Richard 

 the First's knights holds converse with a contemporary 

 of the Conqueror, who, if my memory deceives me not, 

 was Coeur de-Lion's great-great-grandfather). It is a 

 pity, however, that a novelist, or indeed any writer, should 

 attempt to sketch scientific methods with which he is not 

 familiar. No discredit can attach to any jierson, not an 

 astronomer, who does not understand tlie astronomical 

 processes for determining latitude and longitude, any 

 more than to one who, not being a lawyer, is unfamiliar 

 with the rules of Conveyancing. But when an attempt 

 is made by a writer of fiction to give an exact description 

 of any technical matter, it is as well to secure correctness 

 by submitting the description to some friend acquainted 

 with the principles of the subject. For, singularly 

 enough, people pay much more attention to these descrip- 

 tions when met with in novels than when given in text- 

 books of science, and they thus come to remember 

 thoroughly well precisely what they ought to forget. I 

 think, for instance, that it may not improbably have been 

 some recollection of "Foul Play" which led Mr. Lockyer 

 to make the surprising statement that longitude is deter- 

 mined at sea by comparing chronometer time with local 

 time, which is found "at noon by observing, with the' 

 aid of a sextant, when the sun is at the highest point of 

 its path." Our novelists really must not lead the student 

 of astronomy astray in this manner. 



^To le continued.) 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHING. 



By W. MATiiEn Williams. 

 SVI.— BOOTS AND SHOES. 



I NOW approach a very diflScnlt part of my subject ; 

 the philosophy of foot clothing. The question of 

 whether we should clothe the feet at all, even in these 

 and higher latitudes is fairly debateable. Our ordinary 

 devices for imprisoning, strangling, cramjiing, and suffo- 

 cating them are demonstrably abominable, but how we 

 are to proceed in carrying out the much-needed boot and 

 reform is not easily decided. 



et us examine the structure and functions of the foot, 

 and then ask ourselves whetlier we are obeying or dis- 

 obeying the injunctions which these express, whether oar 

 boots and shoes — especially boots — are assisting or hin- 

 dering the performance of the natural functions of the 

 feet. 



Beginning with the skeleton of the human foot. The 

 first fact that presents itself is that it is built up of a 



