igo 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Dec, 1904. 



Sunspot VoLriaLtion in. 

 LoLtitvide. 



Bv E. W.ALTKR Mainder, F.R.A.S. 



\)H. Lock^er's object in his two letters would appear 

 to be twofold. First, to indicate his dislike of a short 

 note on page 159 of the July number; second, to make 

 a certain claim for himself. L'nder the first head he 

 has failed to point out a single inaccuracy in the note, 

 though his two letters together exceed it in length more 

 than ten times. I think the note stands vindicated as 

 having presented in nineteen lines the gist of three long 

 papers with truth and remarkable conciseness. Under 

 the second head, Dr. Lockyer introduces much wholly 

 irrelevant matter, but avoids the only two questions 

 which really bear on the point of his claim. Did he 

 make use of a certain paper, and if so, did that paper 

 already contain the result which he claims as his own, 

 definitely and explicitly set forth? Dr. Lockyer does 

 not and cannot deny that he did use the paper in ques- 

 tion, and that it did so contain that very result. 

 Whether that result confirms or contradicts Spoerer's 

 Law, is a matter which has no possible bearing on Dr. 

 Lockyer's claim to it. Xor is it, in this connection, of 

 the smallest significance by whom or under what con- 

 ditions the paper was written, which Dr. Lockyer used, 

 and wherein he found the result in question. 



The Herschel Obelisk 

 near Cape Town. 



We are indebted for the accompanying photograph to 

 the courtesy of Mr. W. H. Wesley, to whom it was sent 

 by Mr. Clement Jennings-Taylor, from whose covering 

 letter to Mr. Wesley, we are permitted to make the 

 following extracts: — 



It inay interest you to know that my house is close to 

 where Herschel's old residence stood : his monument slandint; 

 about 100 yards in front. I am sending you a ,i;ood amateur 

 l)hotOi,'raph of the obelisk taken by a friend, Mr. S. Rutherford, 

 as I thouK'ht you might like to reproduce it. The obelisk, 

 which by the way forms the crest of the Claremont Munici- 

 pality, is very plain, and covers a small round pedestal of 

 Ktaiiite. This pedestal can be dimly seen in the photograph, 

 together with the " H " forming part of the four initials cut 

 deep into and round the same. On the top the date is deeply 

 cut, " 183S," to see which one has to crawl into the hole. A 

 1 )rass tablet is shortly to be fixed on one side, and 1 understand 

 tliat the Council is willing to find half the cost of railing the 

 monument round. pro\ided the remainder can be raised by 

 subscription— some /loo to £'150 in till. It has been neglected 

 of late years, and seeing that the obelisk, with some 50 or 

 60 feet of ground round it, is public property, it seems a pity 

 some protection is not arranged for. The ground about is at 

 present open, except for the schools just in front, but as the estate 

 has been cut up and mostly sold in lots, it will soon be built 

 over, and then will come the danger of damage. The monu- 

 ment is placed astronomically true N. and S., the front or 

 opening being due south. .'\ pretty view of the Devil's Peak 

 is seen above, to the left, and the oak trees make an excellent 

 background. The weather marks on the stone are also 

 wonderfully reproduced. Strange to say, a great many people 



residing in the district and in Cape Town do not know of the 

 existence of the obelisk, and a greater number probably do 

 not know who Herschel was or what he did, so the lack of 

 interest in and care of the memorial stone may be somewhat 

 accounted for. I was showing it to an acquaintance one 



day, when he surprised me with " Oh, Herschel ! that's the 

 chap who invented the steam engine, isn't it ? " Half an 

 hour in my little observatory opposite enlightened him on the 

 subject, though he confessed that " he didn't think it much of 

 a money-making business." 



Ancient Ej^ypt. — The " Short History of .\neient Egypt " 

 (Constable) which has been compiled by Percy E. Newberry 

 and John Garstang is almost as concentrated as Bovril is said 

 to be by its advertisers. But whereas Bovril contains yo per 

 cent, of water, there is positively no dilution of any sort or 

 description in this most useful little work. Mr. John Garstang 

 is known to readers of " Knowledge " by the Beni Hasan 

 excavations, some account of which appeared in the August 

 number; and his name, like that of Mr. Newberry, is a gua- 

 rantee of thoroughness. Into the volume's hundred odd pages 

 are packed the important events of three thousand years of 

 Egypt's rise and fall. It aims at a scientific statement of 

 proven facts, and it ignores theories and traditions. It will 

 have a few enemies among the theorists, but it will make more 

 friends — for itself and for historic Egypt. 



