108 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE ♦ 



[March 1, 1889. 



Among the Indian traditions there is one bearing a 

 lesemblaiice to the story of " Bluebeard." A hunter had 

 taken under his care .in elf, who was so small that he always 

 kept him in a liox. When the hunter left home he would 

 close the lid can't'ully, so that the evil spirit (Mitchehant) 

 should not get hold of him. One day this hunter saw a very 

 beautiful girl sitting on a rock 1))' the liver-side, so he 

 paddled his canoe quietly towards her. However, she saw 

 him coming, and in a moment she disappeared under the 

 waves. Her mother, who lived among the mermaids, 

 advised her to return to the hunter, who would treat her 

 well if she obeyed his commands. The maiden did not find 

 the hunter at home, but she cooked supper for him, and put 

 his wigwam in order. The hunter was very pleased to find 

 her on his return after a long day's hunt, and bade her cook 

 half a beaver he had brought home. The same command 

 was given every day, until the hunter's wife began to 

 wonder how the other half of the beavers disappeared. She 

 determined to watch her husband, and one night she pre- 

 tended to be fast asleep, whilst she was really as wide awake 

 as she could be. Then she saw her husband cook the other 

 half of the beaver, and, opening a box which stood in a 

 corner of the room, he took out the little red dwarf and fed 

 him. He also washed him and combed his hair, and put 

 him back in the box again. Next morning when the hunter 

 had gone out, his wife opened the box and tried to coax the 

 little elf out. Finally she pretended to go away, and the 

 dwarf peeped over the top of the box to see where she had 

 gone, when she caught hold of him, and held him tightly. 

 But her fiugers on touching him were stained red, and as 

 she tried to comb his hair, they became redder still. To 

 add to her terror, a fearful clap of thunder rent the air, the 

 door flew open, and a most horrible looking being entered 

 the room. He snatched the little man out of her hands, 

 and vanished in a flash of lightning. However, the un- 

 happy girl had no time to waste, for she knew her husband 

 would wonder at the red stain on her hands, and she must 

 wash it oil before he came home. But the more she washed 

 the brighter it became, so she resigned herself to her 

 :'ate. When her husband saw her terrified f;ice and red 

 hands, he knew ■■vhat she had done. He seized his bow to 

 beat her, but she ran out of the wigwam, and threw herself 

 into the river, and as she touched the water she turned into 

 a sheldrake duck, and to this day the marks of the red 

 stain are to be seen on her feet and feathers. 



THE GREA.T NEBULA IN ANDROMEDA. 



W«A,.^^n| NT the opposite page is a reproduction by a new 

 • _><Tv--il process from a paper photograph enlarged 

 about four diameters from Mr. Isaac Roberts's 

 negative of the Andromeda Nebula taken on 

 iWWiP'^^l December :^9, 1888, with an exposure of four 

 lltMCJ^ml hours. Considering the great interest at- 



taching to this photograph, it has been thought 



advisable to give this reproduction by a photographic process 

 to compare with and check the woodcut given in our last 

 number. In order to prepare the woodcut in time for the 

 February number, it was necessary to engrave it on a 

 wood block which took to pieces, and could be given to 

 two different engravers to work upon at the same time. 

 Unfortunately the block was not put together again with 

 sufficient care, and a white line corresponding to the divi- 

 sion between the two parts of the block shows across a part 

 of the middle of the page, which corresponds to nothing on 

 the photograph. Some white dots have also been put in by 

 the engraver to increase the brightness of the southern end 

 of the nebula, which have come out as small stars on the 



woodcut, and have no existence upon the photograph. But 

 otherwise the woodcut gives a very satisfactory representation 

 of the original negative, except that it was impossible to show 

 the structure in the brighter central part of the nebula, 

 which has a stellar nucleus, and the faintest regions of 

 nebular light. The same difficulty has to be contended with 

 in the photographic reproduction now given, and in addition 

 the smaller stars shown in the original negative are lost. 



The illustrations of the Lick Observatory, published in 

 the December number of Knowledge, were made by a 

 photographic method from the excellent woodcuts of the 

 Observatory published in Jyngineeriiif/ for August 31, 1888. 

 This and the subsequent numbers of Eiujineering contain 

 ])lans to scale of the dome, with the hydraulic machinery 

 for raising the floor, and other ingenious contrivances of 

 Sir Howard Grubb and others, made use of in the Lick 

 Observatory. 



[Tlie Editor does not hold himself responsible for the opinions or 

 statements of correspondents.] 



VIVISECTION. 

 2'o the Editor o/ Knowledge. 



Sir, — The inexplicable fascination supposed to be exer- 

 cised by snakes over little birds seems to be exercised by 

 Snake-poison Exjjeriments over phj'siologLsts. Again and 

 again warnings have been issued by eminent men of science 

 of the utter inutility of trying to run after and overtake 

 the venom coursing through the veins of a bitten man and 

 then neutralising it by means of an antidote which, even if 

 discovered, could scarcely be expected to form a Pocket 

 Companion for the 1^0,000 nearly naked Hindoos who are 

 alleged to perish annually from Snake-poison in the jungle. 

 Such cautions are all in vain. " Hope springs eternal " in 

 the physiological breast. Science never has, but always 

 will, be blessed by the discovery of the grand Arcanum. 



Permit me to quote the observations of Sir .Joseph 

 Fa3Ter, himself a vivisector and a great authority on 

 snakes, in his presidential address before the Medical 

 Society of London, as reported in the British Jledical 

 Journal. After referring to the supposed virtues of per- 

 manganate of potash. Sir Joseph said : — 



We are still, then, as far off an antidote as possible, and the 

 remarks made by me in l!j68 are as applicable now as they were 

 then. They were as follows : To conceive of an antidote, as that 

 term is usually unfierstood, we must imagine a substance so subtle 

 as to follow, overtake, and neutralise the venom in the blood ; and 

 that shall have the power of counteracting or neutralising the 

 poisonous or deadly influence it has exerted on the vital force. 

 Such a substance has still to be found, nor does our experience of 

 drugs give hopeful anticipations that we shall find it, — Srit. iled. 

 Journal, Feb. 2, 18St. 



Dr. Lacerda, in a letter to Sir Joseph, wrote to the same 

 purpose : " As to the idea of finding a physiological anti- 

 dote for snake-poison, I entirely agree with you that it is a 

 Utopia " — a remark the sense of which is plain, though the 

 grammar is open to discussion. 



Mr. A. J. Field, in his article in your issue of 

 February 1, shows that in time the SLinguine (I will not 

 add sanguinary) spirit of modern biology overleaps such 

 obstacles as those described by Fayrer and Lacerda. He 

 flies straight to "L^topia" vid Boulogne; happy to carry 

 forward his researches in that '-beautiful France" where 



