August 1, 1890.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



193 



taken the trouble to go and look at it. I know that some 

 of the most furious have not. So now I take leave of you. 



Batch Wood, St. Albans. Grimthorpe. 



P.S. — I just add that this was written and in type before 

 you and your allies gave me the chance of answering you 

 in the Times of July 21. 



[I am glad to read Lord Grimthorpe's last sentence, for 

 our readers would probably feel that they were ha^■ing too 

 much of Lincoln's Inn if the discussion were continued. 



I will therefore be careful not to write anything that 

 could give Lord (jrimthorpe the right of claiming a further 

 hearing on this subject. To carry on the discussion would 

 be useless, from my point of view, for the Benchers have 

 now decided not to pull the gateway down ; and Lord 

 Grimthorpe cannot assert that he is silenced, for he 

 has opened the question in the Times, and even Mr. I'unch 

 has joined in recommending his " Dear Noble correspon- 

 dent to the Timex " to let Lincoln's Inn Gateway and 

 archivology alone. 



I will therefore content myself with saying that, as far 

 as I have data to go upon, the figures do not seem to me 

 to support Lord Grimthorpe's computation as to interest. 

 I have not been able to learn the total sum expended by the 

 Benchers in rebuilding, or the total rentals (old and new), 

 though (encouraged by Lord Grimthorpe's statement that 

 I might have asked) I have made application to the 

 steward of the Inn for the figures ; but was, as I expected, 

 courteously told that he was not at liberty to give me such 

 information. This secrecy with regard to the affairs of 

 the Inn is, I think, rightly regarded as indefensible by the 

 members of the Bar, who are aware that in the time of 

 the Commonwealth members of Lincoln's Inn received a 

 life interest in their chambers on paying a fine of twenty- 

 five shillings to the Bench. The amount of the fine soon 

 rose to ten pounds, and then to twenty ; in George the 

 First's time it was generally about a hundred pounds, and 

 it is only during the present century that members of the 

 Bar have been reduced to the position of ordinai-y tenants 

 at an annual rental, without any voice in the expenditun- 

 of the large revenue derived from them. 



Lord Grimthorpe was good enough to divulge tli. 

 secret of the Benchers with regard to the cost of buildinj 

 his last block of chambers, and we are able to make aii 

 approximate estimate as to the old and new rentals. I . 

 see no reason to alter the statement I made in the last 

 number on the subject. As to the cost of making Lord 

 Grimthorpe's addition to Inigo Jones's chapel, I estimate 

 the loss of revenue to the Inn to be about i'2,000 a year; 

 that is the interest on f 10,000 expended in building, 

 and t'1,500 a year the rental of chambers pulled down to 

 enable Lord (irimthorpe to alter the proportions of Inigo i 

 .lones's chapel and improve a vestry with which, according ! 

 to his own showing, " archbishops, bishops, and other i 

 eminent dignitaries " had been content. The chapel is ' 

 but little used uow-a-days, and there is certainly no 

 general wish amongst the Bar of Lincoln's Inn to com- 

 pete with the Sunday shows at the Temple. j 



Lord Grimthor|)e's great energy finds vent in building ; he | 

 enjoys the construction and evidently also the destruction 

 it involves, as some men enjoy sport. He is willing to pay | 

 highly for the right to exercise his hobby at St. Alban's j 

 Cathedral, and Lincoln's Inn was a sort of free warren for 

 him. He is naturally annoyed, as sportsmen always are 

 when their sporting rights and liberties are interfered 

 with. I regret that I should have felt that it was neces- 

 sary in the public interest to interfere with what contri- 

 butes to his enjoyment : for. putting aside some antiquarian 

 and other minor matters, there are many more important 

 (luestions on wiiieii I heartily agree with him. I sincerely 



respect him for his attack on the system of paying com- 

 missions to agents, and for his out-spoken opposition to 

 the endowment of research, and the awarding of medals 

 by members of scientific societies to their contemporaries 

 and co-workers. — A. C. Eaxy.\rd.1 



Prof. H. M. Paul, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, has discovered 

 a remarkable new variable star CS. Antliae), which appears to be of 

 the Algol type, with a period of 7h. 46m. 48s., the shortest yet dis- 

 covered. It varies about six-tenths of a magnitude from G-fj inag. to 

 7-2 mag. And according to Mr. Chandler it remains at maximum 

 brightness about 4h. 30m., the decrease and increase each occupying 

 Ih. 40m. In other words, the eclipsing star only occupies .ibout 35 

 minutes in passing from extreme elongation to the position where it 

 commences to cut down the light of its primary — a time which seems- 

 to indicate that the dark body is within a radius of the bright star 

 and far within Roche's limit (2JJ radius), within which a satellite 

 cannot exist, revolving round a homogeneous primary. Unfortu- 

 nately this star is situated too far south for English observers at 

 R.A. 9h. 26m. .50s. S. Dec. 28' 4' 43-.— A. C. R. 



TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 



By B. Lydekker, B.A.Cantab. 

 (Cnntimied from prii/e 178.) 



OUR last illustration of the gradual increase in the- 

 complexity of the structure of the grinding 

 teeth in the Ungulate order, as we proceed from 

 the old extinct generalised types (and some allied 

 ones which stiU survive) to the specialised forms 

 characteristic of the world of to-day, will be derived 

 from the peculiar group of Elephants. At the present 

 time, it need scarcely be mentioned, there are but two 

 species of Elephant, both nearly related, but one being 

 confined to the African Continent and the other inhabiting 

 India and some of the adjacent regions. In the latter 

 Tertiary period of the earth's 

 history Elephants were, how- 

 ever, much more numerous, 

 and were spread over the 

 greater part of the surface 

 of the globe, having been 

 obtained from Europe and 

 Asia, as far north as Siberia, 

 North and South America, 

 and North Africa. Many of 

 these extinct Elephants, and, 

 indeed, all of the earlier ones, 

 differed very remarkably from 

 the living species in the much 

 simpler structure of their 

 known as Mastodons, a tenu 

 which has now become almost a popular one. 



In common with true Elephants. Mastodons differ from 

 other ]\Iammals, in that, instead of having all their cheek- 

 teeth in use at the same time, the hinder ones gradually 

 come up in an arc of a circle behind the tooth in use at 

 any one particular period, which is gradually worn away 

 and shed. Further, the teeth gradually increase in com- 

 plexity from before backwards, the most anterior ones in 

 some cases not having more than two ridges (Fig. 12), 

 while the hinder ones are much more complex (Fig. 14). 

 It results from this peculiar mode of succession that there 

 are never more than portions of two, or at most of three, 

 teeth on either side of each jaw in use at any one time. 

 Fig. 12 shows that the simple cheek-teeth of a Mastodon 

 are really constructed on the same general plan as those 

 of a Pig (Fig. 4), the outer cones having more or less com- 

 pletely united with the inner ones to form two transverse 

 ridges. In some of the earlier teeth of the Mastodon there 

 may be only two such ridges (Fig. 12), but in the later 



12. — .Vn asteriok 

 Tdoth of a Mastodox. 



teeth ; these species being 



