Jan. 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



103 



read the account of copjiiold tenure without regarding it 

 as as great an anachronism as the ordeal bj' fire, and as 

 a simjile scandal to our vaunted advancement in. this 

 nineteenth century. 



History of Homoeopathy. By "W. Ameke, M.D. Tran- 

 slated by A. E. Drysdale, AI.B. Edited by R. E. 

 DcDGEOx, M.D. (London: E. Gould i Son. 1885.) — 

 On the principle Aridi alteram partem. Having, doubtless, 

 heard Hahnemann and his followers denounced as Char- 

 latans, the reader may here learn (on the authority of the 

 Trinity of Homceopaths whose names appear on the title- 

 page), how every one who opposes or ever has opposed 

 their fetish, can only have been actuated by sinister 

 motives. Xotably does Dr. Dudgeon .seem to su&r under 

 the hallucination that no man can possibly reject homceo- 

 pathy from pure and disinterested motives. 



The Diseases of Sedentary and Advanced Life. By T. 

 Milser Fothergill, M.D. (London : Baiiliere, Tindall, 

 ife Co. 188.3.) — Because it contains a whole mass of in- 

 formation of the highest value and importance to the 

 very large class which it addresses. JSTot only is it 

 written in a stj-le to render it most helpful and instructive 

 to the lay reader, but it contains much which will be 

 found useful by the medical practitioner. It is an 

 eminently practical book. ' 



There also lie before us, each addressing its own public, 

 Clark's most useful Transit Tables for 1886. (London : 

 E. & F. N". Spon.) A Digest of English Hidory 1760- 

 181.5. By M. GuiTERlDGE, B.A. (London : Relfe Brothers. 

 1885.) A Handbooh of French Composition. (Loudon: E. 

 Stanford. 1885.) Wilfred and Marion, a drama in five 

 acts. By Evas Aleander. (London : Tinsley Brothers ;) 

 and a Chart of Ancient Greek History. (Edmburgh 

 and London : W. & A. K. Johnston. ) 



Diaries. — Among the Diaries published for 1886 we 

 must specially commend the Court Diaries in four dif- 

 ferent sizes issued by Griffith, Farran, it Co. (very full 

 and convenient) ; Blackwood's excellent shilling Scrib- 

 bling, Foolscap Octavo, Tablet, and Penny Pocket 

 Diaries : and Pettitt's Scribbling and Octavo Diaries, 

 both of which are capital. 



Seasosable Novelties. — The present season is geaerally re- 

 garded, for some occult reason, as an occasion for the giving and 

 receiving of presents, perhaps in order to accentuate that '• peace 

 and goodwill "' which is a special feature of Christmastide. But, 

 however that may be, those desirous of giving presents to youno- 

 people could scarcely make a better selection than the " Guinea 

 Christmas-bos " issued by the London Stereoscopic and Photo- 

 graphic Company, of Cheapside and Regent-street. It is equally 

 amusing and instructive, and contains as many as sixteen varieties 

 of scientific toys, puzzles, interesting games, and bewildering con- 

 juring tricks. Another novelty, for which the protection of the 

 patent office has been obtained, is one that will undoubtedly secure 

 recognition in the daily-increasing ranks of amateur photographers. 

 This is the " .\mateur Travelling Bag,' which is fitted with 

 every requisite necessary for the production of photographs, while 

 it preserves the external appearance of an ordinary travelling com- 

 panion; thus securing the immunity from observatioQ which is 

 so dear to many people. The Stereoscopic Company have also 

 published a handsome portfolio comprising a tastefully-mounted 

 selection of the photographs which were prize-winners at the 

 exhibition of amateurs' work held a few months ago in Bond- 

 street — an exhibition which owed its success chiefly to the enter- 

 prise o£ the company. The pictures in the portfolio under notice 

 are arranged in accordance with the classes in which they were 

 originally exhibited, and are accompanied by the artists' "names, 

 and other detailed information. A visit to the company's premises 

 will be amply repaid by the opportunity aflEorded of inspecting 

 their choice collecdon of photographs, comprising portraits, eronps, 

 an<J landscape-work. ' ^ ° ^ 



(9nv ZBin^t Column. 



LEAD FROM ACE FIVE, 

 By Mogul. 



BOUT twenty years ago, I ventilated in the Field 

 ray objections to the lead of Ace from Ace and 

 four small ones. The discussion that ensued 

 was inconclusive, because certain proOabilities 

 affecting the question had not then been calcu- 

 lated, and my arguments fell on barren soil. 

 They nevertheless appeared to me so weighty, 

 that it has been my practice ever since to lead a 

 small one from Ace and four others, except when 

 one of the four is the Queen or Knave, in which case I lead the 

 Ace. Hy objections to the lead of the Ace were (1), that it 

 deprived my partner of all chance of making the Queen, if held 

 either singly or with one other; if alone, it fell to my Ace; 

 if singly guarded, it fell to the adversary's King whichever 

 side the King was held, and in cases where the Queen was 

 doubly guarded, it either fell on the second round to the 

 fourth player's King, or, if it survived to the third round, 

 not only would it block my suit, but would almost certainly 

 be trumped, as one of the adversaries must run short in the 

 third round. (2.) It diminished the chance of at once establishing 

 the suit by getting three rounds out, as it was two to one against a 

 partner holding the King on the second round, whereas it was 

 nearly an even chance that he would win the first trick; and (3) if 

 partner proved weak it gave up the lead and the entire command of 

 the suit merely to secure one trick in it, and deprived the Ace of 

 one of its greatest uses — viz., the capturing a good card of an adver- 

 sary ; and these objections were encountered solely because one of 

 the adversaries might hold one only of the suit, and consequently 

 might trump the Ace on the second round. This always appeared to 

 me an insufficient reason; but when the C" en or Knave was one of 

 the four others, my objections were so much Itss forcible that in that 

 case I have continued to lead the Ace. The result, so far as I can 

 judge, has been so very satisfactory that, unless it can be shown on an 

 exhaustive calculation of the chances of gain or loss, that the pro- 

 bability of loss by leading a small one is really serious, I should, on 

 the strength of my experience, advise players to lead a small one 

 from Ace five, unless one of the five be Queen or Knave. That this 

 can be shown is very unlikely, for since I wrote Bole has calculated 

 the chances of the leader (holding Ace Five) making one trick in the 

 two first rounds of the suit accordingly as he begins with the Ace 

 or a small one, and the result he arrives at is that one trick will be 

 made eight times when Ace led for every seven times it will be made 

 when a small one led. Now, although I cannot quite follow Pole's 

 figures, and think that the difference is not so large as he 

 makes it, for he assumes that the Ace will alwaj's be trumped 

 in the second round when either adversary fails whereas 

 this would not be the case when the suit is returned by partner 

 and the adversary failing is then second player ; I still _ con- 

 sider that, taking his result as correct, the advantages accruing 

 from the lead of a small one, especially the increased chance it 

 affords of getting three rounds out and at once establishing the suit, 

 more than outweigh, in each case, the loss of one-eighth of a trick, 

 i.e., the lead of a small one will in eight times be the means of 

 gaining, as compared with the lead of the Ace, more than one 

 trick. 



The lead was considered in your Whist Column of June 12, 188.5, 

 but the writer there makes the same mistake as Dr. Pole in assuming 

 that the original fourth player, when he fails in the second round, 

 will, as a matter of course, trump the suit when led on his right. 

 Ee-arranging the figures there given, I find that the Ace will make on 

 second roundtwenty-two times forevery twenty-seven andahalf times 

 it would make if led out in first round. This would be the loss 

 of about the fifth of a trick every time a small one is led: but this 

 seems to me fully compensated for by the increased clianceit gives 

 of the Queen, if held single or with another, making in the first 

 round, and I find on calculation that the chances of making the two 

 first tricks in the suit are equal, whether Ace or small one be led, 

 but when it is considered that more tricks would be made in the 

 two rounds when a small one is led, were it not that the 

 adversaries will now and then trump the ace on the second round. 

 Have we not a right to assume that this expenditure of a trump 

 will, in a certain proportion of cases, say half or one-third, lose our 

 adversaries a trick in other ways .' Now and then it may prevent 

 an adversary getting in his long suit and enable your partner to get 

 in his. The conclusion that, on the whole, the lead of a small one 

 is advantageous, Is, I consider, irresistible, and certainly it is more 

 in harmony, than is the lead of the ace, with the principles which 

 regulate a lead from a long suit headed with one high card. 



