94 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 2, 1861. 



ncocMnry to contrHdirt it in lii« " CJcBchiclito (Icr Himmplskundo " 

 (vol. II., |i. 400). ruli/.H('li was Iciw fortuimtc in I7H0, when lio 

 thought hp hiul ili»c()vi'rc(l nn^tlicr coinct in C'nncor, nhlrh provcrl, 

 however, to be n now well-known nebniii. He (lied nt Lun^^ruii, 

 uer.r l)re«den, on Feb. 22, I7HH, In the (i.">th year of his »).'<? ; hiw 

 momor»ble discovery on Chri.s(niii8 Uay, 175H, was inndo at I'roliliH, 

 botwi-en Dresden mid I'iriio. — Yonra, Ac, 



BInekhonth, Not: It. W. T. Lyn.n. 



DO COMETS OBEY GRAVITY? 



[53j — Ah I nm probably the victim of ill-written text-books, such 

 as you allude to in your introduction totlie correspondence columns, 

 pcrhnjis you will kindly ])ermit me to be set ripht in rpRard to a 

 little matter which has occusionnlly troubled nic, and which isnf^ain 

 suRgcsted by the article on comets. 



It is stated in that article that comets obey the law of gravita- 

 tion ; and also that the matter of which they (or at least their 

 tails) arc composed is of inconceivable tenuity. 



What jtu/.zles me, then, is liow these flimsy concerns can po8.*iibly 

 be obeying the laws of gravitation, which I understand to mean 

 that bodies attract each other in proportion to their mass. How is 

 the sun's attraction, which fixes the masxive jAanets to their present 

 paths, to be reconciled with the fact that these airij bodies wander 

 round orbits so gigantic ? 



If you cannot alTord space for my ditficulty, a reference to what 

 you consider a reliable work will greatly oblige, yours, &c., 



COMF.T. 



THE CEIMSON-CIliCLED STAR. 



[54] — Will you kindly inform me to what star Tennyson refers in 

 " la Memoriam," LXXXVIII., verse 12 — 



" And la.'it. returning from afar, 

 Before the crimson-circled star 

 Had fallen into her father's grave." 

 The use of the feminine possessive pronoun would naturally suggest 

 Venus. But why "crimson-circled"? Would this be effect of 

 refraction on the horizim ? If so, though only a dilettante astro- 

 nomer, I do not remember having observed it. 



I wish every success to your new Magazine, whose motives and 

 virtues I diligently proclaim everywhere. 



Quite apart from punning, I think you have taken as your motto, 

 " Sublinii feriam sidera vertice." 



Yours faithfully, M.R.C.S. 



[I have always supposed crimson-circled here to mean surrounded 

 by the crimson sunset glory. Is it not LXXXIX. ?— Ed.] 



TABLES OF MEH1D1.\KAL PARTS.—THE FL.\T EARTH. 



[55] — Can you toll me liow it is that the Table of Meridianal 

 Parts in Riddle's Book of Tables differs so much in some parts 

 from the corresponding table in Cliambers' and Norie's books ? The 

 fact is the more strange, because the formula which Riddle gives for 

 calculating that same table yields results identical with those tabu- 

 lated in the two latter works. Which is likely to be the more 

 trustworthy. Chambers' book or that of Riddle ? 



Have not you, and men of science in general, a right to ask your 

 impassioned friend and determined enemy " Pai'allax " to prove 

 that he has some clearly-defined, or, at all events, some intelligible 

 theory of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and some conception 

 of what that theon,' involves, by (1) constructing a set of tables 

 which would enable lis to find our way about on the earth ; or (2) 

 by forecasting for us such events as eclipses, planetary transits, Ac. ; 

 or (3) by showing how it comes to pass that if the upholders of the 

 Newtonian theory be the fools, or impostors, or emi)irics which ho 

 assorts them to be, their forecasts arc so invariably justified by 

 results ? 



.\nd if he refused, or were unable to give an account of himself 

 in some such way, to forbid him, on ])ain of a writ " Dc Junafiro 

 i II qnirendit," to open his mouth, or write, or ever send telegrams on 

 this subject as long as he lived, to any liWug man, saving only Mr. 

 Newton Crosland.— Your obedient servant (and admirer and well- 

 wislier), Wintkr. 



P.S. —It would bo interesting to discover what would be the 

 result of the meeting and intermingling of chaos with chaos (in 

 the way hinted nt above) — whether it would be order orannihilation. 



[It was a favourite idea of the late Professor Do Jlorgan's to set 

 paradoxer against paradoxer. It is singular that they only agree in 

 attacking the theories which men of science agree in accepting. 

 They never agree among themselves. Each may have a follower 

 or two, or even ten or twentv ; but they do not follow each other. — 

 E...J 



PYRAMID MEASURKS. 



1 50) —With reference to your remark about the coincidences, I 

 may remark that my mathemnticul knowledge does not enable mo 

 to prove that it is possible to prr«iuce the same coincidences by the 

 use of any other values of the diunieters and distances of the ihrco 

 bodies, and of the scale of reduction, than those 1 have given ; if, 

 however, it can be proved to be possible, then I lulmit my conclu- 

 sions will not be entitled lo (he consiileralion which at present I 

 claim for them. And further, if the next transit of Venus be 

 observed, as it ought to be, and the resulting value of the sun's 

 distance proves to be identical, or very nearly so, with the value I 

 have derived from the pyramid measures, will it be quite satisfac- 

 tory to a mind of average inteliigence to Siiy that the agreement is u 

 mere coincidence ? Of course, you may reply that this argument 

 has no present value ; iior am I inclined to attach much weight to 

 it, because, looking at the results of past transits, it is scarcely to 

 be expected that the next will finally settle the question of the sun's 

 distance, and yield a I'esult in which all astronomers will concur, 

 and wliich will be more reliable than the one derived from tho 

 pyramid measures. Probably the results of Professor Winnecke's 

 new method of determining the sun's distance from Venus observa- 

 tions will be more accurate than any of the results obtained by- 

 other methods. 



I thiuk a much greater interest is now being taken in the pyramid 

 than you seem to be aware of. An active correspondence has been 

 going on this week in one of the Manchester papera, in which, how- 

 ever, I have taken no part ; and a lecture was delivere<l there on 

 Wednesday evening. Lectures arc also being given in other towns 

 and districts, and the jiyramid is apparently fast becoming a house- 

 hold word. 



I notice printer's errors in four of my equations which render 

 them unintelligible. I enclose a list of corrections of four of tho 

 formula; in my paper. — Yours, &c., JosiPH Baxkndkll. 



Corrections of formula- in paper on " The Great Pyramid 

 Measures, and the Diameteis and Distances of the .Sun, Earth, and 

 Moou." 



read 



\c'2v lO"/ 



9m.s 

 •'2v'10' 



0. for 

 20. ,, 



31- ,. i 



/Se 1. 



33. „ 10 \/— „ 10 ,\/, 



.Stt 

 4, 



INTELLIGENCE IN ANIMALS. 



[57] — Some years ago my father, who was a medical pr.ictitioner 

 ia Somersetshire, had a valuable horse, which eventually he was 

 obliged to part with, as it was vicious, and not always safe to drive. 

 During the time my father drove it, he had occasion to visit daily 

 for several weeks an old gentleman who had met with a serious 

 accident. His patient lived at the bottom of a steep lane, which 

 branched off at right angles from the main road, at about 3J miles 

 from the town where my father lived. This horse was always used 

 for visiting this patient, and during the first two or three weeks, 

 when there were dangerous symptoms, was frequently driven down 

 the lane twice a day. 



The farmer to whom my father sold this horse lived at a distance 

 of several miles beyond this turning on tho same i-oad, and attended 

 regularly the market in the town where my father lived, and neces- 

 sarily passed this sharp turning both going and returning there- 

 from. .Some three or four years after purchasing this horse, he had 

 occasion to drive into tho town to fetch my father to attend his 

 wife. As the case was urgent, he got into the gig, and was driven 

 by the farmer towards the farm where he lived. .Suddenly, without 

 the slightest warning, the horse turned down the lane he knew so 

 well, nearly capsizing them. 



As soon as they had recovered themselves, the farmer exclaimed that 

 " he had never known the horse do such a thing before all the years 

 he had had it." My father was surprised, and said, " Not when you have 

 driven this way to and from the market ? " The farmer replied, "that 

 the horse never oven so much as looked at the turning, whilst he had 

 driven it, until now." " Well," said my father, " he must associate 

 me, knowing that I am in this gig, with the many visits he used to 

 pay with me down that lane, when 1 attended my poor old patient 

 at the bottom, after his accident. I patted his nose before starting, 

 and he knows by my voice that I am behind him. His memory has 

 served him well, and he concluded that I must be going the same 

 journey we performed together so many years ago." My father 

 always considered this fact evidence of reasoning powers in the 



