18G 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 30, 1881. 



THE FIFTEEN SCHOOLGIBLS. 



[155] — In default of bettor, I enclose a Bort of analysis and 

 for doinR the puzzle of lifti'cn, which is the simplest 1 ha%o 

 nblo to find. — Yours, iltc. K. 



Tlie blnpk dots stand for the numbers in the same line 

 them in the A column. 



rule 

 been 



N. 



■II 

 II 

 II 



X 



The order of walking is then- 



GKL GJM EKN FKN EIL DKO FJL 



If the black dot formula is committed to memory, the puzzle 

 can always be done nearly off-hand but, if not, a sure way of 

 getting to the same result is to set down the 105 combinations of 

 two letters from which the 35 combinations of three letters have 

 to be formed side by side, and then amalgamate with perfect 

 ye^ularity from the top, cancelling all the used pairs. 



A FOOD QUESTION. 



[156] — If you think the following extracts have enough of 

 general interest for your "Correspondence" columns, their in- 

 sertion might lead .to our getting some further useful information 

 on the matter: — 



In a recent number of Chamherg's Journal (Nov. 12), under the 

 head "Some Queer Dishes," it is said: — "In the Wesit Indies, 

 where meat becomes tainted very rapidly by the agencies of the 

 damp motionless heat and abundance of insect life, it becomes 

 necess.'vry to cook it almost as soon as it is killed. To obviate the 

 toughness which would result from this, it is HTapped in a large 

 fleshy leaf, which has the curious property of softening the mus- 

 cular fibre and rendering it tender. If left on too long, the juice 

 permeates the moat and disintegrates it altogether, hastening its 

 decay. I do not know the proper name of this leaf — the black 

 people call it " sungulo " — nor the nature of its action ; there is a 

 large tree in the market-place, near the King's Wharf, at St. 

 Thomas." 



This is probably the same plant or tree that is mentioned by Mr. 

 11. Stonehewer Cooper, in his" Coral Lands," Vol. I., page 75. Ue 

 says : — 



" The one drawback to Fijian beef is that it is sometimes very 

 tough, in consequence of being cooked the very day it is killed. 

 The papan {Ccrirn papaiia) grows lu.iuriantly all over the Pacific, 

 and according to Mr. Wittwach, a German naturalist, papau is the 

 remedy. The juice of this is found to possess the property of ren- 

 dering tough meat tender when boiled with it. If the unripe fruit 

 be placed in the water in which the toughest moat is to bo cooked, 

 it is found to render it perfectly digestible, and the same reiiults are 

 observed if the meat be merely washed with the juice of the fniit. 

 The thick, white, milky juice, when extracted from the unripe papau, 

 in fact, contains properties similar to those of pepsine; and it is 

 possible that it may be susceptible of chemical prescr^-ation, and 

 become a valuable preparation. Tough meat is not unknown in 



England, and rarely papan could bo canoed and sent oror here, oven 

 if no mode of pre8cr\'otion is arrived at." 



If this leaf or fruit has the virtues attribnted to it, it is strange 

 that wo have not had it here in some form. " Coral Landa " wu 

 published lost year. — Yours faithfully, F. C. M. 



Nw. 28, 1881. 



MAGIC SQUAEES. 



[157] — lam glad to see that your correspondent " U. S." haa 

 started the subject of magic squares in the last number of Know- 

 LEnoE ; but though he gives examples of odd squares, he does not 

 give the rules for making them. The subject is of great interest, 

 and some squares are so very curious that 1 should like, if you will 

 allow me, to bring it more fully before your readers. 



Of magic squares there are two kinds ; 1, those whose root is an 

 odd number ; 2, those whose root is an even number ; the rules for 

 the construction of each kind differing from each other. 



The examples of odd squares given by " H. S." are made by 

 Bachet's, or the Indian method ; and the result is not capable erf 

 variation; but by the methods of M. Poignard and others, the 

 resulting squares may be varied in many ways. I will now describe 

 these methods for odd squares, and in a future paper will give the 

 rules for squares with even roots and squares with borders, &c. 



B.^chet's Method. 



Example : A square of 49 cells whoso root is 7. 



Fig. 1. 



After having filled in Fig. 1 with the seriea, aa shown above, pw^ 

 ceod to transfer the figures in the colls outside the square into *"" 



Pottd's ErTRACT 13 ft certain 



Pontl'd Extnwt is a certain v\ 



Pond's Extract is a certain ci 



Pond's Extract will heal Bum'* an.l Wounds. 



Ponds Krtract will oure Sprains and Bruiaca. 



Soldbj aU Chemists. Oct Iho gomv 



■e for Rhetunatism and Oout. 

 for Hirmorrhoids. 

 for TS'curalgic pains. 



DT^^^ 



