Jan-. G, 1882.] 



KNCWL.EDGE ♦ 



209 



orcups. Whether the hive-bee in particular does so, I cannot 

 \rith certainty; but I am sure that the common bumble-bee is 

 II found among the flowers. Of course, other insects also aid in 

 ilising them. Grant Allen-. 



NUMERICAL COIXCIDEXCES. 

 [176] — This numerical disease is not confined to the Pyramids 

 and astronomy. 



M. Berger, referrinfr to the failure of Front's theory, that all the 

 atoms might be multiples of the unit hydrogen, finds out that by 

 dividing the chief elements into five groups, then all are multiples, 

 or submultiples of five specified values, which are aotated 

 H, D', D', D^, and D*. He attaches much value to this classification, 

 but admits that *' these five divisors have no value or relation 

 among themselves." 



A professor of iHarvard College, America, professes to see 

 farther into a brick wall than M. Berger, under the attractive title, 

 of "Atomic Phyllotaxy," to wit : — 



Berger. Phyllotactic. 



H = -9997 = l-16th of O = -998 

 D' = -769 = 5-13th of D» = -768 

 ID' = 1-995 = l-8thofO = 1996 

 D' = lo59 = (i X |)> of = 1-559 

 D' = 1 215 = 5-Sths of D- = 1-247 



ECLECTICUS. 



THE SUN'S COXS'HTUTIOX, AND ORIGIN OF SUN-SPOTS. 



[177] — I have noticed that in many modem text-books of 

 astronomy (especially' those published since 1870), doubts are 

 expressed as to the truth of Herschel's theory of the sun's consti- 

 tution (to which for so many years astronomers had inclined) viz., 

 the theory of a comparatively cool nucleus, enclosed in two con- 

 centric shells of matter, analagous to our clouds, of which the 

 outer forms the visible surface of the sun. In your " Poetry of 

 Astronomy" you say, "We know the sun to be infinitely more 

 complex in structure .... than it was formerly supposed to be. 

 .... We have learned that .... the gloiving veil of air hides by 

 day .... the largest (though not the most massive) part of that 



enn " Would you give us a paper in Knowledge on this 



most interesting of astronomical subjects, as in your books you do 

 not explain what you intend to convey by the above ? I presume 

 you speak of the sun's chrom^at]osphere, corona, and the atmo- 

 sphere discovered by Professor Young. I should be much obliged 

 if you would insert my letter, as I should much like to see corre- 

 spondence on this most interesting subject. Discussions on it 

 would be far more interesting than those on Anti-Gnebre's absurd 

 "■-iiy. Hoping for the favour of insertion, — -Believe me, yours, 



ViGNOLES. 



'>^*e shall be only too glad. Our fear is lest readers should think 

 '■ - ^ive too much space to our own subjects. — ^Ed.] 



SINGULAR PROPERTY OF NUMBER 4. 

 [178] — The following is a solution of this interesting property of 

 I numbers for the number 19. 



|4 - ( 4 + r) = 19 Ti t- 



I — V 4/ H. Snell. 



[Functional 4, or the products of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, can hardly 

 be regarded as a fraction of 4 in the sense required for the solution 

 of this little problem. Neither can 4, or 4 divided by 10. — Ed.] 



SMALL TELESCOPES. 

 [179] — As I am about to purchase a telescope for astronomical 

 purposes, I am at a loss whether to invest in a refracting or a 

 reflecting telescope. The work I want it for is the course specified 

 in Webb's " Celestial Objects," at least as far as an ordinary 3iin. 

 refractor, with powers of 70 to 200, would snflice ; but I do not know 

 whether to purchase a refractor of this aperture, or a reflector with 

 corresponding powers. I am not prepared to invest beyond £15 

 for the instrument, and should feel extremely obliged if you could 

 advise me as to what to buy. By so doing you wonld infinitely 

 oblige, yours truly, " " W. Eidd. ' 



VERMIN. 

 [180] — I should be glad if you would insert an article in your 

 valuable paper upon the uses of those apparently useless insects, 

 bugs, fleas, flies, roaches, &c., or if yon could name a good book upon 

 the subject. 



Hoping that your paper will have the utmost success. — Yours, 



Ax Amateur. 

 [We hope our readers -will not say, -with Mr. Pecksniff : — " Oh, 

 vermin! Oh, bloodsuckers I Begone! abscond!" — Ed.] 



MALE AND FEMALE HEADS. 

 [181] — It appears to me that in the correspondence on this 

 subject, too little prominence is given to the effect of long-continued 

 training in the development of the male head and its faculties, 

 while, in estimating female powers, few writers or speakers care to 

 remember that, till within the last few years, a liberal educa- 

 tion was beyond the reach of average" women. Among the 

 uneducated classes, is it not frequently the woman who is 

 the manager, the shrewd head of the household ? It would 

 be fairer to measure relative power where both sexes are 

 comparatively untaught, rather than in the classes where 

 the men have for generations had the benefit of schools and 

 colleges, while their sisters were indulging in " vapours " and 

 " sensibility." Of course, there are plenty of fashionable fools 

 still (whose waists are as small as their sense), but it would be rude 

 to suggest that they might easily find their parallels among the 

 loungers in St. James's-street, especially during the Derby week. I 

 heard lately of a singular case of growth of the head of a student 

 who has begun his work somewhat late ; and, pace the artists, I 

 hope that in a few generations our women's brains may show the 

 result of broad education. If it is true that sons take after their 

 mothers, the future Englishmen should not be the wors<? for increased 

 intelligence and culture among those who make their homes. 



M. McC. 



PHRENOLOGY AND THE BRAIN. 

 [182] — I was very much pleased with your remarks on phreno- 

 logy in "Answers to Correspondents" the other week, and must 

 certainly concur with them. 1 think that the whole drift of modem 

 physiological experiments tends to a disproval of the conclusions 

 of phrenology. Dr. Fem'er's experiments, for instance, have shown 

 that the individual convolutions of the brain are separate and 

 distinct centres, and that " in certain definite groups of convolu- 

 tions, and in corresponding regions of non-convoluted brains, are 

 localised the centres for the various movements of the eyelids, the 

 face, the mouth and tongue, the ear, the neck, the hand, foot, and 

 tail." We have thus certain definite areas of the brain superintend- 

 ing variotis motions of the body, but we can find no trace of the 

 numerous "esses" with which the phrenological vocabulary 

 abounds. Certain lesions, moreover, prevent the voluntary move- 

 ment of special groups of muscles. J. H. H. 



DARWINISM.— THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



[183] — The Darwinian theory of the origin of man, of aU forms 

 of vertebrate life — that is, of all animals having a backbone and 

 internal skeleton — is not, apparently from communications to 

 Knowledge, so generally accepted as I supposed. There can be, 

 then, no singularity in the apparition of another doubter. 



"Vestiges of Creation" initiated the great public in the 

 doctrines of the evolutionists. The work is a reputed hash of 

 matter and ideas from German and French sources. The work had 

 a great run, lived its day, died, and left no permanent impression. 

 Mr. Darwin's unique works have influenced the entire civilised 

 world. His profound investigations and remarkable method of 

 developing his labours to the public gave Mr. Dar\vin, almost at a 

 bound, a scientific and literary position such as few other men hold. 

 But, with all this, I cannot reconcile myself to his theories, nor to 

 the theories on which they are based. 



I am neither biologist, nor ethnologist, nor anthropologist ; I am 

 simply one of the common herd of readers, with the difference, 

 perhaps, that occasionally I venture on the more diflicult labour of 

 thinking. I may not have, but I presume I have, discernment enough 

 to follow the lines of Darwin, and his co-labourers, .so far as the steps 

 of what, to me, is doubtfully the propyla^um of the impenetralium 

 that conceals the secrets of the Almighty Intellect we name Nature, 

 and adore as Jehovah, Lord, and God. 



" Vestiges" excited theologians, but the "Decent of Man" pro- 

 voked them to rancour. The forcibly disagreeable, which the 

 " Descent " is to very many, bites into the mind ; the feeble slides 

 over it. But the idiocrasy of the caste, the fenced lines of thought 

 they habitually move in, blinded them to the actuality. They beat, 

 and continue to beat themselves against a gross misapprehension of 

 their o>vn. Mr. Dar^^in presented his thesis as an argument to a 

 pro'oable conclusion ; not as demonstrative of the absolutely certain. 

 He has not arrived at a perfect induction, and makes no pretension 

 to it, that I perceive. 



Darwinism is based on the labours of the German transcendental 

 anatomists, and on later theories by fitienne Geoffroy. Mr. Darwin 

 elaborated on their principles bj- an organon of his own. 



Geoffrey's epigrammatic enunciation, " There is but one animal, 

 not many," involves the whole case of the evolutionists. The plain 

 meaning of this dictum is, that all animals of the vertebrate class 

 are formed on one plan ; that all animals are a printogenial animal, 

 repeated through time, in modified plan. 



