Jan. 20, 1882.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



251 



ucnt, unaffected alike bj" cxposvu'o to the snn and to the action of 

 alkalies. The proce-sa of dyeing the thread illustrates the patient 

 assiduity of the Indians. 



"It is taken to the seaside, when a sufficient number of shells are 

 collected, which, being dried from the sea-water, the work is com- 

 menced. Each shell is taken out singly, and a slight pressure upon 

 the valve which closes its mouth forces out a few drops of the 

 colouring fluid, which is then almost destitute of colour. In this 

 • 'ch thread is dipped singly, and after absorbing enough of the 

 1 :\;ciou3 liquid, is carefully drawn cut between the thumb and 



iMger, and laid aside to dry. Whole days and nights arc spent in 

 ; liis tedious process, until the work is completed. At first the 



liread is of a dull blue colour, but upon exposure to the atmosphere 

 ..rquires the desired tint. The iish is not destroyed by the opera- 

 1 Ion, but is returned to the sea, where it lay.s in a new stock of 

 colouring matter for a future occasion." 



The author had some of tliis fabric sent him, but the colour did 

 ;.' it quite realise his expectations. The yarn and calico were of a 

 II piii'i'Ie, which is rather different from the general idea of the 

 kimous Syrian dye. They were harsh to the touch, and emitted a 

 peculiar smell. A shell was sent with the articles; it resembled the 

 P«rj)ura capi7/us of our coast, but is much larger, belonging, the 

 author says, to the Purpura patula of conchologists. The author 

 informs us that in the process which the natives who dyed the 

 goods used (samples of which he received), the whole animals were 

 picked out witli a pin. So we see there are various ways of making 

 use of the animal. F.C.S. 



METEORIC ORGANISMS. 

 By Carl Togt. 

 rimK organisms in meteorites (chondrites), announced by M. 

 J_ H.ihn, have no existence; what has been described and drawn 

 :is such, results from crystalline conformations, which arc absolutely 

 inorganic, None of these imagined organisms has the microscopic 

 -'incture belonging to the organisms with which they have been 

 ;-30ciated. In particul.ir, the asserted sponges do not show the 

 .-tnicture cither of existing or fossil sponges; the so-called corals 

 do not show that of polops or anthozoa ; and the imagined crinoids 

 dn not show the structure of knoivn crinoids. The observed struc- 

 iiires are duo to an opaque crust, or result from optical illusions, 

 niscd by an incomplete method of conducting microscojiical re- 

 ' arches. Apart from pulvcnilent masses, metallic substances, and 

 M n-crvstalline encrusting matter, ordinary meteors are composed of 

 <rystalliiio elements collected into granules, as ia shown by their 

 ilisaggrcgation, either by wearing do^vn, or by the use of acids. 

 — Les Mondes. 



INTELLIGENCE IN ANIMALS. 



AN acquaintance of mine, Mr. H., is the possessor of a cat 

 that is a great admirer of bii'ds as an article of food, and he 

 has more than once devoured a chicken, for which he received con- 

 dign punishment. A short time ago Mr. II. placed a number of 

 eggs under a duck, but the orly result was a single, weakly 

 duckling. This my friend laid on the fender before the kitchen 

 fire, and tended the little creature for some time. Eventually he 

 jKit it into the garden, in order that it might get its own living, 

 and then resumed the sowing of some seeds. On looking round in 

 a few minutes, he saw the cat seize the duckling and dart into the 

 house. Mr. H. followed with the intention of punishing the thief, but 

 he found that the cat had set the duckling in its accustomed place 

 on the kitchen fender, and was caressing and carefully licking some 

 dirt stains from the down of his new friend. Mr. H. frequently 

 afterwards took the duckling into the garden in the presence of 

 some of his neighbours, and the cat invariably carried its little 

 (fivourite back to the kitchen fire. I think this is a remarkable 

 iDstance of the suppression of a stroilg instinct on the part of the 

 cat, w4 '""y it ""t ^'s° have leanit a lesson of kindness ? 

 ■ ■ ■ Sttdest. 



The Effect of Sewage on Ovsteks. — Many people liave com- 

 Iilained of feeling ill after eating what they have aftenvards thought 

 were stale oysters. But the microscope has now shown that this 

 has been caused by "germs" present in the liquid of the oyster. 

 These " germs " are similar to those found in sewage — hence the 

 deduction that the presence of sewage pip^s near oyster beds has a 

 poisonous effect upon the oysters " especially the northern side of 

 Dublin Bay" (Abs. Chem. 'Soc. Jour. — C. A. Cameron). When the 

 oysters were submitted to analysis it was found that the fact 

 asserted by the microscopist was fully corroborated. This now 

 accounts for the reason of people complaining that the oysters were 

 stale.— F. C. S. 



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"In knowledge, that man onlv is to be contemned and despised who ia not in ft 



state of transition 'Nor ia there anj-thing more adverse to accuracy 



ihan fixity of opinion." — Faraday. 



•• There is no harm in making a mistake, but groat harm in making none. Show 

 me a man mho mokes no mistakes, and I will show you a man who has done 

 nothing." — Liebig. ^_^_^.^ 



€>\\v Coirf*Jpontifnre Columns^. 



VEGETARIANISM.— COMMUNICATION WITH THE MOON.— 



LIGHT AND L.\NTERN.— CHOANITES.— THE NAUTILUS. 



—CELESTIAL MAPS. 



[207] — Those amiable fanatics, the vegetarians, seem determined 

 to force their way into the columns of Knowledge; and there, as 

 elsewhere, to insist upon every one, high and low, rich and poor, 

 young and old, adopting their panacea on pain of being branded as 

 idiots for rejecting it. Now, X have no particular faith in the 

 '■whole heg" system, and believe that I may oat a cutlet without 

 tomato sauce ; and even di-ink a glass of claret or sherry without 

 imperilling either my longevity, my digestion, or my intellectual 

 powers. May I express a hope, then, that some of those who would 

 send all mankind back (like Nebuchadnezzar) to graze, will listen 

 to what Dr. Wald says, in Carper's Quarterly Journal, as quoted by 

 Dr. Drysdale in the Echo newspaper. " Some prisoners in a castle 

 at Waltcnburg, who had a mortality from 1810 to 1851 of 48 per 

 1,000, in 1852 had a mortality of 380 per 1,000, the causes of death 

 being diarrhcea, scurvy, and drop.sy. Dr. Wald, on investigation, 

 found that, as the potato crop had failed, these ]irisouers, on theo- 

 retical chemical grounds, had been fed principally on white and 

 grey peas and lentils with bread. The mortality increased terribly 

 on this diet, and more leguminous food was supplied, so that in 

 1854, beans were given five times a week, when the mortality still 

 increased— whole troops of the prisoners becoming blind and 

 dropsical. Wald at once dropped this theoretically nutritious food, 

 and gave milk, bread, rice, meat, and coffee, and the normal mor- 

 tality soon reappeared." I have eaten meat for upwards of forty 

 years, and certainlv have not spent twopence in medicine during the 

 last ten of them. " Moreover, I will do the hardest day's walking 

 shooting, rowing, riding, or thinking, against any man whatever of 

 my age who has lived upon potatoes and turnip-tops for an equal 

 time ; with the moral certainty that, in sporting slang, I should 

 " beat him off his head." 



I have no book of reference at hand, but in connection with letter 

 20G (p. 23.3), would say that, unless my memory is more than 

 usually at fault, it was'Gruithuiecn, of Munich, who proposed to 

 communicate with the Selenites by the erection of the familiar 

 diagram to the 47th jiroposition of the First Book of Euclid, on some 

 extensive plain or desert on the earth's surface. 



Mr. J. W. Stow (query IGU, p. 234) should obtain vols, xxxii. and 

 xxxiii. of vour contemporary-, the ;;(i3/is/i,Ver;io»i,V, i-unning through 

 which he 'will find a series of articles by Mr. Lewis Wright, under 

 the title of " Optics with the Lantern," which supply the very 

 thing he requires. . » •. 



Query 171 (p. 234) may be answered by saying that the fossil 

 ehoanite must have been nearly related to the modem family of 

 Alcyonida- , to which the common organisms, called " Dead Men s 

 Fingers " by the fifht rmcn, belong. It has no affinity with the sea 

 anemones at all. It is the polypidom of a zoophyte. I have seen a 

 large number of choanitcs in my time, but " the spiral worm round 

 the body " is something new to mo. 



