March 3, 1882.] 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



393 



sort your reply, rather shortened. — Toteist. Question why 

 I'll outside cars are so peculiar to Ireland, and when they 



invented, scarcely scientific. It is noteworthy, by the 

 1 , how definitely national tastes seem often to determine 

 . iirite forms of vehicle. The outside car seems singularly 

 .propriate to Irishmen (still more, perhaps, to Irish girls). — Ei>. 

 . ToUNE. In their present form your theories would hardly suit 

 H' pages of Knowledge. — Chables Gro\'EB. Thanks, but except 



.. orreater distinctness of satellite II. 's shadow (as compared 



■ !i I.'s) your note scarcely warrants insertion, now that interesting 



::L'i:ration is passed. We shall be glad to hear further from you, 



with reference to the groat markings on Jupiter. — A. 



vY. Your queries are for a general litcrarj* paper, not 



■ liose chief object is science. Think you will have some 



:iiculty in finding biography of Lady Austen (Cowper's 



lend). Biographies of Poe numerous ; good sketches of George 



liot's life, &c., in the Kineteenlh Century (last November, I think). 



■G. C. D. M. Astronomers know very little about the origin 



rotatory motion in nebulous masses ; but the general idea is that 



:irose somewhat as eddies arise in a stream. If two nebulous 



;i8ses met under their mutual attraction, there would be ,a whirl- 



Mjl motion, unless they met precisely full, which would be very 



ilikely. It is pleasant to be asked for more astronomy ; but you 



n understand not only why I do not bring it to the front, but why 



prefer to invite others to write astronomical articles. As you 



isli me to answer, myself, your question about variable length of 



V, I ask you to allow me to reserve it, hoping very soon to givff 



iiiswer, illustrated as you suggest. If I insert it now as a query, 



i :ill have a number of answers, some excellent, others, perhaps, 



luite so well, and correspondents who have been at the pains 



; irmulate a reply may not bo very well i>leased to see their 



•;r wasted. The moon does not "lie on her back" at every 



nation ; she only does so when her path — soon after " new " — 



carrying her north of the equator ; for then, when a crescent, she 



on the western sky as nearly above the place of the sun below 



e horizon as she can be in our latitudes. The configuration is 



ctured in my book on the " Moon." — Volcano. We really must 



>t insert queries relating to medical matters in Knowledge. We 



. '■ many medical men among our readers, and correspondents 



1 would, no doubt, reply to them; but others might reply with- 

 ' the necessary information. Then your question is too vague ; 

 It spots on the forehead, and why (you ask) on the forehead ? 

 they are heat spots, cooling medicines ought, one would say, to 



■ LTood. — W. Gr.\ndv. See answer above to G. C. D. JI. — Sir 



li. Phrenology would never have been suggested, I apprehend, 



rl.cre were not reason for associating particular confirmation of the 



ill (apart from external influences) with particular mental or 



nil qualities. A "phrenologiasana" such as thatwe mayadmit. It 



<■ theory that beneath the *' bump " places are the cerebral organs 



I ose affections or qualities, which is rejected by anatomists. I 



jit quite agree with you that " if a single man in the world can 



■ true judgments of character from heads, all the anatomists in the 



I cannot prove phrenology wrong." A hundred correct judg- 

 : 3 would not do so much to establish phrenology (in the fcrm 

 iiich Gall and Spnrzheim advanced it) as a single failure would 



' 1 1 negative it. The way in which failures (you admit that 

 -: of the phrenologists failed sometimes) are explained by the 

 •ates of that system belongs simply, as Wendell Holmes well 

 - it, to the system "heads I win, tails you lose." — Bishop. Like 

 '■rt's "dancing man," I would answer you, " right reverend 



II halfa-crack," if it were altogether fair ; but with Browning, 

 "ud, Wray. and other thoroughly excellent opticians, to choose 



Men, I could not recommend any as the bei't maker you could 

 lo for a 3-inch telescope. — C.'S. Bentley. Thanks. Will 

 ■w if space permit. You attribute to Isaac Walton the saying 

 .[ strawberries (page 338 Knowledge), referred to Cotton 



•')pr (W.ilton's " Complete Angler," chap. 5, page 109, Chatto's 

 : n,p.ll4; Simpkins). They tell the story in America of Mather. 



I'm CI columns of Answers to Correspondents crowded out. — P.D.] 



Notice. — For " Kos. 2 and 3 are no/ out of print," in Answers to 

 Correspondents, Xo. 17, read " Nos. 2 and 3 are nov: out of print." 

 Part I. is now entirely out of print. Those who wish to complete 

 the series would do well to get the Parts which are still in print, 

 and to add their names to the list of applicants for Part I., so that, 

 should any copies be returned, they may be distributed in due 

 order. 



Poiro's Extract is a certain 



Pond's Extract is a certain c» 



Pond's Eitract is a certain ci 



Pood's Rxtract will heal Bums and Wounds 



Pond's Extract will cure Sprains and Bruises. 



Sold by all Chemists. Get the gtmuiRe: 



re for Rhenm&tism and Oont. 



for Haemorrhoids, 

 for Xeuralgic painj. 



J. Rae, Lepidodendron, answered. Also by P., H. Courtenay, 

 W. B. K., J. M. Carr, W. D. C, Geo. Biddell, J. S. Thome, Harvard, 

 Colonial, J. W. Emery, T. K. Snood (•'), L. Empson, J. E. T., M. 



Prang, E. R. T n, Ellicott, Pcter.shurg, Ante-Prandial, 



Jorkins, L. M. S., Fraulein, A. Accrington, Emeritus, Peter Parley, 

 g. Pritchard, M. Hosking, L. Hoare, Surbiton, Tricycle, Medicus, 

 N. Hatherley, General Lambert, M. Soper, Pro-di-gious (very), 

 Duncan D., Professor, Baptist, L. S. P., Half-Sprung. 



^otfsi on art anD ^ritnce. 



The language of the Seychelles is a curiously cormpt French, 

 in some respects similar to anjot. Thus a common expression 

 among the natives is Moi ne cont pas, for Je ne connais pas ; simi- 

 larly, they frequently interpolate a medial vowel, and say gelisxer 

 for gliaser, belouse for hlouse, and so on. These singular linguistic 

 peculiarities deserve the attention of philologists, for no explanation 

 of them has yet been given, except the purely negative one that 

 no mixed race ever retains purity of tongue ; but although this 

 axiom accounts for the existence of many mixed languages — 

 notably our own— it does not explain how the pure French of the 

 original aristocratic exiles became degenerated into a tongue 

 similar to that which is popularly supposed to be spoken only at 

 young ladies' academies and by English tourists on the Continent. 

 — Graphic. 



A Fog Bow before Sunrise. — The phenomenon of the ordinary 

 rainbow is familiar to every observer of nature. White fog bows, 

 or " fog eaters," as they are called by sailors, are frequently 

 visible in localities favourable for their formation ; and they ore 

 generally regarded as indications of clearing weather. A fog bow 

 was observed, writes Mr. H. C. Hovcy, on the morning of Jan. 8, 

 from my residence on Fair Haven Heights, near the estuary of the 

 Quinnipiac River, and about 100 ft. above the sea level. No rain 

 was noticeable in anv quarter, but the valleys were filled with fog, 

 above which the hill tops stood like islands. At exactly ten minutes 

 before sunrise (due at 7.26 a.m.), on looking north-west I saw a 

 brilliant arch of prismatic colours spanning the East Rock Bange, 

 the highest point of which is 350 ft. above the sea. As the sun arose, 

 the arch diminished in height and vividness, and by the time the 

 orb |was visible in the morning sky, the fog bow had vanished. — 

 Scientific Avierican. 



Warmi.n'g Rooms. — "S. S. " asks me how to warm a room 

 13 X 13 ft., which has no chimney or any outlet for stove-pipe. I 

 cannot tell how to do this satisfactorily. If obliged to occupy such 

 a room, I should economise my own animal heat by wearing a thick 

 top-coat, double woollen socks, &c. I have warmed a small con- 

 servatory, requiring merely protection from night frosts, by burning 

 a few common, cheap paraffin lamps, distributed so as to equalise 

 the temperature. A gas-stove would have killed the more delicate 

 plants ; the difference is due to the fact that the mineral oil is so 

 pure a hydro-carbon that it produces only water and carbonic acid 

 by its combustion, while the gas contains bisulphide of carbon and 

 other impurities, which, by their combustion, produce irritant or 

 actively poisonous compounds, to which the plants are more sensi- 

 tive than we are. If " S. S." uses such lamps, or one of the paraffin 

 stoves sold for the purpose, he should jilace them on the floor, or as 

 low as possible, in order to economise their heat. Each ordinary 

 lamp will give him about as much heat and carbonic acid as a 

 human companion. — W. Mattieo Williams. 



Novel Heliometers. — At a recent meeting of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, Mr. Howard Grubb, F.R.AS., described some novel helio- 

 meters which are at present in process of construction in Dublin for 

 the Belgian Government, to be used at the coming transit of Venus, 

 the design of Professor Uouzeau, the Belgian Astronomer-Royal. 

 A heliometer is generally made from a single objective cut in two, 

 with mechanical arrangements for traversing one-half with respect 

 to the other. In Professor Houzeau's arrangement the two half- 

 objectives are of verj- different foci — one of about] 14 feet, the other 

 6 inches only, but so placed that both form their image on the same 

 plane. As the apparent diameter of Venus and the sun are about 

 as 28 to 1, it follows that the image of Venus, as formed by the 

 large objective, will be about the same size as that of the sun 

 formed by the small objective, and, consequently, coincidences can 

 be made, not by bringing the limb of Venus to touch that of the 

 sun, or a micrometer line, but by superposing the image of the sun 

 as formed by the small objective on the very slightly larger image 

 of Venus, as formed by the large objective, and thus it is hoped 

 that all the inconvenient and perplexing phenomena of irradiation, 

 " black drop," &c., will be completely eliminated. Mr. Grubb exhi- 



