404 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Mauch 10, 1882. 



^ 



when thoy Imvo n gnat Ruporiority of bruto forco, wliilo thoRO who 

 itdopt n nlylo Hiiitoil to tlio rci|iiironioiita of tlio liglit rnciriK bonts 

 us RVHti'iiintirnlly win — often iiKuinHt ffront BUpcriority of sliccr 

 NtrouKtl'. Af^iiin it in founil tliiit thuRo who on Ihcir own wntcrR 

 nro u)ili)^(l to uho tho heavier IxuitR, and, therefore, the old- 

 fiuhioned ntyle, are nlwnya, or iilmoRt ulwityH beaten, and that too 

 liy weaker men, wlion they row in tho Ii(<litor boatu, even when 

 t boy have thoroughly mastered nil Huch diflicuUicR nR arixo merely 

 from tho relative cmnkinoSR of tho canvns-covered outrigped crnfl. 

 In my next I Hlinll show wliat aro llio difference« of Btylo which 

 theory Buggcsts for tho lighter boatR. I shall maintain the appa- 

 rently paradoxical positiouR — (1) that the stroke must be longer, 

 yet Hhortor in tho water ; (2) that it must bo quicker, yot fewer 

 strokes be taken per minute. I shall show how those requirements are 

 to bo secured, and I shall give evidence, which I take to be con- 

 vincing, that, when they nro secured, a stylo is accinired wl.ich 

 utilises tlie oarsman's strength in tho beat wnv for contests in 

 these cranky craft. 



(To he coniintied.) 



THE SPECTATORS COMET. 



(From the Saturday Review.) 

 *' Sir Andrev ^^w#cA«t-.— Why, this is the bedt fooling, when all 13 done." 



SOME time ago— on Jannarj- 28, to bo particular — the mantle of 

 Mother Shipton fell upon tho Spectator, and she began to pro- 

 phecy concerning tho end of tho world. Fifteen yeai-s more of life 

 was about the exact period [sic'] which the Spectator was inclined to 

 allow to plants and animals, includitag man. The con^nilsion pro- 

 duced in the religious world, or rather in a part of it, was curious 

 and pleasant to observe. Tho Bishop of Manchester naturally did 

 not let such an excelloiit opportunity pass unpreachcd on, and 

 pavid correspondenta sent their views to the Spectator. But 

 meanwhile Mr. Proctor has withdrawn his celebrated Menacing 

 Comet. This phenomenon was entered, it appears, for the 

 Scientific Sensation Stakes by the Spectator, "without the assent" 

 of its owner. Wo really do not think that Sir. Proctor has behaved 

 quite kindly to tho Spectator. Tho Spectator's ambition was partly 

 like that of the Fat Boy, as expressed in his celebrated remark to 

 tho Old Lady : — " I wants to make your flesh creep." Our con- 

 temporary was also anxious, if -wo may say so, to score off the 

 Positivist and the unbeliever. But there was also manifest a vci-y 

 creditable desire to give Mr. Proctor and his new book " a hand." 

 Every fellow likes " a hand," as Mr. Foker has said, vnth his usual 

 artless wisdom. The Spectator gave Mr. Proctor " a hand," but he 

 does not seem quite grateful. In the February number of Know- 

 ledge, a journal occupied with such topics as the " Uso of Fleas," 

 " How Spiders Fly " — [Now, dissatisfied ones, where are you, who 

 say KNowLKncF. is too much given to astronomy, biology^ botany, 

 and mathematics ? Hero is the Saturday Review to tell you that 

 Mr. Mattien Williains on the " Use of Fleas," and Professor 

 Young on tho "Flight of Spiders," out-top all other subjects] — 

 Mr. Proctor has scratched or witlidrawn that '' Menacing 



Comet" which the Spectator had fondly made its oivn 



Mr. Proctor's most significant remark in his book, we take to have 

 been this — [here follows the reference to the outbtu-st in tho 

 Northern Crown, in 18GG.] There is a well-known sentence in an 

 unpublished novel — " ' Here is a blasted flare-up,' said the princess, 

 ■whose girlish modesty had hitherto kept her silent." Mr. Proctor 

 had been explaining that what the bashful princess called a 

 "blasted flare-up" had occurredjin the new star of the Northern 

 Crown in 186G. And ho had said that the " flare-up " was probably 

 caused by the motion of tho comet followed by a meteoric train. 

 . . . What conclusion could tho Spectator draw from all this ? — 

 and from Mr. Proctor's refusal to say " that there is absolute 

 danger in tho case of our own sun whou the comet of 18J3 shall 

 bo absorbed by him ? " " What conclusion could be drawn, except 

 that Mr. Proctor thought the comet a serious matter and tho 

 odds against the destruction of life in tho world very short odds 

 indeed ? And now Mr. Proctor distinctly declares (and we are 

 glad to have l<i3 assurance), that " thero is not the slightest reason 

 to fear that the comet will do any harm to the solar system when 

 finally absorbed." Mr. Proctor, in Knowledge, says that he has 

 elsewhere shown that "all eoniots of the destructive sort"— all 

 " roguo comets," if we may adopt a term from tho Jumbo contro- 

 vorijy— have long since been eliminated from tho solar system. 

 Mr. Proctor gives pictures of comets of tho rogue and peaceable 

 varieties. Tho menacing comet, or, as wo may now call it, tho 

 domosticated comet, is a very slim and scanty one. Then wo have 

 a Ukenoss of a comet which might have been dangerous if it had 

 gone tho wrong way. Thou wo havo a portrait of a comet .... 



witli a gigantic oyo in ita head, and a bashj and furioOR tail. How- 

 ever, that Ih tho look-oat of Bomo other Bolar system, and not onr*. 

 Our Rolnr Rystom, wo again repeat [«!'•] is all right .... unless 

 a comet like Oonuti's " gets its head," bolts, and comoR straight 

 for tho sun. As for the comot of 1880, iu future it will I* known 

 OS " tho Speclulor'i," or perhaps " tho Bishop's comet." 



NEWTON'S VIEWS AS TO A MENACING COMET, 

 AND AS TO THE HEAT OF THE SUN'S INTEBIOR. 



AMONGST tho MSS. referring to Sir Isaac Newton, in tho pog- 

 session of the Karl of Portsmouth, is a paper in the hand- 

 wTiting of Mr. Conduitt, who married Catherine Barton, Ncwton'R 

 favourite niece j it purports to be notes of a conversation held with 

 Sir Isaac about three years before his death, and contains a con- 

 jecture with respect to the ultimate fate of tho comet of 1680, which 

 bears a striking resemblance to the prediction which has recently 

 been attributed to Mr, Proctor. 



Mr. Conduitt, who was Newton's successor at the Mint, had the 

 intention of writing a life of Sir Isaac, and commenced making 

 notes for the purpose, but he had but little literary talent, and tho 

 project was soon abandoned. Tho notes, however, have been pre- 

 served, and though they have never been printed at length, tho 

 paper from which the following extract is taken is given in 'Tumor's 

 " History of Grantham," a rather rare book, which is not in tho 

 Library of the Astronomical Society. Mr. Conduitt says — 



" I was on Sunday night, the 7th of March, 172-1-5, at Kensington 

 with Sir I.-Miac Newton in his lodgings, just after he was come out 

 of a fit of tho gout, which he had had in both his feet, for the first 

 time, in tho eighty-third year of his age. He was betterafterit,and 

 his head clearer, and memory stronger, than I had kno^vn them for 

 some time. He then repeated to me, by w.iy of discourse, very 

 distinctly, though rather in answer to my queries, than in one con- 

 tinued narration, what he had often hinted to me before, viz., that 



it was his conjecture, ho would affirm nothing," [I omit a 



paragraph with respect to the planets] that " a comet after certain 

 revolutions by coming nearer and nearer to the sun would have all 

 its volatile parts condensed, and become a matter fit to recruit and 

 replenish the sun (which must waste by the constant heat and light 

 it emitted), as a faggot would this fire, if put into it ,(ye were 

 sitting by a wood fire) and that that would probably be the effect 

 of the comet of 1680 sooner or later, for by the observations made 

 upon it, it appeared, before it came near the sun, with a tail only 

 two or three degrees long, but by the heat it contracted in going 

 so near the sun, it seemed to have a tail of thirty or forty degree!, 

 when it went from it ; that he could not say when this comet wouid 

 drop into the sun ; it might, perhaps, have five or six revoluticns 

 more fii'St ; but whenever it did, it would so much increase the leat 

 of the sun, that this earth would be burnt, and no animals ia it 

 could live. That he took tho three phenomena seen by Hippar.'hns, 

 Tycho Brahe, and Kepler's disciples, to have been of this kinl, for 

 he could not otherwise account for an extraordinai-y light as thos6 

 "were, appearing all at once amongst the fixed stars (all whch hd 

 took to be suns enlightening other planets, as our sun does (Urs) as 

 big as Mercury, or Venus, seems to us ; and gradually dininishing 

 for sixteen months and then sinking into nothing." 



In the light of our present knowledge with respect to tie mass of 

 comets — and the probable origin of tho sun's heat, such r theory is, 

 of course, untenable, but the speculation is of interest, asit serves to 

 show that Newton must have .suspected the existence of a resisting 

 medium in the neighbourhood of the sun. If ho hal not, as is, 

 possible, satisfied himself from the observations of the total eclipse 

 of May, 1715, that tho solar corona then observed* h»da real exist- 

 ence, and was not merely an optical illusion. 



Long before this eclipse, it is evident that Newtm suspected ao , 

 atmosphere outside the photosi>hero. In the " Prijcipia," Book IIL 

 (I quote from Davis's translation, published in 1803, at Vol. II, 

 p. 307), he says : " The comet which appeared inthe year 16S0 was 

 in its perihelion less distant from the sun thar by a sixth part of 

 the sun's diameter, and because of its extrime velocity in that 



• Several dia.vings were made of the corca observed during this 

 eclipse — woodcuts from two of them are givu in Edleston's corre- 

 spondence of Cotoa and Newton. From the ccount of the eclipse in 

 the 3[e>noir.i dc VAcadi'mic, it is evident th-t sovoral drawings were 

 made by French observers. Newton himolf no doubt observed this 

 eclipse, though he does not appear to ha* done so in comjiany with 

 his friend Halley and other membersof the Royal Society, who 

 observed it from the roof of tho Soci^y's House in Crane-court, 

 out of Fleet-street. From a letter f -Cotes, it is evident that 

 Nowton was not at Cambridge at tho'imo of tho eclipse. 



