GOO 



KNOWLEDGE 



[May 19, 1882. 



developed, or retained where it already exists. As Pradier's 

 " Atalanta,"in hor slopinj; shoulders and pinched waist, bears 

 evidence of Parisian tasti.s (or of tlie only type of femah" 

 beauty which can exist where Parisian fasliions prevail), 

 so Mr. Thornycroft's ''Artemis," No. 1,0 tl, Mr. Ball's 

 "Lancashire Witch," No. l,"")?!, and other works in the 

 -sculpture gallery at tin- Royal Academy, bear evidence of 

 the imperfect muscular development of the women of our 

 time. The right arm of '' Artemis," for instance, is incor- 

 ir(>ctly shajjed, both upper arm and fore arm, though vei-y 

 ll lively he correctly represented the arms of his model. Thi.s, 

 Jiowever, is a fine sculpture, though the idea is somewhat 

 woriL In the " Lancashire Witch," a really charming work, 

 the proportions are more correct, but the limbs are un- 

 finished, or rather the limbs copied would have been 

 regarded by an ancient sculptor as imperfect and flaccid. 

 On the other hand, "My Dainty Ariel," by Mr. Armstead, 

 R.A. (No. 1,680), is aljsolutely .and outrageously incorrect 

 ill proportions, as well artistically as anatomically. The 

 short fore-arms are out of all proportion to the monstrous 

 hands ; the attitude is hideous, bringing out, and, as it were, 

 (Miiphasising, the boniness of the knees ; the face is frisky, 

 perhaps — certainly not dainty. Of the wings, as we know 

 nothing of the anatomical arrangements by which wings 

 stuck upon human shoulders could be made to work, we say 

 nothing ; but the .statue, as a whole, is ([uite unworthy of 

 Mr. Armstead's repute. 



Speaking of winged figures, we are led to notice the re- 

 l)resentations of "Jacob wrestling with the Angel." Giving 

 priority to the fair sex, we take first No. 1,.57S, by 

 I'jinmeline Halse. Jacob is supposed to be at that stage 

 of the encounter where he remarks, " I will not let thee go, 

 except thou bless me." He is certainly not wrestling with 

 the angeL He is holding the angel up from the ground, 

 and his opponent is manifestly conscious that he is in no 

 danger of being thrown, for he is curling up his toes like a 

 child at play. Properly to represent such an encounter, 

 the artist should pass hours in watching hond-fide en- 

 counters between good wrestlers. We will undertake to 

 .s;iy that she would never in a real encounter see the toes 

 <if a wrestler who has been caught up by a strong opponent, 

 twiddling in the air as her angel's toes are. The actual 

 position taken up by the toes when a wrestler is thus placed 

 (we suppose the opponents, as usual in the North, to be in 

 stockinged feet) is quite characteristic, all the toes closing 

 in towards the ball of the foot ; only when the body is 

 actually swayed round for the throw is this position of the 

 toes changed. The toes are not turned upwards when 

 I'reat exertion is made in which the lower limbs take part, 

 any more than the fingers are turned backwards towards 

 the wrist when the muscles of the arm are energetically 

 exerted. 



Mr. Robert T. Fallon's treatment of the same subject, 

 No. 1 542, is still less consistent with anatomical facts. The 

 an"ol'(with a face of the type of a Yankee pedlar's, and 

 with an expression disagreeably suggestive of Mr. Julian 

 Hawthorne's impossible pedlar in " fortune's Fool"), is care- 

 fully holding up Jacob with one hand while endeavouring 

 to thrust him down with the other. This is not usual in 

 such encounters. We would remind Mr. Fallon, also, that 

 although certain muscles arc called into active exercise in 

 an energetic wrestle, they only become exceptionally de- 

 veloped in persons who give much of their time to such 

 (iocounters. To give to sculptured figures the peculiar 

 (levolopment of men whose chief business is wrestling is to 

 -imply that the persons represented were trained wrestlers' 

 There is nothing in the Hebrew record to suggest that 

 either Jacob or the angel belonged to this category. Cer- 

 tainlT, Mr. Fallon goes far to correct any erroneous im- 



pre.ssion in this respect by indicating Jacob's manifest 

 want of skill, and liy a.ssigning to tlie angel tlie unusual 

 task of holding up his opponent and pu.sliing him down at 

 the same time. Put it remains the case tliat some of tlie 

 muscles, both of the patriarch's body and of the angel'.s, 

 have a relative development, such as we only see in veteran 

 wrestlers. 



THE THREE COLD DAYS OF MAY. 



Bv THE Editor. 



IT is a singular, and as yet unexplained, circumstance, 

 that usually in the second week of May two or three 

 cold days occur. And although the fall of temperature is 

 not quite so strongly marked as that which occurs between 

 the 10th and 14th of April — the "borrowing days," — yet 

 the cold days of May are quite sufficiently marked to 

 be unmistakable. The mean annual curve of tempera- 

 ture derived from half-a-century's observations at Green- 

 wich shows a well-defined depression near the end of the 

 first third of the month of May ; and a peculiarity striking 

 enough in its occasional manifestations to attract popular 

 attention, and sustained enough to show through all the 

 variations which have occurred in the weather during half 

 a century, must be regarded as real, not accid 'iital. Its 

 nature is shown in the temperature curve in p. L'77 of the 

 second series of my " Light Science," where the peculiarity 

 is far from being exaggerated. Indeed, the car\e is so'tened 

 off on account of the method adopted for tracing it. Wt; see in 

 the temperature for Greenwich awave-like rise from January 

 to July, the curve sinking then to January ag.ain ; but the as- 

 cendingcurveisaffeeteul^j 1' xeewell-markeddepressionSjOne 

 in February, one in April, and one in May, while, strangely 

 enough, three similar irregul.irities afl'ect the descending 

 cur\e in the parts for November and December. It is, 

 indeed, now an established meteorological fact, not for 

 Great Britain only, but for Europe, that during the first 

 fortnight in May tlie average temperature is considerably 

 below that which might be expected from the increasing 

 elevation of the sun and duration of d.aylight. It is not 

 altogether true, as I have seen stated in a Continental 

 journal of science, that a week of cold occurs with extreme 

 regularity in the first half of May. It requires but a brief 

 search among meteorological records to find instanees of 

 warm first fortnights in May. If we take up any weather 

 sunimaiy for a few successive years, we find abundant 

 evidence of the irregularity with which " the cold week of 

 May " makes its appearance. For example, in the summaiy 

 of the weather given by Gilbert White in his " Natural 

 History of Selbome," we find such records as follows : 

 In 1771 frosty weather to the end of the third week 

 in April, followed by spring weather and rain to the 

 end of the first fortnight in May, and then dry warm 

 weather to the end of .Tune ; in 1772 the first fortnight of 

 May was dry, with cold piercing winds ; in 177-1, thixjugh- 

 out May and June, "warm showers" ; in 1774 no marked 

 peculiarities; in 1775 warm weather throughout May ; and 

 in 1770 cold weather throughout the month ; the last half 

 of Ay)ril, 1778, " snow and ice," followed by rainy weather 

 to June 11; thence warm Mays till 178l*, when the first 

 week of the month was cold and dark ; in 1 78o there was 

 thick ice on May .5 ; in 178 t cold dry weather during the 

 first twelve days of May : in 178.T mild weather during the 

 first seventeen days, and then cold weather to the end of 

 the month ; on May 1 and '2, 1786, "thick ice"; in 1787 

 fine bright weather to the 22nd, then warm, but on June 7 

 " ice as thick as a crown piece ;" in 1778 a warm dry May ; 

 in 1789 a warm moist month ; and lastly, whereas May in 



