44 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



;[Ja.\. 19, 1S8S 



masteid in tlioir rcspoctivo sciences. Tlie imposing letters will (lien 

 be unJerstooil as a real oniament to a man's name. U. 13. L. 



[The ilifliculty is that men have usually to bocomo candidates of 

 their own will. This prevents many from even acceding to the re- 

 quest that thoy should consent to be nominated. They object to 

 beinR confounded with those who, after long hankering, have got 

 iu.— K. P.] 



ansilufrsf to Corrfsponlifntfif. 



W. JouxsTox. It would not do for me to advise. I know nothing 

 of the system. Hut I may remark that the advertiser has offered 

 mc full opportunities of testing it. — W. G. E. (1) There have been 

 many references to tho magnificent comet of 1858 (Donati's), but 

 not in Knowledge, because a full account of that comet (with 

 pictiQ'cs) was given in early numbers before the recent comet 

 appc.ired. (2) Hallcy's Comet returned in 1835, and will not be 

 seen again before 1910; but there were some who expected a 

 return of the comet of 1256 at about that time. — Bee.xard Bategex. 

 That " God rest you merry " matter is not one about which there 

 is any diversity of opinion. It is not a Shakespearean expression, 

 but is found in hundreds of places, in various forms, " God rest 

 you fair, " God rest you happy," &c., Ac, Ac— Philip S. Paekes. 

 Fear can give no information about Railway Signal Engineering. 

 ^P. The theory is quite inconsistent with the observed appear- 

 ance of comet's tails.— L. L. II. The misprint Q, for K, had seemed 

 too obvious to be noted among errata. It is very good of yon to 

 speak of the mistake as startling, because that implies few mistakes 

 and far between. As to the pimdit's objections to whist, I 

 fully share your feeling. People view things so differently. One man 

 thinks it well to relax over whist or chess at certain hours (when 

 perhaps he could do little good work), another counts the hour or 

 so passed that way as lost; yet — J. Claxtox and L. il. N. — this 

 last will consider it a solemn duty to lose as well from relaxation as 

 from work each seventh day, while the other regards the customary 

 observance of the (or a) seventh day as a theft from God's great 

 gift of time. So oddly do men view things ! If, however, you 

 (I am nojonger answering L. L. M.) would but keep clear of de- 

 nunciation, and recognise that what one deems wrong another may 

 regard as a duty, all would be well. Only it is so much easier to 

 look into your neighbour's potato-patch than to work in youi- own. 

 Is'ow, for my own part, I have a very tender conscience in the matter 

 of work, yet I often, and as a duty, hearken to what Mr. Spencer 

 calls the Gospel of Relaxation ; but, on the other hand, were I to 

 waste a seventh part of my time, my soul would cry foul shame on 

 me. Yet, I remember hearing it said, at a great gathering of the 

 over-paling-at-neighboms-peering community, that to do what I 

 have done for twenty years, as a rfi((;/, is as bad as it would be " to 

 stab a friend under the fifth rib " (I do not know why rib, nor why 

 fifth). So do men differ, as I said. Yet, as men who think like 

 me do not rebuke you, who hide iu a napkin one seventh part of 

 the great talent, Time, it seems rather odd to be denounced so 

 roundly about yonr foolish fetish. It was natural enough, 

 perhaps, that those Eastern writers who pictm-ed a Deity 

 after the fashion of one of their own despotic rulers, should 

 be unable to rise to the conception of Infinite Power, needing no 

 rest and refreshment, but " working hitherto " as one wiser than 

 they said, and working hereafter, for ever. When nature stops 

 ■working every seventh day,'conie and tell us that the God of Nature 

 wishes us to do likewise. We may then believe you. Ton will say 

 I break my own rule in ivriting about religion. You break the 

 rule, but I do not. For to me there is nothing religious in the 

 question, any more than in wearing a good suit on Sunday or eating 

 mince-pies at Christmas. One doctrine, however, I would par- 

 ticularly indicate to you— to wit, the saving faith involved in the 

 words, " Mind your own affairs." So far as I can judge from your 

 letters, you will want for them all you know. (Without wishing 

 to be dogmatic, may I suggest that you should rather write 

 "separate" than " seperate," and "individual" than " in- 

 dividial.")— r.R.G.S. How can a vertical cylindrical pipe 

 be 60 feet in diameter at top and 18 feet at bottom ? In any case, 

 the outflow would have to bo determined, probably, by experiment; 

 for the outflowing stream narrows a little below 'the place of exit, 

 and the amount of narrowing has to be determined by observation. 

 — TiBA. Will be duly answered in our fortnightly ""Face of the 

 Sky."— F. Adeline Uakker. I scarcely cling to that or any tradi- 

 tion. The whole story seems mythical ; but doubtless the difliculty 

 you note must bo regarded as raii'on de plus. — A. Fbaxcis. To give 

 advice, under the circumstances, would be dangerous and wrong. — 

 W. W'KiGnr. Cannot always give tho questions ; do when I can. — 

 J. M. Nixsox. Many thanks about Star in tho East. On the other 



point quite agree with you — M. Y. What can one do with such 

 accounts ? One must quote as given, leaving absurdities to speak 

 f jr themselvcB. — A. J. Maas. Will note your suggestion, but the 

 bilingual testaments are not like the llamiitonian translations. — 

 F. M. Cotton. Know of no diagrams of comets suitable for lectures 

 except lantern slides. (York's, for instance). Book information 

 about comets is rather widely scattered. In Sir J. Uerschd'^ 

 " Familiar Lectures " there is a very interesting essay about them. 

 — F. J. Laing. It was Jupiter you so saw. — Kekey Kix. So man;, 

 subjects wanting room. — II. L. Thanks; tail constantly beiuj 

 formed, never restored to head. — H. B. (1) On any theory wh.it- 

 ever, the smallest fixed star must be a very large orb in reality. 

 (2) I was speaking of angular motion only, which is the same fi i 

 the minute hand of tho Big Ben clock as for that of a lady's locket 

 watch. — E. IIewson. Thanks. — J. Smiles. Your friend is emphati- 

 cally wrong. Many imagine, however, as he seems to do, that 

 dynamo machines are merely large frictional machines. — 0. 

 Mernarii. Thanks; but cannot find space.— T. F. D. Moon 

 could not be so seen in Palestine. — A. KiTsox. ExaminL- 

 vertebra^ of the next fish you carve — then of a rabbit. Pro- 

 bably those who speak of dovetailed vcrtebnc do not know 

 what dovetailing means. — A. R. Paxxett. If Cassell's " Con- 

 cise Cyclopa-'dia " says that the smallest number of eclipses 

 which can occur in a year is four, then is that Cyclopocdia more 

 concise than correct. Smallest number is two, in which ease both 

 are solar. — Bartex Fletcher. A quaint idea. Would like to see 

 "An Observer's" face as he reads of it, — as you justly say 

 "No one could even tidnl: of an angel in a corset;" albeit in 

 Pugin's small CathoUc Church in Clapham there are angels with 

 "braces" (real good ones, — apparently three-and-sixpenny braces) 

 outside their flowing draperies. — Jas. L. Crowley. The star you 

 saw was, no doubt, Venus. It was in about her jjlace. — W. H. K. 

 SoAMEs notes that he saw Venus at 9 h. 19 m. a.m. on the 6th, also 

 on December 22 at 8.30 a.m. — Uxcle Sammy. So sony you have been 

 bewildered over the logical puzzle, the pride of De llorgan's heart. 

 This is where you have gone wrong in your three instances : — In 

 all three, you start with a jjremiss which cannot but lead you to a 

 truism, and j-ou get your truism. Thus in one you begin : For 

 exerj man there is a woman who is not married. You might as 

 well begin : For every Z there is an X, wliich is net Z, as well as 

 not Y, and be surprised to get out notliing more instructive than 

 the repetition, or rather the quantification, of part of your first 

 premiss. So with the others, where you begin : " For every 

 di-unkard there is a moderate drinker," &c., and "For every white 

 man there is a coloured man," Ac. If your first premiss, of its 

 very nature, signifies that none of the X's are Z's, you must 

 not be astonished it the conclusion that some X's ai-e not Z's 

 should seem scarcely worth reasoning about. In all reasoning 

 the rule should be Respice Jinen: ; don't try to prove about 

 o»ie or some what you already know about all. You can 

 make equal nothingness out of the simpler syllogisms as out of 

 one of these quantification syllogisms. Thus, no coloured man is 

 a white man ; Kalekaua is a coloured man ; therefore Kalekaua is 

 not a white man. — Psychomaxtis. Comets move in ellipses of veiy 

 different eccentricities and dimensions. Last gi-eat comet moved 

 in a plane inclined about 36° to plane of earth's orbit. Why 

 should not a comet be seen both from England and AnstraUa.^ 

 The constellation Orion can be seen from both countries ; 

 so can the planets. — F. S. L. Surely an Ai'chbishop should 

 be innocuous. Is there disparagement in the word ? Or 

 in neutral ? Would you substitute " offensively onesided." You 

 put " quotes " to " Tait," perhaps deeming my use of the name with- 

 out the title offensive. But I had no such idea. The "innocuously 

 neutral late Eight Reverend Doctor Tait. Lord Aichbishop 

 of Canterbury" would have read rather heavily : voila tout. — W. L. 

 Rogers. Horrocks had a genius for astronomical research ; out- 

 side of science, judging from his high-flown tone, he was, one 

 would say, rather younger than his age. — JoHX Greenfield. 

 Pardon me, Laplace proved nothing of the sort. He showed that 

 with all the planets going the same way round, the system was 

 safe from destructive change ; not that it would undergo such 

 change if one or other of the planets had gone the wrong way 

 round. The question is quantitative, not qualitative. If Laplace 

 had proved that no matter what the scale of such a system, or 

 what the masses of the several bodies circling round the sun, any 

 one body going round the \vrong way would eventually cause 

 the system's destruction, things would have looked bad for 

 tho system ; for we know, what he did not, that there 

 are multitudes of bodies going the wrong way round. Yon 

 seem angry with me for having several times had to cor- 

 rect mistaken ideas of yours. But I did not cause you to fall 

 into those errors. Why, then, should you be angry with mc ? Look 

 nearer home. — C. E. RowE. No; I lived near Deyonport in 

 1864-GO ; but kept no school there, or a!iy\vherc else. 



