Jax. 2G, 1883.] 



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47 



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LONDON: FRIDAY, JANUARY 2G. 1863. 



OONTKNTS OF No. 65 



FIOI 



8«ienc« And Art 6o«aip 17 



A N«tunili-n' Year. V.— Gorse 



Blowomi. Hv Grant AUph W 



Slavs and StrciJt;th. By Eichard A. 



Proctor 30 



Th« Birth and Growth of Mrth. Bj 



Edward Cludd 51 



The W<<«th»rProph»ci«e 52 



<5r*at Sun Spots 53 



Sun.Views of the Earth; or. The 



.Seaaons lUastnted. By Bichard 



A. Proctor 55 



raei 



Some Books on Astronomy. By 



Richard A. Proctor S« 



STdnev and SundaT Lecturing 57 



Our Paradox Corner : Is it Possible 



to Grow Giants? 58 



CoRBESPOXDEircB ; StaTs and Slatues 

 —The Comet— Sun-Vie»s of the 

 Earth— ElectrieitT and Dentristry 58 



Answers to CorresjHjndents 60 



Our Ma' hematieal Column «0 



Our Chess Column 61 



Our >\"hist Column 62 



^rirnrf anij 9rt (gossfip. 



Sir W. Thomson has lieen niakinj; pxperinients on sun- 

 light, moonlight, and candlelight. The results are not in 

 agreement witli those hitherto obtained. He compares the 

 amount of light from the sun, the moon, and skylight, with 

 artificial light, Hy admitting the former through a small 

 pinhole of measured diameter. The method seems open to 

 exception, as light does not travel straight through a very 

 small aperture, but undergoes diffraction. Be this as it 

 may, some of the results are strangely inconsistent with 

 those obtained by other methods. Thus Sir W. Thomson 

 finds the intrinsic brightness of the Glasgow sun in winter 

 three times as great as Arago found the average brightness 

 of the sun in France to be. He finds the light of the full 

 moon to be one-" 1,000th of the light of the mid-day sun, 

 ■whereas Bouguer's early and imperfect experiments made 

 the moon's light one-300,000th of the sun's. WoUaston set 

 the proportion at less than one-800,000th, and Zollner Ijy 

 two methods, f ach preferable to Sir W. Thomson's, obtained 

 one-618,000th and one-Gl 9,000th, results which are not 

 likely to be far wrong. 



Sib W. Thomson found the sun's light to be such as to 

 correspond to an intrinsic lustre of the solar disc after 

 absorption of the light by our own air, 53,000 times 

 greater than that of a candle-flame. This, too, at mid- 

 winter in Glasgow. 



There is a charming paper by Prof. ^Vendell Holmes, in 

 the Atlantic Monthly, which we are glad to see taking its 

 place beside Harper's and the Centur;/ on our English 

 booksellers' counters. The veteran writes much of his own 

 ■experience as an author — the victim of those who regard 

 the author as their common property, whether they be 

 among those who admire him, or among those who (as 

 some will in every case) detest heartily everything that ho 

 does, has done, or may do. One can hardly imagine any 

 one disliking this most genial of humorists. Yet we have 

 seen, and doubtless he has seen, too (for the participled 

 good-catured friend we have always with us), criticisms by 

 jaundiced folk, who have been wounded by some of his 



well-directed arrows of general sarcasm, not meant specially 

 for them. They have not failed to tell him, only the world 

 has not fully agreed with them, that he should promulgate 

 opinions only on his own subjects (meaning those to which 

 his professional office related), not on matters outside of it. 



The extensive oBices of the Orient Steam Shipping 

 Company were some time ago fitted, by the Electric Power 

 Storage Company, with a gas-engine, a Siemens' d3rnamo 

 machine, a number of Edison lamps, and a set of accumu- 

 lators, and a contract was prepared, according to which the 

 Orient Company was to pay a rent for the whole at the 

 rate of .£3 per lamp. The engine ran all day charging the 

 batteries, but the lighting was unsatisfactory, and is now 

 discontinued. 



The Scientific American (New York, December 30) 

 quotas the following figures from the report of the Ohio 

 State Inspector of Mines. The annual output of coal has 

 increased from 5,315,294 tons in 1872, to 9,450,000 tons 

 in 1882. The latter year showed more than 1,000,000 tons 

 increase over 1881. Seventy million tons have, so far, 

 been raised, and the inspector is of opinion that at least 

 the same riuantity has been wasted from the want of correct 

 plans and engineering skill. The unworked coal of the 

 State is estimated at 85,000,000 tons. 



How Hocs Prevent the Renewal of Pine Forests. 

 — A correspondent writing from Johnsonville, S.C, inci- 

 dentally mentions a curious instance of the influence of 

 animals in controlling or preventing forest growths. It 

 appears that the fondness of hogs for the juicy roots of 

 young pines leads them to seek them assiduously, so that 

 where hogs are allowed to roam in that region, one can 

 hardly find a young long-leafed pine in a thousand acres of 

 pine forest. There being no young trees to take the place 

 of the old ones used up by the lumbermen and turpentine 

 gatherers, that species of pine timber is rapidly being 

 exterminated. 



The Telephone. — The superintendent of the Notting- 

 ham fire station mentions that during the last year eight 

 fires were reported by telephone through the Central 

 Exchange and various police stations connected by the 

 above company's system, and many thousands of pounds' 

 worth of property was saved owing to the rapid means of 

 communication afforded. 



According to statistics given by L' Electricile, the two 

 nations that have adopted the telephone to the largest 

 extent in proportion to their population are Belgium and 

 Switzerland, the former counting a suljscriber in every 

 399, and the other in every 227 inhabitants. There are 

 4,94G subscribers in England, 3,640 in France, and 2,142 

 in Germany. Paris alone has 2,422 subscribers, and there 

 are more in New York than in the whole of England, 

 while there are 37,187 in the United States. 



A Disinfectant. — Mr. Matticu Williams notes that 

 sulphate of copper may be usefully employed as a disin- 

 fectant. It may be bought at sixpence or less per pound 

 (they call it blue vitriol) in the shops, and is readily soluble 

 in water. "I have lately used it," he says, "in the case 

 of a trouVjle to which English householders are too com- 

 monly liable, and one that has in many cases done serious 

 mischief. The stoppage of a soil-pipe caused the overflow 

 of a closet, and a consequent saturation of floor-boards, 

 that in time would probably have developed danger by 



