Fer 9. 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE • 



79 



AN lUiiiSlRATED 



MAGA€iSxo?SaENCE 



PLAINLYlfoRDED -EXACTOTESCRIBED 



J.OyDOX: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9. 1883. 



OONTKNTS OF No. 67 



rxai. 



flt-ience and Art GoMip 79 



A N»tarali»t'» Ymt. VI. The Peewit 



Cries. By Or»Dt Allen 81 



Pleaunt Hours with the Microscope. 



By Henry J. SlBck, F.O.S., 



F.B.M.S 82 



The Bin h and Growth of Myth. III. 



By Edward Clodd 83 



The Crystal Palace Electric and Gas 



Exhibition 81 



-Clerk" or " CUu'k." By E. A. 



n, LL.D., D.C.L 85 



riGX. 

 Stays and Strength. By "An Ob- 



terrer " and K. A. Proctor 88 



Corpulence S7 



Renews : The Vast and the Minute M 

 Correspondence ; Sun.dial of Ahaz — 

 Weather Predictions — Wearing 

 Stays— Our Forefathers— Acoustic 



Experiment, &c 89 



Our Paradox Column 93 



Our Mathematical Column 93 



Our Whist Column 93 



Our Chess Column 9l 



^rirnre auD 9rt Gossip. 



It will have been observed that our " Answers to 

 Correspondents " have ceased. It was the only way out of 

 a growing and intolerable difficulty. Readers would not 

 recognise that the answers v-ere answers, not remarks ad- 

 dressed to all our readers. Each reply brought an average 

 of a dozen comments, a dozen rejoinders, a dozen remon- 

 strances. Besides, those numerous readers who wrote use- 

 fully suggestive letters, or asked reasonable questions, found 

 themselves (of necessity) associated with a much greater 

 number of others who asked ridiculous questions and sug- 

 gested monstrous theories — the railing Rab-shakehs and 

 paradoxists who infest every association for seeking 

 knowledge, and render nugatory the efforts of those who 

 want only to get at the truth. The attempt to get rid of 

 that class of querists, that more room may be found for the 

 sensible ones, who, though numerous, are overwhelmingly 

 outnumbered, only results in presenting an editor in a false 

 aspect Tliose who have not seen the rude or foolish letters 

 we have received cannot conceive the fitness of the blunt 

 or jesting replies which those letters have educed. 



Ik future, then, we propose to answer only such letters 

 — if any at all — as are fit for insertion, either in full or in 

 abstract As our space cannot be enlarged, a much larger 

 proportion of letters received must, unless of considerable 

 value or very succinct, be passed over. 



The Academy, commenting pleasantly enough otherwise on 

 the new volumes for the Knowledge Library series, notes 

 that no date is given on the title-page, and that Mr. Proctor's 

 name alone appears on the cover. The comment is just, 

 but " Jlr. Proctor " has nothing to do with the matter. 

 The use of his name alone on the cover results from a little 

 carelessness on the part of the binder, insignificant enough 

 in itself, and only unpleasant in its consequences if it should 

 lead any mistakenly to imagine that Mr. Proctor had 

 sanctioned the arrangement, instead of learning first about 

 it only when the book had already been issued to the 

 reviewers. The only suggestion made by him on the 

 subject of the cover was that it should bear five or six gilt 

 leaves, each showing the name of a contributor, his own at 



the foot. This was regarded as unpractical, but he had no 

 idea his name alone would appear on the cover. The title- 

 page shows what Mr. Proctor's wishes were in that respect 

 — where his name follows that of his esteemed fellow- 

 writers. Why the date was omitted on the title-page he is 

 unable to say ; the year and month in which the last proofs 

 were received is duly appended to the preface Ln both 

 volumes. 



Ix an interesting article on the Great Comet — now 

 scarce visible, by the way — Prof. Young expresses his 

 belief that even were a comet, whose mass equalled the 

 earth's, to run straight into the sun, the effect would only 

 be to add to the sun's store of heat, not to increase the 

 emission of heat Mr. Mattieu Williams expressed the 

 same opinion three or four months ago in the (! enlleman' s 

 Jlai/azin*'. It is probably correct The heat generated by 

 the downfall of such a comet on the sun's surface would 

 be employed in producing changes of physical condition, 

 and given out afterwards as the matter so changed resumed 

 its original state. 



Prof. Yocxg also throws out, as more probable than a 

 theory thrown out by oursehes, the suggestion that the 

 dark region behind the nucleus of a comet is a region 

 occupied by matter opaque to the light coming from the 

 surrounding envelope of the tail, and, therefore, cutting 

 off half the light which would otherwise reach us. 

 This is a simpler and more probable theory than our 

 own ; and if the light from the darker part of the tail is 

 really equal to half the light from the neighbouring 

 brighter parts, will have, we think, to be accepted as in all 

 probability correct. 



It has been arranged that a series of six lectures on 

 astronomy shall be given in St. James's Hall, beginning 

 on Wednesday, March 21 next The other dates will be 

 March 28, AprU 4, 7, 11, and U. 



The Dublin Freeman's Journal advocates the construc- 

 tion of a ship canal between Dublin and Galway. " A full 

 day would thus be saved between America and Liverpool, 

 which would represent an enormous money gain, ^vithout 

 estimating the saving of life and property from wreck ; a 

 million acres of bog at least would be reclaimed, and the 

 surplus labour of Ireland would be profitably employed for 

 years. The work would probably cost fifty millions ; the 

 reclaimed land would be worth nearly the money. Its 

 effect on Ireland would be incalculably to its advantage." 



The Times Geneva correspondent says an engineer who 

 has just visited the scene of the disaster near Fort de 

 I'Ecluse describes the condition of things as very serious. 

 The entire side of Mont Credo, on which the forts are 

 built, appears to be gi^"ing way, and further and more 

 dangerous earthslips are feared. The lower fort is con- 

 sidered past saving, and the gamson has been withdrawn. 

 The rocks on which the forts stand, and which look solid 

 enough to support them for ages, are said to be under- 

 rained. If they should fall into the Rhone, which, com- 

 pressed between two lofty cliffs, is exceedingly narrow 

 thereabouts, the course of the river will be completely 

 blocked, and the entire valley, for a length of more than 

 twenty miles, joined to the lake. This is another evidence, 

 on the large scale, of the great levelling action which is 

 going on continually all over the world, the ever-active 

 tendency on the part of mountain masses to get to a lower 

 level, having plenty to work upon in Switzerland. 





