Feb. 16, 1683.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



105 



vast carbuncles on the faie and back of natural evolution. 

 Give natural evolution full swing, and it would evolve 



two hemispheres of , two hemispheres of crime, two 



hemispheres of penitentiaries, two hemispheres of lazarettos, 



two liemispheres of ." (The blanks represent coarse 



words, which we cannot quote, though the editor of the 

 Clirigtian Commomoeahh seems to see no objection to 

 them. ) 



(4.) Of his light and graceful humour, — "A dinner is 

 given at Delmonico's last November, in honour of the 

 great original discoverer of evolution. And the guests sat 

 around the table eating beef and turkey and roast pig, 

 according to the doctrine of evolution eating their own 

 relatives, slicing their own cousins, picking the bones of 

 their own uncles, and thnisting the carving-fork into the 

 bosom of their own blood relatives, dashing Worcestershire 

 sauce and bedaubing mustard " (Mr. Talmage's ideas of 

 gentlemen at dinner are peculiar), " all over members of 

 &eir own family." 



(5.) Of his regard for truth, — "and while Herbert 

 Spencer reads a patronising lecture on the American 

 people, the -Vmerican sai-ants declare it is the voice of a 

 God, and not of a man." 



Mr. Talmage also gives evidence of the fervid eloquence 

 with which he can preach (at one hundred pounds a night, 

 with threats of lawsuit if the sum be reduced to forty 

 pounds). But we liare not quote what he says in this 

 way : all classes of our readers w^ould be offended with 

 his coarse and blatant nonsense. 



Nearly three centuries ago there was at least earnestness 

 in the arguments urged by priests, and monks, and friars 

 against the fearful doctrine that the earth goes round the 

 sun. Unwise though their conduct, and unjudging their 

 intolerance, they believed what they taught, and in their 

 day their belief was natural enough. It is encouraging to 

 find that in our day the advance of science is only 

 opposed by the untaught and the foolish, only abused by 

 the ranter and the Jack-Pudding. When we consider how 

 necessary now are certain doctrines for the world's wel- 

 fare — even though Iiereafter they may have to give place 

 to higher and broader and deeper truths — it is well to 

 see that those who do their best to discredit those 

 doctrines (as the priesthood did unwittingly when they 

 opposed Copernicus) are not now men whose words have 

 any weight, are not even fanatics or bigots, but simply — 

 clowns and charlatans. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY 



From Fekrvarv ICtn to March 2n-d. 



By I\R.A.S. 



TIIE sun will bo «.itclicd, as heretofore, for spots and facnlsr. 

 After sunset now, on clear evenings, the student should look 

 ont for that curious phenomenon, the Zodiacal light, in the W.S.-W. 

 At first sight, it may well be mistaken for a rapid brightening of 

 the twili<;ht in the region in which the sun has just gone down ; 

 but a little attention will show that it is really a blunt luminous 

 cone, whose axis corresponds very roughly with the direction of the 

 ecliptic in the sky. An abstract of all that is known, or may 

 reasonably be conjecttvred, as to the physical nattire of this strange 

 phenomenon, will be found on p. 163 et seq. of the " E9.=ay8 on 

 Astronomy," by the Editor of KsowLKncE. It may be worth 

 while to mention that the conical or lenticular form of the Zodiacal 

 light is best seen when the phenomenon itself is not looked at 

 directly, but rather, in popular parlance, "out of the corner of 

 one's eye." Viewed thus by indirect Vision, it becomes very 

 apparent. In the night sky, Bootes, Coma Berenices, and Virgo 

 are rising in the east. Leo is just to the east of the Meridian, 



and Ursa ilajor very high np above it. Below Leo lies Hydra. 

 Dii the Meridian are' Lynx, Gemini, Canis Minor, and Monoceros. 

 To the west of it lie Auriga, Taurus, I'erseus, Cassiopeia, and 

 Andromeda. Cygnus is setting jnst to the west of N., while to 

 the east of it is Draco's head. The constellations wo have 

 enumerated may all be identified on Map II. of the "Stars in their 

 Seasons." 



Saturn, to the southeast of i' Arictis, is getting now very near the 

 west, and will soon disappear for tho season. Jupiter, brilliant 

 and conspicuous above Z "I'anri. is visible during the whole of tho 

 working hours of the night. The phenomena of his Satellites aro 

 l)retty numerous during the next fourteen days. To-night (16th) 

 Satellite III. will reappear from occultation at 7h. 3 m., only to 

 jilunge into .Jupiter's shadow sind be eclipsed at 9h. 13 m. 20 s. It 

 will reappear from eclijiso at 11 h. 51m. 13 b.; less than four 

 minutes after which Satellite II. will bo occulted. The night of the 

 18th, if fine, will bo a prolific one for the student of Jovian pheno- 

 mena. Satellite II. will begin its transit at C h. 26 m., followed by 

 its shadow at 8 h. 50 m. At 9 h. 11 m. tho S.itellite will pass off 

 the planet's limb, while at 10 h. 16 m. the transit of Satellite I. 

 will begin, its shadow following it at 11 h. 29 m. The shadow of 

 Satellite II. will pass off at 11 h. 36 m. ; Satellite I. will do the same 

 at 12 h. 32m., and fiuallytliesliaiUnv of Satellite I. will leave Jupiter's 

 disc at 1 h. 45 m. a.m. on tlio 1 9th. Theyoung observer should carefully 

 note the colours both of Satellite 11. .ind of its shadow. On the 19th, 

 Satellite I. will be occulted at 7 h. 28 m., .and roapiiear from eclipse at 

 lOh. 55m.29s. Satellite II. will do tho same at Oh. 20 m. 36s. on the 

 20th, the first Satellite Iciving Jupiter'sface afterwards at 7 h.,and its 

 shadow at Sh. Itm. On the 23rd Sat. III. will bo occulted at 8.8 

 p ra., and reappear on the other side of the planet at 10 h. 52 m. It will 

 afterwards suffer eclipse at 1 h. 14 m. 14 s. the next morning. On 

 Feb. 25 Satellite II. will begin its transit at 8.58 p.m., its shadow 

 not following it until 11 h. 28 m., sixteen minutes after which 

 tho Satellite will leave Jupiter's opposite limb. The transit of I. 

 will begin eight minutes after midnight. Satellite I. will be 

 occulted at 9.21 p.m. on the 26th, reappearing from eclipse at 

 12 h. 51 m. 15 s. On the 27th the ingress of this same Satellite will 

 begin at 6.36 p.m.; that of its shadow at 7.53 p.m. The Satellite 

 will pass oft at 8.52, and its shadow at 10.9. Meanwhile, at 



8 h. 56 m. Satellite II. will reappear from eclipse. The reappear- 

 ance from eclipse of Satellite I. will occur on tho night of the 

 28th at 7h. 20 m. 9 s. Venus is a morning star, low down and 

 loss bright than she has been. We gave directions for finding 

 Uranus on p. 75. 



The moon is 87 days old on the 16th, and quite obviously 

 22-7 days old on March 2. She is full in Feb. 21, and enters her 

 last quarter at 5 h. 26.1 m. in the early morning of March 2. She 

 passes from Taums across part of Orion into Gemini on the 16th, 

 remaining in the last-named constellation during the whole of the 

 17th. She passes into Cancer on the 18th, and continues there on 

 the 19th. Uer path carries her into Loo by the 20th, but she travels 

 out of it into Sextans on the 21st, returning into Loo again the 

 next day. She passes from Leo into Virgo on the 23rd, remains in 

 Virgo all the 24th and 25th, and the greater part of the 26th, 

 travelling into Libra on the latter day. She is in this constellation 

 during the whole of the 27th and during a good deal of the 28th, 

 travelling into Scorpio as the month concludes. She is in the 

 southern part of Ophincluis on March I. On Feb. 19 the sixth 

 magnitude star BAC 2,872 will disappear at her dark limb at 

 5 h. 39 m. p.m., at an angle of 05° from her vertex, and reappear 

 from her bright limb at an angle of W'l at G h. 29 m. p.m. On the 

 20th u Lconis will similarly disappear at her dark limb at 



9 h. 6 m. p.m., at an angle from her vertex of 29°, reapiMsaring from 

 her bright limb at 10 h. 23 m., at .in .angle of 24' 6. The two or 

 tlu-ee remaining occultations occiu- at hours so inconvenient for the 

 general amateur, for whom these notes are more particularly 

 intended, that we purposely omit any details in connection with 

 them. 



51. PoTEi. has recently submitted to the French Society of En- 

 couragement a new substance, which he has named after himself, 

 "Poteline," and which appears to bo susceptible of numerous 

 applications. It is a mixture of gelatine, glycerine, and tannin, 

 and is, according to the inventor, absolutely impermeable to the 

 air. When warmed it becomes liquid, or nearly so, and takes all 

 the contours of an object. M. Potel has made corks of it, which 

 form an economical substitute for metallic capsules, and secure a 

 hermetic closing. He has used it as a coating to preserve meat. 

 At a temperature of 112' it envelops tho meat, kills tho germs of 

 putrefaction, and prevents any new germ passing in. According to 

 M. Potel, meat thus treated will retain all its freshness for two 

 months. 



