March 9, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



141 



ry 



' MAG^^'ZiNE OF SCIENCE "^ 



PlALMLr^ORDED -EX/.CTLy DESCRIBED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1883. 



OONTKNTB OF No. 71. 



Science and Art Gosaip Iril 



A Naturalist's Y«ar. Snowdrop 



and Snoirflskc. Br Grant Allen 143 

 ■" Oar Bodies ■ VII. The Processes 



or Fuoctions of the Bodr. By 



Dr. Andrew WUson. F.U..S.E. ... Ul 

 Discoreries at Tel.el-Ms9khQta. 



Bt Amelia B.Edwards 115 



Learning Lan^oges. By Richard 



A. Proctor 116 



The Roval Aquarium Electric 



Exhibition 146 



PIGB. 



The Creat Comet of 188'2. II. 

 (i7/ii.,) By Prof. C. A. Youns.. 11? 

 i How to Use our Eves. (/««».) Bt 



' .John Brownine/F.R.A.S ".119 



Butterflies in Winter 130 



Our Poradoi Comer : FUt Earth v. 



Globe 151 



Correspondence : On the Formation 

 of Comets' Tails— Purifving Gas 

 —The Weather Forecasts, Ac. ... 1.52 



j Our Whist Column i.i.t 



1 Our Chess Column 15k 



^r If lire anli 9rt (gossip. 



It seems likely that the lectures to be given by Mr. 

 Proctor, at the St James's Hall, will pave the way to the 

 introduction of an annual series of Knowledge Lectuke.s, 

 to be given by contributors to these pages, and others who 

 are interested in the extension of knowledge. 



Several country correspondents write to ask whether 

 full reports of the lectures oii astronomy in St. James's 

 Hall will be given in these pages. We cannot do this. A 

 popular lecture on astronomy (unless it forms part of a 

 course of systematic instruction) is itself an epitome, and 

 cannot, therefore, be effectively or usefully epitomised. I 

 have seen reports of my lectures in almost every journal in 

 America and Australasia (not counting, of course, purely 

 local papers at places which I have not visited). I have 

 never jet seen one report, claiming to be more than the 

 merest abstract, which 1 should have cared to endorse as 

 calculated to be a correct idea of the lecture. 



It is likely, however, that the lectures, or some of them, 

 will hereafter be delivered, with such changes as the pro- 

 gress of discovery may render necessary, in many of the 

 towns and cities from which communications have reached 



I MAY make a slight correction of the very pleasantly- 

 written biographical sketch accompanying my cartoon in 

 last week's Vanity Fair. I wrote my first book — in fact 

 my first three — be/ore, not after, the loss of my property in 

 the Overend and Gurney smash. This occurred in May, 

 1866, and my first book was published in 1865. It was 

 not my book on the " Geometry of Cycloids" (which was 

 written in time abstracted, somewhat uncomfortably, from 

 more profitable labour, when I was in full swing of work), 

 but " Saturn and its System," written between March, 

 1864, and May, 1S6.5. But the moral was the same. 

 Published in 1865, Saturn only reached a second edition 

 last year. Books which have cost me a hundredth part of 

 the work have reached their second thousand in a week. 



Miss A. B. Edwards calls attention elsewhere to a most 

 interesting discovery which has rewarded the very first 

 efforts of the Egyptian E.xploration Committee. Even the 

 numerous correspondents who have been careful to assert 

 their utter indiHerencc to the doings of the Israelites in 

 Egypt (as a religious matter), should recognise the interest 

 which every thinking mind should take in one of the most 

 ancient fragments of historical literature. The intercourse 

 between the ancient Israelites and the Egyptians throws 

 light on some of the most curious questions relating to the 

 origin of both the Jewish and Christian religions. In a 

 few da_\s, for instance, the Jewish world and the Christian 

 world (in the West at least) will be observing what is the 

 festival of Easter to the latter, to the former the Passover 

 of the Lord. 



If the ancient Egyptian religion had surWved to this 

 day, another portion of the human race would at the same 

 time have been engaged in observing the Sun God's Pass- 

 over, the festival associated with the ascending passage of 

 the sun across the celestial equator. This is now only an 

 astronomical observance, as is the descending passage which 

 the Jewish world celebrates (though its origin is not 

 mentioned in their religious books) in the Feast of Taber- 

 nacles. The region where the Israelites were held in 

 bondage by the Egyptians is, probably, of all places, that 

 which will best reward the labour of e.xploration. The 

 first fruits of such exploration — the identification of Pithom- 

 Succoth — is one of the most important discoveries (of 

 its kind) of our time. 



We would, however, especially note how Miss Edwards 

 has hastened to communicate this result to the world, 

 though the discovery does not agree with the theory she 

 has so ably advocated in those columns. This is the true 

 scientific spirit. The service she has rendered to science in 

 thus setting us all a worthy example, is even greater than 

 that which any scientific research can render in itself. Be 

 it noted, however, that the facts Miss Edwards has brought 

 together in these columns are not a whit less valuable 

 that one of the theories she based on them has failed. 



Many correspondents write to rebuke me for cha- 

 racterising as " bosh " the prediction of a tremendous 

 storm on March 11. Some really believe that the pre- 

 diction is based on real evidence. Others say, that as I 

 cannot be sure there may not be a very severe storm on 

 that day, I am exposing science to the risk of seeming to 

 have made a great mistake. On this last point I am 

 perfectly indifferent. If there should chance to be a 

 most tremendous storm, as widespread and destructive 

 as the prediction threatened, on Sunday, March 11, 

 and thousands and millions should think science had 

 merely blundered in rejecting the prediction as valueless, 

 so much the worse for the thousands or millions. Science 

 cannot predict storms on a particular day several weeks 

 ahead, but science knows that those who make such 

 predictions are either great knaves or vi^ry ignorant, 

 either fools or charlatans. (There is nothing, however, 

 to prevent their being both knaves and fools, if that third 

 course will please them.) If I cared to ijuh.ss, I should 

 say that most probably there will be very roii^li weather — 

 as usual — somewhere in our northern seis on March 1 1th, 

 and that in whatever degree the storms nny fall short of 

 the threatened far extending hurricanes, the prophets will 

 be satisfied, and proudly proclaim. We told you so! 



The Squirrel Problem (p. 91) troubles 

 answer is, of course, that the man lina 



The true 

 round the 



