March 23, 1883.] 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



173 



MACHINE oTSciENCE"^ 



PiAINl^ORDED -fXACTiyPE SCRlBED 



-tt^V^ "^H 'Ij^jSWi^ATED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1883. 



Contents of Xo. "•/!. 



PAGK. PAGB. 



Science and Art Gossip 173 Sand-Duncs. By C. C«nis Wilson 179 



A Naturalist's Year. IX. The Sun Views of the Earth. (/««..) 



CharrJump. Br Grant Allen . 175 By R. A. Proctor lsi> 



learaini; Languages. By Richard The Thames ?:uibankmeDt 181 



A. Proctor 176 Cobbbspojidbm n : 



Tricycles in 1883. By John Brown- On the Formation of Comets' Tails 



ing, F.R.A.S 17li —TricyclM — Weather Forecasts 



Prayer and Weather. By R. A. —Rational Dress, ic 1S2 



Proctor 177 Our Paradox Comer: The Flat 



"Our Bodies." VIII. How the Earth Theory ISI 



Body'iiDuties are Performed. Bv Our Whist Column laj 



Dr. Andrew Wilaon, F.B.S.E. ..'. 178 Our Chesa Column 18« 



Primer aiii 9rt (gossip. 



It is commonly said that extremes should be avoided— 

 medio tutUgimus ibis ; but I am disposed to infer that an 

 extreme path is safer than a track which avoids e.\tremes. 

 Quite a number of correspondents ask why I have \en- 

 tured to express disappro\al of the coarse scurrility which 

 characterised the articles in the Frfethinker which led to 

 the recent action. Quite a number of others ask why I 

 said anything deprecating the action of the law as em- 

 ployed against the three defendants. And those who attack 

 me from either side agree in asking what on earth the case 

 has to do with Knowledge. The best proof that I took 

 a tolerably fair view is afforded \>y these inconsistent 

 attacks. And as to the way in which this matter aflects 

 Knowledge, I take it that a most important sociological 

 question is involved — or, rather, several. As, first : Should 

 there be any laws like that brought into operation on this 

 occasion ? secondly. If there are such laws, should they be 

 restricted to those matt«rs to which they really relate, or 

 be applied to punish social oli'eiices ] and so forth. The 

 malversation of our laws is a matter in which we are all 

 deeply interested, and, as every student of sociology knows, 

 tlie subject is one which has its distinctly scientific aspect. 



Dr. Wainwright says that the statement quoted at 

 p. 156, from the Manc/ienter Euytmijierand Tinie:<, is a hoax. 

 We are exceedingly glad to hear it. 



The Cambridge crew, the stronger and better trained, 

 has been beaten by a crew rowing a more scientific stroke. 

 The laws of propulsion are better understood at Oxford 

 than at Cambridge. 



OxE is disposed to rejoice that the betting-men were let 

 in — though money lost by some was money won hy others. 

 Money won over bets is so near akin to money lost, that the 

 success of non-favourites may be regarded always as a severe 

 lesson for the betting world. To parody a well-known 

 saying, there is nothing much worse for a man than losing 

 money bv bettine, excent winnin" mouev. 



Mit. Proctor has just brought to a close at Brighton a 

 series of lectures which have aflbrded him singular pleasure. 

 They were delivered at Brighton College to one of the 

 pleasantest audiences it has ever been his lot to address — 

 an audience including, of course, a large portion of the 

 College boys. An almost unique experience did not 

 diminish the lecturer's appreciation of the kindness of his 

 audience. As usual, in such cases, a certain fee had been 

 agreed upon. It is not rcri/ unusual for a diminution of 

 the fee to be asked for, when bad weather or some other 

 cause has prevented lectures from being so successful as 

 had been hoped. But it !.< ivri/ unusual, when lectures 

 have been more successful than had been hoped, to increase 

 the fee. This, however, was done on this occasion " to the 

 tune " of one-half more than had been agreed upon. Such 

 generosity is worthy of public record. 



The Royal Aquarium Company appears to have suffered 

 somewhat through the apathy of the electrical exhibitors 

 and the delay in opening the exhibition. At a meeting 

 of the shareholders on Friday last, the chairman said that 

 they had calculated on a rental of from £1,'>00 to £2,000, 

 the directors being assured that the exhibitors would take 

 all the available space in the building, and tliey were also 

 assured that the exhibition could be opened at the time 

 proposed, and that in the four months which it was in- 

 tended to run the same they would cover the expenses and 

 return over .£700 profit The receipts of the pre\-ioui 

 day amounted to £200, and at that rate they would soon 

 recoup themselves the outlay. 



The exhibition is making very good progress, several 

 new displays having been completed. We doubt the wis- 

 dom of showing the semi-incandescent Joel lamps in the 

 same area as several arc lamps. An uninitiated public is 

 apt to draw unfavourable and unjust conclusions. The 

 remark applies also to the Jablochkofl' lamps, which do 

 not show to advantage in the neighbourhood of Pilsen and 

 other arc lamps. 



Amoncst dynamos, the Elphinstono and Vincent, Lumley 

 and Ferranti are all at work, one of the first mentioned 

 being used to supply a 100,000 candle-power search light. 



We cannot reasonably expect scientific accuracy in the 

 daily papers regarding chemical compounds, and as the 

 late outrage on Government buildings has given para- 

 graphists much scope for loose and sometimes absurd 

 statements as to dynamite, it may be well to remind our 

 readers that the base of this extremely powerful explosive 

 is nitro-glycerine, sometimes known as nitroleum, which 

 is an amber-like fluid, discovered by Sobrero in 1847. 

 Nitro-glycerine itself is made by adding glycerine, in a 

 manner not necessary here to particularise, to a com- 

 pound formed of one part of nitric acid and two parts of 

 sulphuric acid. This terrible agent is known as Glonoiu 

 Oil, and is a light yellow oily liquid, of specific gravity 

 ranging from 1 •52-") to 1 0. It has a pungent taste, and 

 but one drop placed on the tongue induces intense pain of 

 the spine. Sobrero, when he discovered this fluid, was a 

 student at the famous Pelouze laboratory, Paris. He did 

 nothing to develop his discovery ; but Alfred Nobel, a 

 Swede, being in want of a new blasting agent, experi- 

 mented with the new liquid, known to be highly explosive, 

 and, by adding other ingredients, obtained the now well- 

 known dynamite. This, as usually manufactured, is com- 

 posed of infusorial earth, porcelain earth, coal-dust, siliceous 

 ashes, Ac, and all this base has to be saturated in a certain 



