252 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Ai'KiL 27, 1883. 



can only impart a " mild red light " for fifteen minutes, 

 may lie transmuted into one which will give a " beautiful 

 bright light " for six hours ! After such outrageous twaddle 

 we are told that, " Among those present at the demon- 

 stration was Privy-Councillor Ilerr Brunner von Wat- 

 tcnwyl. President of the International Electrical Exhibi- 

 tion to be held at Vienna in the summer, and an eminent 

 authority on electrical science. In his view this discovery 

 of Herr Prinz does not give to science a new accumulator, 

 although it shows that by the aid of an electric current a 

 new primary current may be set up, from which a light of 

 long duration can be obtained." Then follows more non- 

 sense about the " new accumulator," which, if there is any- 

 tliing in it at all, is no more than a galvanic battery, and 

 would illuminate the lamp independent of the bichromate 

 battery altogether. 



It will be within the recollection of many that a year or 

 so ago it was stated in certain professional papers that the 

 editors of the dailies deputed men to compile scientific 

 reports who were totally ignorant of the subject, because 

 they thought they could then rely upon an absence of bias 

 either for or against any particular system, and that 

 criticism would be more independent.* Such will, I 

 venture to predict, be the state of things until the general 

 public, educated by a more diffused scientific press to a 

 keener perception of the true and the false, demands early 

 and accurate accounts of scientific lectures, discoveries, 

 inventions, and exhibitions. The demand existing, supply 

 will follow. 



SRefaictDSf. 



STUDY AKD STIMULANT t 

 By Richahd A. Proctor. 



MR. A. A. READE has done most useful work in 

 collecting together the experiences and opinions of 

 many persons who have devoted a large portion of their 

 time to study, upon the use of stimulants. I can imagine 

 nothing more likely to exert a wholesome influence on 

 young men possessing ambition of the healthier kind — am- 

 bition to do such good during their lives as is within their 

 capacity — than the study of such experience as is here 

 gathered together. They will find that the best workers 

 use little stimulant or none, and mostly use such stimu- 

 lants as they do take, rather after than before work — in 

 fact, rather as a sedative than as stimulant. The ex- 

 perience is, indeed, widely varied, and it is evident 

 that some who have comnmnicated their ideas to Mr. 

 Reade have given little attention either to the physical or to 

 the physiological questions involved. But their experience 

 is none the less valuable. One of the letters which deals 

 most philosophically with the subject (from Dr. Alexander 

 Bain), shows that John Stuart Mill, who drank moderately 

 and smoked not at all, held entirely erroneous ideas as to the 

 probable influence of vinous stimulants on the appetite for 

 food. Jlill thought that if he gave up wine, he would be 

 apt to take more food than was necessary ; but one of the 

 most marked cflTects of total abstinence from wine is an 

 increased control over the appetite ; of course, the 

 habitual use of strong liquors in excess destroys the 



• This explains everything. If tho same system were only- 

 applied in politics ! — R. 1'. 



t "Study and Stimiilnnt ; or tho Use of Intoxicants and Nar- 

 cotics in llolation to Intellectual Life, as Illustr.atod by Letters 

 from Literary and Seientilic Men." Edited by -V. .VnTnuB Reade. 

 (Abel Heywood & Son, Miinchoster ; and Siuipkin, Marshall & Co., 

 London.) 



appetite for food altogether. Dr. Bain writes as follows: 

 — " The difficulty that presses upon one in relation 

 to the whole subject is this — that, in organic influences, 

 you are not at liberty to lay down the law of concomitant 

 variations without exception, or to affirm that what is bad 

 in large quantities is simply less bad when the quantity is 

 small. There may be proportions not only innocuous, 

 l>ut beneficial^reasoning from the analogy of the action 

 of many drugs which present the greatest opposition of 

 cfl'ect in different quantities. I mean this not with refer- 

 ence to the inutility for intellectual stimulation, in which 

 I have a pretty clear opinion as regards myself, but as to 

 the harmlessness in the long run of the employment of 

 stimulants for solace and pleasure, when kept to what we 

 call moderation." This is the difliculty so far as the 

 theoretical question is concerned. The effect of stimu- 

 lants, whether used as such or as sedatives within short 

 periods of time, is easily ascertained. In a few weeks 

 the effect of a change of system may be noticed. But the 

 effects in long periods of time are not so easily determined. 

 Albeit, the general result of the experience gathered 

 together in the present volume is that none of the so-called 

 stimulants have any real value in helping literary or 

 scientific work, while in a great number of instances they 

 seriously diminish the working energies. 



I may give the following result of my own experience 

 in influencing not my opinion only, but my course of 

 action. I was particularly anxious to appear at my best 

 before the audiences which gathered to hear my lectures at 

 St. James's Hall. It will be believed, then, that if I 

 thought any brilliancy or fervour (even though temporary) 

 were to be obtained from the use of stimulants before 

 lecturing, I would have used them. The best proof that 

 I hoped for nothing of the sort will be found in this, that 

 I prepared for each lecture of the six by abstaining abso- 

 lutely from food from breakfast-time at nine until six, 

 when I took one chop, one piece of dry toast, and a cup of 

 tea without milk or sugar. I never lectured with greater 

 ease or comfort to myself. On returning home about an 

 hour and a half after each lecture, I took a rather hearty 

 supper and one glass of the best Bourbon whisky and 

 water. After this, good sleep followed. The course of 

 lectures was thus given with the least possible amount of 

 strain. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From April 27 to May 11. 

 Bt F.E.A.S. 



THE student will, as usual, keep a daily watcli upon the Sun for 

 indications of disturbance. The aspect of the night sky may 

 be gathered from M.^p V. of " The St.irs in thcii- Seasons." Mercury 

 is now an evening star, and after the iirst week in May may be seen 

 with the naked eye, after sunset, over the W.X.W. horizon. He is 

 romark.^bly well placed for the observer just now. Jupiter must be 

 looked for as soon as ever it is dark, as he is rapidly approaching 

 the west. He travels towards i) Geminorum, but to the north of 

 that star. The phenomena of liis satellites during the succeeding 

 fortnight are the disappearance of I. in ocoultation at 8h. 28m., 

 p.m., on the 29th. On the 30th the egress of the shadow of I. at 

 8h. 5i;m., p.m., and the ingress of II. in transit at 9h. 12m., p.m. 

 On May 7 tho ingress of the shadow of I. will happen at 8h. 34m., 

 ]).m., and the egress of the satellite casting it at 9h. 56m., p.m. 

 After this we shall bid good-bye to Jupiter until October. Uranus, 

 tho only other planet visible, may be found about 1J° north of the 

 double star r Leonis. 



There are no visible occultations of stars by the moon during the 

 next fortnight. Tho moon's ago at noon to-day (the 27th) is 19'9 

 days, and so on to May Gth, when it will, of course, be 289 days. 

 At noon on tho succeeding day she will be OG day old ; so that, for 

 our present purpose, she will scarcely be visible before tho 9th or 

 10th. For tho ne.Tt 24 hours she will bo in Sagittarius, as she will 

 during the whole of tho 28th, passing iuto Aquarius on the 29th 



