108 



o KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[AcG. 17, 1883. 



views of the moon near the zenith considerably brighter 

 than those he can obtain in his own country. 



However, the effects of darkening being more readily 

 tested, I select them to consider here. 



When we use a very deep darkening glass in the study 

 of the sun, for example, do we leave the relative degrees of 

 brightness unchanged 1 We may or we may not. The 

 matter is one for experimental research, and such research 

 would be by no means easy. But one thing is certain. 

 We reduce the lower lights in such cases to what appears 

 to the sense of sight as absolute blackness — xero in our light 

 scale — and we leave the brighter parts with a degree of 

 light which is not zero, but a finite quantity. Now, since 

 the smallest finite quantity exceeds zero in an infinite 

 degree, we clearly have affected the apparent proportion 

 between the brighter and darker parts of the sun in sucli 

 sort that it no longer corresponds to the true proportion ; 

 for assuredly the light of the brighter parts of the sun does 

 not infinitely exceed that of the darker portions. 



Thus it is seen that in this instance, at least, we cannot 

 safely assume that the relative brightness of surfaces 

 variously illuminated, is left unchanged by a common 

 darkening which theoretically should affect each in the 

 same proportion. 



I think this will be enough to show how important it is 

 in all questions relating to brightness to consider the pos- 

 sible action of physiological causes. We ought to multiply 

 our tests in order to evade deception, and not be too sure 

 even then that we may not remain to some degree deceived 

 by our senses. 



(To he continued.) 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN WEBB. 



THE Xew York Times gives some particulars of the find- 

 ing of Captain Webb's body. A correspondent at 

 Niagara Falls states that about ten o'clock on the morning 

 of July L'S a stonemason named Turner was crossing the 

 river in a small boat, about one and a half mile north or 

 down stream from Lewistown, when he discovered the body 

 floating face down, only a few rods out from the American 

 shore, floating down with the current. He took it to 

 Lewiston, where it was identified a few hours afterwards. 

 The cloth was still around the loins, and the body appeared 

 to have sufiered little from the rude force of the water. It 

 was found a little less than four days after it entered the 

 Whirlpool, which is a remarkable fact, as bodies passing into 

 the dreadful vortex often remain there a whole week before 

 being discharged into the Rapids below. A striking illus- 

 tration of the shifting nature of the currents of the Nia- 

 gara River above and at Lewiston has occurred contem- 

 poraneously with the melancholy case of Captain Webb. 

 On Monday, July 23, rather more than twenty-four hours 

 before Captain Webb dived from McCloy's boat above the 

 Suspension Bridge, a number of Indians clambered up the 

 rough and precipitous bank on the American side to a 

 point called the " Rocks " above Lewiston, and about mid- 

 way between that place and the Suspension Bridge.* The 

 river there is a narrow and foaming torrent, though less 

 frightful than the Whirlpool Rapids. Yet it is in the few 

 yards of swift, unbroken water next the shore at this point 

 that the Indians have long been accustomed to bathe, and 

 it is their favourite place for learning {sic) their boys to 

 swim. Two of them, while bathing, ventured a little too 

 far out, were caught by the roaring torrent, and hurried 

 down the river like two corks. Their companions wit- 



* See Map of the Niagara Falls and Rapids, p. 72. 



nessed their fate, but were of course helpless to aid them. 

 The bodies must have been detained by the deep-water 

 eddies above Lewiston for five days. Within an hour of 

 the time of the finding of Captain Webb's body the bodies 

 of these two Indians were found at a spot only two miles 

 from the place where they entered the water. On July 31, 

 an inquest was held on the remains of Captain Webb. On 

 the previous day Mrs. Webb, in company with her late 

 husband's manager, Mr. Kyle, arrived at Niagara Falls 

 from Boston. On viewing the Rapids, she said she be- 

 lieved her husband could swim safely through them, and 

 that he was killed by striking the rocks. Mrs. Webb and 

 Kyle identified the body, and Dr. Palmer, of Lockport, 

 who made the post-mortem examination, testified that he 

 thought the reactionary force of the water had paralysed 

 the nerve centres, and rendered breathing impossible. — 

 The jury found a verdict that Captain Webb came to his 

 death while attempting to swim the Whirlpool Rapids, but 

 that they were unable to determine the immediate cause of 

 death. 



The Glasgow Weekhj Mail says : — " It is imderstood that 

 the Town Council have resolved to raise an action in the 

 Court of Session to compel the North British Railway 

 Company to remove the ruins and dtbris of the old Tay 

 Bridge before proceeding with tho erection of the new one. 

 The Council, in taking this step, are believed to be pro- 

 ceeding upon the opinion of eminent Parliamentary and 

 Scotch counsel as to their rights under the last Tay Bridge 

 Act. The clause relating to the subject definitely states 

 that the company are bound to remove the ruins and debris 

 of the old 'Tay Bridge, and that the Town Council may 

 force them by legal action to do this, but no time is stated 

 within which the work shall be done." 



The soap-bubble colours upon glass are produced by a 

 vapour, which is deposited on the hot glass before it goes 

 into the annealing oven. According to the JjiiUetiii de la 

 Socii'fe d' Encouragement the vapour comes from a mixture 

 of protochloride of tin, carbonate of liaryta, and carbonate 

 of strontia. It is said that the workmen of a Bohemian 

 manufacturer, wishing to celebrate his arrival, kindled some 

 Bengal lights in the annealing furnaces, and the pieces 

 which were in the furnaces all became iridescent. The 

 colours can be removed by hard rubbing. Messrs. 

 Clcmandot and Fremy produced a pearly lustre, like that 

 of shells, by means of different chemical agents, chlorhydric 

 acid among others, under pressure of four, five, or six 

 atmospheres. 



The Engineer notes that an important meeting of the 

 directors of the principal steamship insurance companies in 

 the North of England was held last week at Newcastle, to 

 take into consideration the report of a subcommittee which 

 was recently appointed to investigate sundry allegations of 

 unfair dealing by some of the shipowners in that district. 

 These gentlemen, it appears, have been in the habit of 

 receiving large discounts off their repairing accounts with- 

 out placing them to the credit of the insurance companies, 

 who in this manner have, in the single case under con- 

 sideration, been bled to the extent of several thousand 

 pounds. It is stated that the shipowners offered a sum of 

 no less than £10,000 to settle the matter. This, however, 

 has not been accepted, and at the meeting it was unani- 

 mously agreed that the steamers belonging to the firm in 

 question should not be insured any longer in the various 

 societies which were there represented. We understand 

 that several other cases of a similar character are now 

 under investigation, while strict inquiries are being made 

 in certain quarters where dealings of the same kind are 

 suspected. 



