Oct. 26, 1883.] 



♦ KNOV\^LEDGE ♦ 



265 



statement. By takinjj a piece of flat glass of known thickness, and 

 placing it on a suitable surface, you can test the matter very easily. 

 — G. Lapthoene. Ton overlook the circumstances tliat the sun on 

 the heavenly dome is apparently carried round by the earth's rota- 

 tion. That is the sole cause of the apparent daily movement of the 

 spots which you have noticed. By observing always at the same 

 hour, or otherwise by making dne correction for the effect of the 

 diurnal rotation, you will see that tlie spots have the movement 

 described in the books. — C. Longhukst. — Impossible to answer such 

 questions by post, or even — systematically — here. — Z. The idea of 

 a sort of space-density as a fourth-dimension in s])ace, is some- 

 thing you can talk about, but cannot possibly conceive. It by no 

 means corresponds even with the fancies of the mathematicians of 

 the inconceivable. — Kemo. The boat pushes in front of it a quan- 

 tity of water which forms a slight elevation somewhat in front of 

 the bows : this water is in effect withdrawn from the water round 

 the ship's bows, so that the water surface naturally sinks a little at 

 the shores just after the sort of ridge from the raised part in 

 front of the bows has passed any point along the banks. — 

 Hai,ly.\eds. (1) Your tirst letter rather longer than can find space 

 for. Moreover Plato's beautiful emblem of the den-images, or idols 

 of the cave, is tolerably well known and understood. (2) Are the 

 rills a primitive formation ? The other letters marked for inser- 

 tion. — H. C. Malden. (1) Yes, it is, as you say curious to think 

 that the downfall of Linne must have taken place noiselessly. (2) 

 The earth's attraction at the moon's distance is only a 600th part 

 (roughly) of lunar gravity. — J. W. G. Comets shift about so, that 

 you must really " say when."— J. J. C. Fenton. Letter marked for 

 insertion. — Enquirer. Am entirely ignorant of the game of Bacca- 

 rat; so is Five of Clubs. — R. S. Whitehouse. Do not know if 

 Urocerus Gigas has any stinging power. — Montague Tboup. Messrs. 

 Cooke's address, York, or Southampton-street, Strand. Am unable 

 to give useful answer about price. — J. H. Pit.man. Surely you 

 do not consider cumbrous the methods by which in multiplying 

 decimals, we omit all that will not ailect digits to the right of the 

 decimal place you wish to make your limit. I know very little of 

 the text-book treatment of the subject, and in practice never do 

 long multij)lication sums; but if I had to multiply (for example) 

 12':.i01S by 7'82IJ.3 correct to the fourth decimal place, should I not 

 be acting absurdly if I began by multiplying 12-3918 right through 

 by the right-hand 3, getting what I should know very well would 

 add to my product only -00371754 the last tliree digits on the right 

 being manifestly useless. I should reason that as the 3 is in the 

 fourth decimal place, to take account of more than one digit to the 

 right of the decimal point in the multiplicand must be useless ; so 

 I should multiply as if the multipbcaud were IB-i. Taking next 

 the 6 I should multiply as if the multiplicand were 12-39. Then, for 

 the 2, I should multiply 12-392, only taking the full multiplicand 

 when I had reached the 8. The two forms of multiplication would 

 run thus ;— 12-3918 12-3918 



7-82G3 7-8263 



96-98194434 9698194 



The answer being given as 96 9819. I cannot see why the second 

 and shorter process should be regarded as cumbrous. I suppose 

 something akin to it is what Professor Honrici referred to. The 

 only process I know of as contracted multiplication is that 

 in which the multiplication ia effected in one line ; this 

 process is undoubtedly cumbrous. — J. Waknek Jones. Thanks 

 for letter, -which shall appear as soon as space permits. 



O^ur WiWt Column, 



Bt " Five op Olubs." 



AS tho evenings grow longer Whist (the best of all card games) 

 will bo resumed. We have allowed it to retire a little from 

 om- columns, but it is by no means discarded. This in answer to 

 the numerous players or would-be players of Whist among our 

 readers, who have lamented its temporary absence. Those -who 

 are not Whist-players may no doubt wish that tho space should bo 

 otherwise used. But they sliould consider the rest. To every one, 

 some subject dealt with here must be of small interest, tastes vary 

 so. But those who caro not for Whist can easily pass over our 

 column; those who play it know that it has claims, akin to those 

 of Chess, to tho character of a scientific game. 



The editor of the Australasian Whist Column has courteously 

 sent us copy of an article on our Whist in Knowledge, in which he- 

 deals with our earlier and recent treatment of certain Whist ques- 

 tions. He had been, he says, unsparingly severe in his criticism of 

 our earlier papers and illustrative games, because we seemed to 

 have sworn allegiance to the school of ultra-conventionists. Yet 

 did he not altogether "abandon hope that the 'wooden-headed 

 tomfoolery ' of the ' petrolaters ' would eventually cease to be ex- 

 pounded and advocated by Mr. Proctor's Whist editor." At last 

 there came a game which " though chock full of conventional 

 sequences," was devoid of interest except in showing that Mr. 

 Proctor occasionally allows his wits to go a wool-gathering when he 

 plays Whist. He calls this a ridiculous piece of principal-editor- 

 worship — rather amusingly, considering that the game was specially 

 contributed by Mr. Proctor ns a simple illustration of the necessity 

 of attention when a winning game is being played, the effects of 

 his ovra carelessness being offered in evidence. If it is principal- 

 editor-worship to point out the editor's blunders (even though 

 at his own suggestion) what would principal- editor -correct- 

 ing be ? However we rose above that stage of ridiculous 

 degradation in publishing three games annoted by Mr. Lewis, of 

 which the Australasian justly remarks that they are " three of the 

 finest examples of common sense and sound judgment in Whist play 

 that have ever been put into type." Even here we erred by not 

 mentioning that the games were originally published in the TFest- 

 minster Papers some five years ago ; but considering that we were 

 not aware of the circumstance we hope to be forgiven. (Even if 

 the games appeared in the W. P. the notes kindly written by Mr. 

 Lewis had not before been published ; and they were what gave 

 chief value to the communication : there is no copyright in Whist 

 games, which any one of four players may recall, to say nothing of 

 bystanders.) 



But the Australasian Whist editor takes now a kinder tone -with 

 us. He finds the six original articles on the management of trumps 

 in the March and April numbers able and well arranged, the four 

 first being especially worthy of the attention of his readers. We 

 are glad of this, because it shows that in reality we take the same 

 view of the conduct of Whist hands as our esteemed contemporary. 

 The attention we directed to conventional rules was for the benefit 

 chiefly of beginners. We are very far from thinking that Whist 

 players should in a woodenheaded way follow a system of conven- 

 tional play. But it is absolutely essential to success in Whist play 

 that the meaning assigned now to certain leads, returns of the- 

 lead, signals, &c., should be known, that so the beginner may 

 not play at a disadvantage, as he must if either he overlooks 

 entirely indications whose meaning is obvious to the rest of the- 

 table, or by saying in Whist language what he by no means in- 

 tends to say, deceives his partner and helps the adversaries. Th& 

 illustrative games in Knowledge have been for the most part 

 intended solely for beginners. But among them have been some, 

 as in particular those contributed by Mr. Lewis, which illustrate 

 the higher strategy of the game. 



Exeter Literary Society. — Mr. R. A. Proctor delivered a lecture- 

 to a crowded meeting of the members of this Society at the Victoria 

 Hall, Thursday, Oct. 18, on " Comets and Meteors." The Lord 

 Bishop of the Diocese presided, and in his opening remarks his 

 lordship observed that it gave him great pleasure to have the 

 opportunity once more to introduce a lecturer whom many of them 

 had heard before, and whom he was (|uite siu'e they would be glad 

 to hear often. He had had the gratification of hearing Mr. Proctor 

 before, and he had no hesitation in saying that ho had never heard 

 but one lecturer in all his life whom he should consider Jlr. 

 Proctor's equal. Ho had not had the pleasure of hearing 

 Professor Tyndall, who had a very great reputation ; therefore 

 ho could not make a comparison with him, but he had heard 

 Faraday, who was certainly one of tho very best lecturers that 

 ever lived. Mr. Faraday was tho only lecturer he ever knew 

 whom ho could say was really equal to Mr. Proctor. The 

 lecture was listened to with tho deepest attention, and at the 

 close the Bishop moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Proctor. His 

 lordship said that thej- would all cai-ry away with them a complete 

 idea of the subject, for never before had he heard it so explained. 

 What they had heard would not soon pass away from their memo- 

 ries, nor could they fail to feel how such lectures as those enlarged 

 their perception of the greatness of Nature, and of the Author of 

 Nature. It was marvellous to find that all these material masses 

 and complex systems wore governed by one supremo law, and it 

 i-aised them in tho scale of being to bo able to follow the hand of 

 the great Creator in tho works of creation. He hoped that Mr. 

 Proctor would long maintain his health of body and clearness of 

 mind to bo able so to instruct his fellow-mou. — Plymouth and Exeter 

 Gazette. 



