278 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 2, 1883, 



of the coast are "identical in race" with Lowland Scots 

 of the interior ? I should have thought the historical pro- 

 babilities were all the other way. On the east coast, the 

 blood in all likelihood is mainly Anglian with a slight Scan- 

 dinavian admixture ; on the west coast, we know that Galloway 

 was Pictish, while Strathclyde was Cymric; and there is no proof 

 that the Celt was ever here displaced : inland, it seems to me pro- 

 bable, that there would be a larger survival or intermixture of the 

 still earlier Neolithic race, who were doubtless driven from the 

 east coast by the conquering Teuton, and from the west coast by 

 the Pict and Cumbrian. Of course, all this is very problematical ; 

 but at any rate, in a case where we know that at least four, and 

 probably five, races are involved, I don't see how we can speak 

 confidently about " identity " of blood. And, secondly, as to 

 Tipperary, I know nothing myself at first hand about the facts ; 

 but I have been told (I can't say whether on good authority) that 

 two-thirds of the Tipperary peasant-farmers are the descendants of 

 Oromwellian soldiers, in which case they ought certainly to be of 

 different race from the Celts of Kerry, the Northmen of Cork, or 

 the NeoKthic people of some scattered Irish regions. Perhaps 

 somebody who understands Irish ethnology will kindly give us 

 some information as to tbo Tipiiernry nit-n. Gkant Allex. 



THE BARN OWL. 



[988] — No doubt Kerr\' Kix [968] is quite right in his statement 

 that bam owls do occasionally feed on young game birds, though I 

 have never met with an instance to that effect in my own experience. 

 Still, such eases are very exceptional, and as a whole, the owl must 

 be looked upon as the farmer's friend, from the vast quantity of 

 rats, mice, and other small mammals that he destroys. Dr. Altam 

 examined 70G pellets of the barn owl, and found in them the bones 

 of various animals in the various proportions: — Shrews, 1,590; 

 voles, 693 ; mice, 237 ; rats, 3 ; bats, 16 ; birds, 22. Colonel Irby, 

 who has investigated the question very carefully, says, " Old birds 

 they have not the power to kill, and young pheasants and par- 

 tridges, at the time the owls are on the feed, are being safely 

 brooded by the parent birds." Kerry Eix will find a full discussion 

 on the subject in Mr. Bowdler Sharpe's article " Birds," contributed 

 to Professor Martin Duncan's " Cassell's Natural History," vol. iii., 

 p. 306, &c. That owls will eat young pheasants reared by hand I 

 can readily believe : no doubt they will eat anything they can 

 catch : but, on the whole, they certainly do more good than harm, 

 from a strictly human point of view. What the mice and shrews 

 think of them is quite another question. Gkaxt Allen. 



LARGE SUN SPOTS. 



[989] — I see in to-day's Knowledge, illustrations and descriptions 

 by *' Vignoles" (letter 0G4-), of some very large sun spots visible 

 about Oct. 11 and 12. I had not an opportunity of observing the 

 sun on those days, but on turning my telescope towards him on 

 Monday last, Oct. 15, a beautiful sight I'ewarded me, for there were 

 three very fine groups of spots, or, besides many other smaller spots, 

 two of the groups being near the western edge. On procuring my 

 ever-ready piece of smoked glass, I found that two of the groups, 

 the one near the eastern edge and one of those near the western 

 edge were distinctly visible to the unaided eyes, each as a single 

 spot of course. 



I do not remember ever to have known two spots visible to the 

 naked eye at the same time before, and I see that " T. P. B." 

 (letter 962), in to-day's K.nowledge, makes a similar statement, 

 but as he refers to spots visible on Oct. 11, one of them could not 

 be the same that I saw on the 15th, for one of those I saw was 

 only just coming on at the eastern edge when I saw them, and so 

 could not have been visible on the 11th at all ; therefore it would 

 appear that there were three spots visible to the naked eyes within 

 a space of four days, a circumstance totally unprecedented, as far 

 as I know, and giving striking evidence of the awful nature of the 

 disttirbance taking place on the sun's surface (if I may so term it) 

 at that time. 



On Tuesday, Oct. IGth, I again examin3d the snn through 

 my smoked glass, and found the spot near the western edge no 

 longer visible to the naked eyes, being carried too near the edge by 

 the sun's revolution, while, of course, the same revolution had 

 brought the one near the eastern edge more fully into view, and it 

 was proportionately more distinctly visible, and I again observed it 

 in the same way on the two following days; but on the 9th the sun 

 was entirely obscured by clouds, so that I had no opportunity 

 of looking for the spot. 



While writing I would like to suggest to "F.R.A.S." that he 

 might include in " The Face of the Sky," for the benefit of amateur 

 astronomers, some information as to the position, &c., of comets 



when there are any visible, as I think they are very interesting 

 objects to watch, and 1 understand there have been two small 

 ones visible recently, yet he has never so much as mentioned them, 

 although I think he will not deny that they would interest many if 

 he would give a few plain hints as to where they might be found. 



Excelsior. 



THE HANGMAN. 



[990] — Thank you for your courtesy. I iliink it was about two 

 years ago that I read in some newspaper how Marwood, when 

 passing through part of Ireland on his way to discharge his duties 

 in the case of some rebel convicts, was reviled and threatened by 

 some Irishmen who recognised him, and who also knew what was 

 the object of his journey. A lady in the train, seeing that he was 

 in some danger, and sympathising with the justice of his mission 

 rather than with Fenianism and Phmnix Park atrocities, entered his 

 carriage and sat beside the threatened executioner for the rest of 

 his journey, in order to throw the regis of her protection, whatever 

 it might be worth, over him. When I read this I admired and 

 most heartily sympathised with this lady. Evidently she, like 

 myself, viewed the work of an executioner as a necessary and just, 

 and therefore a fully-justified if not praiseworthy, work — all the 

 more praiseworthy considering the cloud of degradation which is 

 cast over both the office and the man by sympathy with crime in 

 some cases and superficial prejudice in others. She clearly did not, 

 as you as clearly do, attribute bad motives to every occupant of 

 the oflice. 



If from the fact that the executioner takes life, it necessarily 

 follows (as you assume to be the case) that he iJeliijhts [I used no 

 such expression, but the mistake is of a piece with the rest. — R. P.] 

 in taking life, how about the Judge who sentences the criminal to 

 death ? And the Sheriff, with whom the responsibility of the execu- 

 tions primarily rests ? And the soldier, who is sometimes the agent 

 of homicide even in an unjust cause ? Do we — will you— impute bad 

 moti%-es to all of these ? And why not to these, if to the execu- 

 tioner. Is there any proof that even one executioner has loved 

 killing as killing .' Yet would it not be wonderful if executioners 

 were men of degraded disposition ! For what is so likely to debase 

 the tone of a man's mind as the belief of all his neighbours that he 

 is already debased ? To me it seems equally unscientific and illogi- 

 cal to impute motives in the sweeping way you do, and yet offer no 

 proof beyond assertion. 



E. D. GiRDLESTONE. 



[The office of the Judge is quite as much to see that the innocent 

 shall not suffer as that the guilty shall. The hangman' s is the one 

 office tchere the sole duty is to talce life. In none other is it even 

 the chief duty. So long as there is no difiiculty in finding hang- 

 men none need take the office as a matter of duty. In these points 

 will be found a full and sufficient answer to the above reasoning. — 

 R. P.] 



INSANITY AND CRIME. 

 [991] — In a leader (Oct. 20) on " Insane Criminals," experts 

 in diseases and derangements of the brain are decried by 

 the Times as mere theorists, and termed " inventors of a qitasi- 

 scientific terminology and jargon. It is forgotten that the law, in 

 dealing with responsibility in criminals, has come down to us from 

 a time when the densest ignorance prevailed on the relation of mind 

 and body. And if now but imperfectly understood, there are at 

 least certain data which may be regarded as affording a reliable 

 basis on which to work, and the fact that the treatment of insane 

 patients is so far more successful than of old, is a sufficient proof of 

 the advance of scientific truth. The position of science on the 

 subject, up to which the public mind, pace the Times, is being 

 gradu.ally educated, briefly stated, is clearly this : Mind is a 

 function of the brain, and not an entity independent of the 

 organisation. Our tendencies are congenital and hereditary ; 

 we are, in fact, what our ancestors have made us, leaving, 

 of course, a margin as to the direction of development ac- 

 cording to the conditions of our lives. And the result of the 

 scientific position is that when a crime is comtnitted for which no 

 adequate motive can be assigned, and there is found to be (as, 

 indeed, is almost invariably the case) brain disease in the family of 

 the criminal, the presumption is that the criminal inherits the 

 insane 7ieurosis in some form or another. If this be ti-uth — and it 

 would be hard to refute it — it is useless to meet it by the abuse 

 and ridicule of scientific men. All truth is sacred, and therefore, 

 instead of quailing before it, or crying out in anger when new 

 truth presents itself, the only thing to do is to revise one's notion of 

 the situation. Society must be protected, and who can doubt that 

 it will be ? But it is mere twaddle to talk of the common sense of 

 the law and of juries, on a question respecting which a safe judg- 

 ment can be formed only by a knowledge — not of theories— but of 

 physiological facts. H. A. Bullet. 



