Nov. 9, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



295 



after falling ^ths of an inch. The formula is correct. — H. C. 

 Standage. Can find no trace of the paper. Will make inquiries. — 

 — F. H. Glew. It is not easy to determine the use of the instru- 

 ment of which you send photograph. It seems intended, inter 

 alia, for use in map projection. If I were more at home I would 

 ask you to do what you suggest ; but sending the instrument to me 

 when I am so seldom in town would involve the risk of its being lost 

 (ir injured in following me on my travels. — An Invalid would like 

 advice as to the most suitable tricycle for one suffering from chronic 

 weak back, and unable to ride inclines with the tricycles usually to 

 bo hired. — McFF. My opinions about the ancient Phccnicians would 

 not bo worth much. — A. Archer. Away from home] so cannot 

 hunt up references. The article on "Lotteries" came out in the 

 Cornhill Magazine, not in Good Words. It is republished in one of 

 my volumes of " Essays." Forget which. Messrs. Chatto know. — 

 St. C. LncAs. Fear no known vibrator, photographic plates, or 

 selenium cells, would do what your plan would require, — in par- 

 ticular, the complicated vibrations of a diaphragm affected by the 

 voice are not suitable. — D. McCulloch. Could not venture advice 

 on such a subject. — Jos. Horxer. Space considerations have caused 

 delay. Hope to use the papers. — F. Cowley. That is the right 

 way to get the fourth, decimal correct. On the other and more 

 general question it is not possible to give advice. A simple treatise 

 on geometrical conic sections woidd be good for you and interesting 

 to you. — W. H. Jones. The difficulty is to get scientific evidence 

 that S|jontaneons generation ever occurs; until this has been done 

 we cannot discuss in a scientific way the possibility of spon- 

 taneous generation or the conditions suitable for its occurrence. 

 Science can only keep on trying, and when it fails admit 

 as much. — D. M. desires to know whence cats obtained (1) 

 their ideas of medicine, and (2) their love of fish. He 

 suggests that Egypt taught them both. Quien sale ? — F. Jackson. 

 Letter forwarded ; one from another correspondent on same 

 subject already in type. — F. TnoMP.soN. Pardon me, I am not 

 "at length ready to enter into controversy with any rational 

 .■idvocate of the flat earth theory except Parallax and Mr. Hampden." 

 Imprimis, I have never yet come across any rational advocate of 

 the theory, and I cannot imagine the existence of one ; then, if I 

 had, though I should have been surprised, should have felt in 

 no way interested to controvert views so absurd. I have never 

 taken the least interest in the flat earth theory except for the evi- 

 dence it gives of what some can believe. I offered to consider any 

 difficulty and show where the explanation laj'. But I did not offer 

 to make my explanation such as would be understood by the 

 person to whom it was proffered. One cannot get a quart into 

 :i wine-glass (not by a jugfull). Your difficulty that because 

 :i small hill will hide the lower parts of a distant object, 

 therefore there is no force in the evidence derived from the 

 sea hiding such parts of objects, is no difficulty at all. 

 In each case something hides something else and is therefore 

 between the eye and that something. The flat-earth folk try to 

 make out that the sea is not really in the way. Your argument 

 really asserts that it is. Then you aay the earth's surface is repre- 

 sented correctly enough on flat maps. Try it. Show in a map the 

 North Polo, the equator as a circle round it ; and then — not troubling 

 about filling in that circular space — show Australia, South America, 

 and Africa outside the equatorial circle, with anything like the 

 proper relative distances in a north-and-south and also in an east- 

 and-west direction (distances determined by multitudinous meaaur- 

 ings — even though here and there parts have esca))ed measurement) 

 and it will be time to think about flattening the earth. Even then I 

 should like to see your idea of the star-sphere, in which the groups 

 (if stars, always unchanging, fill the complete surface — leaving 

 no room for anything but a spherical interior. Note also that 

 at the equator, you have only to wait from sunset to the next s\in- 

 riao to see the whole interior of that star-strewn sphere. — E. C. H. 

 (Had to hear tliat Vega's lines as recited by mo at the end of my 

 Worthing lecture (the first time I so used them) pleased you so 

 much. Vega will be pleased too. — H. E. M. When broken glass is 

 joined by fusion, nothing I believe is put between them. — E. Price 

 Edwakus. Much obliged but no space. — Molto Grazie. Papers 

 will bn collected. — W. 11. Gov. In the only case when I saw a 

 " dancing sailor" there were fine threads. Should require to know 

 more about the matter before I put it as an exam|)le of electrical 

 action. — A. T. Hircham. Thanks. Another note to same effect in 

 typo. — En. Luxmore. I agree with you. But tho statement you 

 iibject to was widely published .and not contradicted. On the other 

 subject, being twitted with burking controversy I thought it best 

 to give duo allowance of rope for self-luuiLriMg. — J. H. B. F.K.S.A. 

 proposes to treat of that and siTiiiliu- siini'l.- h-lescopo matters. — Jas. 

 A. Gkk. Shadow has not unfrr(|iii m l\ I'r.ii aeon in fog and cloud. 

 J. A. McDermot. Know of no iisil'iil bunks mi Heraldry. — J. K. R. 

 IMoves of Knight dealt with, I think, iu a book by Walker: but 

 iiuostion should have boon addressed to Chess editor. The nines 



problem depends on the well-known one that if from a number you 

 subtract the sum of its digits, the sum of the digits iu the differ, 

 ence is a multijile of nine, — a property explained repeatedly. — Pitt. 

 (1) Max Miiller's date is far enough back to agree ivith my state- 

 ment as to the high antiquity of the constellation figures. (2) As 

 to spectrum analysis, I tliought you referred to the evidence as to 

 nature of substance not as to condition. On this last point it is 

 likely enough we may have to modify our views. — C. L. Liverdale. 

 Thanks : but have no other accounts with which to compare yours 

 and so get actual path of the body. — A Hoeden. Doubt if author 

 of that sum could now be identified. — W. Hampton. Fancy I catch 

 your drift : " I should smile to twitter."— CnAs. Cooke. Your 

 " ciu'ious fact " amounts to the following formula : — 



2l^-t-(.T!-l)^-l = ,l-; ot(x-1)-- = x'-2.t. + \. 

 This is not, strictly speaking, a new property. — C. Few. Rather 

 more space than can be conveniently spared to show how by mul- 

 tiplying and adding large numbers you can get 1 followed by a 

 number of zeros, and then removing 1 get notMng. UC few, C. 

 Few, 00. (U can, -doubt, DO that).— S.B. Thanks ; but no space 

 for attempts at spelling reform. — Hamilton would like to be told 

 some simple way of demonstrating the presence of sewer gas in 

 the air, when denied by smell-wanting folk. — J. Guaedia. Thanks. 

 — Raphael R. May. In England a billion means a million millions, 

 or a million to second power, a trillion a million million millions, or 

 a million to third power, and so on. In America and on the Con- 

 tinent the absurd system you mention is adopted, according to 

 which no uniform explanation of the hi-, tri-, quadri-, &c., in these 

 number names can be given.— R. C. Shettle. Thanks for paper 

 on terrestrial magnetism. — A Subscriber. Cannot explain ab- 

 normal action of weather bai-ometer.— Vermiculus. Regret no 

 space ; pity you did not witness end of encounter. — E. H. Soon. — 

 ViGNOLES. Have received no other observations of meteor with 

 which to compare your very accurately and usefully rendered ones. 

 — He.altii. Do not know how light may be increased. Hair 

 certainly weakened by wearing cap.— J. Y. Why certainly; if 

 your watch is set right for Greenwich time and rightly rated, it 

 will be 5 h. 35 m. wrong by New York time when you reach New 

 York. What else would the difference of time between New York 

 and Greenwich mean ? 



(Bm 212Hl)ifi(t Column. 



By " Five op Clubs." 

 ON SIGNALLING AT WHIST. 



IN the Whist of our time there is a complete code of signals by 

 which information as to the state of a player's hand may be 

 conveyed to his partner, but at the same time to the adversaries. I 

 have in former papers described these signals, though they are 

 indeed well known to all Whist-players. I have also in some of the 

 illustrative games which have appeared in these columns from time 

 to time, shown how by means of these signals a player is often 

 enabled to forward the development of his own and his partner's 

 strategy. The Whist editor of the Australasian in a number 

 which has just come to my hands points out with a good 

 deal of truth that only tho good effect of signalling is thus 

 shown in illustrative games. In numbers of cases signal- 

 ling, and eveu such conventional rules as returning the 

 highest of two and the lowest of three or more, Iielp the adver- 

 saries much more than the partner. The question hence arises 

 whether even if signalling be not regarded as always d,angerous 

 and on the whole more apt to bo mischievous than useful, it should 

 not be much more cautiously adopted than Cavendish and other 

 advocates of the system suggest. During the last two years I have 

 paid a good deal o'f attention to this question, first brought to my 

 notice by "Mogul" in those columns— and I must confess that in 

 a majority of games which I have analysed although signalling did 

 not in every case (not more than about half) defeat the object of 

 the signallers and help the adversaries it would have done so if the 

 adversai-ies had taken duo advantage of what they were told. Thus 

 my observation though not enabling mo to go quite as far as the 

 Whist Editor of the Australasian in the following passage, points in 

 the same direction : — 



" Five of Clubs' illustration " (he is referring to a case in which we 

 had shown how by departing fron\ book-rules a game was saved, the 

 departure arising from the adversaries' signals) suggests " the 

 reflection that, by the adoption of the penultimate signal, a Whist- 

 player may give his adversaries just the information iu regard to 

 the constituents of his hand which will indicate to them the lines 

 on which to proceed if they wish to take the best chance of saving 

 the game. This disadvantage is not peculiar to the penultimate 



