Dec. 14, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



361 



all races whose greatness is a memory, lizards are 

 sensual, passionate, and cruel " — Passionate ! " Two 

 sparrows will squabVile and scuffle, until they get so in- 

 extricably mixed that, when they separate, it is quite 

 an open question whether they have got their own 

 legs and wings or each other's ; and two ants will fight until 

 they die in each other's jaws, and a third come up and 

 carries off the whole jumble for the food of the com- 

 munity ; but for an example of devouring rage go to the 

 big garden lizard, which the children in India call a blood- 

 sucker. See it standing in the middle of the road, its whole 

 face and throat crimson with wrath, and swollen to the 

 bursting point with pent-up choler, its eyebrows raised and 

 its odious head Ijobbing up and down in menace of ven- 

 geance. And the explanation of the whole matter is that 

 another smaller lizard snapped up an ant on which it had 

 set its heart. Nothing will appease it now but to bite off 

 the offender's tail. This will do the latter no harm, for a 

 lizard's tail is a contrivance for the saving of its life, 

 planned on exactly the same principle as the faithful Rus- 

 sian slave, who threw himself to the wolves that were 

 pursuing his master's sledge. I once saw a fierce scorpion 

 catch a lizard by the tail and plunge its sting into the 

 wriggling member ; but before the venom could circulate to 

 the lizard's body it detached its tail and ran away grinning." 

 The illustration is splendid : the lizard is grinning indeed, 

 and conscious of the humorous aspect of the matter ; yet 

 can a lurking feeling be detected that on the whole he 

 would rather have kept the tail if he could have done it 

 safely. " The scorpion went on killing the old tail, and 

 the lizard began growing a new one." 



The migrations of the Callidri/as (Butterfly so named 

 by E. H. A.) give an interesting illustration of Mr. Wallace's 

 theory that migratory instincts are among Nature's devices 

 for keeping down surplus populations. When once set 

 a-going, the Oallidryas keep going. With scarce a pause to 

 rest their wings or sip a flower, from eight or nine o'clock 

 until the afternoon, as far as eye could reach, the host kept 

 streaming past like the fugitive Gauls after one of Ctesar's 

 great battles. And in their fate, too, they resembled those 

 barbarian hordes, when a deep river at last barred their 

 weary way, and they tumbled headlong, one upon another, 

 into its reddening waters ; for I stood again another year 

 beside the Bomliay harbour, and watched the frenzied 

 myriads hurrying from the mainland over Elephanta, and 

 across the sea and over Bombay or Karinja — for their 

 direction was southerly — and then ? Then I suppose, over 

 the sea, and on and on and on and on, until darkness 

 settling down on them, and their amazing strength at last 

 ■ebbing away, they must have dropped into the waves, each 

 one, as it fell, creating and perishing in a small South Sea 

 Bubble of its own ; and the fishes had a feasting to be 

 remembered. 



E. H. A. is not altogether a follower of Darwin. 

 Speaking of the mosquito, he says : " Huxley has 

 abolished teleology, and Darwin has proved to the satis- 

 faction of every one who is disposed to agree with him, 

 that no cliaracteristic in any animal can be explained by 

 its being beneficial to some other animal " (he is referring 

 here to a theory of his own, started earlier by Mr. W. 

 Mattieu Williams, that the mosquito was disignod " to 

 promote a healthful use of Nature's currycomb among a 

 class of people too much accustomed to regard water only 

 as a means of quenching thirst "). " Only those peculiarities," 

 according to Darwin, " are maintained and developed 

 which are advantageous in some way to the animal 

 itself, and give it a pull over others in the struggle 

 for existence. And so we are plunged iu a mire 

 of perplexity. Eor what possible gain can it bo 



to a mosquito to gorge itself in my life-blood until 

 its wings almost refuse to carry it and it can just saU 

 slowly, like some great crimson balloon, with the wind, 

 positively inviting me to imbrue ray hands in my own 

 blood. Insects require no food in their winged state — at 

 least the flimsier kinds do not, such as flies, gnats, and 

 butterflies. They have done all the serious business of life, 

 the eating and growing, in their grub state, and when they 

 dress up and come out into the world to enjoy a few days 

 of vanity before they die, they have no proper mouths, 

 only a sort of tube for sipping light refreshments. But 

 supposing mosquitoes do require nourishing food — why can 

 they not bleed us painlessly ? Why make us pay fees of 

 anguish for the operation ? The traveller who invented 

 the vampire bat understood matters better, and made the 

 horrid monster fan its victim gently with its ample wings," 

 . . . and so forth, till finally E. H. A. tells us he holds " that 

 Darwin weighed in the balance against the mosquito is 

 found wanting." 



V^ery quaint yet very suggestive of close observation is 

 E. H. A.'s remark that " if there is a scrap of truth in the 

 development theory, the crow's way of examining every- 

 thing with one eye must certainly bring on an eyeglass in 

 time." Bring on an eyeglass ! 



But we have marked so many passages for quotation 

 and comment that four or five numbers of Knowledge 

 would be required to present them all. We must content 

 ourselves with the remark that there is not a dull or unin- 

 structive page in the whole book. 



Thunderstorm at Bournemouth. — A very severe 

 thunderstorm passed over Bournemouth recently, the 

 lightning striking the chimneys of Little Forest House on 

 the East Clift'. The house was not occupied at the time, 

 and the fire was therefore not immediately discovered. The 

 building was burnt to the ground. Some valuable pic- 

 tures were saved by the fire-brigade, but the remainder of 

 the property, worth several thousand pounds, was destroyed. 



Accidents from Lightning at Oypuu.s. — On October 31, 

 during a violent thunderstorm, a native who was riding near 

 the village of Archa was struck by lightning, and he and 

 the mare he was riding were both killed. On the same 

 day a woman and an ox were struck dead by lightning at 

 Sotira ; and near the same village, on the following morn- 

 ing, a man and a mare he had been riding were found 

 dead, having been struck down by the electric fluid. — 

 Cyprus Herald. 



The Telephone during the Java Earthquake. — 

 While the eruptions of the volcano Krakatoa and the 

 shocks at Java were proceeding, it was impossible to use 

 the telephones at Singapore, in consequence of the noise in 

 the wires. The sound was like that of a distant waterfall. 

 On one line, part of which was submarine, detonations like 

 pistol-shots were heard. 



The Yictoh Em.mandel Gallery. — The covered street 

 at Milan, now well known under this name, is roofed with 

 glass, and completed by a large dome, round the interior 

 of which runs a chain of gas-lamps. The lighting of these 

 lamps at a considerable elevation used to present some 

 dillicnlties, and was always a source of risk, until an 

 arr:inj,'fnient was made for doing the work by electricity. 

 A luiiii.iture railway has been constructed close to the 

 gas-burners, on which runs a little electric locomotive 

 carrying a wick steeped in spirits of wine. AVhen it is 

 desired to light the burners, this wick is set on tire, and 

 the locomotive started on its career. It flies round, 

 rapidly kindling the circle, and exciting great interest 

 among the crowds that assemble nightly to witness the 

 performance. — Engineering. 



