Dec. 14, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



367 



FEEDING CHAMELEONS. 

 [1053 J — " H. Smith " should keep his chamceleons in a warm 

 place, and feed them on insects, if procurable ; but they are able to 

 live for several months without food of any kind. 



LUMINOUS BEETLE. 



[1054] — Seeing a correspondent writes you on luminosity of 

 animals, allow me to say that I have seen the same phenomena, not 

 only with centipedes, but also with the common little garden beetle 

 (what his proper name is I do not know), but that I was able to 

 take the fellow home, and had a good examination. The phos- 

 phorescent matter adhered to my fingers when I picked him up, and 

 there was an offensive odour connected with it, which I attributed 

 to having been among some decayed matter. I do not know if that 

 would cause it. Fked. F. 



PERFORATED STONES OF INDIA. 

 [1055] — Permit me to answer yonr correspondent " Cosmo- 

 politan " (No. 1018) , in reference to the perforated stones of India 

 and elsewhere. 



The fullest information possible can be gained from General 

 Forlong'a magnificent work, called " Rivers of Life," published by 

 Quariteh. Vol. II. contains many pages devoted to this subject. 



Chaeles Voysey. 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 



Stddent. — Cannot indicate books and prices of books on economic 

 science. — W. Motton'. Applications became so numerous that have 

 had long since to withdraw that offer. — T. W. Schaffner. Lines 

 mentioned were not enclosed ; but in any case personal charac- 

 teristics, however estimable, could hardly be refeiTed to in these 

 columns.— H. Clarke. If you skid the wheel the top moves no 

 faster than the bottom ; but if you let her run the top point moves 

 twice as fast as the centre and infinitely faster than the bottom 

 point, which is momentarily at rest. — Sunshine. See Mr. 

 Kanyard's most interesting article in our last number. — 

 A. M. D. Thanks for the creatures taken from the soft roe of a 

 bloater : I do not know them. — E. Fraxklvn. Anxious, like Mr. 

 Sal.a, to avoid the workhouse; I am obliged to decline to "send 

 answers, worked out," to puzzles: but the answer, worked out, 

 appears in Knowledge for Nov. 23, p. 318. — F. L. Harrls. The 

 subject (watch-spring dissolved) was discussed in Knowledge a 

 few months ago ; being away from home, cannot refer to index. 

 Of coarse the molecular condition of the watch-spring being affected 

 by tension, the circumstances under which dissolution takes place 

 (time and resulting condition of the acid) are different, and all the 

 energy of tension may be thtis accounted for ; though equally of 

 coui'se the inquiry would be a very delicate one. — E. C. H. You 

 must take into account both the westerly longitude of Worthing, 

 which would make the time of sunset a little later by Greenwich 

 time, and the difference of latitude which makes the day at 

 Worthing in winter a little longer than at Greenwich, or hour of 

 sunset later. Due account taken of these points, the hour given by 

 the almanac for the sun's centre is about right; but as refraction 

 is variable, you must not expect exactness. — J. Squire. Fleeming 

 Jenkin'a "Electricity and Magnetism" and Spraguo's "Electricity" 

 should answer your jiurpose. — Tdo>u.s Laws. Quite agree with 

 you. — n. E. I suppose some folk noticed on several occasions that 

 spring evenings when the moon was new had been wet, and con- 

 cluded that the poor moon had something to do with the matter. 

 At any rate it is when the moon is new in spring evenings (or when 

 she is old in autumn mornings) that she is " on her back." If it 

 chanced to be wet on such occasions a few times the weather saw 

 makers would be bound to light on the discovery that 



When the mooti is on her back. 



She holds the water in her lap. 

 — H. H. Thanks. Mr. W. M. Williams has already expounded his 

 views about the Moon, .lupiter, &c., in " Fuel of the Sun." They 

 nro rather dismal astronomy, it's a fact. — Regular Reader. 

 Crsiila certainly ; Mirandiila and Staupitz, " au " as in frau, I should 

 say; but such matters are outside our line. — J. E. F. The only 

 grammar rule I remember relates to that subject, " Where Con- 

 tingency and Futurity are both implied the verb should bo in the 

 subjunctive." It ahv.-iys seemed to mo so wise to tench children (I 

 was nine when I learnt this rule) about Contingency and Futurity 

 and implying, and subjunctive. Where teachers were so idiotic, 

 what progress were the t.aught likely to make? — Henry Clark. 

 1 am (juitc- serious in saying that to speak of " man rising to the 

 heavenly bodies " is not more exact than to speak of " the heavenly 

 bodies rising to man." The former expression has the disadvantage 

 of being absurd as well as inexact. Did you ever rise to the sun ? 



You know very well you never did. If as you say, facts require 

 exactness of knowledge, then, instead of telling your children that 

 " we rise to the sun," which is nonsense, you ought to speak 

 of sunrise thus, or in words to this preposterous effect, — 

 " Owing to the earth's rotation on her axis, the horizon 

 plane— but pshaw ! that's not exact — the curved surface formed 

 by those lines of sight which appear to be directed towards 

 the visible horizon line, but in reality, owing to atmospheric refrac- 

 tion, pursue a cturved course till they pass beyond the limits of our 

 atmosphere — this curved surface, I say, is so shifting its position in 

 space, that, whereas it had passed above the sun, using the w-ord 

 ' above ' with reference to my actual position at the moment, it is 

 now passing athwart his disc, and will presently pass wholly below 

 his globe — so that, whereas in its former position I could see no 

 part of the sun, I now see a part of his disc, and presently the whole 

 will be visible to me ; by which I by no means wish to imply that 

 he is actually where I seem to see him, or rather a part of him, 

 but only that light-waves, which emanated from him rather 

 more than eight minutes ago are falling on the retina of 

 my eye, and received by the optic nerve are producing 

 their particular impression which we call 'seeing,' and here I 

 would correct an inexactness in what I have just said ; I spoke of 

 the rotation as the earth, I should have said the combined rotation 

 and revolution, for inasmuch as the revolution of the earth round 

 the sun affects the length of what we (very inexactly) call ' the 

 solar day,' it must modify the rate at which the curved surface 

 above mentioned moves amid space." That is a beginning, but a 

 whole number of Knowledge would be required to express the 

 matter properly. On the whole, I prefer for the present to say 

 " The sun is rising." It is not only more convenient but more exact. 

 For note that the direction of above and below are changing aU 

 the time, and that therefore in a sense perfectly defensible the 

 sun rises. Y'our references, by the way, to Galileo, show that 

 if you aim at superexactitude in astronomy, you paj- less 

 attention to exactness in matters of historical fact. Galileo 

 did not discover that the earth rotates, nor even (though the im- 

 prisonment yon refer to had more reference to that) that it revolves. 

 If you must enthuse so warmly as you do in your letter, do try to 

 enthuse over the right man.— F. W. G. There is no contradiction. 

 Professor Smyth expressed the opinion that excess of aqueous 

 vapour may account for the green snn in India, not for the recent 

 red sunsets. — D. Mackay. Will try to find space. — J. A. 0ll.\ed. 

 " Flowers of the Sky," written I think in 1873. 



O^ui- Cf)f£J£! Column. 



Br Mephisto. 



THE BOOK OP THE TOURNAMENT. 

 Second Notice. 



OUR aim has always been to discourse on Chess play, and to 

 treat all subjects closely allied to the game, from a scientific 

 point of view. Accordingly, under ordinary circumstances, the rules 

 and regulations of the Tournament— a matter of history--would 

 not have been considered by us as a profitable subject for criticism. 

 But in his introduction to the book the Editor does not content him- 

 self with merely giving ns those rules and regulations, but he 

 evidently desires, and recommends, the acceptance of his opinions 

 upon each question by the Chess community, no doubt with the 

 very laudable object in view of providing precedents for the 

 guidance of conductors of future Tournaments. U uder these cir- 

 cumstances wo should bo failing in our duty if we should leave nn- 

 ohallonged some of the laws and theories recommended by the 

 Editor. 



Thus the Committee were not content with giving us the rules of 

 their Tomnament, but have added the words, " published for the 

 consideration of Chess-players, and especially of the managers of 

 future International Chess Tournaments." Tliesc rules have been 

 drawn up by Messrs. Donnesthorpe and Woodgatc. They are not 

 suiJiciently comprehensive to rank either as rules for English Chess- 

 j)layers or as an International code. In the first instance, only a repre- 

 sentative committee would bo competent to draw up these rules- 

 say, for example, Messrs. Donnesthorpe, Woodgatc, .and Minchin 

 on" the one side, and Messrs. Blackburne, Znkertort, and Steinitz 

 on the other side, witli Mr. Lewis as chairman. The rules contain 

 a few stipulations that are unnoccssiu-y, while a great many neces- 

 sary laws are not dealt with at all. 



Section S says "A player may at any time call upon his adver- 

 sary to mate him within'fifty moves. If by the expiration of snch 

 fifty moves no piece or pawn has been captured, nor pawn moved 



