July 25, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



77 



our British National Observatory (and tlio nature of their errors) 

 during the period specified. Part I. of "Vol. III. of these " Astro- 

 nomical Papers" is purely technical, and is " On the Development 

 ot the Perturbativo Function." In it the subject is first treated 

 analytically in an exhaustive manner, and the tables are appended 

 for the numerical development of it. It is instructive to com- 

 pare the lilieral and judicious expenditure of the Government 

 of the United States in perfecting their National Ephemeris, 

 with the parsimony of that of onr own country in connec- 

 tion with our Nmitical Almanac];, in which, to take a single 

 example, the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites are still computed 

 from the imperfect and erroneous tables published by Damoisean 

 nearly fifty years ago. This will serve as well as anything to illus- 

 trate the merely mechanical — or bari'el-organ — kind of principle on 

 which the annual calculations are ground out in Verulam Buildings. 

 Meanwhile, any one who is sufficiently pushing and impudent, and 

 can obtain the ear of members of the Government personally 

 ignorant of science, seems to have no difficulty in dipping his hands 

 into the public purse. If the money, absolutely and utterly wasted 

 every year on a shallow sham called " The Committee on Solar 

 Physics," at South Kensington, were devoted to the improvement 

 of the Nautical Almanack, the advantage to astronomical science 

 could hardly fail to be very great indeed. 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more." — Alfbed Tenntsob, 



Only a small proportion of Letters received can possiily be in- 

 serted. Correspondents mimt not le offended^ therefore^ should their 

 betters not appear. 



All Editorial communications sho^dd ie addressed to the Editor of 

 Knowledge; all Business communications to the Publishers, at the 

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DELAYS ARISE FOR WHICH THE EDITOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE. 



All Remittances, Cheques, and Post Office Orders should he made 

 payable to Messrs. Wyman & Sons. 



The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents. 

 No communications are answered bt post, even though stamped 



AND DIBECTED ENVELOPE BE ENCLOSED. 



DICKENS'S STORY LEFT HALF TOLD (No. 139). 



[1343] — Being the writer of what Mr. Thomas Foster calls " a 

 recent rather feeble article on the subject in the Cornliill Maga- 

 zine," I should like, with your permission, to make a few 

 observations. 



Not having read " Leisure Keadingn," I am not well aware what 

 Mr. Foster's theory really is, and should therefore be glad to leam 

 in what number of Knowledge his former article on this subject 

 appeared. 



Until I have had the pleasure of reading it, I will only ask 

 whether Mr. Foster lias seen the article, " How Edwin Drood 

 was Illustrated," which appeared in the Century Magazine for 

 February, 1884 ? 



From that I quote the following few sentences : — " The central 

 crime of the book can never have been intended by the author to 

 be a mystery ; the secret that Charles Dickens intended to keep, 

 and kept in effect, was the manner of the discovery. He is a keen 

 reader who has ever found out who and what was Mr. Datchery, 

 and of this Mr. Fildes knows no more than does the public." 



" But, finding that Mr. Fildes knew a great deal, Charles Dickens 

 went on to make the principal revelation which concerned the 

 central figure ; he told his illustrator that Jasper was to be brought 

 to justice in the end of the story. A drawing of this originally 

 and most strongly-conceived criminal locked up in the condemned 

 cell (which was to have been studied at Eochester) was then 

 planned between the two as one of the final subjects." 



Mr. Foster contends that Edwin Drood is alive, though Jasper 

 does not know it. That he should keep his very existence a secret 

 for six months — causing terrible grief to Rosa and others — for the 

 purpose of taking a deadlier vengeance in the end on Jasper, does 

 not, I confess, appear to me reasonable ; but then I suppose I am 

 what Mr. Poster calls " a commonplace reader." 



In conclusion, I may mention that I received letters from two 



gentlemen — both strangers to me — insisting that Baggard is 

 Datchery. One wrote from Boston, U.S., the other from Jersey. 

 But on tins point I agree with Mr. Foster, and differ from my cor- 

 respondents as widely as their homes are distant. H. E. 



[As Mr. Foster is, I imagine, by this time on the other side of 

 the Atkntic, a fortnight or three weeks must certainly elapse before 

 I can receive anv reply or comment on the above letter from him. 

 —Ed.] ■ 



THE SOLAR GLOW.— VENUS IN INFERIOR 

 CONJUNCTION. 



[1344]— In connection with the letter (1342, p. 61) of " Cosmo- 

 politan," it may be of interest to mention that I have received a 

 letter from that careful and painstaking observer, Mr. T. E. 

 Clapham, of Austwick Hall, near Lancaster, describing the appear- 

 ance of the solar glow as seen by him on the 12th inst. It was 

 (naturally) most favourably seen when the sun himself was obscured 

 by a cloud, leaving the surrounding sky clear. Under these circum- 

 stances, the ruddy glow seemed very approximately to follow 

 the outline of the cloud; but there was also one fine reddish 

 streamer, with almost parallel edges, above the cloud ; in shape, 

 exceedingly like one of the beams of light visible when, as the 

 country people say, " the sun is drawing water." This is illustrated 

 by a water-colour sketch, which could not, of course, be reproduced 

 here in colour. My correspondent goes on to say that the after- 

 glow was stronger on the night of July 13 than he had known it for 

 some weeks. Assuredly there is something still permeating the 

 atmosphere in its upper regions. 



Mr. Clapham adds that at lOh. 30m. a.m. on Saturday 12, he 

 could easily see the dark body of Venus with a 3i-iD. Wray tele- 

 scope ; but that he could not trace the dark limb right round. I 

 mention this because on the previous day at lOh. 41m. a.m., I saw 

 precisely the same thing with my 4"2 in. Ross equatorial, armed 

 with a power of 154 ; the dark limb of the planet being traceable 

 for a considerable distance beyond the cusps, but fading into the 

 bright sky in its southernmost portion. WiLLUJI NoBLE. 



Forest Lodge, Maresfield, Uckfield, July 18, 1884. 



THE "WAR OFFICE GHOST." 



[1345] — I take the following particulars from Wallace's " Miracles 

 and Modem Spiritualism," pp. 72-3, where I happened to read it 

 yesterday. 



Captain Wheatcroft's "ghost" appeared, not only to his wife — 

 who by the way was in bed at the time — but to another lady, in 

 London. On inquiry, R. Dale Owen (from whose narrative Wallace 

 draws most of his facts) gathered from this lady and her husband 

 that it was about 9 p.m. of Nov. 14, 1857, that the spirit appeared 

 in uniform. He was struck b}- a fragment of shell, it seems, in the 

 breast, on the afternoon of the 14th, not the 15th, as the War Office 

 certificate first put it. The times, therefore, are within the limits 

 required on the assumption, which is quite unnecessary, that the 

 apparition occurred simultajieously with the death. If anything 

 really hinged on the exact synchronism it might be worth while to 

 make more minute inquiries as to the circumstances of the Indian 

 battle-field. But I really see none. It is quite sufficiently con- 

 vincing as it is, so long as nothing essential is authoritatively 

 denied. J. Heescuel. 



[Mr. R. Dale Owen can scarcely be accepted as a trustworthy 

 authority on anything whatever having reference to the " super- 

 natural." Readers interested in the spiritualistic imposture will 

 not have forgotten his famous article in the Atlantic Monthly, on 

 the bona fides of the apparition of " Katie King," through the 

 niediumship of a Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Holmes; nor his subsequent 

 humiliating confession of the way in which those people had 

 humbugged him. If Mr. Wallace has no better voucher for his 

 "facts" than Mr. Owen, assuredly they must be taken with 

 something more than a grain (say a salt-cellar full) of salt. — Ed.] 



A COINCIDENCE. 



[1346] — In May last, a friend mentioned to me in conversation a 

 poem by the late Dean Stanley, entitled " The Untravelled 

 Traveller," and addressed to Prince Leopold on the latter's reco- 

 very from a severe illness at Oxford. I had never seen or heard of 

 the poem before, and my friend, who was extremely anxious to 

 procure a copy, begged me to let him know if I ever met with it, 

 as he did not know where it was to be found. We then spoke of 

 other things, and no fui'ther allusion was made to the subject — in 

 fact, I quite forgot it till the next morning, when, quite casually 

 taking up a small monthly magazine (which, by-the-by, I seldom 



