142 



♦ KNOWLEDGE . 



[Ace. 15, 1884. 



us suppose potato spirit) "will make immediately a fine 

 brandy or old torn, itc, without the use of a still. — See 

 Lancet report." This is followed by a list of prices of these 

 " flavours," and then follows a similar one of " Wine 

 Aromas." A cheerful look-out all this presents, upon my 

 word ! The confiding traveller calls at his inn for some 

 old brandy, and they make it in the bar while he is wait- 

 ing. He orders a pint of claret or port, and straightway 

 he is served with some that has been two and a half 

 minutes in bottle ! After the perusal of this price-list, 

 I have come to the conclusion that in the case of no articles 

 of consumption whatever is the motto Caveat Emptor more 

 needful to be attended to than in that of (so-called) wines 

 and spirits. 



Quern Deus mdt perdere dementat prms. Towards the 

 end of last year public attention was prominentlj- directed 

 to a "Dr. Samuel Kinns, F.R.A S.," who, after proclaim- 

 ing his crass ignorance of science in a book called " J^Ioses 

 and Geology " — or by some such title — set forth, a blind 

 leader of the blind, to lecture ou the Harmony of the Bible 

 with Science and History. He claimed to have the sanction 

 and .support of, inter alios, members of the staff of the 

 British Museum, but this was promptly denied and repu- 

 diated by more than one leading member of that staff 

 themselves. " Dr. " Kinns's sciolism and ridiculous 

 blunders were thereupon so thoroughly exposed that I, 

 among the vast majority of English men of science, fondly 

 hoped that we had heard the last of him. Xow, to my 

 unbounded surprise, T find it stated in the newspapers that 

 " Lord Shaftesbury, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the 

 Lord Mayor, Rabbi Ascher, and other influential gentle- 

 men " have sent a preposterous resolution to the press, 

 affirming that " eminent men connected with our highest 

 scientific institutions" have borne "public testimony to 

 the accuracy of Dr. Kinns's work, ' Moses and Geology,' " 

 . . . and so on, and so forth. In the face of this manifesto, 

 I think that real scientific men have a distinct right to 

 demand that my Lords Shaftesbury, A. C. Hervey, and 

 E. N. Fowler, together with the Rabbi Ascher and Co., 

 shall furnish the names of those " eminent men connected 

 ■with our highest scientific institutions " to whom they so 

 vaguely refer. Surely the right honourable and noble 

 Lords and the Reverend Rabbi do not ask the British 

 public to accept their dictum on a question of science t I 

 write strongly, because I feel strongly, on this question. 

 Myself a Fellow of the Astronomical Society, I do not even 

 know Dr. Kinns by sight, but I have an abiding conviction 

 that such books and lectures as his do more fatal mischief 

 to religion than all the efforts of Messrs. Aveling and 

 Bradlaugh put together. "Let" says the old proverb, 

 "sleeping dogs lie." Dr. Kinns and his rubbish had 

 practically vanished from public view. If, however, he is 

 to be dragged forward again, and made a pseudo-hero and 

 martyr by such most ill-advised friends as the Mansion House 

 Committee, we may not impossibly hear of a counter series 

 of lectures to his, exposing his ignorance, and laying bare 

 his fallacious results. It strikes me with very considerable 

 force, that orthodoxy will come ofl' decidedly " second-best " 

 in such an encounter, unless it can secure some very much 

 more competent champion than the "F.R.A.S." who 

 thought that the Sun could continue visible, by abnormal 

 refraction, above the western horizon, after he had risen in 

 the east ! ! ! 



Ix the current number of the Aaelepiad, there is a 

 paper (presumably by its Editor, Dr. B. W. Richardson, 

 F.R.S.), on "Euthanasia for the lower creation," in which 

 the author advocates the administration of some ansesthetic, 



preferably carbonic oxide, to narcotise sheep, lambs, calves, 

 and smaller animals, prior to handing them over to the 

 slaughterer. He does not propose to interfere with the 

 present method of killing oxen, in which I think he show.-, 

 his wisdom ; inasmuch as it seems impossible to conceive 

 any more rapid and effective a means of producing in- 

 sensibility than the use of a properly- wielded pole-axe. 



I .\M sincerely glad to see that the fine collection of 

 works of art now brought together at St. Helen's is open 

 on Sundays. The suicidal policy which simply leaves the 

 working man his choice between Church and the Beershop 

 mu.st at no very distant date yield to the more rational 

 system of afibrding him the means of elevating and re- 

 fining his mind, and so weaning him from gi-oss and sensual 

 pleasures. 



Our contem2)orary, Society, writing apropos of the 

 gallantry of the two constables shot by the Hoxton burglar, 

 makes the excellent suggestion that an Order for Civil 

 Courage should be instituted, akin to the Victoria Cross 

 already given for conspicuous personal bravery in the 

 field. It would be a pleasant greeting for Garner and 

 Snell, on their discharge from the hospital, to have such a 

 " C. C." pinned to their breasts. 



" Some gorgeous sunlight effects," says the Standard^ 

 " have been observed over the Yorkshire wolds for several 

 nights past. The sky has been one mass of richly-blended 

 colours, commencing at the horizon with a broad belt of 

 deep yellow light, and then tier above tier of orange and 

 purple, the latter colour predominating in horizontal 

 streaks, whilst the sky above was flooded with a magnificent 

 glow from the setting sun." I wonder whether any of the 

 members of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society 

 have been " kicking up a dust" in the East Riding within 

 the last week or two 1 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From Arcrsi 15th to August 29th. 



By F.R.A.S. 



TIIE Sun will, as nsrial, be examined on every clear day for the 

 spots and faculao which continue to appear on his disc. The 

 August night sky will be found delineated in 3Iap Till, of " The 

 Stars in their Seasons." A minimum of Algol (" The Stars in 

 their Seasons," Map I.) will occur at 8h. 12m. p.m. on August 18th. 

 Mercury is an Evening Star, and attains his greatest elongation 

 east of the Sun (27° IC) at 5 p.m. on the 23rd. CnfortCBately at 

 this time he only sets about half an hour after the Sun, so that 

 the chances of detecting him with the naked eye are very small. 

 Venus is a Morning Star throughout the month, and is at her 

 greatest brilliancy on the 17th. About this time she may be picked 

 up perfectly well by the naked eye near the time of her passage 

 over the meridian. This occurs at 9h. 20m. a.m. on the 17th, and 

 something like a couple of minutes sooner on each sncceeding 

 morning. At this time she looks, in the telescope, like the Moon 

 when she is about four days old. As far as the remainder of the 

 planets are concerned, the night sky is a blank. As the Moon is 

 new ou the night of the 20th, and does not enter her first quarter 

 until 42 minutes past 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 2Sth, she will 

 only be visible for the purpose of the ordinary observer during about 

 the last three or four daj'S to which these notes have reference. 

 .She will only occult one star in the course of the fortnight, and 

 that at an hour (2h. 21m. a.m.) at which very few whom we ad- 

 dross will care to be on the watch for the phenomenon. The Moon 

 is in Taurus all day to-day, and until 2 o'clock to-morrow after- 

 noon, when she will enter the northern part of Orion ; which, how- 

 ever, she will quit for Gemini about 1 a.m. on the 17th. She is 

 travelling through Gemini until 8 a.m. on the 18th, at which hour 

 she crosses into Cancer. At 4 o'clock m the early morning of the 



