Aug. 22, 1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



167 



Lake to coilect acorns for their winter snpplj- of food. In stature 

 they are shjrt, and almost ape-like in expression. Like all Indian 

 tribes, the hair is worn long, but in this case growing low on the 

 forehead, nearly to the eyebrows. 



I noticed, liowerer, that one of the band had his locks cut short, 

 and the hend smeared all over with a tarry mesa. On naming this 

 to the Indian agent whom I afterivards met, he informed me that 

 what I had seen was the "Digger's" sign of mourning. When 

 one of the tribe dies, the body is burnt, the ashes are collected by 

 his nearest relative, who cuts his hair short, mixes the ashes with a 

 resinous gum from a pine-tree, and smears his head with the mix- 

 ture, which is allowed to remain on till spontaneously removed. 

 This statement was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Hutchins, the first 

 resident in the valley. T. K. Clapium. 



Austwick Hall, Aug. 9. 



A WORJI I' THE BCD— WHAT'S IN A NAME ? 



[136S] — With reference to Mr. Clodd's paper on tooth-ache 

 dependmg on the presence of a worm, I may say it is a popular 

 belief in this and neighbouring counties. 



Tooth-ache is cured by pouriug hot-water on henbane seeds con- 

 tained in a jng. The seeds germinate at once in the boiling water; 

 the plumule looking, to a casual observer, just like a worm. It 

 seems strange to me boiling water should have this effect on seeds, 

 especially the bought henbane seeds of a druggist's shop, which I 

 have sown many times, but could never get to come up; I presume 

 on account of their having been dried with the aid of heat. 



Is the following a coincidence ? Fourteen years since the minister 

 of George-street Congregational Chapel was a Mr. Parkinson; on 

 his leaving a Mr. Parkyn succeeded him ; Mr. Parkyn then left and 

 WPS succeeded by a Mr. Park. Since then I believe they have been 

 without a regular minister. Eligible candidates having appropriate 

 names miiiht applv. Thomas Ladwick. 



Bed Hill, Surrey, Aug. 14th, 1884. 



A COINCIDENCE. 



1^1369] — The following curious coincidence may, perhaps, just 

 escape the editorial waste-basket so well-known to readers of 

 Knowledge. The death of the late Duke of Wellington was 

 announced in the evening papers on August 13. Our family had 

 been engaged in preparations for removal to a new residence for 

 two or three days previously, and some packing-cases sent from the 

 contractor had been lying awaiting use during that time. On the 

 evening above-mentioned these were opened, and there was found, 

 amongst some straw, an old newspaper of the year 1S52, in which, 

 singular to say, we came upon a report of the funeral ceremony of 

 the former Duke, — the illustrious hero of Waterloo. G. H. H. 



PROPOSED MEMORIAL TO SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL IN 

 THE OCTAGON CHAPEL, BATH. 



[1370] — [We willingly reproduce the subjoined letter, which ap- 

 peared in the Bath Chronicle of August 7. Communications may 

 be addressed to P>cv. Wm. Anderson, 48, Pulteney-street, Bath.] 



Sib, — Among the persons whose lives and labours have ennobled 

 the city of Bath, none stand so high in force of character, in 

 difficulties overcome, and in magnificent services rendered to 

 science as William Herschel and his scarcely less distinguished 

 sister and fellow labourer Caroline. Herschel was great as a 

 thinker, a worker, a philosopher, and, above all, a discoverer. In- 

 ferior to Newton as a philosopher, he was greater as an astronomer. 

 Arago was astonished by " his extraordinary success as a dis- 

 coverer." Judged by the diflficultics which he overcame, as well as 

 by the actual additions which he made to human knowledge, by the 

 instruments which he invented and bequeathed to future dis- 

 coverers, and by his prescient anticipations of the future triumphs 

 of science, he was by far the most distinguished citizen who ever 

 lived in Bath. During the sixteen most fruitful years of his life — 

 from 17C6 to 1782, i.e., from his 2Sth to his 42nd year — he resided 

 in Bath, as organist of the Octagon Chapel and director of the 

 public concerts. He frequently composed anthems, chants, and 

 whole services for the choir under his management. Music was 

 the business, astronomy was the amusement of his life. Before 

 he made the discoveries which have given him an immortal 

 name, he had to bring to completion, by a series of labours of 

 almost incredible industry and perseverance, sometimes extending 

 to sixteen hours of continuous work, the instruments of discovery. 

 He erected a furnace in his garden, where he and his brother 

 worked for months of almost incessant toil, and made hundreds of 

 specula before he completed the great reflector through which he 

 discovered the planet Uranus, on the 13th of March, 1781. His 

 illustrious sister read to him while turning the lathe or polishing 



the mirrors. Subsequently, after he had been invited to Windsor, 

 he said, ''I would rather be polishing a speculum than at Court." 

 Then he found that the telescope which he and his sister bad con- 

 structed was superior to anything in the Royal Observatory. He 

 discovered the motion of the solar system in space. He mapped 

 out all the double stars ho met with. He first discovered the lunar 

 volcanoes.* He constructed a telescope of 40 ft. focal length and 

 8 ft. aperture. In the words of his biographer, in the last number 

 of the Encyclop(Edia Britannica, '* He demonstrated the action of 

 the same mechanical laws among the distant members of the 

 starry firmament which bind together the harmonious motions of 

 our solar system. This sublime discovery would of itself suffice to 

 immortalize his memory in the respectful homage of all future 

 races of intelligent men." In him there were combined — each in 

 its highest form — the attributes of the artisan, the artist, and the 

 astronomer in a degree so highjand employed for purposes so noble, 

 that few cities can point to a citizen so noble and so worthy of 

 lasting remembrance. I have been requested by the committee 

 of the Octagon Chapel, in which the organ associated with the 

 name of Herschel still remains, to write this letter, in the hope 

 that their efforts to put up in the chapel a memorial window not 

 unworthy of its distinguished organist may be aided by those of 

 our fellow-citizens who desire to honour an illustrious name and 

 transmit a memorable example. William Anderson'. 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 



T. R. Clapiiam. Does your sketch of a flash of lightning 

 represent the appearance it represented to the naked eye, its 

 track through the ground, or what ? — Galvanises. No. — T. 

 McIlveme. Probably the situation of assistant in the Science 

 and Arc Department, or in the British Museum, would be one 

 as congenial to your tastes a3 any; but either would involve a 

 pretty severe competitive examination. There is no profession or 

 occupation outside of such subordinate Government appointments 

 as these, in which you can be<,'in to earn anything for many a long 

 day. — Qiiham. Your mistake lay in writing a second time for an 

 explanation. Such articles are merely used as "padding" in a 

 daily newspaper, and may lie unused for an indefinite time. I have 

 seen one of my own appear after a lapse of twelve months ! An 

 editor (like the Captain of one of her Majesty's ships) must, ex 

 necessitate, be an autocrat ; and, according to the usages of 

 journalism, you have nothing whatever legitimately to complain of. 

 — James Gillespie. Will you be good enough to read my replies to 

 you on pp. 40 and 70. I neither will nor can answer correspondents 

 prirately through the post. — M. asks how distemper painting is 

 practised, the colours required, where they are to be obtained, and 

 the ground used, for painting on. He further wishes to know 

 whether the process might not be employed in painting landscapes 

 from nature, it being alleged that J. M. W. Turner so used it. 

 Pending any detailed reply with which he m,ay be favoured by some 

 brother reader, he may get some hints from Godwin's "Art of 

 Mural Decoration," published for a shilling by Winsor & Newton. 

 — Con Spikito. There cannot be the slightest doubt that 

 when a table moves in a oona-jide experiment such as you refer 

 to, it does so through the unconscious muscular action of the 

 operators. At the time when table-turning became a fashionable 

 craze, our great departed Physicist Faraday devised a simple piece 

 of apparatus, by the aid of which any pushing action on the part 

 of the experimenters was at once rendered visible by the motion 

 of the long arm of a lever. When the top and bottom parts of 

 this simple contrivance were rigidly connected (so that the arm 

 was a fixture) and the hands of the persons sitting about the table 

 were placed upon it, the table went round merrily. The moment, 

 though, that such connection w.as broken, so that a push on the top 

 plate of the apparatus caused the arm to move, the pei-formers had 

 ocular demonstration, by its swinging round, that they were 

 (wholly unconsciously) themselves pushing; and, their attention 

 being thus directed to it, ceased to do so; the inevitable result 

 being that the table stood stock-still. Thanks for your friendly 

 expressions. — C. J. Pettit. I can find nothing about a tricycle 

 (American or otherwise) in Knowledge for August 8. See con- 

 cluding paragraph, in capital letters, at the head of Correspondence 

 Column. — C. E. Parkek-Rhodes. Received too late. Thanks. — 

 H. RoMEiKE. I am much obliged ; but the needs of a scientific 

 journal scarcch- include such paragraphs. 



Errata. — In column one, p. 130, line 14 from the bottom, the 

 words " at S', 4 feet from it," should immediately precede " and 

 so on." — In line 17, col. one, p. 145, " for what " should be "for 

 which;" and in line 40 of the same column the word "where" 

 should follow " Cassiopeia." 



[^ This is erroneous ; but in no sense affects the appeal. — Ed.] 



