284 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 3, 1884. 



modem works on science, and he parades scientific termino- 

 logy in his pages in a way which is well calculated to delude 

 the superficial reader into the belief that he is listening to 

 the utterances of a man who has so far made science his 

 special study as to be familiar with the most recent results 

 of research. How far Mr. Reynolds is entitled to make 

 such a claim, we may gather from the calm way in which 

 he pooh-poohs the conclusions of such intellectual giants as 

 Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Owen, Darwin, Wallace, Romanes, 

 Grant Allen, Lubbock, Geikie, Lewes, Lyell, Tyndall, 

 Lankester, Hfeckel, Schmidt, Semper, Wilsou, ic, ic, and 

 quotes with approbation from the anonymous author of 

 such washy nonsense as "The New Truth and the Old 

 Faith." Moreover, a spirit of disingenuousness materially 

 impairs the value of, what we suppose we must call, his 

 arguments. In a foot>note on page 150, he speaks, for 

 example, of the perturbations of the planets, ic, as 

 affording exceptions to the rule of uniformity in the solar 

 system, suppressing or ignoring the fact that every 

 one of these perturbations is a direct and immediate 

 result of the same law of gravitation which sustains 

 the planets in their orbits ; and that hence such uniformity 

 remains absolutely unbroken. Again, on p. 160, he implies 

 that men of science assert that "man descended from the 

 gorilla," when he knows, or might know, that what is 

 really alleged is not that man descended from the gorilla, 

 but that man and the gorilla had a common ancestor. So, 

 further, with his allegations about "the most eminent 

 scientists," on p. 205. How can he possibly exclude from 

 this category such names as those which we have mentioned 

 above; and dare he, for his purpose, include them in it? 

 His very superficial acquaintance with geology, and 

 especially with paL-eontology (pp. 233 to 260 passim) ; 

 his chronological quibble on p. 34; and his arrogant 

 charge of "ignorance and presumption" against all who 

 presume to contravene his oracular utterances (p. 379), 

 may be taken almost at random as indications of his 

 fitness for his self-imposed task, and the spirit in 

 which he has approached its performance. "Capable 

 thinkers " (p. 123) are those who agree with him ; " lower- 

 class minds " (p. 1 29), those whom his inflated oratory fails to 

 convince. Such grave difliculties as that presented by the 

 indubitable fact that primceval man was a savage, are never 

 touched upon, nor even hinted at. With that portion of 

 the work having special reference to dogmatic theology we 

 are, perforce, silent here. 



A System of Logic. By John Stuart Mill. People's 

 edition. (London: Longmans, Green, k Co., 1884.)— It 

 may seem rather late in the day to notice a book of such 

 •world-wide reputation as Mills' " Logic," and we only do 

 so here to note its appearance in a form and at a price 

 which places it within the reach of all. No excuse now 

 exists for unfamiliarity with the magnum opus of one of 

 England's greatest thinkers. Those familiar with the 

 earlier editions of Mr. Mill's classical work will find 

 important additions in the present one to the chapter on 

 "Causation" as treated in connection with the modern 

 doctrine of the Conservation of Energy. No educated 

 Englishman can aflFord to remain ignorant of the conclusions 

 of our great departed philosopher. 



We have also on our table The Poetical ^Vorks of Long- 

 fellow, Illustrated, London : Cassell & Co., Society, The 

 Medical Press and C'ircidar, Our Monthly (Rangoon), 

 Naturen,Bradslreet's, The Tricyclist, Ciel et Terre, Technical 

 Education for Millers and Bakers, by W. Jago, F.C.S., 

 Tlie Dyer, The Medico-Legal Jozirnal (New York), The 

 Bailicay Bevieiv (Chicago), The American Druggist, and an 

 Arabic scientific journal of which, we regret to say, we are 

 ■wholly unable to decipher either the title or the contents. 



TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON ON 

 OCTOBER 4. 



WE may add tliat there will be a Total Eclipse of the Moon 

 during the evening and night of October 4, the Moon 

 remaining totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth for more 

 than an hour and an half. 



We append particulars of the times of the various phases of the 

 eclipse : — 



H. 



First contact with penumbra 7 



First contact with shadow ... 8 



Beginning of total phase 9 



Middle of the eclipse 10 



End of total phase 10 



Last contact with shadow ... 11 



Last contact with penumbra 12 



Magnitude of the eclipse (Moon's diameter = 1), 1'525. 



The first contact of the shadow occurs at 83° from the northern- 

 most point of the Moon's limb towards the east. 



The last contact, 118° towards the west ; in each case as viewed 

 with the naked eye. 



[The above paragraph was accidentally omitted last week from 

 " The Face of the Sky," on p. 265.] 



iHiSrfllanra. 



KoYAL VicioEiA Hall akd Cofeee Tavebn, Waterloo Bbidge- 



Bo.iD, S.E. — Attention is called to the fresh series of Popular 

 Science Lectures, which the kindness of various eminent lecturers 

 has enabled the managers of the above hall to arrange on Tuesday 

 evenings, at prices ranging from a penny. On October 7, P. H. 

 Carpenter, Esq., D.Sc, will give a lecture on " Our Bodies, and 

 how they are kept going," and on October 14, J. M. Thomson, Esq., 

 F.R.S.E., Sco. Chem. Soc., will deliver one on " Air and 

 Ventilation," with experiments. These lectures will all be illus- 

 trated with dissolving views, and followed by popular glees, solos, 

 Ac, by the Royal Victoria Choir and Band. The concert season at 

 the above hall is now definitely announced to begin on Thursday, 

 October 2nd. The first and second Thursday evenings are to be 

 under the eflicient charge of Mr. Lenthal Swifte, and for several 

 succeeding concerts arrangements are being made with such well- 

 known artists as Messrs. F. N. Bridge, George Cox, Mesdames 

 Evans, Warwick, and Annette Frances, Mr. Sinclair Dunn, and 

 m.iny others of like position whose names will shortly be published. 

 Much care is devoted to the arrangement of the programmes so as 

 to seciu-e aU possible brightness and variety, and no exertion will 

 be spared to make the season a brilliant and successful one. 



The Colours of Tropical Max. — In a recent issue of a con- 

 temporary an attempt has been made by Surgeon-Major Alcock to 

 explain the apparently anomalous condition of a dark skin being 

 best adapted for a hot climate. The basis of the argument is that 

 for every permanent characteristic in the animal kingdom there is 

 a special use, therefore blackness of skin must subserve some 

 purpose. The two agents to which the body of an unclothed man 

 is most exposed are clearly heat and light. In a hot climate the 

 action of the former would be obviously intensified by falling on a 

 dark surface ; this increased activity must be compensated for by 

 some beneficial effect with regard to light. In support of this the 

 immense influence of the light-waves of the sun upon the great 

 vegetable worlds, past and present, is referred to, and it is asserted 

 that their power upon the animal body has been lost sight of owing 

 to their transcendent results upon the nerve of the eye, which is 

 itself but an exalted nerve of the skin, and which, though it now can 

 see, could once but feel. It is then pointed out that the response of a 

 nerve to a stimulus, consists in increased vibration of the molecular 

 elements of which the nerve is composed j in fact, that when the 

 vibratory waves of heat or light impinge upon nerves attuned to 

 vibrate at the same pitch (as when a piano string takes up a note 

 sung at it), these nerves receive the motion thus communicated, 

 and it is thus that light and radiant heat are absorbed. If, then, 

 in addition to the motion unavoidably set up in the sentient 

 extremities of the nerve-endings by the heat-waves, there should be 

 the further motion which the bght-waves are also capable of 

 inducing, the double stimulus would give rise to an amount of 

 molecular disturbance which would be injurious to the species. To 

 prevent this, the light-waves are blocked at the surface by the 

 interposition of pigment. In fact, " the black skin of the negro is 

 but the smoked glass through which alone his wide-spread sentient 

 nerve-endings could be enabled to regard the sun." 



I 



