Oct. 3, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



287 



uf the prismatic spectrum can be decomposed ; ever}- wave in tliia 

 aeries is therefore of an equally indecomposable rank ; but he also 

 .states that in some instances similar sensations of colour can be 

 produced, by compoundinij two waves, to those produced by single 

 waves in other positions of that spectrum, but that, in these cases, 

 the two original waves niaj- be resolved by the prism, showing 

 thereby that there is no such thing as a secondary vibration in 

 the natural series of wave-differentiations. W. Cave Thomas. 



SLAUGUTERIXG ANIMALS. 

 [l-J3-l]^If yon will allow mo to add to yonr remarks anent tie 

 use of the poleaxe as an effective means towards " Euthanasia for 

 i ho Lower Creation," I would say that the method of poleaxing 

 admits of modification so as to be easily applied in the case of the 

 smaller animals, as sheep, pigs, etc., when being slaughtered. If a 

 piece of steel rod or wire — not larger than a i inch diameter — be 

 tixed at right angles to a short handle of wood, we have an instru- 

 ment which, if placed over the proper point of the animal's 

 cniuiuni, and struck with a short heavy stick, will deprive the 

 anim.al of sensibility as quickly and as surely as the poleaxe does 

 in the case of oxen. Norfolk Fabmek. 



MIND AND BRAIN. 



[U35]— If the Rev. 8. F. B. Ferrin will read the first volume of 

 "The Mechanism of Man," by the late Mr. Serjeant Cox (Longmans, 

 li vols.), he will find, I believe, an answer more or less satisfactory 

 to the question he raises in his letter. No. 140-1. 



To embody in a letter the contents of nearly five hundred pages 

 is impossible, but it may suflice to say that the dominant idea of 

 the writer is that three forces direct the mechanism of man — 

 •namely, Life, mortal, beginning and ending with earthly existence. 

 -Ifind, the aggregate action of all the intellectual and emotional 

 powers of the brain. Soul, the self, the ego, the conscious I, the 

 man, unlike the body, unchangeable, imperishable; the brain and 

 the nerves being the material medium through which the soul 

 receives by the senses communications from external nature, and 

 by the will transmits its mandates to the body, and manifests itself 

 to the outward world. 



M. Louis Figuier, in his " Day after Death," considers that man 

 consists of three elements. The body, the life, and the soul, but he 

 deals with the future of the last, rather than with the question 

 under consideration. Eve-Witness. 



LIFE AFTER DEATH. 



[1436] — Seated one afternoon a few weeks ago in a room over- 

 looking an arm of the sea, I witnessed a scene the incidents of 

 which re-aroused in ray mind certain thoughts concerning the here- 

 after, which for years had slumbered. 



Half a mile or so out when it first caught my eye, was a punt 

 with one occupant. He was pulling easily shorewards, and shortly 

 drew up close to the stops loading on to the pier. There was a 

 strong tide running, and the water was very deep. The oarsman, 

 evidently a novice, clumsily endeavoured to bring his punt into a 

 position to enable him to leap ashore, and when, as he thought, 

 sufficiently near, he jumped, but fell backwards into the water. 

 There were a number of people about, who endeavoured to assist 

 the drowning man ; but as the boat had drifted away with the 

 tide, their efforts were unavailing, and he sank for the last time. 

 Just after, a man arrived from a short distance with a boat-hook, 

 and, quite at random, not knowing where the body had sunk, 

 tproped about in the water. By an almost miraculous chance, he 

 succeeded in catching a portion of the submerged man's clothing, 

 and so hauled him to land, and after a time, by the application of 

 suitable means, life was restored. 



I interviewed the victim some days after, and elicited the fact 

 rhat practically he had been dead. He had suffered all that ho 

 could suffer from the drowning process, and had become totally 

 oblivious of any sensation whatever. His body was so much 

 drowned as to have stopped thought and destroyed consciousness. 

 He knew and felt nothing whaiever, and lay at the bottom of the 

 water, to all intents and purposes stone dead. 



Now, sir, if there is, as some teach, a life after death, why was 

 no sign of it manifested here ? Those who teach the doctrine of a 

 hereafter, aver that death does not destroy the mind. If this be 

 true, why was this man unconscious of everything ? He recked not 

 <tf this world or the next. It is, of course, impossible to ask those 

 who die and do 710/ return to life, whether, during the passage from 

 this life to the life supposed to be hereafter, a state of absolute 

 oblivion intervened, and how long it continued. But in the case I 

 have just related, the man was practically killed, his body was 

 bereft of breath and motion, and this physical state produced a 

 total suspension of his mental and physical faculties, a state of 

 things which, so long as he eonlinued dead, manifested no symptom 



0/ change ivhatever ; no throb of another life animated his mind or 

 his sonl, and the probability is, that if he had continued unhelped, 

 and remained under water till his body had been decomposed 

 utterly or eaten by fish, no change or reawakening in his mental or 

 spiritual faculties would have occurred, but that ho would have 

 remained as he was, dead — body, soul, and spirit — for ever. 



I do not, sir, with all deference, think I am, by introducing this 

 subject, trenching on the limits you have wisely indicated with 

 regard to theological questions. Theology I have long since and 

 utterly discarded and put aside, as far as I am personally con- 

 cerned. I only present the subject as an effort to obtain know- 

 ledge, and I do hope to hear from some of your extremely able 

 correspondents on tho matter. I take a deep interest in the ques- 

 tion of a future life. I do not believe there is such a thing, but, 

 on the other hand, I do not inoic. I often feel as if, like the two 

 disciples of an ancient philosopher who heard of immortality for 

 the first time, and immediately and violently " shuffled off this 

 mortal coil," I would like to put an end to a somewhat troublesome 

 existence from mere curiosity, and so solve, for myself at least, the 

 great riddle. But there is no need for this. I think the question 

 may be settled otherwise. — I am, Selw^'n Thoene. 



[The very curious and momentous question raised in Mr. Thome's 

 letter must bo discussed in these columns from a purely scientific 

 point of view alone. We have had more than enough of the 

 odium theologicum lately. A few (fortunately a very few) readers 

 never see anything here conflicting with their particular form of 

 orthodoxy without i>Titing letters — which, of course, I never print 

 — not obscurely hinting that I am an infidel and an atheist for 

 permitting anything to appear that runs counter to the views of 

 that most straitost sect to which they may happen to belong. 

 Whatever such writers may think, it is both hurtful and offensive 

 to me to be branded in such untruthful fashion. Hence my deter- 

 mination that while science shall not interfere in Knowledge with 

 dogmatic theology, neither shall dogmatic theology interfere with 

 science. — En.] 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 

 [Owing to some muddle among various post-offices, one packet 

 of redirected letters has gone entirely astray. Perhaps corre- 

 spondents whose communications are neither noticed here, nor 

 appear in our correspondence columns within three weeks, will 

 kindly write again.] 



A. H. R.E., T., Ed. Walkek, Alfked Bess, Thos. Waed, Robert 

 Moore, H. Hcber, A. G. H. S., M. Smith, H. Minchin, Jessie H. 

 HowAT, CnAs. J. Wetherill, Pi, G. J. Pilchee, E. W. GnNDBY, 

 B. Gleam, and a large number of other correspondents, send solu- 

 tions, some mathematical and some empirical, of Mr. Bidder's 

 figure puzzle. — Daniel Dewar. Received. — Nigel Doble. In 

 making observations it is customary to attach a number to each, 

 expressive of its accuracy or trustworthiness; 10 representing a 

 perject observation and 1 a worthless, or practically worthless, one. 

 Such a number is technically known as the " weight " of the 

 observation to which it is appended. — Ignoramus. See " Mars in a 

 Three-inch Telescope," vol. Y., p. 140. — W. J. Harding. The 

 notice (which you will find elsewhere this week) was omitted from 

 " The Face of the Sky " last week by an error. No directions 

 for finding the new comet can be given until its elements are 

 computed, and an ephemeris calculated from them. It is, I fancy, 

 in Cygnus. — John W. Staniforth points out that Encke's Comet 

 was seen on Aug. 20, 1881, by Dr. Hartwig and Prof. Winnecke at 

 Strasburg ; on the 24th by O. Struve at Pulkowa ; and on the 28th 

 by Lohse at Dunecht. In September it was observed on the 20th 

 at Nash%'ille, Tennessee, and five days later by our own correspon- 

 dent, " F.R.A.S." Many thanks for the infoi-mation. — T. Hartley. 

 Delayed for several days, owing to your addressing your letter to 

 "the Editoi-." It is the Publishers -mho supply copies of Know- 

 ledge. — W. Franklin. I regret that I can afford no space in 

 these columns for the discussion or exposure of that exploded 

 imposture spiritualism. — B. Gleam. "Five of Clubs" is on the 

 other side of tho Atlantic. Can any whist-playing reader give 

 the name of the publishers of the " Westminster Papers," and 

 say if the back numbers are now procurable.^ — H. L. I have 

 never even heard of the system you speak of. Pitman's leaves 

 nothing to be desired. — A. Steele. Doubtless the act of the cat 

 was prompted by the conviction that it had done wrong. Its pro- 

 genitors had been punished for acts of theft, and it seems more 

 than probable that what we call " instinct " is merely inherited 

 memory. In this sense each successive generation of domesticated 

 animals may improve in morality. — Ignoramus. No wonder the 

 M.Il.C.S. laughed at such an assertion. That editor and you might 

 pair off as you suggest. — A Geologist. The facts, certainly not the 

 inferences. The "publicity" of which you speak was doibtless a 

 mistake. 



