306 



* KNOWLEDGE . 



[Oct. 10, 1884. 



good reason for this qnestion, founded likewise upon my own 

 experience. Tliis i will state, with your permission, when we have 

 received his reply. D. A. Be.wfort. 



FUNGOID GROWTH FROM DEAD FLY. 



[1449] — I should like an explanation of the following. I found 

 a fly on its b;\ck, dead. In a circle around it were a multitude 

 of spores (r). It seemed as if this appearance of dust had been 

 shot out of its body. I enclose drawing same size. I have before 

 seen flies with fungus growing over them, but this is different. 

 The fly appears free from the dust that is all around it. It recalled 

 to my mind a description of a small-pox patient " shooting out 

 deadly spores in all directions." St. John. 



[The drawing simply represents a fly surrounded by a circle of 

 dust of approximately five times the fly's length in radius. The 

 dust is thicker laterally, and it is in the direction of the axis 

 of the insect's body.] 



VACCINATION. 



[1450] — I am one of a family of twelve, of whom ten were born 

 before 1802, and inoculated as was then the prevailing custom. I 

 was bom in 1804, and my father was induced to have me vacci- 

 nated. But in consequence of ray suffering severely from glandular 

 swellings in the neck, when the twelfth child, a son, was born, he 

 was inoculated. Now, of all these children, I alone had the small- 

 pox, when I was about twenty-five years old ; and this I caught 

 from a neighbouring clergyman, who, N.B., had been carefully 

 vaccinated by an eminent London surgeon, Sir A. Cooper, his 

 uncle. 



N.B. — Within the next four years two other clergymen in Hemel 

 Hempstod had the small-pox. Both had been duly vaccinated, and 

 both suffered notably. F. S. 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 



Thos. Radmoke. As the eclipse was simply caused by the 

 passage of the moon through the earth's shadow, you will, I think, 

 see that neither the " fore " nor " afterglow " can be referred to it 

 in any way. Thanks for P.S.— E. C. Chapman. Certainly not. 

 Facts right enough, the rest rubbish. — John Hampden, ily dear 

 sir ! Do not excite yourself so needlessly ; and use such strong 

 not to say libellous — language. — W. F. CcETls sends a long accoutit 

 of a child five or six years old, whose skull was so frightfully frac- 

 tured bj- the kick of a horse that the brain actually oozed over his 

 face and neck. Given up by the doctor as fatally injured,' the 

 clergyman of the parish baptised the boy (that rite never having 

 been previously administered), supposing him to be in articuto 

 mortis. The sprinkling of the water, however, so far revived him 

 as to cause the facial muscles to twitch ; whereon he was taken to 

 the Coventry Hospital, and eventually recovered. My correspcn- 

 dent forwards this apropos of the question of " Two Brains " (p. 22!*), 

 but the connection appears to me somewhat remote. — W. Waring. A 

 matter with which the Editor has nothing to do. You should 

 advertise them. — Dr. Davey. It may or may not be that the 

 functions of the brain are susceptible of localisation, but certainly 

 all modern research goes to negative the mapping out of tlie 

 cerebrum into areas of the size of a shilling or a florin, as in the 

 system of Gall and Spurzheim. In the case of the cerebellum they 

 were demonstrably wrong, and " mesmeric " experiments count for 

 nothing, on the hypothesis that the mesmeriser influences the mind 

 of the mesmerisee ; since, if the former possesses the power 

 claimed for him over the mind of the latter, and believes that he is 

 touching (say) the organ of " acquisitiveness," his patient ought 

 to feel himself "acquisitive" straightway. I do not know the 

 address of the gentleman whose name you put on your pamphlet. — 

 H. D. HiNDE. I cannot remember whether Kant's " General 

 History of Nature and Theory of the Heavens" has been translated 

 into English, and am very far from books of leference where I 

 write. Look at a list of " Bohn's Libiaries" if you can. — F. W. 

 Halfpenny. I fancy that the plant which curf s the bite of the 

 rattlesnake has its origin in novelists' licence. Perhaps some 

 toxicologist, though, can say if there is any truth in 

 the notion. — Dr. Wilson. 1 do not think that the barely 

 conceivable possibility is denied (granting, of course, a sufiicient 

 number of millions of years). It is the reasonable probability that 

 has to be shown. If your paper does that, and is not too long, I 

 will do as you suggest. — G. I cannot say, off-hand, how far tidal 

 influence is felt above London Bridge. Locks, (tc.,must complicate 

 the matter. — W. Cave Thoma.s. Any letter within reasonable limits, 

 explaining your views, will be inserted. You must not, however, 

 expect to escape criticism. I fail to understand what you mean by 

 colour not being " attributed to the ether waves." I always fancied 



myself that the sensation of colour had its origin in the variation 

 in the length and frequency of the waves impinging on the retina. 

 — E. S. PniLLip.s, Yet another solution of Mr. Sedden's problem. — 

 Piccolo asks if Mr. ilattieu Williams classes cocoa among stimu- 

 lants ? — F. Heeley sends me some remarkably economical outline 

 maps for filling in by students of geography. As they are seem- 

 ingly executed by one of the "graph" processes, they are, of 

 course, very much cheaper than any engraved ones. — Frank H. 

 Geierson thinks that spectral analysis, as applied to the hearenly 

 hodies, must be a work of spirit ! — G. R. Griffith. Will be noticed 

 in due course. — Miss Stuart. The price of Knowledge was raised 

 to threepence per copy on March 7, 18S4. See concluding para- 

 graph (in capital letters) at the head of correspondence column. — 

 J. H. D. Is not your contention just open to the charge of logo- 

 machy ? — Robert McMillan. I acknowledged the receipt of your 

 letter when it reached me ; but, np to this present writing, " Pro- 

 fessor " Manville's paper has never turned up at all. — An Original 

 Subscriber. The effect to which j'ou refer would probably co- 

 operate with that described in producing the effect of concavity. — 

 Excelsior. Von will see that " F.R.A.S." does furnish' an 

 Ephermeris of Wolf's comet this week on p. 303. Of what earthly 

 use would it be for hira to occupy space by the mention of comets 

 visible only in very large telescopes as small, dim nebula;, of which 

 a 3-inch telescope would show no trace whatever?— A. E. Coxte. 

 Forwarded to publishers, who deal with such matters, with which 

 the editor has nothing to do. — John Towers. I was really inte- 

 rested by your letter and its enclosure. The young astronomer has 

 no reason to be ashamed of his work. Floreat semper. — Amy 

 Newland. — If you intend to devote yourself to the observation 

 and measurement, &c., of double stars, obtain the largest refractor 

 you can afford. If, on the other hand, yon propose to study 

 solar, lunar, and planetary detail, star clusters, nebulae, 4c., 

 by all means purchase a reflector. Aperture for aperture, 

 reflecting telescopes are very much cheaper than achro- 

 matics, and, for studying the heavens generally, yon get so 

 much more for yonr money. — J. Elgis. Far away from a single 

 book of reference, I can answer you but vaguely. (1) The method 

 of measurement is too uncertain for us to predicate definitely which 

 star is approaching ns the most rapidly. Besides (as in the case of 

 Sirius) recession may be converted into approach — and vice versu. 

 (2) The glorious cluster to which you refer, is 33 (Herschel) Persei ; 

 it is commonly known as " The sword-handle of Perseus." (3) No 

 large meteoric stones have recently fallen in England. (4) On 

 November 13 (after midnight), and again on the 27th. — Alpha. 

 Your telescope is not sufficiently powerful to show Saturn. At best 

 it could only exhibit him as a misshapen star. He is a little to the 

 left and above ^ Tauri, and is so much brighter and more con- 

 spicuous than that star as to be unnnstakable. Midnight is none 

 too late to observe Saturn now ; in fact, he does not south until 

 between four and five o'clock in the morning. Ball's " Astronomy," 

 published by Longmans, is excellent. For books on special 

 departments of astronomy by the conductor of this journal, 

 see Messrs. Longmans' announcement in our advertising columns. 

 • — Roland Ellis. The axis of the earth's shadow lies in the 

 plane of the ecliptic to which the moon's path (from right to 

 left across the face of the sky) is inclined. She was travelling, as 

 it were, don-nwards — as well as from west to east — on Saturday 

 night : hence the seeming direction taken by the shadow across his 

 surface. It is the refraction of the sun's rays through our atmo- 

 sphere which bends them into the shadow cone and dimly lights the 

 moon's surface. Were that atmosphere removed, she would wholly 

 disappear in a total eclipse. — Maximilian Strong. The date of the 

 birth of Our Lord is not known with absolute certainty. I am un- 

 aware of any calculations of Sir Isaac Newton's having referenci- 

 to this point. I will look up the question of Tiberius Ccesar on 

 my return to England. You will see that the figure puzzle ha.'i 

 been solved by a very large number of subscribers. — W. Had your 

 solution of the figure puzzle arrived earlier it would have been in- 

 serted. I have had reams almost of answers, which I have had 

 perforce to suppress. " Coincidences " possess a certain amount of 

 value in a mathematical point of view, and, undoubtedly, they seem 

 to interest a multitude of readers. 



Forestry having changed hands, Mr. Francis George Heath h&s 

 retired from the editorship. 



A NEW small motor actuated by explosion of small charges of gun 

 cotton has been made by Mr. E. Sturge, and is said to be applicable 

 wherever small powers are required. 



The Russian Customs Department has issued an order, dated 

 Sept. 3, 1S84, that goods bearing trade marks with eSBgies of the 

 Holy Virgin, Saint George, or other saints, will not be admittefJ 

 into the Russian Empire. 



