Oct. 31, 1884.] 



• KNOWL.EDGE ♦ 



359 



natural selection, and of his unbroken ilevelopment from 

 the embryo to adult life, it embraces the growth and 

 development of mind and all that it connotes. In the 

 words of Professor Huxley, " As there is an anatomy of 

 the body, so there is an anatomy of the mind ; the psycho- 

 logist dissects mental phenomena into elementary states of 

 consciousness, as the anatomist resolves limbs iuto tissues, 

 and tissues into cells. The one traces the development of 

 complex organs from simple rudiments ; the other follows 

 the building up of complex conceptions out of simpler 

 constituents of thought. As the physiologist inquires into 

 the way in which the so-called ' functions ' of the body 

 are performed, so the psychologist studies the so-called 

 ' faculties ' of the mind. Even a cursory attention to 

 the ways and works of the lower animals suggests a com- 

 parative anatomy and physiology of the mind ; and the 

 doctrine of evolution presses for application as much in 

 the one field as in the other."* 



Any coherent explanation of the operations of nature 

 was impossible while man had no conception or knowledge 

 of the interplay of its several parts. Now, by the docti ine 

 of continuity, not only are present changes referred to un- 

 varying causes, but the past is interpreted by the processes 

 going on under our eyes. We can as easily calculate 

 eclipses backwards a.s forward ; we can learn in present 

 formations of the earth's crust the history of the depo>ition 

 of the most ancient strata ; we read in a rounded granite 

 pebble the story of epochs, the fire that fused its organic 

 or inorganic particles, the water that rubbed and rolled it ; 

 we reconstruct from a few bones the ancestry of obscure 

 forms, and find in the fragments the missing links that 

 connect species now so varied. And the like method is 

 applied to man in his tout ensemble. His development is 

 not arbitrary ; what he is is the expansion of germs of 

 what he was. 



Till these latter days he has, on the warrant of legends 

 now of worth only as witnesses to his crude ideas, pre- 

 sumed on an isolated place in creation, and excepted his 

 race from an inquiry made concerning every creature 

 beneath him. The pride of birth has hindered his admis- 

 sion of lineal connection between the beliefs of cultured 

 races and the beliefs of savages, and pseudo scientific 

 writers still confuse issues by assuming distinctions 

 between races to whom spiritual truths have been re- 

 vealed and races from whom these truths have been with- 

 held. But the only tenable distlnctiou to be drawn nowa- 

 days is between the scientific and pre scientific age in the 

 history of any given race. 



TRICYCLE EXHIBITIONS. 



By John Browning, 



Chairman 0/ the London Tricycle Cluh. 



WITHIN the last few days a statement has been pub- 

 lished that a meeting of tricycle manufacturers 

 has been held, and that it was decided by a majority of 

 07ie not to support either of the tricycle exhibitions next 

 year. Seventeen firms voted against supporting an exhi- 

 bition, and sixteen in favour of doing so. An agreement 

 was drawn up and has been signed by the seventeen firms 

 pledging themselves not to exhibit at any show of tricycles 

 in London in the spring of next year. 



I have taken the trouble to ascertain the opinions of 

 many well-known tricyclists on this subject, and I have 

 found that, without exception, they view it with regret and 



* Home, p. 50. 



disappointment, and I might, without exaggeration, say 

 with consternation. 



I am at a loss to understand why the manufacturers 

 have come to such a decision, unless it be that they are 

 dissatisfied with the arrangements which have been made 

 for them by those who have organised and conducted pre- 

 vious exhibitions. 



If this be the case, it is a ])ity they did not appoint a 

 committee of their number to arrange for an exhibition to 

 be carried out on their own lines. 



Of course, there are strong temptations to avoid the Ios.s 

 of time and trouble, and the expen>e of sending machines to 

 such an exhibition, if they can arrange with their com- 

 petitors in trade to stay away. But they cannot arrange 

 that tricycle dealers and agents and makers of inferior 

 machines shall also stay away. The result will almost cer- 

 tainly be that we shall have one or more poor exhibitions, 

 instead of good ones. 



Agents will be more likely to exhibit second-class 

 machines than first-class, because there is generally a much 

 larger profit to be made in dealing in them ; and in conse- 

 quence, the first-rate manufacturers and the cycling public 

 will both be sufierers, which cannot surely be what they 

 desire. 



In any case, it is obvious that the manufacturers 

 who do not exhibit will lose a numher of orders. 

 Many people who already have tricycles are looking 

 forward to the exhibition for the opportunity of obtaining 

 what they anticipate will be better ones ; and unless they 

 see all the new machines and are able to compare them, 

 they wOl content themselves with their old mounts, and 

 that amount of business will be sacrificed. 



I know personally dozens of riders, mostly of considerable 

 means, who come to London from great distances for the 

 purpose of attending the tricycle exhibitions. A goodly 

 number of these make purchases either at the time or not 

 long after. The opportunity and the temptation being 

 removed, they will keep their money in their pockets. 



Two-speed gearings and Tandems will, no doubt, be 

 largely in demand next season, but this demand would be 

 greatly increased if they were well exhibited. 



For these reasons, it is to be hoped that the leading 

 manufacturers may yet reconsider their decision, and not 

 pursue a course which will check the progress of cycling 

 and the improvement of cycles, disappoint their patrons, 

 and play into the hands of their less worthy competitors. 



THE EARTH'S SHAPE AND MOTIONS. 



By Eichard A. Proctor, 



CHAPTER Y.— THE EARTH'S ROTATION. 

 (Continued from page 316.) 



IN 1820, Dr. Benzenberg began a series of experiments 

 in St. Michael's Tower in Hamburg. The height he 

 was able to command was 340 ft. But he preferred to limit 

 the fall to the portion of the tower which was completely 

 closed, and thus be commanded a range of fall of about 

 235 ft. only. The balls he used were H in. in diameter, 

 made of an alloy of equal parts of lead and tin, and a small 

 proportion of zinc. They were carefully turned and polished, 

 so that there might be no irregularity of figure to occasion 

 any departure from the line of fall. He tested them specially 

 for this purpose, by floating them in mercury, and rejected 

 all those which showed any tendency to float in one posi- 

 tion rather than in another. So carefully did he consider 

 all the possible sources of error in the result that he would 

 not even aUow the liberation of the balls to be effected by 



