410 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 14, 1884. 



iWi£(ceIlaixfa. 



As a contribntion towards the question of post-mortem attitndes, 

 a correspondent sends us the following extract from the evidence 

 given at the inquest on the body of Mrs. Ridley, who cat the throats 

 of herself and her children at Newcastle, on Oct. 31 : — " The mother 

 was in a half-standing position, and leaning partly against a cup- 

 board and the wall. Her feet were towards the parlour, and her 

 hands were lield up before her face, as if, after she had cut her 

 throat, death had intervened so quickly that she had immediately 

 become rigid." 



M. Ch. Mano brought before the Academic des Sciences at the 

 seance of September 29, the results of a careful survey of the 

 section of the Cordilleras traversing the Isthmus of Panama. He 

 is satisfied that the northern continuation of the Andes system 

 belongs to a more recent geological epoch than that of the Syenites 

 and serpentines of Choco and Antioquia, whence it appears to 

 branch off. It is also later than the porphyries of the Costa Rica 

 coast range, which belong to the system of the Rocky Mountains, 

 stretching thence northwards to the Polar Sea. 



The Atherwexim, from which we copied last week a note with refe- 

 rence to Dickens's connection with the Daily Ncxvs, says : — " The 

 volume in the possession of the proprietors of the Daily News 

 containing entries made whilst Dickens was editor of that journal, 

 is, we understand, of rather too technical a character to have much 

 interest for the general public, excepting a few passages. We 

 were in error last week in supposing the existence of such a volume 

 to be known to the editors of Dickens's correspondence. We may 

 further add that Mr. Dudley Costello, who made the entries in 

 tlie volume in question, was foreign editor, Mr. Wills being sub- 

 editor." 



According to a foreign paper the international steel railmakers' 

 combination is arranged upon the following understanding, viz. : — 

 That English makers shall receive 65 per cent, by weight of all 

 rail orders, Germany 27 per cent., and Belgium 8 per cent. Indian 

 orders are specially reserved for the English makers. A contract 

 for 11,000 tons for Italy has been recently allotted to the Bochnm 

 and Phosnix companies, near Dusseldorf. Consumers of rails may, 

 observes the Engineer (and we are at one with our contemporary on 

 this point), flatter themselves that they determine where their 

 orders are placed. If so they are simply deluding themselves. It 

 is all arranged for them by the railmakers themselves, and they 

 must submit to their fates unless they are prepared to accept other 

 than the lowest tender. It will be interesting to observe how long 

 this artificial state of things will last. 



The Polytechnic Institute. — A series of Winter Saturday Evening 

 Concerts has been arranged in connection with the above-named 

 Institute, which, judging from the large and appreciative audience 

 in attendance on Saturday last, bids fair to prove extremely suc- 

 cessful. These concerts are given in development of Mr. Qnintin 

 Hogg's scheme of making instruction attractive by running it 

 hand-in-hand with pleasure ; and much of their success is no doubt 

 due to the thoroughly liberal spirit of that gentleman (who, by the 

 way, is also Liberal in politics, and will stand as a Parliamen- 

 tary candidate for Westminster at the first opportunity). Mr. 

 Hogg readily perceived that to make the Institute successful as a 

 medium of education, he must first of all ensure its popularity, 

 and towards that end no expense or trouble has been spared. Not 

 the least interesting feature of these concerts is the manifest 

 feeling of good-fellowship evinced by all who "assist" at them. 

 Most people have at one time or another been present at 

 one of those so-called "grand," but depressing, evening concerts 

 which are generally promoted by local busybodies, ostensibly 

 for some good purpose, but really to display their own 

 importance ; and doubtless they retain painful recollections 

 of the barely-furnished building, the stony stare of superiority 

 bestowed by the five-shilling " exclusives " on the less-fortunate 

 one-shilling visitors, the "wooden" manner in which the arftrfcs 

 engaged went through their performances, and the self-complacent 

 air of having performed a duty which 'seemed to pervade the 

 audience when the programme had dragged itself to a close. No 

 greater contrast to this sort of thing could be found than is afforded 

 by the concerts at the " Poly." The members seem to vie with 

 each other in their endeavours to promote the comfort of their 

 visitors ; and this desire cannot but be conducive to the success of 

 the entertainments, which, however, should command extensive 

 support on their artistic merits alone. Last Saturday's programme 

 was extremely well chosen, and its items rendered by the performers 

 (who are all either members of the Institute or their friends) in a 

 very creditable manner ; special praise, perhaps, being due to the 

 military band of the Institute, which, under the direction of Mr. 

 T. Scamell, played several selections during the evening. 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more."^AiJ'EBD Tenntsor. 



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DUALITY OF THE BRAIN. 



[1502] — The duality cf the brain is a familiar theory. I have 

 never before heaid that the left brain was supposed to be the chief 

 seat of intellect. But I have always felt sure that it was so in my 

 own case. My left side is more than usnally inferior, both in 

 power and in prompt response to the semi-conscious impulses of 

 the mind. For ihirty years I was subject to frequent and severe 

 neuralgic headaches, nineteen in twenty of which originated in, or 

 were generally confined to, the left half of the head. But more 

 than this. When sleepless or fevered by intellectual labour, I fee! 

 the whole brain, feel conscious of its existence, and in some sense 

 its working. In a lesser degree I am almost always conscious of 

 the left brain, but not of the right ; conscious not exactly of its 

 working, but of its presence, as a sort of light weight inside the 

 head. Indeed, in quiet fancy or reverie I might well suppose that 

 the right half of the head was empty, and the left filled. And this 

 difference almost always increases with prolonged brain work, til) 

 it reaches the stage at which the whole brain is consciously 

 oppressed and uncomfortable. 



Of the dual action of the mind, I have also had at times very 

 curious experience. A keen and eager partisan, strongly convinced 

 of the truth of the doctrines I advocate, there is frequently a sort 

 of contradictory intelligence with me, saying to me : " Yon know 

 that thought is exaggerated ; the other cannot be true ; so many 

 of the wisest men, you know, differ from you about this third 

 point." Yet my conviction of their truth remains. I should say 

 that the left brain, the working one, was derived from one parent 

 the other — the critical, inactive, correcting brain — from the other. 

 I can well understand the demon of Socrates. It would need but 

 a little exaggeration of my own consciousness to make the correcting 

 intelligence a separate, external personality. 



Still more curious is the fact that occasionally for a moment, in 

 waking from sleep — rather, perhaps, before waking — I feel myself 

 two persons — nevermore ; which coalesce, as by a flash of lightning, 

 before I become even half-conscious. This experience has not been 

 frequent ; but has occurred often enough to impress itself as a fact 

 upon my memory. 



Finally, since a severe illness, which slightly affected the brain, 

 I have been far less conscious of any of these abnormal phenomena ; 

 but the only power that has deserted me, and that gradually, is 

 that of writing poetry. Terse I can still manufacture after a 

 fashion, but can never sustain the intellectual strain and absorption 

 necessary to earnest poetry for more than a couple of stanzas at a 

 time. It would seem as if that illness had equalised more or less 

 the power and activity of the two brains. Q. X. V. 



[1503] — I have read with great interest yonr series of papers on 

 " Our Two Brains." Possibly the following experience may be of 

 some interest to you, and you might also be able to offer an ex- 

 planation of them. When being shown into a strange room, which 

 I am positively certain I never entered before, it often seems 

 strangely familiar to me, and I am dimly conscious of having been 

 there on some former occasion. Often in society I seem to have a 

 vague consciousness that I have listened to the same conversation 

 before. This sensation sometimes haunts me, even in the most 

 ordinary affairs of life, but it is only when my attention is roused 

 by something uncommon happening that I feel it most strongly. 

 Somehow or other I cannot suppose that I have fore-tnowledge 



