90 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Jan. 30, 18t5. 



® tutorial # OS 01 p. 



E\ERYONE who is anxious for the diffusion of scientific 

 information, and of the practical knowledge which that 

 iuforruation brings, must be grieved to the heart at its 

 prostitution by the skulking cowards who attempted to 

 destroy the Tower, V.'estminster Hall, and the House of 

 Commons on Saturday last. It is pitiable to find that the 

 resources of modern chemistry have placed such a power 

 for evil in the hands of the Irish-American scum, whose 

 truoulence is only equalled by their arrant poltroonery. 

 The mischief is done now, though, and it only remains for 

 peaceable, law-abiding citizens to consider how this form 

 of atrocity can be best met. First and foremost, I would 

 suggest, by a radical reform in our system of detective 

 police. \Ve must free our minds of cant, and riot 

 be led away by the bogey - cry that espionage is 

 "Un-English." Why aie not French public buOd- 

 ings blown up ? Because there is a police-agent in 

 every secret society in Paris. Secondly, the punishment 

 of these vermin when caught should not only be as severe 

 as it can be made, but as degrading. The burglar does 

 risk his liberty and, even on occasion, his life. The dyta- 

 mitard puts down his packet, lights a time-fuse, and runs 

 away forthwith, leaving his deadly material to wreak de- 

 struction upon innocent men, women, and children. 

 Nothing appeals to the feelings of such an arrant cur as 

 this so immediately as personal physical sufJering, and 

 therefore severe and repeated flogging should form part of 

 his sentence. As for the Eossas and Patrick Fords, they 

 should be simply crushed under the iron heel of the mighty 

 American Republic like slugs or blackbeetles. 



The number of the Montldy Xotices containing the 

 |)ipers read at the meeting of the Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society on Dec. 12, 1-Sl, reached us on Jan. 21, 1885— 

 twelve dajs after the January meeting, and thirty-nine 

 days after their presentation to the Society ! The 

 Christmas holidays may have had something to do with 

 this most improper delay, but I suspect that a good deal of 

 it was referable to the necessary press corrections of a par- 

 ticularly long and dreary paper by Dr. Gill, which pro- 

 bably has been read through by Mr. Stone only, skimmed 

 by two or three more, and left absolutely unlocked at by 

 an overwhelming majority of the Fellows of the Society. 

 I consider that printing screw readings and the runs of 

 the microscopes of a circle, in extenso, are an indefensible 

 waste of the Society's funds. Results are what are needed 

 in such cases, not meie verbatim copies of the observer's 

 notes. If the money thus needlessly squandered were 

 expended in additions to the Society's library, it must, and 

 would, do almost indefinitely more to advance astronomy. 

 Our governing body is, however, so largely composed of 

 paid astronomers, that any official can get the contents of 

 his observatory books reproduced verbatim in cur proceed- 

 ings without any difficulty whatever. 



If, however, an undue proportion of the number of the 

 ^'Notices," on which I am commenting, is occupied by the 

 irksome pages of the Cape Astronomer, there is ample 

 compensation to be found in one of the most novel, remark- 

 able, and original papers that have been presented to the 

 Society for msny a long day. It is on " The Long 

 Duration of Meteoric Radiant Points," by that well-known 

 observer, Mr. W. F. Denning, who shows, upon evidence 

 which it appears difficult or impossible to gainsay, that 

 stationary radiant points of meteorites are visibly active 

 ■during several successive months ! Every reader of these 

 Jines, who has devoted the smallest attention to meteoric 



astronomy, will recognise the very grave difficulties which 

 exist in reconciling such a phenomenon as this with the 

 ordinarily received theories of the orbits of shooting-stars. 

 Assuming it to be a fact, it mu.'it possess a meaning at 

 present hidden from us. The elucidation of this meaning 

 opens a fruitful field of labour, both to the observer and the 

 theorist. All interested in the subject should at once pro- 

 cure Mr. Denning's remarkable essay, and read it carefully 

 through, from beginning to end. It will well reward him 

 for its perusal. 



Encke's Comet has been picked up by several observers 

 with moderate telescopes. The reader who may wish to 

 realise its existing aspect can do so by making a circular 

 slate pencil mark of about one-sixteenth of an inch in 

 diameter on a slate, and then very nearly lubbing it out 

 with his finger. 



As a contribution to a sociological cpiestion of the gravest 

 import, the following paragraph, which appears in the 

 morning papers, seems to be worthy of very serious 

 attention : — 



The Boilermakers and Ironworkers' Society in Govan, Glasgow, 

 on Wednesday night, considered the offer of Mr. Pearce, of Elder & 

 Co., to build a vessel of 5,C00 tons, and give work to the un- 

 employed, the conditions being that the same wages should be paid 

 as in 187;». The society rejected the offer by 209 to 15. The sliip 

 will not be bnilt, although thousands of men are idle. 

 Of course, it is quite witliin the competence of these people 

 " to cut ofl' their noses to be revenged on their faces " as long 

 as ever their society support them, and no one has a right 

 to quarrel with the decision they Lave arrived at in a 

 matter concerning themselves. Should, however, any of 

 these gentry apply in any shape or w ay for relief under the 

 Poor Law, I do hope that the Glasgow Guardians will not 

 lose sight of that very useful statute, 5 Geo. IV. c. 83, s. 3. 



The "great goosebeiry" season appeals to have set in 

 prematurely and with great severity in certain provincial 

 journals. A correspondent writes to one of them, now 

 lying before me, that he had a very old dog, which he 

 much valued, and which, though suil'ericg from the inevit- 

 able effects of age, he could not make up his mind to have 

 killed. " On Thursday," he goes on to say, " I went to- 

 wards the post-oflice with the intention of buying a flog- 

 lioence. I was just on the point of entering and planking 

 down 7s. Gd., when my dog gave a loud bark and prostrated 

 it.self under the wheel of a heavy waggon. Death was 

 instantaneous. The faithful animal, aware that its end 

 was near, and wishful to save the expense of a licence, had 

 voluntarily ended its earthly pilgrimage." Whether we 

 regard this astonishing beast's Spaitan indifference at once 

 to death and to the exigences of Mr. Childers, or his 

 practical method of exhibiting his aflection for his master, 

 we can orly look upon the anecdote as Delicious. 



Considering the endless variety of ways in which enjoyment 

 can be derived from the pursuit of photography, and the simplicity 

 of its processes under their altered conditions, it is not surprising 

 that the practice of the art by amateur's is becoming fashionable ; 

 and were the facilities for acquiring a knowledge of so beautiful an 

 accomplishment more generally known, the numbers of non-profes- 

 sional artists would doubtless be largely increased. The London 

 Stereoscopic Company are doing much towards this end by their 

 " free instruction " system (of which some hundreds of pupils have 

 availed themselves during the past year), and at no very distant 

 date we may expect to find the portable photographic apparatus, in 

 its compact leather case, side by side with the gun-case, amongst 

 the baggage of tourists ; while no country house will be considered 

 com])]etely appointed without the necessary appliances for landscape 

 photography. And every one "who is anybody " will probably soon 

 consider it indispensable to be nu fait with the use of the camera. 



