Feb. 6, 1SS5.] 



KNOWT 



-1 r; r. 



115 



time of unconsciousness, fully rccnilcd. The restored iniiu has uo 

 doubt but that he is the same person. Mind can thus CNist appa- 

 rently apart frou\ matter. It is, however, unable to give proof of 

 its existence e:ccept through a sound, healthy, organised body. 



It is fanciful to suppose that nature, or, to write more explicitly, 

 the God of Nature, has so formed ui!>n that when his spirit enters 

 a glorified body there will be a comjilete remenitnunce of the life 

 passed in his mortal organism, but altogether free from all recollec- 

 tions of the loathsome dissolution of his frame in tho dark and 

 silent regions of the grave? If so, what a benevolent arrange- 

 ment I and sorely, if there bo a future state, may wo not conclude, 

 from analogy, that there will be such a forgotfulness, seeing tho 

 unconsciousness of all circumstances that take place during a 

 temporary suspension of the functions of the mental faculties P I 

 fear I have trespassed upon your space, but I hope you nmy con- 

 sider the subject not altogether unworthy of it, and that my 

 thoughts may lead others to think out the subject more fully. 



Barbados, Jan. 4. W. 11. Jonk.<:. 



SHAKESPEARE AND THE CIRCLLATION OF THE BLOOD. 



[15S2J — Will you kindly allow nio to place before tho readers of 

 yonr valuable j>aper the following facts. Uarvey discovered tho 

 circulation of the blood in 1028, Shakespeare died in ICIU, and in 

 his tragedy, " King John," Act 3, Scene 3, are found tho following 

 words : — 



"• Or if that snrly spirit, melancholy. 

 Had bak'd thy blood, and made it hcavj% thick 

 (Which else runs tickling up and down the veins)." 



In several other places, too, Shakespeare mentions the " coursing" 

 of the '■ blood " through the veins. Tho only conclusion I can 

 come to, taking these facts into consideration, is that the blood 

 was supposed to travel through tho veins before the time of 

 Harvey, and that he simply proved it. If so, the appellation 

 "Discoverer of the circulation of the blood" is rather misleading. 

 Perhaps some of your reader.*: can give a little elucidation on this 

 point. ' H. ToMKYs. 



[All that Mr. Tomkys's quotations seem to prove is that Shake' 

 speare (in common with a largo number of people even in remote 

 historical times) was aware that the blood was in motion. Why, 

 Galen knew this much more than 1700 years ago, but his ideas of 

 the iJirection of that motion were grossly erroneous. And it was 

 not until 1513 that Vesalins overthrew the erroneous conceptions 

 of the great anatomist of I'ergamum. Servetus (whom Calvin 

 bnmed) discovered the pulmonary circulation, as did Nealdo 

 Colombo independently, six years after that thoroughly Christian (?) 

 proceeding. Moreover, Cifsalpinus actually used the phrase "cir- 

 culation of the blood" in a treatise published during Shakespeare's 

 lifetime. What Harvey did was to trace the course of the blood 

 from the left side of the heart, through the arteries, into the capil- 

 laries, and so back by the veins to the right side of the heart, 

 whence the pulmonary artery carries it to tho lungs to be purified 

 and returned by the pulmonary veins to the left side of the heart 

 to recommence its circuit. — Ed.] 



PREHISTOIUC SEPULTURE. 



[1583]— To "Kirkdale Cave" (15GG) I hasten to explain that I 

 never doubted that there are many sepulchral cairns and barrows 

 which were built for that purpose alone, and could never have 

 served as houses. The one he opened on Dec. 24 is one of these ; 

 but not, apparently, in any way a me'ialithic structure, the largest 

 stones being but two feet long, which is nothing. These cairns 

 were probably built in historic times by races relatively civilised, 

 as their contents tend to show; but the cromlechs, tumuli, &c., 

 built of enormous blocks, and always possessing a commvnication 

 with the air, were most likely made by men who had no idea of 

 pottery, perhaps not even of tiiut implements. Hallyards. 



THE SENTIENT WORLD. 



[15S4]— In yonr issue of Jan. IG, Mr. Cave Thomas states that 

 " colour and sound arc not images of external things, of mechanical 

 vibration," which is, of course, perfectly true, but he goes on to 

 remark that there is a "world of sensuous experiences which have 

 no resemblance whatever to our conception of outer things, a world 

 of experiences which neither resemble subject or object, a world 

 which science cannot analyse." This seems to need explanation. 

 For surely from the " world of sensuous experiences " arc con- 

 structed all "our conceptions of outer things," even of those 



" mechanical vibraticns " which are supposed to give rise to tho 

 sensations of light and colour. Except by sight and by touch wo 

 can gain no idea of a vibration or any material object, utid science has 

 nothing to deal with excepting those very colours, sounds, tastes, 

 touehc.", odours, thoughts, passions, pains, and pleasures which Mr. 

 Cave Thomas declari's to be outsidt; its province. That it cannot 

 analyse them is, in one sense, true, but they are tho materials with 

 which it liuilils, and with which it forms a concept ("frigid" or 

 otherwise) of "external o.Nislence." Thus "subject," "object," 

 and " mechanical vibration," como under tho same catcgni'y with 

 "sensuous experiences." 



In reference to your nolico of my pamphlet " What is Religion r" 

 and to your notice of Dr. l.ewiiis' letter and my own, may I be 

 pennitlcd to say that ITylo-Idealism differs from previous systems 

 in being a niiilication of Materialism and Idealism. 1 may give as 

 its two complementary mottoes " Cerebrum cogit, ergo est," and 

 " Tot cercbra, quot mundi." C. N. 



QUESTION FROM FLATLAND. 



[1585] — A line is bounded by two points ; a surface is bounded 

 byline or lines, meeting at an angular jioint or points; a solid 

 (in j'our world) by surface or surfaces, meeting tit an edge line or 

 lines, and these at a corner point or points. Thorofore, so must a 

 sursolid (to uso a word two or three centuries old), (u- four- 

 (limennxoned thing, bo bounded by solids, meeting at stn-facos, 

 which meet at lines, and these at corner points. 



Now, assuming four-dimensioned space, but avoiding aiivtliing 

 curved, what must you infer to be (1) the smallest number of 

 rectilinear solids to enclose a sursolid ? (2) These meeting at how 

 many planes? (3) Which meet at how many edges? (1) And 

 those at how many corners ? A Flat. 



THE ANORTITOSCOPE. 



[1580] — I cannot say whether the Anorthoscope is on sale, but I 

 have one that was on sale twenty-fire years since. I have none of 

 the discs that were then sold with it, but 1 well remember the 

 playing-cards, tho comic head, and bunch of flowers. At that time 

 i distorted a likeness of Burns, which came out as five good like- 

 nesses, but that is gone, and I have now only a curious curved 

 figure that shows as five isosceles triangles. Perhaps "F.R.A.S." 

 would like to know that I distorted a figure on horseback three 

 instead of five times. When showing this the cord is not crossed. 

 Both discs turn the same way, .and the figure is shown three times 

 repeated instead of five times. And very curiously the figures are 

 turned completely' round, both horse and rider facing tho left 

 instead of the right, as on the original. I have this now, but never 

 heard of any one else making it. I will willingly show my instru- 

 ment and discs to " F.R.A.S.," or any one he or you may send, 

 but certainly will not sell anything. N. W. Smith. 



VEGETARIANISM. 



[1587] — I am sorry to see so eminent a chemist as Mr. M. 

 Williams support this delusion. There was a party of Europeans 

 exploring Australia (Lcichhardt's ?) who were found dead, with 

 their stomachs full of food, but starved; they could not digest; 

 what tho natives lived on. I had ,an uncle who was a vegetarian 

 for fourteen years; very ill at last, he was pronounced dying of 

 starvation. A pigeon was administered, ;ind this led tho w.ay back 

 to mutton and convalescence. 



We made the railways in the north of France. At first the con- 

 tractors — for gain's sake — employed local labour; they wero 

 obliged to give it up— also fur gain's sake— because they found 

 that one beef-fed Briton did the work of three Frenchmen 

 stuffed with bread and cabbage. If we are to thrive on vege- 

 tables, we should spend as much time on browsing as the her- 

 bivores all do. How would the City go on if luncheon took several 

 hours ? When I was a crack-brained Puseyite of nineteen, I spent 

 a whole Lent on vegetables, save Sundays, feeling no privation or 

 regret. My cheeks, however, permanently lost their due roundness, 

 and the next year I nearly died. I do not like flesh so well as other 

 foods, but I find it absolutely esscnti.al, not only to avoid suffering 

 and danger from heart disease, but also to effect digestion of other 

 food. Monks and friars are all deprived of flesh, because they have 

 taken upon themselves to live a life for which a normal man would 

 have too ninch blood. 



After a too long Turkish bath once, I was seized with vomiting!?, 

 which threatened collapse. I w.as staying with a i)hysici.an, and 

 he tried all tho resources of tho art without avail. At last, I 



