Makch 27, 1886.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



265 



(5 III to rial (Sosfsfi'p. 



Herr RuDOLPn Falk, of Vienna, who appears to ho 

 the author or pr. niulgator of some new theory of earth- 

 quakes, is of opinion that explosions in mines are for the 

 most part coincident with them. Regarding earthquakes 

 as imtuinent on or about March 30, June 12, and 

 July 12, he urges the observance of the greatest caution in 

 mines about these dates. As towhitllerr Falb's ])articular 

 hypothesis may be, I am unfortunately ignorant, but as ho 

 has now aBorded a crucial test of its truth by such very 

 definite predictions as these, an excellent ojiportunity is 

 atlbrded to iihysicists of testing its truth. Ars prohat arti- 

 Jicem : and we shall see — what we shall see. The one fact 

 which, 6o tiT, seems tolerably well established in connee- 

 tion with the ghastly catastrophes which form the subject 

 of the Austrian savant's prophecy is that they ajipoar to be 

 immediately sequent upon heavy falls of the barometer. 



1 NOTE that Wolf is about to commence a series of experi- 

 ments at the Paris Observatory for the redetermination of 

 the ve'ocity of light. The type of apparatus to be employed 

 by him is not stated. It will be curious and interesting to 

 see how far his tinal results differ from the most trustworthy 

 ones we now possess : I mean those derived from tlie 

 delicate and almost exhaustive investigations of Comu, in 

 France, and Michelsen, in the United States. 



The eclipse of the sun on March 16 seems to have been 

 very favouraV.ly observed in New York and other p.arts of 

 the United States. The eclipse was an annular one, but as 

 its central line passed considerably to the noith of New 

 York, it would obviously only be seen there as a partial 

 one. The reader may determine the Hue of central eclipse 

 approximately for himself by drawing one on a map of 

 North America from Disco Itland to the west of Green- 

 land, across Hudson's Bay, and through Manitobi to Cape 

 Mendocino, in California. This will give a rough idea of its 

 path. 



From the current number of del el Terre, I learn that M. 

 G. A- Him proposes to determine the temperature of the 

 strata of the sun underlying the photosphere, in the follow- 

 ing way : — According to an equation given by Weisbach, a 

 direct relation exists between the initial temperature of a 

 gas escaping from a reservoir into a region of less pressure, 

 and the velncity of the gaseous particles. Now, Young 

 and others have observed and approximately measured the 

 stupendous and almost inconceivable velocity of theup-rush 

 of some of the solar prominences, and from these data M. 

 Hirn deduces the temperature of the region whence the 

 gases composing them issued as 2,000,000' (presumably 

 centigrade) ! 



The same excellent little periodical also notes an attempt 

 by le Pere Thirion to account for the supposed satellite of 

 Venus, which observers have from time to time imagined 

 that they have seen, by the supposition that it is 

 an image of the planet reflected from ice-crystals in the 

 highest regions of the atmosphere. But, in jcsthelic 

 language, this is " tao too " ! 



Mark Twain oracularly says, "You cannot bet any- 

 thing on dreams." When I see it snowing heavily at the 

 date of the equinox, it occurs to me that his remark would 

 be equally applicable to our charming English climate. 



Everyone who is anxious tliat Sunday should be really 

 kept holy — in other words, should Vie devoted to the moral 

 and intellectuwl advancement of the people — will rejoice at 

 the result, of the n ception of the deputation of the Sunday 

 Society by the trustees of the National (Jallery on Tuesday 

 week. The newspaper repoits state that — 



Sir Uenry Laynrd, on bclmlf of the trustees, expressed tlie 

 pleasure tliey Imil limi in receiving so influential a deputation, and 

 amid fjrent applause lio stated that tlio trustees, haviuf^ cons^idernd 

 the request of the dp)>nlntion, bud by a mujoiity come to tho d'> 

 cision that the National (lalle'ry (nif;ht to Ijo opened on Sundays. 

 The trustees, however, could not of their own action settlo tho 

 matter, but if tho llouse- of Commons would express afiproval, llio 

 trustees would gladly see the Cialkry open to tho people on Sundiy 

 afternoons. 



Hence it has come at last to a question of finance, and 1 

 am loth to believe that a (iovernment which can squander 

 money so indefensibly as it has been squandereel uiany a 

 time and oft at South Kensington, will refuse to devote an 

 utterly insignificant annual sum to the provision of some 

 couuter attraction to the public-house ; which is now 

 offered as the sole alternative to church (or chapel) for tho 

 Sunday recreation of the working man. 



Since the preceding jiaragraph was written the question 

 has been discussed, on Lord Thurlow's motion, in tho 

 Hou."^e of Lords, with the lesult that, on a division, the 

 numbers were equal. Such a result in the teeth of tho 

 dead weight of professional opinion on the Episcopal Bench 

 can have but one possible signification, the tiiumph of 

 common-sense must bo imminent. 



I WOULD add one more notice here to the stereotyped 

 ones at the head of our Corresjiondence Columiw. It is 

 this, and is addressed to the noble army of literary 

 aspirants who persist in sending me bolsters of MSS. for 

 insertion in the columns of Knowledge. I neither can 



NOR WILL RETURN REJECTED LETTERS, ARTICLES, SKETCHES, 

 OR ANYTIiING ELSE, UNLESS THEY BE ACCO.MPANIED I)Y 

 ENVELOPES rnOPERLY DIUEOTED AND SUFFICIENTLY STA.MPED. 



Is THp; Christian Disi'KNsation Closkd? — I ask this question 

 in all gravit}-. Some, when they hear of certain modern savageries, 

 associated by many with glory (because of the " pomp and eircnm- 

 Btance of glorious war"), are apt to ask somewhat sneeringly whe- 

 ther the Christian dispensation has begun. But I ask without any 

 sneer if it has ended, simply because I find myself rather roundly 

 denounced for saying that Professor Piazzi Smyth, and the Pyramid- 

 alists generally, announced the world's end about tho year 1881 ; 

 whereas, say his defenders, what he really referred to was the end, 

 not of the world, but of the Christian dispensation. I am to infer, 

 this being tho case, that cither tho Pyramid prophecy has been mis- 

 interpreted (not to say that the whole idea of Pyramid prediction 

 has been a wild and fanciful conception) or else that the Christian 

 dispensation came to an end somewhero about the year 1881 or 

 1KS2. Now, I know that Professor Piazzi Smyih recognises in the 

 events which have taken place in Egypt since 1881 the beginning of 

 the end, and that when the comet of 1882 appeared he spoke as if 

 the end of the world were actually at hand. But I had not sup- 

 posed that even he imagined the end of the Christian dispensation 

 had actually arrived. (If course, if tho Pyramid Grand Gallery 

 symbolizes the Christian Dispensation, its length in Pyramid inches 

 representing the duration of Christ's reign on earth in years, then 

 the end of that kingdom must have arrived in 1882, since by no 

 possible contrivance can the length of the gallery be made to re- 

 present more than 1,882 pyramid inches. But it would be well if 

 tho Pyramidalists could bo persuaded to say which horn of the 

 dilemma they prefer to sit on. Either iho pyramid is not what 

 they have so long asserted it to be- a miracle in stone — or else the 

 reif'n of Antichrist began somewhere about the year 1882, at latest. 

 Utruni horum mavin accipe. — II. A. Prociob, in Newcastle Weekly 

 Chronicle. 



