270 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[March 27, 1885. 



sure) " Americn for the Americans" — i.e.. ttat no foreign states 

 should intrnde nj on American territory. " Chauvinism" is the Fren?h 

 for "Jingoism," " Palmerstonian," the " Civis Romanus sum," and 

 other principles of Lord Palmerston.— Rev. Chas. Voysey. Four 

 thousand miles is a long way to forward. Ton are quite right, and 

 you will sec from a reply above that I have put a stop to it. I do 

 not myself see why reli'jion should be excluded from a scientific paper; 

 but theology is a very different thing. — Coxstaxt Re.^dee. The 

 loss of weight of a body transported from the poles to the equator 

 from the centrifugal tendency alone is about irggth part, i c, a body 

 weighing 289 lb. at either pole would, from this cause only, weigh 

 288 lb. on the equator. There is, though, of course, a further loss 

 of weight, having its origin in the fact that any point on the 

 equator is more distant from the earth's centre of gravity than the 

 pole is ; the earth being not a sphere but an oblate spheroid. — If 

 Cosmopolitan' and C. W. Dymond care to commnnicate with the 

 writer of letter 1G19, p. ISl, his address is, Hugh McJIaster, Esq., 

 Blainby, Port William, Wigtownshire. — J. G. Certainly not. The 

 weight'of a cubic foot of air with the baroneter at 30 inches and 

 the thermometer at 32^ is 575 grains, and this is fnturated with 

 2'37 grains of aqueous vapour. — J. T. Sh.\w. It is not genuine, 

 and if you will take my advice you will have nothing to do with 

 such an imposture. — W. R. K. Xoting, in limine, that the mode of 

 projection described is stated to be particularly applicable to a 

 limited region of the heavens; in the case of a constellation on the 

 equator, like A'irgo, where the sensible convergence of the meridians 

 is comparatively small, you might treat as much of the equator as 

 yon used as a continuous straight line. — Uncle John. I beg your 

 pardon ; I thought that you referred to some sensihJe mo%'ement 

 among the fixed stars. Of course, they are one and all in motion ; 

 but so stupendous (nay, practically infinite) is their distance that 

 such motion is only rendered perceptible by the most refined means 

 of raeasorement. Our own sun, with his attendant system of planets 

 and comets, is moving through space at a probable rate of some 

 twenty-seven miles a second. Seventeen years ago, Sirius was 

 receding from the earth at the rate of 29^ miles per second, 

 but in the year 18S0 this motion of recession, which had been 

 gradually diminishing, ceased; the star was for a short time seem- 

 ingly stationary ; and then the motion of reception was converted 

 into one of approach. 1830 of " Groombridge's Catalogue " has an 

 annual proper motion of some 7", CI Cygni one of 5", and so on. — 

 F. W. RuDLEE. Received with thanks. Could you furnish me with 

 a short precis of the sight-testing papers and discussion? — The 

 Worm. You have made your figure to fit a particular case. Take 

 an angle of 45° and draw your parallels more obliquely (and, conse- 

 quently, wider apart), and see where your A's, P's, &c., will fall 

 -then. Many a man has trisected an angle as nearly as his com- 

 passes, &c., would measure it, but on subjecting his process to the 

 test of algebra, has found out that he has broken down. — Igxokamcs. 

 Your question would be an exceedingly pertinent one were the gnomon 

 of a sun-dial vertical : but its edge is parallel to the axis of the earth. — 

 CnAPL.ux R. S. SifBiss (Portland, Or., U.S.). The testimonial is 

 perfectly genuine. See final paragraph, in capital letters, which 

 heads the Correspondence column. — Saml. Haigu. Assuredly, it 

 has never " been asserted in Knowledge that the air we breathe is 

 composed of living int^ects ; " but undoubtedly innumerable millions 

 of germs of life, animal and vegetable, do exist in the air which 

 surrounds us. — A. Kinnear (the inventor of the self-lighting gas- 

 burner and tap described in page 530 of our last volume) protests 

 (at too great length for insertion) against the allegations contained 

 in the letter (1558) by Mr. Picfcard on page 38, as contrary to fact, 

 and quite misleading'. — C. A. Martineau. It reached me rather too 

 late to be utilised. — A Puzzled Student. The orbit of the Moon 

 round the Earth is approximately, and only approximately, an 

 ellipse. It is net even a re-entering curve. As referred, however, 

 to the Sun, the Moon's path is s^ways concave. For consider that, 

 as so referred, it must be an utidnlating line, alternately within and 

 without the Earth's orbit. In a fortnight the earth travels rather 

 more than twenty-two millions of miles in her orbit, or say l-t°. 

 Draw this angle on a piece of paper, and join the ends of the arc 

 by a chord. At its middle point, this chord will fall 688,000 miles 

 within the Earth's orbit, while the Moon in apogee is never, under any 

 circnmstances, 253,000 miles from the Earth's centre. Hence her 

 path must always be concave to the sun. If you carefully read the 

 work on " The Moon " by the Conductor of this journal, you will 

 see how numerous are the perturbations she suffers, and will cease 

 to wonder at the irregularity of her path. JCo articles dealing with 

 your special difficulties have appeared in these columns. — Mis.s 

 Mary Macleod. My goodness me ! Y'on take my breath away '■ 

 Neither I nor any other astronomer can " explain ' " from an astro- 

 nomical point of view" why smoky fog came in at your open hall- 

 door on March 15. As for filling columns with your terrific predic- 

 tions, I wonder what the readers of Knowledge generally would 

 say, especially when they learned how imminent the entire destruc- 



tion of these islands is from earthquakes. Even the tremendously- 

 high scientific authority of ex-Lord Mayor Ellis and Mr. Ruskin 

 shall not tempt me to give up half a number, more or lees, of this 

 journal to treating its innocent subscribers as the fat boy sought to 

 serve old Mrs. Wardle, and "make their flesh creep." — Miss 

 Constance Xaden. Many thanks both for the book and the paper 

 on Beauty. The latter will appear. — Thomas Gaddes, David 

 Hou.sTON, and others too numerous to mention. Declined 

 with thanks. Please send stamped and directed enve- 

 lopes for your MSS. if you wish them returned. — John 

 Mansley. Surely you must see that the letter you send me is 

 that of a fanatic, and an ill-informed one to boot. Can you reflect 

 for a moment on the single instance of the unfortunate creature 

 who was fetched out of his bed, "healed" '. '. '. and taken back to 

 die. without seeing what utter humbug the whole affair is ? Would 

 you, sitting as a juryman, dare to find a verdict of guilty against 

 any one upon such evidence as is offered by the author of the stuff 

 you forward .' — C W. P. Jlr. Browning very kindly writes, " If 

 C. W. P. is a tolerably strong rider, and will use the ' Sparkbrook' 

 on fairly good roads, he will not find 5C-in. gearing too high for 

 him ; but as the machine probably weighs 86 lb., I should prefer 

 to have it geared to 52 in. for my own riding." — P. Q. saggests that 

 the word "coercive" (or " coercitive") in magnetism might 

 advantageously be replaced by " conservative," inajmuch as steel 

 is unwilling to receive magnetism and unwilling to relinquish it. — 

 Singer. Thanks, the attention of the writer of the paragraph 

 shall be immediately called to your letter. — H. J. Copplestone. 

 Undoubtedly an electrical phenomenon. In Canada and other 

 places where the air is cold and extremely dry, sparks may be 

 drawn from almost any part of the body that has been exposed to 

 friction. Combing or brushing the hair will always elicit them. — 

 Excelsior. Forwarded as you specially request. Y'ou can hard'y 

 get a reply for five or six weeks though. 



The Royal Society of New Sovth Wales. — [I accede to a 

 request to make the following public, inasmuch as it simply 

 amounts to an offer of rewards for work actually accomplished, and 

 contains no proposition to foster the quack and the advertising 

 man of "science" (?) by "endowing" him first and leaving him 

 either to find something out — or leave it alone — afterwards. — Ed.] 

 "Original Researches. — The Royal Society of New South Wales 

 offers its medal and a money prize for the best communication 

 (provided it be of sufficient merit) containing the results of original 

 research or observation upon each of the following subjects ; — 

 Series IV. (to be sent in not later than May 1, 1885) : No. 13. 

 Anatomy and life history of the echidna and platypus — the Society's 

 medal and £25 ; No. 14, Anatomy and life history of mollusca 

 peculiar to Australia — the Society's medal and £25; No. 15, The 

 chemical composition of the products from the so-called kerosene 

 shale of New South Wales — the Society's medal and £25. Series V. 

 (to be sent, in not later tlian May 1, 1886) : Xo. 16, On the chemistry 

 of the Australian gums and resins — the Society's medal and £25; 

 Xo. 17, On the tin deposits of Xew South Wales — the Society's 

 medal and £25 ; Xo. 18, t)n the iron ore deposits of Xew South 

 Wales— the Society's medal and £25; X'o. 19, List of the marine fauna 

 of Port Jackson, with descriptive notes as to habits, distribution, 

 itc. — the Society's medal and £25. Series VI. (to be sent in not 

 later than May'l, 1887) ; Xo. 20, On the silver ore deposits of Xew 

 South Wales— the Society's medal and £25; X'o. 21, Origin and 

 mode of occurrence of gold-bearing veins and of the associated 

 minerals — the Society's medal and £25 ; Xo. 22, Influence of the 

 Australian climate in producing modifications of diseases — tbe 

 Society's medal and £25 ; Xo. 23, On the infusoria peculiar to 

 Australia — the Society's medal and £25. The competition is in co 

 way confined to members of the Society, nor to residents in Aus- 

 tralia, but is open to all without any restriction whatever, excepting 

 that a prize will not be awarded to a member of the Council for 

 the time beirg; neither will an award be made for a mere conv 

 pilation, however meritorious in its way. The communication, to 

 be successful, must be either wholly or in part the result of original 

 observation or research on the part of the contributor. The Society 

 is fullv sensible that the money value of the prize will not repay aa 

 investigator for the expenditure of his time and labour, but it :e 

 hoped that the honour will be regarded as a sufficient inducement 

 and reward. The successful papers will be published in the 

 Society's annual volume. Fifty reprint copies will be furnished to 

 the author free of expense. Competitors are requested to write 

 upon foolscap paper, on one side only. A motto must be used 

 instead of the writer's name, and each paper must be accompanied 

 by a sealed envelope bearing the motto outside, and containing the 

 writer's name and address inside. All communications to be 

 addressed to the honorary secretaries, A. Liversidge and A. Leibius, 

 the Society's house, 37, Elizabeth-street, Sydney." 



