30C 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 10, 1885. 



any reference to the theory of prognostications. He prefaces 

 the article by an account, almost needlessly minute and 

 circumstantial, of the way in which he gradually tracked 

 the insect by its ticking, till he found it in 1 he seat of a 

 rush-bottomed chair. Here he watched the little creature 

 at work, and was so delighted with his discovery that he 

 " called up others to see it beat, which they did, not without 

 admiration." He then proceeds to describe the " manner 

 of its beating." In its helmet-like thorax — or galea, as he 

 calls it — he sees " a very notable and providential defence 

 against such falls as are frequent in rotten and decayed 

 places." He transferred his captive to a box, and kept it 

 alive about a fortnight, but was unable to get it to beat 

 again duiiogits captivity, apparently through not knowing 

 how to induce the action, for in the EnlomoJoguU' Monthly 

 Magazine for 1S66, the late Mr. F. Smith states that he 

 had no difficulty in getting some that he kept to tick 

 whenever he wi^hed, by simjjly tapping five or six times 

 with a lead p-ncil upon the table close to the box in which 

 they were confined. They very shortly answered the 

 summons; raising themselves on their front Ifgs, they com- 

 menced bobbing their heads up and down, rapidly tapping 

 with their ma,ndibles on the bottom of the box. The 

 number of taps on each occasion was either four or five, 

 usually the latter. 



The Dutch naturalist, Swammerdam, who flourished dur- 

 ing the latter half of the seventeenth century, speaks in his 

 " Book of Nature," of an insect, no doubt either the present 

 or an allied species, which " makes a continual noise in old 

 pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which i.s sometimes so 

 loud that upon hearing it, people have been persuaded that 

 nocturnal hobgoblins, ghosts, or fairies wandered about 

 them." He adds, " I think this may be properly called 

 Sonicephalus, or Noisy-headed Beetle." 



A totally ditlerent insect, known generally as the "book- 

 louse," has also been credited with being the producer of the 

 Death Watch tappings. It is an extremely minute, soft- 

 bodied creature, belonging to the order Neuroptera, and is 

 a very common inhabitant of houses. But it does not seem 

 possible that a creature of such delicate structure should 

 create these noises ; however, we will recur to this subject 

 when, later on, we come to the consideration of the insect 

 in question. 



Xestohium tesseUatum, being so much larger than the 

 Anobia, is, of course, far more destructive to timber, if 

 allowed to have full scope for its powers. Spence speaks of 

 the whole of the woodwork of a house in Brussels requiring 

 to be renewed in consequence of its depredations, and states 

 that he was informed that this was no uncommon occur- 

 rence there, the inhabitants calmly acquiescing in the 

 attacks of their tiny foe, through igcorance of any plan of 

 exterminating it, or at any rate checking its ravages. Like 

 most woDd-feeders, it is long-lived in the larval state. 

 Westwood kei>t one for three years before it attained its 

 perfect foi m. 



(To be continued.) 



Public Wosks in Feanx-e.— The expenditure of the yrench 

 Government upon pablic works in the six years ending with 1881, 

 inclusive, was £90,049,139. 



Royal Victoria Hall .a.\d Coffek Tavern. — An excellent 

 ■variety entertainment has been given at the above hall during this 

 week, the usual science lecture and ballad concert having been dis- 

 continued in its favour. These will, however, be resumed next 

 week, and continued during the rest of t e season. The science 

 lecture, on April 21, will be given by Dr. P. H. Carpenter, on 

 "Iceland," illustrated with oxyhydrogen light. The management 

 desire to announce that the seating of the hall ia being altered and 



mproved, so that every one in future will be equally well able t 



e ill that is taking place on the stage 



FIRST STAR LESSONS. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



THE constellations included in the twenty-four maps of 

 this series are numbered throughout as follows (the 

 names being omitted on the maps, to clear these as far as 

 possible from all that might render the star-grouping les.s 

 distinct) : — 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE SENSE 



OF BEAUTY.* 



By Constance C. "W. Naden. 



"\T-HAT is Beauty?" 



This is one of those enigmas 

 which the world of today is almost ready to give 

 up. A quality which may with equal truth be predicated 

 of a humming-bird and of the Parthenon, of a daffodil and 

 of the Venus de' Medici, may well perplex the most skilful 

 aesthetic analyst. Besides, esoteric art-critics occasionally 

 make confusion worse confounded by finding beauty where 

 laymen find pure and simple ugliness, and by treating 

 everyone who worships not with them as a heathen man 

 and a publican. 



Thus excommunicated, whither shall we turn 1 The 

 easiest plan, perhaps, were to found a sect of cur own, and 

 name ourselves, not Pre-raphaelites, but Pre adamites. Can 

 we not see in imagination an enthusiastic professor of Fine 

 Art-", holding in his hand a fragment of ivory scratched 

 with a portrait of the mammoth, and dilating upon the 

 truth, the siacerity, the absolute rightness of this primi- 

 tive masterpiece 1 C<.n we not hear him eloquently exalt 

 the Cave-man above his degenerate descendant^, who debase 



• Read at a meeting of the Mason Science College Union, Nov. 

 21, 18S4. 



