JrsK 19, ISS"..] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



529 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From June 19 to July 3. 



By F.K.A.S. 



THE nsnal daily examiuation of the Sun will bo made, whenever 

 he is visible, for spots and facula' which have quite recently 

 become splendidly developed again. The niyht sky will be 

 found delineated on Jlaps VI. and VII. of " The Stars in their 

 Seasons." As we stated a fortnight ago, there is now no real 

 night. Mercury is a morning star, but towaids the end of the next 

 fortnight is too near the Sun to bo fairly observable ; in fact, on 

 the 27th, he comes into superior conjunction with the Sun. Venus 

 is an evening star, and at the beginning of July may bo caught by 

 the naked eye. after sunset, glittering over the W.N.W. quarter of 

 the horizon. Alars, Saturn, and Neptune are all invisible. Jupiter 

 is rapidly approaching the west, and must be luoked for tho moment 

 the twilight deepens sullicioctly for him to bo visible. Tho pheno- 

 mena of his satellites, now certainly visible, are but few and far 

 between indeed. Omitting those occurring in bright twilight and 

 ■when the planet is close to the horizon, there remain, on the 22nd, 

 the egress of the shadow of Satellite I., at Dh. 53m.; and on the 

 29th, the ingress of the shadow of the same satellite at 9h. 28m. 

 Uranus is in what is called "quadrature" with tho Sun at 2 a.m. 

 on the 20th — i.e., the two bodies differ 90° in longitude. He is still 

 to be found roughly on a line between /3 and t; Virginis. Like 

 Jupiter, he must be looked for the instant it gets dusk. The Moon 

 enters her first quarter at Ih. iS 5m. this afternoon, and is full at 

 llh. 17'9m. a.m. on tho 27th. The solitary oecultation which 

 occurs during our prescribed hours is of the sixth magnitude 

 star, 13 Capricomi, which vrill disappear at the [Jloon's bright 

 limb at midnight on the 29th, at an angle of 119" from her 

 vertex, reappearing at Ih. 7m. the next morning at the dark 

 limb, at a vertical angle of 239°. The Moon is in Virgo when 

 our notes begin, and continues to travel through that constellation 

 until 11 a.m. on the 22nd, when she enters Libra. At noon on the 

 24th she emerges into the narrow northern strip of Scorpio, which 

 it takes her until 10 o'clock the same night to traverse. At the 

 last-named hour she emerges in Ophiuchus. At 8 p.m. on the 26th 

 she leaves Ophinchus for Sagittarius, her path across which is com- 

 pleted by 11 a.m. on the 29th. She then enters Aquarius, through 

 which she continues to travel until noon on July 3, when she 

 crosses into Pisces. There we leave her. 



Licensed Exper:mental Physiology. — In a Parliamentary return 

 just issued relating to experiments on living animals, Inspector- 

 General Bush reports that 49 persons held licenses during 1884, 

 and the total number of experiments of all kinds performed was 

 about 441. The animals operated upon were all rendered insensible 

 during the experiments. Of 145 experiments 99 consisted in simple 

 inoculation with a morbid virus. Of the remaining 46 experiments 

 imder these certificates, 24 were performed for the purpose of 

 medico-legal inquiries in cases of suspected poisoning, resulting in 

 the death by tetanus of three frogs and six mice, which survived, 

 however, only a few minutes ; ten other cases under tho same head 

 were experiments on the infection of fish with a species of fungus, 

 very destructive in certain rivers and streams ; and five on tho 

 effects of immersion of fish in distilled water, which proved fatal to 

 about thirty minnows and sticklebacks. These returns should 

 satisfy the most rabid anti-vivisectionists, but they won't. A 

 strongly-worded protest in favour of the poor little minnows and 

 sticklebacks will certainly result. — Medical Prest and Circular. 



Some time ago Mr. Bayley showed that when drops of various 

 solutions are allowed to fall on to filter-paper, the salt which was 

 in solution in many cases remains in the centre, and a water ring 

 extends around it. Mr. J. U. Lloyd has extended these observa- 

 tions, and a notice of them has been given in the Chemical Ncwb. 

 He has observed the distances to which various substances in 

 aqueous solutions extend on pieces of blotting-paper, dipped into 

 the solutions, before they are left behind by the water. Great 

 differences were noticed in the length to which different salts thus 

 travelled. Mixtures of salts were also examined ; in some cases 

 one salt passes on, leaving the other completely behind. 'J'hus a 

 solution of quinine and berberine sulphates was separated by the 

 method described ; the former salt passed on through tho paper 

 after the progress of the latter had quite ceased. Dilute sulphuric 

 acid behaved similarly ; pare water alone passed onwards. In the 

 case of simple salts dissolved in water, the rule appears to be that 

 the more dilute the solution the quicker is the separation into salt 

 and water. 



" Lot Knowledge grow from more to more." — Alfekd TENiOfgOB. 



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BRILLIANT GLOW AT MIDNIGHT. 



[1758] — On the night of Juno 12-13, at a few minutes past 

 eleven, looking from a height (406 ft. above sea-level) near Forest 

 Row, Sussex, a bright pearly glow was seen a few degrees west of 

 north, streaming up from the horizon like the prelude of a fine 

 moonrise. It gradually extended towards north-east, and at mid- 

 night presented a very luminous appearance as far as about 15° 

 east of north. The light was very steady. The sky was clear in 

 all directions, and tho stars brilliant. According to the almanack, 

 sunrise on the 14th occurred at 3h. 44m. a.m., and moonrise at 

 5h. 45m. Henky J. Sl.u-k. 



VITAL FORCE. 



[1759] — What, in tho name of patience, does a certain set of 

 persons wish to make of tho universe ? Those who deny any 

 external existence, and therefore tho existence of all but their own 

 minds — I was about to write brains, but that brains, from their 

 point of view, are also phantoms of tlieir own conception — must 

 remain satisfied with their own deification, as head centres of their 

 chimerical worlds, with their egoistic " I'etat, c'est moi." As for 

 matter and force, these are, according to their own doctrine, also 

 phantasma of their consciousness. Their own vera causa is the all- 

 sufficient ego, and nothing more can bo said. 



But to those captious, discontented reasoners, who believe in the- 

 existence of an external world, in tho existence of others besides 

 themselves, and in force, yet who would, nevertheless, destroy 

 all other beliefs, I repeat the question, What, in the name of 

 patience, do you want to prove ? There is the power, there is the- 

 mechanism by which all is accomplished that excites men's wonder 

 and admiration, are you satisfied with the universe as it is, or are 

 you not ? Is it a matter of any great importance what name men 

 shall confer on the Supreme Potentiality ? Can yon alter the 

 constitution of the Cosmos, or will it proceed on its eternal pur- 

 pose in spito of you ? Are you satisfied with the working of your 

 own minds, and do you think yourselves very clever ? Are you 

 convinced that mind is the product of force and organism — what 

 then ? Cannot yon rise to tho conception of a mind infinitely 

 beyond your own, of which the whole universe may be the necessary- 

 substratum, of a living universe in which all force is vital force 

 and in which all dynamics are vital dynamics? 



When we speak of a vital force we do not speak of a special force 

 wandering about, but of a vital force ever present to vivify when 

 tho conditions of organisation are suitably conformed for that 

 purpose. But matter cannot organise itself, it can only be 

 organised by an intelligent direction of power. Vis insita is only 

 another name for the power indwelling in the universe uncreated 

 and indestructible. 



What step can man's little intelligence take with regard to 

 organisation beyond that of tho mere contrivance of mechanism 

 which cannot live ? Men cannot by taking thought make anything 

 which force can vivify. And yet the most wonderful forms of life 

 teem forth perfectly organised, living, moving, and having their 

 being, wo know not how. 



Moreover, is science omniscient that it should dare to enunciate 

 the constitution of nature ? There are mysteries that science is 

 as unable to probe as ever — viz., gravitation, colour, sound, &c., &c. 

 Colour and sound, though caused by vibrations, are not inherent 

 in the vibrations. If sound and colour really have any external 



