534 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[June 19, 1885. 



Until Tou can definitely prove, on scientific grounds, that mind and 

 matter are eternal, I must persist in the belief that they must 

 hare had an origin, and there can be no more objection to call that 

 origin God than to dub it a Solipsism, or anything else ; and this 

 even if heaven and hell be the veriest figments of the uncultured 

 mind. Of course, Xewton did write hopeless rubbish on theological 

 subjects. It is notorious that he was actually insane at the time 

 (1692-93) when, at Dr. Bentley's request, he wrote his four letters 

 on the existence of the Deity. You are yourself, though, under a 

 delusion about Sir George Airy. Your anecdote is so amusing that 

 it really deserves reproduction ; but it is scarcely suited for ih-ise 

 columns. — E. Colpiits Eobisson requests it may be announced 

 that he is not F.R.G.S., as erroneously stated in the review of 

 his work on p. 482. I imagine that this was a misprint for 

 F.E.G.S. — W. DriiLEY Dines. I regret that I am ignorant 

 of the address of the makers of the Bed Cross Pocket Ambulance. 

 — F. W. H. Your friend was so far right that in every ocean in 

 free communication with the Poles the temperature of the bottom 

 layer of water is very little above, and sometimes even below, 

 32' Fahr. In the Xorth Atlantic at 800 fathoms the temperature 

 is 40' Fahr., and continues to sink as the depth grows greater. 

 Oddly enough (at first sight), we get to the 40° stratum at 300 

 fathoms in the equatorial parts of the same ocean. The tempera- 

 ture of the water is considerably lower than that of the superficial 

 parts of the earth's crust beneath it. See the reports of the 

 Challenger expedition and Wyville Tliompson's " Depths of the 

 Sea " and " Atlantic." — E. P.^bes. You shotdd really consult a good 

 solicitor. See, though, p. 258 of " Whitaker's Almanack" for this 

 year, and form your own opinion from what yon will read there 

 and on the previous page. — J. J. Colli.vs asks why on (what he 

 calls) " the Development Theory," Jews, after forty [centuries of 

 circumcision aren't born circumcised ? Well, perhaps the most 

 immediately evident reason is that nattiral selection acts by per- 

 petuating and developing variations lenencial to species in their 

 struggle for existence. How far this savage rite can be held to 

 benefit its victim in any such sense is perhaps not very apparent. — 

 H. R. B. I have yet to learn that mere inconceivability, ex 

 necessitate, "proves falsity in the premiss"; inasmuch as less 

 than 400 years ago the motion of the earth was quite incon- 

 ceivable to (practically) all mankind. You, however, remove 

 the whole question under discussion out of the region of 

 science into that of theology — whither I neither can nor will 

 follow you. — John Eobeetsox. Unless you can give me chapter 

 and verse for your statistics, from the returns of the Kegistrar- 

 General, I can take no notice of your communication. If they are 

 extracted from any of the anti-vaccination books or pamphlets 

 which I have read, they are utterly worthless, inasmuch as any- 

 thing more shameless than the "cooking" of statistics in those 

 publications I hare never seen. That oat of the thirty-eight men 

 on board of the Duncan who became infected with small-pox by 

 contagion, and were presumably all shut up together in the sick- 

 bay of that ship, only one should have died (and we have no details 

 as to whether he had been successfully vaccinated or not) seems to 

 speak volnmes in favour of vaccination. However, the crucial 

 test is applied in the case of the medical officers and nurses 

 of the small-pox hospitals, who, carefully and periodically 

 vaccinated, enjoy absolute immunity from the loathsome 

 disease which is raging around them. — J. 1Iae.shai,l. Buy 

 "The Young Collector's Handbook of Butterflies," acd "The 

 Toung Collector's Handbook of Beetles," by Kirby, published 

 by Swan, Sonnenschein, k Co. They will cost you one penny each, 

 and give you full instructions for preserving Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera. I cannot call to mind jtist now the name of any book 

 treating on the preservation of botanical specimens. For first-rate 

 directions for preserving and mounting mammals, birds, batrachians, 

 reptiles, and fish, get Maynard's " Manual of Taxidermy," reviewed 

 on p. 292 of Volume V.— J. B. Scott. The determination of 

 the heliographic latitude and longitude of a sun-spot is a process 

 which cannot be simplified in the way you require. See Carrington's 

 " Observations of Solar Spots," published, in 1863, by Williams & 

 Xorgate, London. During the short time a spot occupies in crossing 

 the screen, it is travelling along a parallel of declination. — Peof. 

 T. G. Boxxet and P. E. Dove. Your invitation reached this office 

 on Saturday, and me on Monday — too late, nnfortnnately, for 

 me to avail myself of it. — The Marqcis of Hamiltox, &c. 

 In thanking you, I may ask you to read the previous 

 reply as equally applicable. — Protea writes at too great length 

 to deny that the service for the Restoration was either appointed 

 by the Church of England, or was part of the Prayer Book! 

 This, of course, involves the assumption that that Church is a kind 

 of imperium in imperio, which but few people indeed, outside of 

 the English Church Union, will be nowadays found to contend, or 

 even to admit. She is in this country the Church of the State " by 

 law established," and a service enacted by statute is as obligatory 



on her as one decided on by Convocation. The Parliament which 

 decreed the one under discussion was a Parliament of churchmer, 

 representing and elected by the churchmen of the kingdom ; hence 

 your contention that "the Church" had nothing to do with it 

 seems to me the veriest logomachy. Your defence of Charles II. 

 seems a little far-fetched. Surely the wholly unprincipled race of 

 the Stuarts, from which he sprang, would suffice by mere inherit- 

 ance to start him with a fair stock of vices. Lying, duplicity, and 

 deceit, for example, he would inherit directly from his father.— 

 R. Cajipeell. Xon-magnetisable watches are generally made 

 with aluminium bronze for the lever and pallets, and a palladium 

 balance-spring and gold balance ; but, so far, no really effectively 

 compensated balance has been devised into which steel does not 

 enter as a component. — W. Cave Thom.as. I regret the misprints 

 as much as you can possibly do ; but it is obviously impossible 

 for me personally to read proof of all that appears here. — 

 W. J. asks Mr. Browning whether Bown's two-speed gearing is good 

 and suitable ? — R. Williams. Forwarded as yon request ; but the 

 address appears in fnll in our advertising columns every week. — 

 Hally.ards. It is not too late to cancel it now. and it shall be 

 done. Believe me that my respect and esteem for yon are too 

 genuine to permit me ever to attempt any " application of the 

 knout " in your case. The words which you regard in that light 

 were not written especially for your behoof. I was fain to hope that 

 they would meet the eye of certain critics who periodically favour me 

 with instructions for the conduct of Knowledge, and are good 

 enough to point out exactly what ought to appear in its columns 

 and what should be expunged or omitted from them. Very strictly 

 between ourselves, I quite agree with yon in the subsequent part of 

 your letter. — Aethue Lucas, The Cocnxil of the Societt ok 

 Aets. Received with thanks. — Metee. Will appear in due course. 

 — Tbos. F. Tyeemax. You should study Professor G. H. Darwin's 

 exposition of his theory as to the manner in which the periods of 

 lunar rotation and revolution came to be coincident. Your refe- 

 rence to " plans 3 and 4," is wholly unintelligible in the absence 

 of those plans themselves. — Thcestox it Co. Received. — W. H. 

 D.\viES sends this rather odd coincidence. On June 8, 1SS5, Mr. 

 W. F. Denning, the eminent astronomer, and Mr. Calver, the well- 

 known optician, were several!}' elected Associates of the Liverpool 

 Astronomical Society. On June 8, eight years ago, the same two 

 gentlemen were together elected Fellows of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society. — De. Lewins. Admitting, for argn- 

 ment's sake, the irrefragable truth of all you advance, I 

 must emphatically repeat that this is not the place in which it 

 would be either proper or profitable to advance it. Why don't you 

 start a journal devoted to the exposition of your ideas, yourself ? — 

 J. M. Coaxes. It may be taken that mean solar day is an invariable 

 quantity ; that in use among astronomers being 10U273791 of a side- 

 real day which (mahjre much which has been recently written) has 

 never been proved to have varied during the time which has elapsed 

 since records were first made. I know of no work treating in detail 

 on this subject in the form in which you require it, but see pp. 186 

 to 191, inclusive, of the edition of " Brinkley's Astronomy," edited 

 by Stubbs and Briinnow, and pnblished by Longmans. The Solar 

 year is very slowly diminishing in length now. Laplace reckoned that 

 it was 10 seconds shorter than in the time of Hipparchus. — Chas. W. 

 XiXD. Rightly or wrongly concubinage is grossly repugnant to 

 English taste and ethics ; and the mere circumstance that a person 

 practising it happened to possess exceptional intellectual ability can 

 in no sense be held to redeem it. What every one would join in 

 denouncing in the woman who lives with Bill Sykes certainly gains 

 no fresh grace — and, in fact, admits of even less palliation — when 

 paraded by one whose mere education should have afforded some 

 guarantee for deference to common decency. However, I have 

 since received a letter from " Commentator" expressing his extreme 

 regret that I did not suppress the passage to which you take excep- 

 tion ; not, though, in least on the ground which you take ; but less 

 he might nnwittiugly have hurt the feelings of living relations and 

 connections of the writer to whom it referred. — Alfred Hay. 

 If you, yourself, wish to leam something of the scientific 

 value of the book you recommend to " Commentator/' 

 I strongly advise yon to read the review of it by the late Professor 

 Clifford, which appeared in the Fortnightly Rei'ieic for June, 1875, 

 and is reproduced in Volume I. of Cliilord's" Lectnresand Essays," 

 published by Macmillan & Co. I have received an Anonymous 



84 

 Post Caed asking me " to return the blue book of No. 5,401 — 



to 25, Tower-street, Winchester." I have not the most distant 

 conception to what this refers, what it means, or from whom it 

 comes. — Alex. Mackie says that in letter 1,745, in writing " four- 

 fifths of it being pure oxygen," he meant, one-fourth being pure 

 oxygen. Also that in his peroration " slowly ; but will," &c., should 

 be " slowly but surely will," and that the final note of interrogation 

 is not his. 



