February 1, 1895. J 



KNOWLEDGE. 



25 



AN ILLUSTRATED 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



SIMPLY WORDED-EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



LONDON: FEBBUARY 1, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



Arthur Cowper Ranyard and his Work. By W. H. 



Weslet {Illustrated) 



The Smallest Flying Squirrel. By E. Ltdekkeb, 



B.A.Cantab., F.E.S. (Hhisfrafed) 



Automatic Stability in Aerial Vessels. By Thomas 



Mot {I/lmlrated) 



The Hessian Fly. By E. A. Butlee, B.A., B.Sc. (Illustrated) 

 Gold in the British Isles. By Eenesi A. Smith, 



A.E.S.M., r.c.s 



Notices of Books 



Dark "Lanes" of the Milky Way. By E. Waltek 



Maundee (^Illustrated) 

 Letters : — A. M. Clekke ; W. H. S. Monckj J. Eveeshed ; 



H. C. EUSSELL 



Science Notes 



The Bass Rock and its Winged Inhabitants. By Haebv 



E. "WlIHEEBY (Illustrated) 



Recent Work on Diphtheria and Its Prevention. By 



J.1MES C. HoYi.E,M.B.,M.E.C.S., D.P.H. (IlUtsirated)... 

 The Face of the Sky for February. By IIbebeui 



Sadler, F.R.A.S 



Chess Column. By C. D. Locock, B.A.Oxon 



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EDITORIAL NOTE. 



The lamented death of Mr. A. Cowper E.any.ard 

 renders new arrangements necessary for the conducting 

 of Knowledge. It is due to the readers of the Magazine 

 to state broadly what these arrangements will be. 



The pages devoted to Astronomy will be edited for 

 the present by Mr. E. Walter Maunder, Hon. Sec, 

 Royal Astronomical Society, who has already received 

 hearty assurances of help Irom several leading astro- 

 nomers, both at home and abroad. A'arious plates, of 

 equal merit with any that have previously appeared, 

 will be issued during the year. 



The old staff of writers will continue to give their 

 valued support to the Magazine, and fresh writers will 

 render it their help. The Magazine will maintain its 

 present high character and will continue to be generously 

 illustrated, while efforts will be made to render it, if 

 possible more attractive to the general reader. 



ARTHUR COWPER RANYARD AND HIS WORK. 



By W. H. Weslky, Assist. Sec, R.A.S. 



OUR readers have already learned the severe loss 

 which has been sustained, not only by this journal 

 but by science, in the death of our late esteemed 

 Editor, Mr. Arthur Cowper Ranyard. 



He was born on June 21st, 1845, at Swanscombe, 

 Kent. His mother was well known for her philanthropic 

 work, and for her writings on religious subjects, under the 

 signature of " L.N.R." The family removed to London 

 during Mr. Ranyard's youth, and he was at University 

 College School from 1857 to 1860, after which he attended 

 Prof. De Morgan's classes at University College, and 

 formed an intimate friendship with the son of the professor, 

 Mr. George De Morgan. In 1861 the two young men 

 formed the plan for a society for the study of mathematics, 

 and a circular, signed by both as "Hon. Sees, pm tern.." 

 was issued, inviting attendance at the first meeting of 

 "The University College Mathematical Society." The 

 first meeting was held on January 16th, 1865, when Prof. 

 De Morgan was elected president, and Messrs. Cozens- 

 Hardy and Bompas secretaries. At this meeting Mr. 

 Ranyard read the first paper, "On Determinants." Being 

 supported by Prof. De Morgan and other eminent mathe- 

 maticians, the association flourished, and has grown from 

 a students' society into the present "London Mathematical 

 Society." Mr. Ranyard left the Council soon afterwards, 

 as he was proceeding to Cambridge, where he entered 

 Pembroke College, and took his degree of B.A. in 1868. 



He had already been elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society in 1863, at the early age of eighteen, 

 and in 1872 became a member of the Council, on which he 

 remained, with an interruption of only four years, till the 

 time of hia death. From 1874 to 1880 he filled the office 

 of honorary secretary, for which he was especially fitted 

 from his abUity, industry, and invariable courtesy. 



Entering the legal profession, he was called to the bar 

 in 1871, since which time, though engaged in practice, his 

 love for science led him to devote most of his spare time 

 to the study and promotion of astronomy. 



In 1870 a joint committee of the Royal and Royal 

 Astronomical Societies organized an expedition to Sicily 

 for the observation of the total solar eclipse in the 

 December of that year, Mr. Lockyer being secretary and 

 Mr. Ranyard assistant secretary to the expedition. The 

 weather was, unfortunately, unfavourable, the sky being 

 more or less obscured at all the stations, but at Villasmunda 

 Mr. Ranyard made a very successful series of polariscopie 

 observations. 



After his return he was requested by the late Sir 

 George Airy to assist in the serious tisk of collating and 

 systematizing the observations of the eclipses of 1860 and 

 1870. The work, as it proceeded, greatly extended its 

 scope, and ultimately devolved upon Mr. Ranyard alone. 

 The outcome was the great eclipse volume of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, in which are given and discussed 

 the results of all kuown eclipse observations down to 1878. 

 The labour involved was very great, more than a year 

 being occupied in cataloguing the details visible upon the 

 corona photographs of the eclipse of 1871, and the work 

 was only finished at the end of 1879. 



His experience in the examination of eclipse photographs 

 led him in 1872 to undertake, in conjunction with Lord 

 Crawford, a series of experiments on photographic irradia- 

 tion, the phenomena of which were separated from those 

 caused by reflection from the back of the plate, and shown 

 to arise from imperfections in the optical image, and not 



