60 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Jdne 23, 1882. 



commendation it has is that it saves the trouble of writing the 

 figures down a second time. W. Mathus. 



The School, Bidefor»l. 



PS— You will observe thnt 1 reverse the usual order of things. 

 In all ariihmetic text-books that I am acquainted with, division of 

 decimaU fr«fd« the rule for reducing a vulgar fraction to o 

 «lecimal, whereas division of decimals might aptly and naturally 

 follow long division. — W. M. 



r435^ I sec, in ans\ver to a correspondent "Euclid," of Bolton, 



(Knowledge, Xo. 31, p. 13), a reference to a large fire-ball, or 

 meteor, seen on May 4th last, at 9.30 p.m. I saw it, and as you 

 indicate that more information on the subject might be useful, I 

 Tentnre to give von mv version of it from notes made at the time. 

 C was searching' with inv telescope for i^- Cygni, when suddenly the 

 field of view was lit up, and the stars in the field vanished as if 

 davlight had suddenly returned. On taking my eye away to ascer- 

 tain the cause, there, right in front of me, was a great ball of 

 intense white light, apparently almost as large as the full moon, 

 gliding across the sky. It travelled so quickly that it is almost 

 impossible to name its eiact path, but when I first saw it it was 

 about on the head of Draco. It passed over Cephcus and into 

 Cassiopeia. In passing over Cepheus its colour changed from white 

 to red, and near y Cassiopeia*, it again changed to blue, or violet, 

 gave an extra flash np and instantly vanished, leaving behind it a 

 long train of red sparks, which died out by degrees, and which had 

 previously been invisible in the intensity of its light. The whole 

 phenomenon did not occupy more than two or three seconds of time, 

 and there was no perceptible noise. It lit up the whole sky like a 

 lingering flash of lightning. It certainly was an awe-inspiring sight, 

 and I heard many people in the neighbourhood, when it was taking 

 place, give vent to their feelings in a shout of amazement. I never 

 saw anything approaching it for grandeur in my life. 



Excelsior. 

 [For the purpose we mentioned, " that is, to determine the true 

 path of the meteor in our atmosphere," it would bo essential that 

 the exact course of the meteor, as seen from our correspondent's 

 station, should be indicated, but his letter is independently interest- 

 ing. — Ed.] 



FLINT IXSTRUMEXTS AXD PRE-HISTORIC MAN. 

 [43C"— A friend of mine, who has just returned from Natal, and 

 ■who had heard nothing of the discussions and theories on the above 

 subject , and on whose veracity I can thoroughly rely, has been 

 «mployed in making the Durban and Mnritzburg Railway. In con- 

 versation the other evening, he told me that in making the Umgeni 

 cutting (through red loam, gravel, and limestone rock) at It feet 

 from the surface, from which a dense forest had been previously 

 cleared, in the red loam his Kaflirs came upon the remains of a 

 fire, charred sticks, A-c. ; close by this he found what he describes 

 as a well-made and beautifully-finished flint odzc-head, the cutting- 

 face sloping from one comer to the other, witli a bevelled edge like 

 a chisel, and the other end finished off with a round flat knob. 



Again, at 10 ft. from the surface, in the hard gravel, he found a 

 jjood manij flint instruments, the two most remarkable ones being a 

 round stone, about the size of a largo orange, very much flattened 

 at each pole, with a { in. hole drilled through it, and by the side of 

 it a stone handle 7 or Sin. long, one end just fitting through the 

 hole, and the other end rounded off ; when put together it had just 

 the appearance of a small stonemason's mallet. At a short distance 

 from this was a stone quoit, almost exactly like the iron ones nt 

 present in use, except that, from where the imlentation for the thumb 

 is, the circle was cut straight across, for about quarter of the circum- 

 ference, by a round handle. The whole of these curiosities were 

 taken possession of by the engineer of the line. 



When tlie geological formation of Natal, and the pretty well- 

 founded idea that the whole of the country has been denuded by a 

 frTcut out-ruHh of waters from a great lake once covering nearly the 

 whole of what is now the Orange Free State, is considered, wo are 

 compelled to give an antiquity to the possessors of these implements 

 as great 'as, or even greater tlian, that given to similar tribes of men 

 in Europe. W. M. 



THE POTATO. 

 [137]—" Farmer" (105, p. Oil) asks me whether I advocate the 

 n«c of mineral mannres to increnKC the starch in potatrH>g. I take it 

 for granted that by the term " mineral " is meant potash, salts, Ac, 

 without reference to sujierphosphates. My own experience (not at 

 neoond-hand) indicates that the percentage of starch, as found 

 ander the influence of " supers," is reduced by potash salts ; but the 



land on which I operated was naturally well supplied with potash, 

 so that only a guess can be made nt the probable results to be 

 obtained on land poor in that element. Marcker finds but little 

 effect on the starch from any manure. I can give no information 

 concerning the effect on the iier.-entage of starch in cereals exerted 

 bv "minerals." " Farmer" is somewhat hard on "F.C.S. ' when 

 he says that it is nonsense that stable manure is not better than 

 peat ;' therefore I add for comparison the analyses of a sample 

 of peat and of farmyai-d manure : — 



Farmyard Manuro. Poat. 



Porconl. Percent. 



Onranic matter 78H 77.0 



Mineral 33 3-0 



Potash 015 007 



Sulphuric acid Oil 020 



Lime 0-2 025 



Nitrogen 058 99 



Another sample of peat contained less nitrogen, but nearly double 

 the amount of potash. Chemically speaking, this peat was in many 

 respects better than manure, but the agriculturist would probably 

 not consider it so, because he would find that the fibre of the peat 

 would take so much longer to rot ; also the nitrogen of the farm- 

 yard manure is in a more assimilable condition than that of the 

 peat. It is much to bo regretted that the scientist so frequently 

 makes a statement which, though correct ill itself, requires some 

 further explanation before it becomes intelligible to tho public, who, 

 being unaware of the full facts, proceed to judge upon tho matter. 

 Because 1 fancy that this has occmroil in tho jiresont instance, I 

 have added this short explanation, which will, I trust, qnie^^ 

 •■ Farmer's" mind on the subject of peat, and also show that F.C.S 

 was correct in what he wrote- although, I daresay, ho is perfectly 

 well able to take care of himself, without my saying anything. 



A CALCULATION. 

 [-438]— A solution to tho following question would oblige one of 



member.", for the purjmse of 



vancmg a sum 



of £500 to each 



...^...bor for a term of 124 years, free of interest. Subscription of 

 each member £12 per year, repayment of loan at tho rate of £40 

 per year : how long will it be bifore the final member receive his 

 advance? Pyuami-s. 



Liverpool, May 23, 1882. 



GOLD IN INDIA. 

 r439] — Much has lately been written anent the, at present, dis- 

 puted existence in India of quartz that will, on proper treatment, 

 yield gold in quantity. Will one of your scientific friends who 

 knows tho regions there at present under exploration, give me, 

 through your medium, his opinion on the subject ? This question 

 interests many, if not all, of your readers.— Yours faithfully. 



INSTINCT AND REASON. 

 [440]— May not instinct in the lower animals and reason in man 

 be the same, with this difference— that the one is more intense in 

 character, tho other wider in range ? And may not this difference 

 bo accounted for by the fact that, whilo the brute does one thing a 

 thousand times, we do a thousand things once ? SiLcnESTER. 



"ATTLD RoniN GRAY." 

 [•Ml]-!"' -!■ ■ I In ' ■; :• the subject of music lies within tho 

 scope of Is I ' ' N 1 hoDO that you will throw some light 

 ontho(lis|i ' , ilic. nu'thorship of tho melody associated 

 with tho Will t \ii:<M{obiii Gray !"' The words are the undis- 

 puted prodii. linn of I,!i(ly Ann Barnard. Tho melody, claimed in 

 1812 by tho Rev. W. Locves as his -wn composition, was familiar 

 to my mother in her early youth, she having been bom in 1784. 

 Both melody and words have always been accepted by myself and 

 many others as tho work of one and the same mind. It would bo a 

 worthy tribute to the memory of Lady Ann Barnard to prove that 

 tho exquisite melody was hers, as there seems internal evidence that 

 it really was. ^___ 



B. L. H. 



Next week tho soriep on " How to Get Strong," " Home Curea 

 for Poisons," and " Electrical Generators," will bo continued. A 

 valuable paper on " How to Rido on tho Tricycle," by Mr. John 

 Browning, treasurer of the London Tricycle Club, will also appear. 

 An important series of articles on Geology, by Mr. W. Jerome 

 Harrison, F.O 8., will be commenced shortly, and several important 

 papers by Messrs. Prof. Charies Tomlinson, Grant Allen, Edward 

 Codd, W. Matticu Williams, Dr. Wilson, and others aro in type. 



