Jolt 7, 1882. J 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



69 



of the chest It is best to stand with the back to the wall. 

 Draw ab steadily down, till the hands and arms are in 

 about the position they have just before the feather in 

 rowing ; let the bar go steadily up again, to your full 

 reach. Continue this exercise about five minutes, being 

 careful to let the arms be drawn up to their full reach 

 above the head each time. The weights at W and iv may 

 at first only be some 10 lb. each (so that the heavier dumb- 

 bells tied at W and io will serve very well), but can be 

 gradually increased as the arms gain strength : though this 



V 



is not, be it noticed, the object of the exercise. For mere 

 muscular work they might be increased until each 

 amounted to nearly half the weight of the body ; but this 

 would not do for work in chest expansion. In this 

 exeicise draw in the breath fully as the bar rises, hold it 

 till you cannot comfortably hold it much longer, then 

 begin to draw down the bar ab slowly, breathing out 

 slowly as you do so, and after you have drawn the bar to 

 its lowest position — just opposite the lowest part of the 

 breastbone — breathe out the last particle of air you can 

 get rid of without drawing your shoulders forward. In 

 this way you will get most benefit from each pull, so far 

 as chest expansion is concerned. But if you want more 

 active muscular work, expand your chest fully when the 

 bar is at its highest, and then pull it down and let it up 

 steadily as often as you can without letting out your 

 breath, whicli you can finally do iu drawing the bar down, 

 taking in a full breath as it rises again. Or you may take 

 several pulls after cxspiring before taking in another full 

 breath. Only note that you ought always to let inspira- 

 tion be completed when the bar is at its highest, exspiration 

 being completed when the bar is at its lowest. 



Now take advantage of Sir Edmund Beckett's useful 

 hint. Lay hold of the cord, cd, near c, at your utmost 

 upward reach, and pull downwards, as if ringing a heavy 

 bell. You can continue the downward pull till tiie hands, 

 close tog(!tlier on the rope, reach about to the alxlomen. 

 Repeat these pulls, breathing in any one of the ways de- 

 scribed in the last paragraph, for from five to ton minutes. 

 You will find (we have tried it, and know*) not only 



• Tho reader will excnse ns for not eaying, as nsnol, Crede 

 experto. 



advantage to your health, but absolute physical pleasure 

 in this exercise. We have never taken part in bell-ringing, 

 but wo can now very well understand how this exercise, 

 combined with the pleasant noise of well-matched V)ell3, 

 should have been regarded by the Puritans as a sinful 

 recreation — somewhat only on the principle which led 

 some one to say that the only thing wanting to make 

 strawberry-eating perfect was that it should be forbidden. 

 We never before thoroughly understood that passage in 

 Bunyan's life, in which we are told that, " having been 

 mightily addicted to ringing, he was very unwilling, for all 

 his reformation, to leave it ; but his conscience beginning 

 to be tender, he thought the practice thereof to be but 

 vain, and so forced himself to leave it, yet cm! J not keep 

 his mind from hankering after it. But then he was sur- 

 prised with fears that possibly one of the bells might fall 

 and kill him, so that he durst no longer go into the steeple, 

 but would stand at the door ; and even then he was afraid 

 Isst the steeple itself should fall upon him." Yet, says the 

 worthy chronicler, " this was only lopping off the branches 

 of sin while the root of unregeneracy remained." 



{To he continued.) 



PHOTOGRAPHIC SPECTRUM OF 

 COMET (WELLS.)* 



By Doctor W. Hucgins, F.R.S. 



ON May 311 obtained a photograph of the spectrum of 

 this comet, with an exposure of one hour and a 

 quarter. On the same plate I took a spectrum of a Urs.'B 

 Majoris for comparison. The comet's spectrum on the 

 plate consists of a strong continuous spectrum extending 

 from about F to a little beyond H. I am not able to 

 distinguish any of the Fraunhofer lines in this continuous 

 spectrum. The slit was rather more open than was the 



case in photographing the spectrum of the comet of last 

 year ; this would make these lines less distinct, but the 

 lines G and H are well seen in the star's spectrum taken 

 under the same conditions. We may therefore conclude 

 that the part of the comet's original light which gives a 

 continuous spectrum is much stronger relatively to the 

 reflected solar light in this comet, than was tho case in 

 the comet of last year, and for this reason the Fraunhofer 

 lines are not distinguishable. 



Observations of tho visible spectrum had already shown 

 that the comet diflcrs remarkably from the hydrocarbon 

 type common to all the comets, some twenty, which have 

 appeared since spectrum analysis has been applied to these 

 bodies. 



The photographic spectrum shows, as was to be ex- 

 pected, that this essential dilFerence of spectrum exists also 

 in the more refrangible region. The very strong ultra- 

 violet group assigned to cyanogen is not to bo sivn on the 

 plate, and the bright groups between CJ and /», and between 

 A and II do not appear to be present. 



• Substance of note rood before the Bojal Sooiety, Jnno 16, 1883. 



