Sept. S, 1S82.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



253 



cndeavonrerl to carry a toad in its moutli. has found out the pro- 

 [lerties of this secretion to its cost, and the fcaming at its mouth 



has plainly indicated its disagreeable nature This 'toad's 



envenom'd juice' has long been known to ancients as well as 

 modems." W. Caelixg, Jun. 



VEGETARIAXISJI AND FITS. 

 [548] — I have known two cases of epileptic fits cured by Tcge- 

 tarian diet— one a man over forty, who lived and worked hard till 

 past sixty ; the other a young man still liring. A vegetable diet is 

 said to produce flatulence ; it did the opposite with me — it cured 

 it in about three months. John Alex. Oll.ujd, F.K.M.S. 



THE CALEDONIANS. 



[549] — Mr. Plaisher, in Knowledge of the 4th inst., ask.o, very 

 naturally, as it has been so often said by those practically ignorant 

 of the language, if the word Calcdonii does not come from coille- 

 ithaoine. Certainly not, as the usage of the language forbids it. 

 We say daoine-sith, daoine-nasal, davine-Airghaelach, &c., lie., but 

 not the converse, sith-dhaoine, nnsal-dhaoine, Airiihea'ach-dhanine. 

 Such would be placing the cart before the horse, and quite inad- 

 missible. B. S. 



STIMULANTS AND WORK. 

 [550] — I am heartily glad that you commented on the surprising 

 dictum of Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, that the drinking of wine is a 

 folly or a vice. There are many who are in the habit of taking 

 wine every day of their lives, and who are yet neither fooli>h nor 

 vicions. The man who enjoys a good dinner runs, I think, the 

 same risk of being called foolish or vicious as the man who enjoys 

 a glass of good wine. The folly begins, in my opinion, when a man 

 exceeds and passes beyond moderation, either in eating or drinking. 

 With the principle of total abstinence I disagree, because in its 

 essence the principle is against n.iture. 



RoEEET Macpheesox, M.D. 



ARTISTIC PERCEPTION OF ANIMALS. 



[551] — I am not sure I quite understand the meaning of the las* 

 paragraph in your correspondent's letter. Does he wish to say that 

 a cat, havirg seen its reflection in a mirror, becomes at once con- 

 vinced of tlie true nature of the phenomenon, and therefore never 

 cares to notice it again ? 



Having studied the habits of cats — animals in which I take a 

 gi'cat interest — for many years, I am in a position to affirm that 

 when a kitten sees itself in a looking-glass for the first time, it 

 evidently imagines it has a stranger before it, and it is only after 

 many experiments, such as touching the snrface of the mirror, 

 uttering certain sounds in cat-language (cats have a language), 

 and, where possible, examining the back of the glass, that it at 

 last becomes assured that what it sees is its own image. JI. W. 



, angturrs to CorifstponDnitsi* 



•,• All romtHumealiovi for nt JEJilor requiring rar!} allntion thonld rtach Iht 

 Office on or b'fore the Sulurday pr'eedivg tht current itnie of KuowtBDOK, the 

 inereating circulation of vkich compelitit to go to preu early in 'he tceelc. 



HlHTS lO ConRBSPOXDBXTS.— 1. Xo qtiettion, atliivg for tcienlifc {'formation 

 can be anetrered throuph the port. 2 i-tttere tent to the Editor for corretpondente 

 cannot beforecaidtd, nor can the nam^e or addreuet of correepondente be gicen in 

 anewer to private inquiriet. 3. Correepnndentt thould rrite on one eide o*'ly of the 

 faper^ and put drowinyt on a teparnfe lenf. \. Each letter ehould hare a tit! 



replying to c 



r^erence thould be made t 



Rev. J. J. Lambert will have to discontinue Kkowledgk unless the 

 Amateur Electrician appears systematically, and there is more of 

 it. Quite so; we must have weekly a page of eleetricitv. — J. 

 HoPKiNsoN, L. MtscRAVE, K. S. Ripley, O. S. are very much dis- 

 appointed that wo have not more peolopj-. Our geological con- 

 tributor has disappointed us, but — yes — we must have a weekly 

 page of geology. — TELFUscopL'rr, Mr. Patteb.'jon, John Baker, 'i'oixc 

 A.STRONOMFK (excuse me delaying rei)ly to you for so long, but the 

 questions and answers we are now dealing with we have been for 

 some time collecting), M. S. Jellicoe, R. Watford, and others waiit 

 regularastronomical papers with maps; this will occnpv,sav,two pages 

 weekly.— BRBvrrT says, "Please teach me the Greek alphabet : thanks 



in anticipation." Why, ccrt:iinly.- M. Texnant is well pleased with 

 our papers on Moths and Butterflies ., trusts they will appear regularly. 

 Quite so : column and a half a week (this thing is getting monoto- 

 nous.)— J. M. Peteksex wants to know why we have discontinued 

 Dr. Wilson's papers. We have not discontinued, but,— Let them 

 appear regularly, one page a week. Next J. Lettsom knocks at our 

 editorial door, " Yon have had very little lately of those charming 

 wiiters, Mr. Grant Allen and Mr. Edward Clodd." We admit 

 it, they arc charming writers, and we have had little enough 

 room for them lately. We must find two pages weekly 

 for them. — J. Moss, Ignokamis No. 2, T. R., want more chemistry : 

 a page a week.— J. H-iegeeave, R. T. P., M. Tillotson and others 

 (come in), desire papers on metallurgy. Let us see if one page a 

 week will do for this. — M. Comptox and J. Boxn-ky {come in), are 

 good enough to say that tVey like the Editor's papers, and wish he 

 would give more. Shall we give three pages weekly? — R. C. and 

 S. D. P. (come in) want more Illusions. — R. Smith, X. Y. Z., L. 

 Lucas, J. H. T., Q. Ellis, and others (come in I and leave the door 

 open), want to know what place text-book matter on Electricity, 

 Chemistry, etc., should have in a magazine which ought to be a 

 sort of explanatory newspaper of science ? What, indeed ! we must 

 at least have five pages of other matter for every page of the 

 kind yon object to. — For Ocbselves, we remark that to oblige 

 all and offend none is impossible ; but to oblige all, without 

 minding that some are offended, we want at least fifty pages 

 of original matter besides ten or twenty pages for extracts of various 

 sorts ; in point of fact, we should provide a weekly shilling magazine 

 for twopence. Fortunately, we have faith that the great majority 

 of our readers are not quite so unreasonable as to expect this. — 

 A CoREESPONDEXT wishes to recommend a book by Mr. English, to 

 those correspondents who wish to preserve flowers and fungi. Mr. 

 English's book has already been mentioned in these columns. — A 

 Derbyshire Scbscribee. The monthly notices of the Astro- 

 nomical Society are issued as their name implies, monthly, during 

 the session of the society, or from November until June, with 

 one supplementary number during the recess. They appear about 

 five weeks after each meeting, and it is stated that they cannot appear 

 earlier; but, somehow, when I edited them, I managed to make 

 them come out three weeks earlier. They were formerly only to 

 lie obtained by Fellows ; but when I was secretary of the society 

 I brought in a motion changing this undesirable state of things, 

 and they can now be obtained for a payment of 10s. annually — 

 whether they are worth this, I will hardly venture to say. Looking 

 back over the last year or two, I find that on the average about 

 one-twentieth part of each volnme contains matter of interest, and 

 about nincteen-twcntieths of that appears (generally rather earlier) 

 elsewhere. — S. W. (answered by A. H. P.). Mix quicklime with 

 water into a thick paste ; spread on the wood, and leave for a few 

 minutes until of the shade required.— Mr. Burton Fletcher 

 (answered by John Browning). I beg to say that the machine 

 ridden by Mr. Marriott in his wonderful ride through Wales was a 

 " Hnmber" tricycle. At the time I wrote you the account of the 

 ride, I was not aware what tricycle had been used, or I should cer- 

 tainly have given it. The address of the makers, which your corre- 

 spondent may wish to know, is Hnmber, Marriott, & Cooper, 

 Bccston, Nottinghamshire. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Ax ExTiiusiA.>iTic Subscriber. ''British Entomology," by John 

 Curtis, is the best book on the subject. It is published in eight 

 volumes, by Lovell, Reeve, & Co., 5, Henrietta-street, Covent- 

 garden. I do not know the price, but I think it might he bought 

 second-hand, by advertising, for a moderate sum. If An Extuusiastic 

 Subscriber will write to me, through the editor, stating what 

 branches of entomologj- he wishes to study, I shall be pleased to 

 recommend him the best manuals on the subject — Cloaxthus. 

 R. Maclachlan has written a very goixl catalogue of Nenroptera ; 

 it is published by the Entomological Society, I believe. The British 

 Museum has also a catalogue, but written iu Latin ; I do not know 

 if it can be procured by the general public. The first is the more 

 recent. 



Letters ix Type.— .Artificial Stone, by Ernest L. R. ; Highland 

 Colts, by Charles Stewart ; Train Waves and Memory, and Brain 

 Troubles, by Dr. Jope ; A Luminous Sea, by H. P. Vaoher; 

 Ferguson's Mechanical Paradox, bv F.K..\.S. ; Size of Rising 

 Moon, by G. E. ; Local Weather Lore, by Michael Reardon : Sin- 

 gular M'ental Illnsion. by W. II. Perkins; .\ Glass of Wine, bv 

 W. H. Johnston, and H. P. ; Drunkenness, by J. A. Ollard and W. 

 Bevil Browne ; Tarnished Dagtierreotypea, by A. Brothers ; Physio- 

 logical Experiment, by Z. ; Skeleton l.eaves.'by E. C. N. ; The' Use 

 of Drunkenness, by J. Ralph ; Talking Canary, Ac, by Charles L. 

 Cnne j Turkish Tobacco, by Tunbeko ; Flint Jack, by J. E. Okill. 



