Oct. G, 18SI!.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



303 



^ MAGAZINE OF SCf ENCE '^ ; 



^_ P LAlNLYVfORJED-EXACTLp ESCRIBED | 



LONDON: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1882. 



Contents of No. 49. 



Science and Art Gossip 303 



GeoloffT of Llandudno and Ehyl. 



Bt W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 



(illutlraled) 305 



Enelish Seaside Health Resorts. 



By Alfred Haviland, M.K.C.S., 



FlE.M.C.S.Lond 306 



An Obsen-ation of Saturn (Illutt.) 307 



The Comet 309 



S^iehts with a Three-Inch Telescope. 



By F.E.A.S. (lUutlraled) 310 



The Herring King {JUitttrated) 311 



Animal Vaccine 312 



Reviews : — Autumn Leaves— Pho- 

 tography at Home 313 



The Polytechnic T. M. C. Institute 313 



Correspondence 313 



Answers to Correspondents 315 



Our Mathematical Column Slfi 



Our Chess Column 31« 



Science aitii ^rt ^osf^ip. 



The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland considers that the 

 comet which has recently been observed near the sun is no 

 other than our friend the Menacing Comet, otherwise 

 known as the Spectator's Comet, which is to set the sun 

 aglow after a return or two, and so bring about the destruc- 

 tion of the world, if not of the whole solar system. We 

 give his remarks upon the suliject in another column. 



The comet seems not only to have been near the sun in 

 the sky, but actually near to him in space. At least its 

 spectrum showed the sodium lines, bright and well-defined ; 

 and we know that in the case of Wells's Comet, tlie only 

 one which has shown these lines, they did not make their 

 appearance until the comet drew near the point of nearest 

 approach to the sun. The discovery that the cometic 

 spectrum changes as a comet approaches perihelion is not 

 only highly significant in itself, but full of promise. After 

 all, the mysteries of comets may not be so inscrutable as it 

 has seemed likely they would prove. 



The sodium lines, writes Thollon, from Nice, seemed 

 displaced towards the red end of the spectrum. This 

 would show that at the moment of observation the comet 

 was receding rapidly from the earth. The Sf.n: York 

 Tribune says it shows the comet was approaching the earth 

 rapidly, but that is a mistake. Displacement towards the 

 red means recession ; approach is indicated by displace- 

 ment towards the violet. 



It was thought a triumph of science when the induction 

 balance was used to determine the place of the bullet in 

 President Garfield's l)ody. The bullet was wrongly 

 " placed " — a mere detail. Science is, however, consoled. 

 The instrument worked all right, we are told, in a paper 

 read before the Montreal meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science ; only unfortunately, 



it mistook (or Professor mistook ?) a bedspring for tliC 



bullet ! No wonder some European surgeons doubt 

 wliether Guiteau really killed the President. Professor 



Esmarch says that " repeated probing by fingers and 

 instrument.", not protected by Lister's method, caused the 

 suppuration which led to the fatal result." The little bills 

 of the American doctors range from £.5,000 for J)r. Bliss, the 

 principal physician, to £200 to Dr. Lamb for the aTitop.sy. 



Remahkable luminous phenomena were seen in the 

 southern skies on the evening of Monday last. There 

 were auroral streamers and a strong auroral glare of a 

 whitish red colour towards the north (about the direction 

 of the magnetic meridian. The lights seen in the southern 

 sky resembled whitish luminous clouds, along a band rising 

 from the horizon about south-east, and passing over to 

 about north-west. The way in which these clouds varied 

 in apparent lustre, sometimes fading almost out of view, 

 and anon seeming to glow with light, was most remarkable. 



By the last San Francisco mail, we learn that Mr. 

 Binnie, of New Zealand, has devised a plan for making 

 gas from fat, air, and water. The machine employed 

 has two retorts, and a constant dropping of gas is main- 

 tained from a service pipe, while from another, water 

 trickles, the relative proportion being one drop of fat 

 to four drops of water. The two ingredients are united 

 with air admitted by a valve, and as the three unite, gas is 

 immediately formed and afterwards purified in the usual 

 way. One man can work several machines. The gas 

 produced burns clearly and has no unpleasant smell. Mr. 

 Binnie calculates that in Dunedin, where the method is to 

 be tried, he can save the inhabitants full Ss. per 1,000 

 cubic feet. 



The Commissioners of the Aberdeen Harbour have 

 begun to lay pipes for "pouring oil on the water," to calm 

 the surface in bad weather. Cheap tishoil is used, and 

 harbour authorities all over the Kingdom are anxiously 

 hoping for stormy weather, that they may test, as soon as 

 possible, the value of this method of allaying troubled seas. 



It is said in several American papers, usually well 

 informed, that all passenger trains in that country will 

 before long be preceded by pilot-engines, like the queen's 

 train in England. It is not clear how this is to add to 

 the safety of passengers. What is to prevent the pilot- 

 engine itself from causing a smash 1 Quis custodes ipsos 

 custodiat ? When Queen Victoria travels, the idea seems 

 to be, Let every one get out of the way, q>iam celerrime 

 (see her instructions to her loving but, it appears, too 

 obtrusive people — " subjects " the law calls them, though 

 it does not tell us the date of their subjection — after the 

 impressive Mislkloe case, which none should forget). But 

 thougli pilot-engines may ensure safety to the train they 

 precede, they are by no means an element of safety in 

 themselves. 



GEORGE.S LECLANcnt, the inventor of the justly-cele- 

 brated battery bearing his name, died in Paris, on the 14th 

 ult., at the early age of 43. He was educated at the 

 Koole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris, whicli 

 he left in 18G0, and entered the Compagnie du Chemin de 

 Fer de I'Est as a chemical engineer. In It^G" he left this 

 post to de\ote his attention to his invention, wliich, it is 

 almost needless to say, h.is met with that universal favour 

 it so justly merits. 



Underground TEMPEn.^Ti'RE. — The report of the British 

 Association Committee on " Underground Temperature," 

 shows how impossible it is to give a mean rate of incre.nse. 



