304 



- KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 6, 1882. 



It st..:<.i that Uic loMiU of fourtoi'ii years' olisorvation 

 dio»-s that tlie inortMse of subtorraneau teniperhturo 

 varies in its rate of iiK-rease downwoi-ds, from 1^ 

 Falu per 130 ft. at the ISootle Waterworks, Liverpool, 

 1,392 ft. deep, to V Fah. every 34 ft. at the Slitt Mine, 

 Weardale, Northumt-erland, G60 ft deep. A mean increase 

 of tfmperatur<> j>er foot is found from these figures to V>e 

 •01, '.63, or 1' Fah. in 64 ft 



Tjik British Anny ^Medical Department reports that 

 uniformly black troops sufler much more than white men 

 from the" evil influences of tropical climates. For example, 

 in the West Indies, last year, while the mortality among 

 whi:e soldiers was a little more than eijiht and one half per 

 tJiousand, the coloured men died at the rate of nineteen 

 per tliousand. 



Is the early stages of typhoid fever. Dr. Guillasse, of the 

 French navy,' has adminis'tered cotlee with marked success. 

 Three tablespoonfuls are given adults every two hours, 

 alternating with one or two teaspoonfuls of claret or Bur- 

 gundy wine, A beneficial result is immediately apparent. 

 A little lemonade or citrate of magnesia is also administered 

 daily, and after some time quinine is recommended. 



inches. It has a tail about eight inches long, completely bare, 

 except a tuft of long hairs at the end and a ridge of short 

 haii-s on its upper part. It is also a marsupial, the pouch 

 being well developed. It is of a soft blue colour. Its only 

 mode of locomotion is by jumping, precisely like the kan- 

 garoo. It can jump eight or ten feet. 



Ax industrious statistician in England has found that 

 out of 13'.i,143 persons of both sexes engaged in literary 

 work of various descriptions, only twelve became lunatics. 

 It is doubtful if any other profession can make an equally 

 favourable showing. 



TilEKE are nine hundred inmates in the Georgia Insane 

 Asylum, and a physician connected with the institution 

 says four-fifths of them were insane from the effects of 

 liquor drunk by themselves or their parents. 



DcBisG a violent thunderstorm at Lebanon, Pa., a short 

 time ago, a meteor weighing one pound eleven ounces fell 

 into the centre of the principal street, appearing like a ball 

 of fire as it struck the ground. 



Severb Gale .\nd Ei.ecthic Storm. — A gale of unusual 

 severity visited our coasts on Sunday la.st, doing an 

 immense amount of damage, especially on the Irish and 

 S. otch coasts In the Hebrides it is described as having been 

 a perfect hurricane from the south-west ilany ships were 

 torn fron their anchors at Stomoway and driven ashore; 

 others arc supposed to have Ijeen driven to sea, and "a 

 large num>)er of pleasure and small fishing l>oats have 

 iK-en sunk, driven ashore, or broken to pieces. In 

 places whol"! fields of unsecured corn have been scat- 

 U-red and destroyetl. Karly on Monday morning the 

 t'-legraph wires, more j)articularly those running S.W. to 

 N.E., were aH"«-cted by the passage of earth currents, whii.-h 

 continued at intervals throughout the day, and reached 

 tljeir fp-eaU-st strength in the evening, when there was a 

 brilliant dinplny of aurora borealis, one of the most striking 

 fcatnn-8 l>^iiig the "electric clouds." These were at a 

 conjiderable height, and had a striking resemblance to 

 Diassea of light eimt-ii, illuminated from behind by the 

 rnoon. The earth currents ceased to be noticed at about 

 3. .30 a.m. on Tueidf. 



There is a kind of dwarf kangaroo in the Staked Plains 

 of Nortb-Westem T<-xa8. Its Ijody is aI)Out eight inches 

 long ; its fore-legs are not more than an inch and a half to 

 two inches in length ; while its hindlegg are all of six 



Tub Sutro Tunnel, now completed, discharges 3,000,000 

 gallons of hot water daily from the Comstock mines. This 

 water has a temperature of 111.'')'', and is conveyed through 

 a closed pipetlunie to prevent the escape of vapour. After 

 a passage of four miles through the first tunnel, it lo.ses 

 suddenly 70""" of heat A second tunnel, 1,100 feet long, and 

 an open waterway a mile and a half long, conduct the water 

 to Carson River. Along its course are hot-water baths and 

 laundries, and a plan is on foot to conduct the hot water 

 through pipes under gi-ound to be made available for pur- 

 poses of irrigation and for supplying artiticial lii'iit to hot- 

 iiouses. 



Co.\L - Beds. — A correspondent of the 'J'iiMs, writing 

 from the Cape, says : — " From the explorations set on foot 

 by the Cape Government, and recently reported upon, it 

 would seem as though the great Stormberg range of moun- 

 tains contained an indefinite amount of coal. The Storm- 

 berg coal-beds have been locally worked for some time past 

 with very poor appliances. A coal-mine, called the Mol- 

 teno, is about to be oyiened some sixty miles north of 

 Queenstown, in which the principal seam extends over an 

 area of -00 acres. Though intercalated by beds of .shale, 

 it contains about 2 A ft of workaVjlo coal, the section being 

 thus given: — (1) Sandstone roof; (2) coal, Gin. ; (3) grey 

 shale, .') iiL ; (1) coal, 10 in. ; (5) black slate, 'Jin.; (6) 

 bottom coal, It in. ; (7) thaly sandstone. No. 2 coal is 

 described as soft, but bright, burning easily, with a white 

 ash. No. 4 is a highly bituminous and good house coal. 

 No. 6 is a hard, compact, and excellent steam coaL" 



Newspaper and magazine criticisms are sometimes strik- 

 ing. In the Alhmnnim, a few -weeks ago, we were told 

 that a scntimeiital part like that of Benedict, in " Much 

 Ado about Nothing," would not suit Mr. Irving ! This is 

 quite a new light to play-goers and readers of Sllak(^speare 

 alike. We shall hear next that Mr. Irving should take 

 only heroic parts, such as Dogberry, Launce, and Ague- 

 check. 



AsD now we learn from a tru.'^tworthy source that Mr. 

 Charles lleade (whose humour is keener, deeper, and truer 

 than Dickens's) has no sense of humour at all. 



Which brings Ouida on the scene. This lady, it 

 appears, cannot read most English novels (many English 

 novel-readers cannot read Ouida— positively find her 

 wearisome) ; but she can read Heade a littht— at any rate, 

 he is bett«;r than the rest, who always seem, to the judicial 

 Ouida, to writ*; either for school-children or for polico- 

 sergeants. This lady finds Reade humorous, though occa- 

 sionally rather grim. But, sitting in judgment on him, 

 more mo (a moth criticising an eagle), she finds that he 

 has never attempted to depict the woman of the world. 

 She evidently has not read " Love Jnc Little, Lovo me 

 I>ong" (indeed, from her remarks on Julia Dodd, she 

 obviously does not know that Lucy Dodd— the most dis- 

 agreeable of Reade's women^had already appeared as 

 Lucy Fountain), or she woiild have found in Mrs. Bazal- 

 gette at least an attempt at the portraiture of a woman of 

 the world. 



