Oct. 27, 1882.J 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



349 



-<L V^ AN lUiiAiRATCD ^'^ 



; ^ MAG.i^.ZlNEoF^S€|ENCE''^ 



, PlAINIYyORDED -£XACTLY-I)£SCRIBED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1882. 



Contents of No. 52. 



PiGB I PA 



Science and Art Gossip »^19 The New Princeton Telescope. 



EewGardens. By K. A. Proctor... 351 ; (nimlraied.) I 



Teasel Philosophy. By G. Allen . 352 Reviews : Backboned Animals— A 

 The \\Tute-Foote'd Mouse. {Illua- > Concise Cyclopedia — Anatomical 



traUd.) 353 I Studies ! 



The Menacing Comet. By the Life Historr of a Plant. By E. W. 



Editor. (Illuatratfd.) 354 Prevost, th.D.. 



Transits of Venus. By the Editor. i 



(lUmtrated.) 355 



Was Kameses II. the Pharaoh of 



the Oppression? XII. Br Miss 



Amelia B. Edwards (Illustrated) 357 1 



Corresponde: 



Answers to Correspondents 



Our Mathematical Column 



Our Whist Column 



Our Chess Column 



^timu anl) art 6o£fsiip. 



We gave last week the elements of the great comet of 

 last September, and those of the comets of 166S and 184.'5. 

 We now give the elements of the great comet of 1880, as 

 determined by Dr. Hind, twice, the second set of elements 

 being the more trustworthy. The elements of the comet 

 of 184.3 are those which Dr. Hind gave as the most pro- 

 bable at the time : — 



Comet, Comet, 



1880. 1843. 



1st deter- 2nd deter- 

 mination, mination. 

 Porihelion passage Jan. 27'G027 Jan. 276188 



Longitude of Perihelion 279 OS 279 52 11 378 35-1 



„ „ Ascending node ... 4 19 4 10 30 1 20 6 



Inclination 35 39-8 35 20 21 35 382 



Logarithm of Perihelion Distance 777371 7739369 7 74123 

 Motion Retrograde Retrograde Retrograd(^ 



As some, unfamiliar with these matters, have supposed 

 that the close resemblance of the orbit of the great 

 comet with that of the comets of 1668, 1843, and 1880 

 is not so significant to Dr. Hind, for instance, as it is 

 to Professor Boss and the Astronomer Eoyal for Scotland, 

 we note that two years ago Dr. Hind, writing respecting 

 the above relations, remarked (and with great justice) : — 

 " If this close resemblance is the result of accident, the 

 coincidence is a very unusual one in sucli computations, 

 and in fact not far from being an unique case." 



The Christian Coiiimonirml(h invites us to notice the 

 first number of its second volume. We cheerfully comply. 

 We notict^ what is meant to be a very severe attack on 

 Tyndall, Huxley, Darwin, and all who hold views like 

 theirs. We have seldom seen anything better calculated 

 to injure the cause which the Chrht'wnCoiiiiiioiurailth pro- 

 fesses to hold dear. Tyndall's \icws about matter and life, 

 Huxley's about automatism, Darwin's about evolution, are 

 twisted into attacks on religion, with which, in fact, they 

 have nothing whatever to do. " When lie | Huxley] 

 claims and attempts to show that such a wonderful me- 

 chanism as the organ of sight could come into existence of 



itself, and without a design or a designer, through some 

 mysterious process of development and natural selection, 

 as, if our memory serves us, ho has somewhere attempted 

 to do, he probably comes as near making a fool of himself 

 as is possible for a man of his eminent ability." 



This is in exquisite taste. But Darwin, not Huxley, 

 should have been addressed "Thou fool," by this most 

 Christian teacher. Darwin shows the various stages of 

 development by which the eye seems to have acquired its 

 present qualities. He indicates a process which seems to 

 many far more consistent with just ideas of a wise Creator's 

 plan than the ordinary view, a process which also explains, 

 what otherwise might fairly be regarded as scarce explicable, 

 the defects of the eye in man and other animals. And 

 here are the infidel words with which he expresses his 

 atheistic doctrines : — " May we not believe tliat a living 

 optical instrument might thus bo formed, as superior to 

 one of glass, as the works of the Creator are to those of 

 man." ("Origin of Species," 6th edition, p. 140.) 



It must be admitted, however, that Mr. Darwin's 

 writings are wanting in such evidence of zeal and fervour 

 as the Chriiitinn Commomcealth displays. He does not 

 anywhere call those who differ from him Fooln. 



We would invite those who laugh to sconi the idea that 

 the eye may have been developed, and lightly o\crlook the 

 evidence that there has Im-n such development, to point out 

 in what respect the theory opposes religion iiiuo' than the 

 baleful doctrine that the monarch of the forest has been 

 developed from the acorn. Is it because on(> process 

 requires a few hundreds of years, and the other hundreds 

 of thousands') But has not the Cltristhin Cunnnaimxallh 

 heard that to the Creator "one day is as a thousand years, 

 and a thousand years are as one day " 1 



We maintain that the most dangerous enemies religion 

 has in these times are those who teach that the doctrine 

 of evolution is inconsistent with religion. They in\ate men 

 to stake their faith on the failure of a doctrine which is to 

 all intents and purposes ccrttiin to be successfully main- 

 tained. It is the story of Galileo and tlie earth's motion 

 over again ; but those who would ally religion to false 

 teachings in science unfortunately address now a much 

 wider public than did the persecutors of Galileo. 



On Sunday, Oct 16, singular evidence was afforded 

 of Sir .Joseph Hooker's zeal in defending Kew Gardens 

 from the pestilent public (to whom they belong — a mere 

 detail). The Temperate-house entrance is blocked up; for, 

 as ;Mr. Shaw-Lefcvre says, " It is not desirable to multiply 

 entrances." But there was a lodge there occupied by a 

 keeper and his wife. Their exits and their entrances were 

 interfered with. But a sort of trap had been provided by 

 which tradesmen could leave their goods. Through this 

 trap, on the Sunday named, that unfortunate keeper and 

 his wife had to climb in order to attmul church. Their 

 edifying energy attracted considerable attention : the com- 

 ments on the occasion being rather oddly di\ided between 

 Sir Joseph's zeal and the lady's stockings. 



TuE young Hookei-s should be asked to report to Mr. 

 Shawlx'fevre whether the shooting and fishing are good in 

 Kcw Gardens. The walls being high and the public ex- 

 cluded during the morning hour.s, it is impossible to know 

 what success their sport meets with. 



