478 



• KNOWLEDGE . 



[Dsa 22, 1882. 



the supj>orting tree, exactly as though it knew where it 

 must fix itst'lf. Then tlie root-end flattens out into a 

 sucker, and soon, piercing the bark, buries itself in the 

 living tissues of its host As it grows, its veins become 

 aliuoi-t continuous with tlie apple's, and its base becomes a 

 broad flap, drinking in tlie proper elements of the sap from 

 the vess»'ls of the l)OUgh beneath. At the same time it is 

 no nier* la/y }>arasite of the worst type ; for, after it has 

 sprung up a' little, it l>egins to put forth its yellowishgroen 

 opposite leaves — thick, leathery, oblong things, with hardly 

 any look of life alx)ut them, but still containing lots 

 of chlorophyl inside them, which enables them to 

 assimilate material on their own account from the 

 outer air, and thus leaves tliem partially inde- 

 pendent of the hospitable apple. The leaves are ever- 

 green, too, so that the plant can ripen its fruits in winter, 

 while its deciduous-leaved host is bare and leafless. Such 

 habits are very difl'cront from those of dodder, which never 

 possesses any foliage of its own at all, but simply fastens 

 its suckers on to the stems of gorse or heath, and steals 

 from them every atom of the material from which it manu- 

 factures its twining red stems, its pretty pink flowers, and 

 its numerous seeds — indeed, some few e.votic members of 

 the misletoe family are not parasitical in any way, though 

 in these cases it seems more probable that they have 

 gradually lost their sponging haViits than that they never 

 acquired them at all. 



BICYCLES AND TRICYCLES; 



WHAT ENERGY IS REQUIRED TO DRIVE THEM. 

 By John Browning. 



THE conclusions arrived at on this subject by Dr. 

 Johnstone Stoney, as quoted in a recent number of 

 KxowLEDf-.E seem to me to require so many qualifications 

 and corrections that I tru.st the Editor will allow me to 

 state the results of my own experience in the matter, as I 

 think they will at least throw some additional light on the 

 question, if they do not furnish a complete answer to it. 



Bicyclists in fair practice think but little of riding 100 

 miles in twelve hours. The number of those who have 

 accomplished thLs is now so great that the cycling journals 

 have ceased to publish the names of the riders as they used 

 to do. The distance of 100 miles has been ridden by a 

 bicyclist on an ordinary road in a trifle over seven hours. 



The distance of 100 miles in a day has now been accom- 

 plished 1)y many tricycle riders ; several riders in my own 

 club have done it without any severe exertion, while 180 

 miles has l>e<-n ridden over a mountainous road in twenty- 

 three hours forty-five minutes. One member of my club, 

 over 70 years of age, has ridden forty miles in a day, 

 though he has only recently taken to riding. A gentle- 

 man residing at Brighton, who has ridden ever since the 

 introduction of the tricycle, though nearly 70, easily rides 

 sixty miles in a day. 



I do not consider myself at all a strong rider. I am 

 above fifty, and I have never had any continuous practice, 

 yet this year I have ridden fifty-six miles in eleven hours, 

 over roads rott^-n with rain, without ever tiring myself, and 

 on on<- fKTcasion I left olF aff;r riding forty -six miles, feeling 

 fresh'T than I did when I 1-gan. I have since tried how 

 far I could ride in a day, but feel sure, with a little pre- 

 liminary practice, that I could accomplish eighty inilM 

 without unduly exerting myself. Xo one who knows me 

 would Hfxiak of me as an athlete. 



What can >* done by athletes was shown l)y Lowndes, 

 who rode fifty miles, over an exceedingly hilly road, win- 



ning the Tricycle Championship in 1S82, in three hours, 

 forty-seven minutes, anil JIarriott, who won the second 

 prize, who was only three hours, forty-nine minutes in 

 covering the same ilistanco. 



I am quite unable to understand the distinction Dr. 

 Stoney draws between the bicycle and tricycle, when he 

 says that the exertion required to drive a bicycle is just 

 below, while that required to drive a tricycle is just above, 

 the amount which produces perspiration. Though I seldom 

 rode a bicycle faster than eight miles an hour, I never rode 

 without perspiration, and this is the experience of every 

 bicycle rider known to me. 



A little consideration will show that no hard and fast 

 line can be drawn as to the perspiration point, as it will 

 vary with the weight and friction of the particular machine, 

 and with the inclination and roughness of the road, as well 

 as with the habit of body of the rider. 



CORSET PHILOSOPHY. 



I WAITED till this week for your promised pictures 

 of ancient statues which were to pro^•o how women 

 ought to dress now ; but as they are postponed, I send 

 you some remarks on your paper of Dec. 1 ; and will carry 

 Dr. Cliadwick's recommendation to yon to dress up one of 

 the statues of Venus a little further, by saying it should 

 be modern dress ; for I suppose you hardly expect to con- 

 vert our ladies either to (Jrecian drapery, or to the usual 

 costume of Venus. It may save you trouble to mention 

 that you will find a copy of the result of that very experi- 

 ment in the book on " Figure Training," which is said to 

 have converted the maker of it into a believer in stays, 

 though it proliably will not you. 



I almost think you must have intended to make fun of 

 the Dress Reformers l)y assenting to practically all my 

 facts, and adding some analogies of your own, which all 

 support my conclusions, when properly understood. Thus, 

 you servo up once more that antiquated dish of Chinese 

 ladies' feet, which are maimed when young by doul)ling 

 the toes under them, so that they can never walk again ; 

 and you add a little new sauce ))y telling us that 

 they "often retain fairly good health to an advanced 

 age," nevertheless. Vou mean " fairly-good " in those 

 respects in which it is not bad and ruined. For I suppose 

 you do not call people in " fairly -good " health whose 

 limbs are disabled by chronic rheumatism or temporary 

 gout, because they may have no other ailment, and gouty 

 men often live tlie longest. The " crushed heads " of some 

 savages are also a fatal analogy for the anti-corsetites ; for 

 if they do no harm, they prove that a far more dangerous 

 looking compression than tight-lacing may be harmless if 

 done judiciously. If they do harm, then they are like the 

 maimed feet, and entirely imlike tight-lacing, which is 

 proved by long experience to do none, exctipt in excess, as 

 everything does. As to what is excess, I find there is a 

 curious concurrence among the professors and confessors of 

 both sexes in favour of contraction to seven or eight inches 

 below the natural size for the time, though, of course, the 

 results vary widely, and by no means all tight-lacers go as 

 far as that 



It looks plausible ('nough to say that, I)ecause binding 

 up a wrist or a knee for a long time weakens it, contracting 

 the waist must weaken the stomach and the back. But 

 if it must, it dofjs, and there ought to be no difliculty in 

 proving it by itself and not by analogical guesses ; but 

 nobody doc^s prove it, and a multitude of people have 

 proved just the contrary to their own satisfaction, and 

 they must know better than you cun whether they are 



