49<1 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Die. 29, 



aid that it was plain to an ordinary mind tliat there had 

 )x«.'n a niisstatenu nt which was niatt>rial, and calculated to 

 misU'ail the applicant His lor-lship also thoiiuht that it 

 was not competent for persons who had issued a prospectus 

 which hail recomniendetl as one of its leading attractions this 

 particular invention, to afterwards say that the invention 

 was of little or no value. The application must therefore 

 l>o granted with costs, and the sum paid in respect of the 

 •hares returned to the applicant hy the Company. 



"' A VKRV disreputable breed of flies," says the Fri'iid of 

 Jwii', -appears to have its habitat in that sacred abode 

 of learning, the Presidency College (Bengal). They are 

 neither Hindu flies nor are they Mussulman, or else they 

 are sadly penerte«l and depraved, for the dissolute little 

 insects are so shamelessly fond of intoxicants, that no 

 sooner does a Professor, who has been fortifying himself 

 for his arduous lalwurs with a peg. present himself in 

 the class-room, than they swarm about his lips, revel 

 in the breath of his mouth, and drain the dews of his 

 moustache. Their conduct must, we should tliink, be ex- 

 tremely troublesome to the pegging Professor ; but that 

 is not the worst of it The students know well what is 

 signified by the swarm of flies on the Professor's lips. They 

 know that their revered instructor has been indulging in 

 strong liquors, and it is feared that they may desire to 

 imitat« him by turning their innocent and scarce yet downy 

 lips into taverns for the bibulous flies. This is the serious 

 side of the humorous picture drawn by our respected con- 

 temporary, the Jlra/iiiiii Piihlic Opinion, who exclaims : — 

 ' Fancy the picture of a Principal and Professor coming 

 to that cla-ss, with the perfume of wine about his person, and 

 with flies obstinately chasing his mouth : what an edifying 

 sight is that ! ' Edifj-ing, indeed ! We join with our 

 contemporary in advising the Principal .ind Professors of 

 the Presidency College to abstain from wine and pegs till 

 after college hours— unless they can exterminate that 

 a>>andoned breed of tlies that chase the bibulous mouth." 



A TniAi. of the Jurgensen dynamo machine has been 

 made by the Danish Government It was compared with 

 the Oramme machine. The following table will show the 

 average of four days' working : — 



Gramme. Jurgpnnpn, 



RoTolutions por minute 475 400 



Normal light 28,800 40,(HJ<J 



Tompcrataro between tlio ring after 4 



honm 30°R 2.5°I! 



Rcvintnncc in the dynamo in OhmB ... 0-421 OSUO 

 Length of wire on the magtiots in 



rnHn-K .3,100 .1.30 



From this it will \h; seen that the Jiirgensen dynamo gave 

 3S per rent more light than the Gramme, while, at the 

 same time, the Gramme refpiired alwut 90 times as much 

 wire as its competitor. 



SfBTERHAXEAN telegraph cables are being laid in Stras- 

 Ijtirj; to replac<^ the aerial wires previously employed. The 

 c»bleii will Im! laid in trenches about .3 ft deep. 



The Pkedervatiov of I.kmox Ji ice. — A corrc- 

 •pondent i i ,V;»i. f/<- J/U et rh l'l,„rm. Afifif. says, 

 after various rxperiments and the t<-st of eight months' 

 expotore to the gun and heat of summer, he has come to 

 the following conclusion : — " Heating the juice or adding 

 alcohol to the same would appear to be superfluous, as it is 

 ordy necwary to filter it and keep it s^-aled in lK)ttles ; 

 howfver, since filtration proceeds very slowly, the best 

 waj is, perhaps, to add 10 per cent of alcohol to the fresh 



juice, and bottle. The rhaniinccxtirnf Journal observes 

 that it may be preserved without the addition of alcohol 

 by heating it to l.">0' Fall., and then excluding it from the 

 air by carefully closing the full bottles iit this temperature. 

 The operation should be carried out in winter. 



A CORRESPONDKST, writing from ]Mi(lilk'.sVirougli, remarks 

 that there the Christmas Carol to which we referred in our 

 last as almost always misciuotcd, "(iod rest you, merry 

 gentlemen," is rendered thus : — 



fn)d arrest you, merry pcntlcmon; 



Lot nothing you disniirc, 

 — a reading worthy of Dogberry himself. God rest us 

 merry I 



Rekki!Hin-<; at the Society of Arts the other day to the 

 recent calamitous fire in the City, 11 r. W. 11. Preece 

 called attention to the many automatic fire alarms now 

 before the public. These cheap as well as ingenious instru- 

 ments are certainly calculated to meet a great want, which 

 must render itself more and more apparent as time 

 goes on. 



We receive many letters showing that readers like those 

 occasional Gossip notes in which we touch on our personal 

 views, thoughts, plans, and so forth. But there are one 

 or two dull souls who cannot understand why we do this. 

 They tell us we should prefer atarc nxprr (intiqudx via^i, 

 to keep up the usual editorial dignity, and so forth. They 

 point out that the Editor of this journal or of that maga- 

 zine docs not talk thus familiarly with his readers — does 

 not (above all things) note and correct his own mistakes 

 with those of others. We know it. We choose our own 

 way, liecause we like it much better. We prefer to have 

 no pedestal on which to assume statuesque editorial 

 dignity. 



Mu. Edw.vud Cj.odi), author of the " Cliiklliood of the 

 World," itc, iVc, and contributor of articles on the 

 " Antiquity of Man," ic, to the first two volumes of 

 Knowledge (reprinted, with additions, in our forthcoming 

 volumes, "Nature Studies" and " Leisure Readings"), will 

 contribute to early numbers of KNOWLEDtiE a series of 

 papers on the "Origin and Growth of Myth, and its sur- 

 vival among civilised peoples in their folk-lore, tradition.s, 

 and beliefs." These will probably be followed by papers 

 on the place of Dreams in savage philosophy, as further 

 contributory to the subject of human progress. 



Also, for the volume which liegins with No. 02, several 

 series of articles will appear, among them the following : — 



"A Naturalist's Year," by Wr. (irant Allen. 



" Our Bodies," by Dr. Andrew Wilson. 



" Pleasant Hours with the Microscope," by Mr. IT. J. ,Slack. 



" Nights with a Threo-incli Telescope," by F.K.A.S. 



"The Chemistry of Cookery," by Mr. W. Mattiou Williams. 



" Sociology," by Mr. Thomas Foster. 



" Sun-views of the Karth in the Seasons," illustrated ; 



And "The Southern Skies," by the Editor. 

 Besides these, there will be articles on " Electricity," 

 " Chemistry," " Entomology," " Geology," and " Health 

 Resorts," the series on " How to Get Strong " will be con- 

 tinued, and the columns of " Mathematics," " Whist," and 

 "Cliess" will bey continued weekly. For the present, the 

 "Easy Lessons in the Differential Calculus" will be re- 

 placed by simpler mathematical subjects ; but they will 

 ere long be resumed, until so much of the subject 

 conveniently be dealt with in these pages haf 

 completed. 



