August 15, 1S95] 



NATURE 



379 



Fellow, Mr. E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., has endeavoured to put some 

 of the rules from this source to the test of definite observation. He 

 took a number of well-known signs said to indicate change, and 

 carefully noted what happened after each sign, and although he 

 does not say thai all indications from animals, birds .and plants are 

 ■useless, yet certainly those he did investigate seemed utterly to 

 break down. 



He took the well-known signs of bats flying about in the 

 ^evening, many toads appearing at sunset, many snails about, fish 

 rising much in lake, bees busy, many locusts, cattle restless, land- 

 rails clamorous, flies and gnats troublesome, many insects, crows 

 congregating and clamorous, spider-webs thickly woven on the 

 grass, spiders hanging on their webs in the evening, and ducks and 

 geese making more than usual noise. Mr. Lowe found that in 

 361 observations of the above signs, they were followed 213 times 

 \ty fine, and only 148 times by wet weather ; so that even after 

 the prognostications for rain, there was a greater preponderance 

 of fine weather. He called a day fine when no rain was measur- 

 able in the rain gauge. Mr. Lowe .says that even swallows 

 flying low cannot be depended on, as, especially at the close of 

 summer and autumn, they almost invariably skim the surface of 

 the ground, and .Mr. Charles W.aterlon, the naturalist, decided, 

 after careful observation, that theunusualclamour of rooks forms 

 no trustworthy sign of rain. These must, therefore, swell the 

 list of fallacies, although there are many other rules which have 

 not been so carefully examined, but which may still be true. 

 .My own impression is that although it is painful to dismiss the 

 animals from their ancient position as weather (iroiihets, we may 

 cimsider them as indicating what they leel. rather than as pre- 

 dicting what is to come, and that their .actions before rain simply 

 rise from the dampness, darkness or chilliness preceding wet 

 weather, and which render these creatures uneasy, but not more 

 so than they aftect man himself. The sheep turning its back to 

 the wind (one of the best known signs of rain) is probably only 

 that it may shelter its least protected jiart from the effects of the 

 weather : and many of you must have observed sheep sheltering 

 their heads from the heat by getting them into the shade of each 

 other's bodies in a similar way. 



As to cows scratching their ears, and goats uttering cries, and 

 many other signs of bad weather, they are at least very doubtful ; 

 whilst the adage about the pig which credits him with seeing 

 the wind, carries with it its own condemnation. 



The medicinal leech is still left on the list of weather prophets, 

 though he has no doubt had his powers exaggerated ; and two 

 books have been written about his behaviour during changes of 

 weather. One is by Mrs. Woollams, who, during a long illness, 

 watched a leech in a bottle, and carefully noted what it did ; and 

 the other is liy a gentleman at Whitby, who came to the con- 

 clusion that the leeches could be made to give audible and useful 

 storm warnings. So he contrived the instrument, of which I 

 n<iw show you a drawing taken from his book. No one would 

 imagine from its appearance what its use could be. It consisted 

 ■of twelve glass bottles each containing a leech in water, and so 

 arranged in a circle, in order, as the humane inventor st.ates, that 

 the leeches may see each other and not endure the affliction of 

 <juite solitary confinement — this rather reminds us of Isaac 

 Walton, who t<ild his pu]iil to put the hook into the worm 

 ** tenderly, as if he loved it '" — in each bottle w.as a metal lube 

 of a jKtrticular form, and which was made somewhat difficult for 

 .a leech to enter, but into which it would endeavour somehow to 

 creep before a thunderstorm, according to its nature. In each 

 lube was a small piece of whalebone, to w'hich a gilt chain was 

 attached, and .so arranged, on the mouse-trap principle, that 

 when the whalebone was moved the bell at the top of the 

 apparatus was rung by means of the chain. There were twelve 

 leeches, so that every chance was given that one at least would 

 j;ound a storm signal. The author called this apjiaratus the 

 " Tempest Prognosticator," a name which he jireferred — and I 

 think we shall agree with him- -to that of atmospheric electric 

 telegraph comlucted by animal instinct. He went on to state in 

 his little liook that he could, if required, make a .small leech 

 ring the great bell of St. Paul in London as a signal of an 

 approaching storm. The book is written in all seriousness, and 

 a number of letters are appended from gentlemen who certify 

 that correct atmospheric indications were at various times given 

 by the leeche.s. The name of the inventor of this ingenious 

 contrivance was Dr. Merryweather — himself a learned leech. 



Plants hiive also their adv<Kates as weather indicators : and 



there is no doubt that in most cases they act in sympathy with 



changes in the dampness, gloominess, or chilliness of the air, and 



as these conditiiuis generally precede rain, one cannot term the 



NO. 1346, VOL. 52] 



indications altogether fallacious. The pimpernel and the man- 

 gold close their petals before rain, because the air is getting 

 damper, while the poplar and maple show the under surface of 

 their leaves for a similar reason. Indeed, an artificial leaf of 

 paper may may be made to do the same thing, if constructed on 

 the same principle as the natural one — a hard thin paper to 

 represent the upper side of the leaf, and a thicker unsized paper 

 for the lower side : these will, if stuck together, curl up or bend 

 down in syinpathy with the hygroscopic condition of the air. \ 

 slip of ordinary photographic paper will do the same, and will 

 curl up at once when placed on the hand. 



The same slackness which moisture produces in plants applies 

 in some degree al.so to insects, some of which can only fly in 

 sunshine, so that there is a chain of weather signs all following 

 from a little dampness in the air. The flowers close their i)etals 

 and shut in their honey, the insects cannot fly so high, and the 

 swallows seeking them skim the surface of the earth, and even 

 then the threatened shower may not come. 



In 1892 attention was directed to a i)lant, ihe Abrus precatoriiis, 

 a beautiful shrub of the mimosa kind, which has the property of 

 being sensitive in a high degree, so that its pinnate leaflets go 

 through many curious movements, and it was claimed that these 

 form a guide of unerring certainty to foreshow the coming 

 weather. Even earthquakes were said to be predicted by this 

 wonderful plant. If it closed its leaflets upward, after the 

 manner of a butterfly about to settle, fair weather was shown ; 

 when the leaflets remained flat, changeable and gloomy weather 

 was indicated ; while thunder at various distances was to be 

 foretold by the curling of the leaflets, and the nearer the thunder 

 the greater the curl, until when the points of the leaflets crossed, 

 the thunderstorm was indicated as being overhead. Changes of 

 wind, hurricanes, and other phenomena were to be shown by the 

 various curious and beautiful movements of the leaflets and 

 stalks. These movements undoubtedly took place, but when 

 the plant was submitted to the unprejudiced observaticm of Dr. 

 F. W. (Jlivcr and Mr. F. E. Weiss, at Ivew Gardens, those 

 gentleman failed to find any connection between these movements 

 and the weather, and Dr. Oliver made a report on the matter, 

 w hich hits the heart of the whole subject of plant movements, by 

 ascribing them for the most part to the agency of light and 

 moisture. Mr. Scott, of the Meteorological Office, gave the 

 finishing stroke to the theory by proving that the movements 

 had no connection with either cyclones or with earthquakes, so 

 that the sensitive plant may he considered as out of the list of 

 weather guides, in spite of having been made the subject of an 

 English patent. 



It is a most common observation in the country that a large 

 crop of hips, haws, and holly-berries indicates a severe winter to 

 follow, and it is generally pointed out that nature thus provides 

 winter food for the birds. This, too, is a fallacy. 



.Vnolher weather fallacy, for which artists are responsible, is 

 that flashes of lightning take the form of long angular lines of a 

 zigzag shape, and of which I show you an example, taken from 

 a work on the subject. This, when compared with the next 

 view, which is a photograph taken direct from nature, shows 

 that the artist had very little understood the true foriu of the 

 lightning flash, which consists of numbers of short curves joining 

 each other, something like the course of a river depicted on a 

 map, or in some degree like the outline of a clump of leafy 

 trees seen against the sky. But, as far as I know, there were 

 oidy two artists whose acute vision saw lightning in anything 

 like its true form. One was Tiirner, who long before the time 

 of photography, scratched his lightning flashes with a penknife, 

 making short curved dashes across the picture ; and the other 

 was N'asmyth, the astronomer and engineer, who also saw the 

 lightning in its true form, and duly noted the same, only to be 

 confirmed years afterwards, when it became ea,sy to photograph 

 the lightning fla,sh itself. While on the subject of lightning, I 

 may mention that it is recorded that in one ca-se at least a 

 rheumatic man who had been confined to bed six weeks, re- 

 ceived a shock from a stroke of lightning, jumped from his 

 bed, and ran down stairs completely cured. This is related in 

 the Gcitllcmaii's Magazine for June 1S20. 



It h,as been often .stated that the noise of cannon will produce 

 rain, and it is not unusual in the .\ustrian Tyrol to hear the church 

 bells ringing to avert thunder. These are fallacies. The ex- 

 periments in .Xmerica made recently to test whether rain could 

 l)e i^roduced by exploding a large quantity of gunix>wder in the 

 air, resulted in nothing except noise and sm<<ke, though the 

 thing was well worth trying. 



Empedocles of old is credited with the invention for chasing 



