February 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



37 



A PORTION of a roadway, believed to' be of Roman origin, 

 has recently been discovered at Reigate. The path — 

 fourteen feet wide, and five feet below the surface — is com- 

 posed of flints, the edges of which have been trimmed to fit, 

 and is altogether of a very even character. By some local 

 arohiEologists the path is considered to be a continuation 

 of the noted Pilgrims' Way to Canterbury Cathedral, which 

 passes through the town of Eeigate ; while others contend 

 that it formed part of the old Roman road from Winchester 

 to London. — -_ — 



The Council of the Royal Astronomical Society have 

 awarded the Gold Medal of the Society for this year to 

 Mr. W. F. Denning, " for his meteoric observations, his 

 cometary discoveries, and other astronomical work." The 

 medal will be given to Mr. Denning at the annual general 

 meeting of the Society next month. 



Noti»0 of iSooits. 



The Geological Society s medals and funds this year are 

 awarded as follows ; — The Wollaston medal to Prof. 

 F. Zirkel, the Murchison medal and part of the fund to 

 Mr. T. F. Jamieson, the Lyell medal and part of the fund 

 to Dr. W. Waagen, the balance of the Wollaston fund to 

 Mr. E. J. Garwood, the balance of the Murchison fund to 

 Miss J. Donald, the balance of the Lyell fund to Mr. Henry 

 Woods and Mr. W. H. Shrubsole, and a part of the balance 

 of the Barlow- Jameson fund to Mr. E. Greenly. 



The want of an independent water supply has long been 

 felt at the Zoological Gardens, and recently it was decided 

 to put down an artesian bored tube well. The results have 

 been, as was anticipated, the tapping of powerful springs 

 of pure water in the chalk, at the depth of four hundred 

 and fifty feet, yielding two hundred and forty thousand 

 gallons per day. — 



Sir William Gowers, f.r.s., is one of a very few who 

 can trace their success in the world to the accidental 

 influence of shorthand. It was his skill in this art which 

 determined that he should stay in London instead of going 

 into an obscure practice at Bournemouth ; it was shorthand 

 which gave him the post of secretary to Sir William 

 Jenner. Those who have been influenced by his books 

 should know that they owe to shorthand every word of 

 them — not one of them would have been written had Sir 

 William been ignorant of shorthand. He contends that 

 that which is secured by the use of shorthand, even at a 

 low speed, is this : in a given time there can be twice the 

 amount of record that is possible with longhand, and yet 

 twice the time in which to observe ; and thus transient 

 phenomena can be adequately described which would elude 

 entirely the slow pursuit of longhand. Without the use of 

 writing the facts that pass before him will leave only 

 transient furrows on the sands of unaided memory, 

 vanishing for the most part when new facts disturb the 

 surface ; and only immediate record can preserve from these 

 dangers the personal science on which depends the work 

 of those who apply their knowledge to the welfare of the 

 race. It is a prevalent idea that shorthand can be written 

 but cannot be read. On this head Sir William says : 

 " The popular error that it is illegible is due to the immense 

 number of shorthand writers who learn only to write and 

 to immediately transcribe, and who have taken no pains 

 to secure the ability to read. Because reading is not a 

 spontaneous result of writing, it is assumed to be im- 

 possible. The ability to read shorthand can indeed be 

 acquired perfectly without any ability to write it, and is 

 sometimes acquired." 



LUjht, Visihle awl Invisible. By Silvanug P. Thompson, 

 D.sc, k.r.s. Illustrated. (Macmillan & Co.) Gs. net. 

 There can only be one opinion upon this book, and that 

 opinion is that the book is excellent in every respect. A 

 course of Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution has to 

 fulfil several conditions, chief among which are : language 

 simple enough to be understood by people who are not en- 

 gaged in scientific work, experiments numerous and striking, 

 and attention to recent work of importance. Given these 

 conditions and a capable lecturer, and you evidently have 

 the material to construct a work of science at once popular 

 and authoritative. Prof. Silvanus Thompson's book had 

 such an origin, and we have no hesitation in saying that 

 it is one of the best works of its kind ever put before an 

 intellectual public. The student of optics will learn more 

 from it than from half a dozen examinational text-books ; 

 the teacher will find inspiration for many instructive 

 experiments ; and the general reader whose mind has not 

 been vitiated by Indulging in a pabulum of scraps of science 

 will find the whole book a source of mental pleasure. The 

 general facts and print' iples of the science of liglit are first 

 described, then the spectrum and the eye, and afterwards 

 follow in succession chapters on polarization, the invisible 

 spectrum (ultra-violet and infra-red parts), the invisible 

 spectrum and Rontgen radiation. The treatment of polari- 

 zation — a difficult subject to grasp thoroughly — is lucid in 

 the highest degree. The illustrations rank among the best 

 specimens of half-tone process work, and the whole volume 

 is a delightful example of the way in which science should 

 be presented to intelligent readers. 



Studies ill Psycliical Research. By Frank Podmore, m.a. 

 (Kegan Paul & Co.) Before entering on a brief criticism 

 of the contents of this book it is only fair to state that 

 Mr, Podmore deals with his material in what, according 

 to his Hght, is a perfectly impartial mind. His object 

 throughout appears to be to get at the bottom of the 

 subject, and he sifts the evidence on both sides. 



Faith — that's the word — and in it lies the explanation 

 of most spiritualistic phenomena. But it is not given to 

 all of us to see things with an eye of faith, or to be the 

 fortunate percipients of any phenomena which cannot be 

 explained by physical laws or be referred to a derangement 

 of the mental faculties. Mr. Podmore shows that many 

 of the 30-caUed spiritualistic manifestations are due to 

 trickery. Upon a hardened physicist, who has never 

 seen a ghost or heard noises which could not be accounted 

 for physically, who has never been worried in a haunted 

 house or deluded by theosophical revelations, Mr. Pod- 

 more's narratives do not make the faintest impres- 

 sion. We learn science through individual experience 

 nowadays, and the results obtained can be tested by 

 anyone who so desires. Is it any wonder, then, that 

 when a set of phenomena which we cannot reproduce at 

 will is brought before us, we are apt to regard it with 

 incredulity ? 



A number of cases are given of visions received within a 

 few hours of the death of the persons represented. With 

 reference to aU of these we say that the evidence is in many 

 cases very weak, and that the accounts of the visions were 

 generally written after the event, whereas they should 

 have been set down before. It is not following a scientific 

 method to select cases when the visions have come true, 

 and leave out of consideration those which have not. 

 Very many people see visions and dream dreams and 

 forget all about them ; and we venture to assert that the 

 number of visions and dreams which go ixnfullilled far 

 outweigh the few which are afterwards found to have 



