230 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[OCTOBEH 1, 1898. 



brilliancy. Meanwhile little gauze-like clouds in the 

 south and south-west caught gleams of light, flickered, 

 and quickly faded again. 



About 8.80 bright shafts of light began to shoot up from 

 the northern horizon, and from then until past 9 o'clock 

 there was an almost continuous display, increasing and 

 diminishing in brilliancy alternately. 



Magnificent great rays, like columns of light, shot up 

 far into the sky, some reaching as high as the pole star or 

 even higher. There were three, four, five, and at one time, 

 seven of these shafts, extending westward nearly to Arc- 

 turus and eastward occasionally as far as Capella. Those 

 near the centre were of a pure, clear, white, while those 

 on either side took a decidedly rosy-pink shade, and were 

 not so clearly defined at the edges. A friend who was 

 with me saw exactly the same difference in colour which 

 I noticed. 



After o'clock the display gradually ceased, but the 

 light was still lingering in the north-eastern sky at 11.80. 



I may mention that at 8.10 I could see the time by my 

 watch easily and distinctly, but at 9 o'clock I could only 

 with difljculty distinguish the position of the hands. 



Bramshott Common, Surrey, .1. M-R. 



Sept. 12th, 1898. 



Ebratum. — In Mr. Saxby's article, in the August number, on 

 "How to Photograph through a Fly's Eye," at page 188, column 1, 

 line 6,for " Ihe cornea.hyaline in shape," read " Ihe cornea is hyaline." 



Sir William Crookes may possibly have sounded the 

 alarm a little prematurely with respect to a pending 

 universal wheat famine, and that " starvation must be 

 averted by the laboratory. " While it is a fact that at 

 present the United Kingdom grows only twenty-five per 

 cent, and imports seventy-five per cent, of its annual 

 consumption of wheat, it is also true that ours is one of 

 the best wheat producing countries in the world — the 

 yield per acre for the United Kingdom being 29-1 bushels, 

 whereas in the United States it is 12 bushels, in 

 Eussia 8-6 bushels, and in Australasia only G-8 bushels, 

 the average of the whole world being 127 bushels. Anent 

 the argument that by increasing the present average wheat 

 crop per acre from 12-7 to 20 bushels in order that the 

 world's supply may keep pace with the demand, we refer 

 our readers to the results of the Rotbamsted agricultural 

 experiments. There it will be seen that in 1863, with 

 the aid of mixed mineral manure and nitrate of soda, Soij 

 bushels per acre were grown on land which is not better 

 than the average as regards natural fertility. Sir Williams 

 presentiment of coming evil, though well-founded, need 

 not therefore alarm us if the cultivators of the soil will 

 only follow the example of those pioneers who have 

 elicited so much from the economy of Nature. 



Professor Japp, in his Presidential Address on '• Stereo- 

 chemistry and Vitalism " before the Chemical Section of 

 the British Association, attacks the question whether the 

 phenomena of life are wholly explicable in terms of 

 physics and chemistry. The frank admission which he makes, 

 coming as it does from so great an authority on organic 

 chemistry, will be received with satisfaction by those who 

 do not regard science as the alpha and omega of opinion on 

 this much controverted question. He says : "I see no 

 escape from the conclusion that at the moment when life 

 first arose a directive force came into play — a force of pre- 

 cisely the same character as that which enables the intelli- 

 gent operator, by the exercise of his will, to select one 



* Knowledge, p. 140. June, 189^, and p. 148, July, 16i)8. 



crystallized enantimorph and reject its asymmetric opposite. 

 I would emphasize the fact that the operation of a directive 

 force does not involve a violation of the conservation of 

 energy." , , , 



M. de Rougemont's ordeal before the British Association 

 is reminiscent of other travellers who have brought home 

 strange stories of adventure in unknown lands. Bruce 

 was for some time regarded as a romancer, M. du ChaLllu 

 was suspected as a jierverter of the truth when he disclosed 

 his story of the gorillas, and even Mr. Stanley was, like 

 Joseph, believed by many to be a dreamer when news 

 came of the finding of Livingstone. Certainly the desirable 

 credentials to establish the truth of the traveller's story 

 are still wanting, but the ready, straightforward and un- 

 garnished narrative goes a good way to dispel doubts as to 

 the veracity of the forced exile. Much that M. de Rouge- 

 mont had to tell is merely confirmatory of other travellers' 

 narratives, but, taken as a whole, his story conjures up in 

 the mind, we think, a more vivid picture of life among the 

 aborigines of Australia than anything which has as yet 

 appeared in print. At the same time it is difficult to 

 understand why so responsible a body as the British 

 Association should have permitted the reading of a paper 

 of this character, without first clearing up all doubts as to 

 its veracity. ,, , 



Monium (from the Greek u.nvo; — alone i, the new 

 element announced by Sir Wm. Crookes in his presidential 

 address, affords another instance of the application necessary 

 in order to make headway in scientific research, the 

 veteran chemist having persisted for eighteen years in his 

 investigations since first suspecting a new member of the 

 rare earths, and only within the last few weeks has this 

 suspicion emerged into absolute certainty. Monium has 

 a well-marked individuality, enters readily into any number 

 of chemical alliances, and has an atomic weight not far 

 from one hundred and eighteen. The wave-lengths of the 

 principal lines are three thousand one hundred and twenty 

 and three thousand one hundred and seventeen. 



According to Prof. Flinders Petrie s paper in the anthro- 

 pological section of the British Association, the starting 

 point of known history must be put backwards at If ast a 

 thousand years, a decision arrived at by the study of 

 remains excavated during the last five years. Some of 

 the objects found at Nagada were once attributed to a new 

 race, but they can now be safely assigned to the pre- 

 dynastic stock, about 5000 ii.c, and even earlier. It is 

 alleged that we have now before us the development of the 

 art of writing and the civilization of Egypt. The popula- 

 tion of the pre-dynastic age was different in type from that 

 of historical lines, and in the early monuments the presence 

 of diverse types is very clear. 



A high-class microscope for the amateur, the student, 

 and the bacteriologist, at a sufficiently moderate cost to 

 come within the reach of all, or nearly all, would-be micro- 

 scopists, has long been a desideratum, and we are pleased 

 to find that the "Fram" — a newly-designed microscope by 

 Messrs. W. Watson A Sons — seems to us destined to meet 

 the requirements of the most fastidious. The instrument 

 is strong, solid, and rigid, steady at every angle, and there- 

 fore well adapted for micro-photography. In the coarse 

 adjustment provision is made for avoiding backlash, and in 

 Ihe fine adjustment compensating screws are employed for 

 eliminating slackness after prolonged use. Indeed, the 

 entire microscope is designed to yield the advantages that 

 have hitherto been associated only with the most expensive 

 instruments. 



