CORRESPONDENCE, 1856-60. 295 



there must be an arrangement made somehow. By a wise 1853. 

 arrangement of things it will be long before the opposite part of 

 the world is fighting the question. I don't see how there could 

 be three days current at once, unless some chaps had gone 

 twice round the world and never made a correction. 



Did I ever explain to you how it is that the opposite hemi- 

 sphere to the one which has London for pole is nearly all water ? 

 You might go ahead in science many a day before you would 

 find the true reason. Yours very truly, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



To Sir John Herschel. 



7 Camden Street, May 25, 1858. 



MY DEAR SIR JOHN, When your excessively rare animalcules 

 had been duly studied, it struck me that all creation is full of 

 life ; and though I have neither pond, tank, nor aquarium, yet I 

 have access to divers atramentaria which in common life are 

 called inkstands. Out of these I soon fished some specimens, 1 

 which I send you greatly magnified. I begin to have a suspicion 

 that the style of writing depends somewhat upon the monsters 

 which live in the ink, and that people would do well to examine 

 the fluid before committing articles. Most of the specimens are 

 difficult to make head or tail of which is very frequently the 

 character of other products of the inkstands. Care, however, 

 must be taken how such things are published, for the world is 

 very incredulous. And Fabricius, in his Philosophical Entomo- 

 logy, says, ' Damnanda vero memoria Johannes Hill et Ludovici 

 Renard qui insecta ficta proposuere.' 



As to the algebra, you are proving that you won't look at 

 symbols. What ! ! ! When nk is the number of vibrations in 

 one second, and ma the time of each vibration, you pretend to 

 tell me that you don't see 



ma x 72^=1 ; 

 or do you dispute 



ma X nlt,=mnka ? 



You will not easily make me believe that you were doing 

 anything but laying a trap for me to make a pun that you 



1 Figures made by scribbling, and then folding the paper in half, by 

 which both sides are made alike and resemble strange insects. 



