June 30, 1 881] 



NATURE 



i8g 



upon either of the two remaining cards." The lower (15) being 

 selected, and the remaining card (11) being turned up, this 

 proved to be the card originally drawn. 



Having seen this experiment twice made successfully with 

 members of my family, I offered myself as the next " subject " 

 of it, with the determination to watch carefully for any mai ual 

 gtiidance by which Mr. Bishop might be influencing my choice. 

 The experiment succeeded w ith me as it had done with my prede- 

 cessors, and yet I could not, any ntore than themselves, tell how 

 I was led to make the five successive selections of the cards to be 

 taken away, so as to leave behind the card I had originally 

 drawn. 



It may, of cour.^e, be assumed that Mr. Bishop knew where 

 he had placed this card, although his "subject " did not ; and he 

 informed me that experience has taught him the | osilions to 

 which the choice of his ' ' subject " can be most easily and certainly 

 guided. The influence of the eyes being excluded by the rela- 

 tive positions of Mr. Bishop and his "subject," the guidance 

 niuit be conveyed through the hand which Mr. Bishop holds 

 in his own ; and yet I altogether failed to detect the mode in 

 which it was given. 



Of course it may be said that this is only a variation of the 

 conjuror's trick of " forcing " the card which he has determined 

 that the drawer shall choose. (I remember seeing it stated that 

 Louis Napoleon, when Emperor, had defied Houdiu then to 

 " force " a card upon him ; and that Houdin made him draw iJie 

 card which in the French pack is designated Cresir.) But 

 though the same principle of "suggestion" is involved, the 

 conditions under which it acts are altogether different. The 

 conjuror stands opposite the drawer, looks at his face as well as 

 at his hand, and continually shifts the position of the card^ he 

 holds, so as to prevent a wrong card from being drawn, wliile 

 presenting the right one in the manner which he knows by 

 experience to be the most suggestive. But Mr. Bishop does no 

 such thing. The cards remain in their places with their faces 

 downwards ; avjd of the guidance given him by Mr. Bishop 

 standing at his side, the "subject" — even when on the watch 

 for it — remains quite unaware. 



If I have made myself understood by your readers, I think I 

 shall have satisfied them that tliis " experiment " (which may by 

 no means invariably succeed) is of great psychological interest, 

 as showing the large measure in w hich we may be guided in our 

 choice among things " indifferent," by itfjiuowes ofwkich we are 

 ourselves uncoiisiioiis. William B. Carpenter 



American Meteorological Observations 



In your valued journal (vol. xxiv. p. 16) I find an expression 

 of your regret that it should have been decided that the priming 

 of the Bulletin of Simultaneous Meteorological Observations 

 should hereafter take place one year after date, instead of six 

 months. It may be interesting to those of your readers who 

 made use of the Bulletin in studying the general atmospheric 

 phenomena of the northern hemisphere, to know that for several 

 years past the data for several distant land stations in Greenland, 

 Iceland, Siberia, Alaska, &c., have been omitted, merely because 

 the mail facilities did not enable us to receive the reports in 

 time for publication in the Bulletin. Thus a large portion of 

 the region covered by our maps has been left unrepresented, for 

 which the necessary data come regularly to hand a few weeks or 

 months later. The case is still W'orse in reference to the marine 

 reports for vessels off on long voyages ; for instance, we regu- 

 larly pay for and receive a large collection of material from the 

 London Meteorological Office that never appears in our pub- 

 lished Bulletin or charts. The proposed postponement of pub- 

 lication is in fact merely the outcome of several suggestions and 

 recommendations from co-operating nation^', in the propriety of 

 which recommendations myself and assistants fully concur. 

 W. B. Hazen, 

 Chief Signal Officer, U.S.A. 



Ofiice of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C., June 15 



A Meteor 



Last night, June 24, at iih. 29m. G.M.T., I observed a 

 meteor, as bright as Jupiter, cross the tail of the great comet 4° 

 or 5° above the head and disappear some 20° to the left, on the 

 vertical of Beta Ursce Minoris and at an altitude equal to that of 

 the comet's head. It left a bright streak for some seconds. I 

 did not see the beginning, and perhaps not the end, as it may 



have continued behind a cloud bank. The duration for the 

 above path was three seconds, determined afterwards by experi- 

 ment. Place of observation, lat. 51° 32', long. 0° II W, 



G. L. Tur.MAN 

 27, Hamilton Terrace, St. John'-, Wood, June 25 



Looking at the comet last night from my garden at 11.25 p.m. 

 I saw a large meteor pass nearly horizontally from a little east of 

 north to within a short distance of the comet, rather above the 

 head. It was as large as Venus when brilliant, but with a red 

 or orange tinge. The motion was rather slow. A. 



Adsett Court, Westbury-on-Severn, June 25 



Earthquake in Van 



It may perhaps be considered worthy of a note in your 

 columns that an earthquake was experienced in this neighbour- 

 hood on Monday, M.ay 30, at a few minutes before 6 a.m. 



Here in Van the shock was slight, consisting only of a tremu- 

 lous motion Lasting a few seconds ; but I h.ave to day re- 

 ceived information that at Bitlis the shock was so severe as to 

 cause people to rush out of their houses in fright, and that a 

 village named Teout, situated near the western shore of the 

 Lake of Van, was destroyed by it, with the loss of a consider- 

 able number of lives. I have as yet heard no details, but if 

 any further circumstances of interest should come to light I will 

 communicate with you again. 



It is well known that the environs of the Lake of Van show 

 many signs of ancient volcanic action ; at least three volcanoes 

 with distinct craters forming prominent features on or near its 

 shores. Of these the Nimroud Dagh, on the western shore of 

 the lake, is said by tradition to have been active not more than 

 400 years ago. It contains an immense crater five or six miles 

 across, in which are situated hot springs. The village T^out 

 which has been destrojed lies at the foot of the eastern slopes 

 of this mountain. Kmilius Clayton 



Van, Turkey in Asia, July 6 



Freshwater Actineae 



I YESTERDAY noticed in a small freshwater aquarium four 

 specimens of a small freshwater Actinia of a very pale olivaceous 

 colour. They have each six tentacles more than I inch in 

 length when fully extended, but then so extremely fine at the 

 ends as to be almost invisible. The body or stalk is about o'l 

 inch long by o'o5 inch in diameter when at rest, and about 0"S 

 inch long and 0'oi5 inch in diameter when expanded. 



I was not aware before of the existence of freshwater Actinia, 

 but as the specimens to which I now refer are in all respects 

 similar to sea-anemones, there can be no doubt on the subject. 



I have succeeded in transferring two specimens, which have 

 duly rooted and expanded themselves in a bottle and a tumbler, 

 and I shall be happy, if they are of sufficient interest, to send one 

 to yom- office or elsewhere for inspection. W. Sedgwick 



Royal Naval School, New Cross, June 24 



The Observation of Hailstorms 

 In the most casual survey of the literature relating to the 

 phenomenon of hail one cannot fail to be struck with the remark- 

 able contradictions which everywhere make themselves apparent. 

 Some writers say that hail falls oftenest in the tropics ; others 

 assert that it is altogether unknown there I Howard states that 

 the maximum hailfail in this country occurs in the summer 

 season, while Dalton and others say that it is in winter. I think 

 these singular discrepancnss are attributable, in many cases at 

 least, to imperfect observations. Most of the meteorologists 

 who have given special attention to the phenomenon of hail have 

 had their pet theories, and naturally their observations have been 

 guided to a considerable extent by the requirements of the par- 

 ticular theories which they advocated. Thus we find Kamtz 

 ascribing tlie formation of hail to the conflict of opposing currents 

 of wind, Volta to the electrical condition of two separate layers 

 of cloud, Leslie to the presence of strata of air at different tem- 

 perattires, von Buch to a-cending currents of air, and so on, all 

 which theories are based, not upon invariable phenomena, but 

 upon isolated features which happen to have come repeatedly 

 under the notice of those particular observers in the particular 

 hailstorms which they witnessed. I think it would enhance the 



