248 



NATURE 



\7tdy 26, 1877 



would have to be very greatly extended. It was, no doubt, 

 improper of Mr. Bamaby to make the use he did of the 

 Committee's words, and Mr. Reed took no pains to credit the 

 Committee with anything beyond what was written ; but Dr. 

 Woolley is, we think, a little forgetful of the fact that what 

 Mr. Reed wrote, and what we have since written, has had to be 

 said in presence of the circumstance that in a matter of the 

 gravest public importance a free use of the Committee's words 

 has been made by a high authority for the purpose of claiming 

 for the Inflixil'le public confidence in her stability on the ground 

 of range only. It is satisfactory to learn, however, on the 

 undoubted authority of Dr. Woolley that the Committee, what- 

 ever its language, not only iuetnded to give no countenance to 

 the doctrine that the Intlexihic would be proved safe if only she 

 were shown to possess sufficient range of stability, but individually 

 and collectively would consider such a doctrine as altogether 

 absurd. 



Un the second portion of Dr. Woolley's letter, we entirely 

 concur with him. We have read over again both the evidence 

 and the reports of the Committee of Designs, and we cannot 

 find the smallest justification for the assumption that, right or 

 viTong, the Committee on Designs is responsible for this ship's 

 design. The case to the contrary is absolutely clear and 

 unquestionable. Mr. Reed placed before the Committee the 

 outline ideas of a ship of this description, but making it a sine 

 quA fwn — let it in justice to him be said — that the ship should 

 not depend " in the least degree " upon the ends, and that the 

 stability of the citadel should be so ample as "to make it a 

 matter of perfect indifference how much the ends might be 

 knocked about by shot and shell." He spoke of the ends as 

 being filled with water, and thus converted into a sort of tanks, 

 and it most naturally occurred to the committee to suggest 

 whether cork or some metallic cellular material, might not with 

 advantage be employed to take in some degree the place ol 

 water, a proposal which Mr. Reed thought well worth consi- 

 deration and trial. Beyond this the Committee did not go in 

 their report, as the quotations cited by Dr. Woolley clearly show ; 

 on the contrary, by recommending the course of experimental 

 investigation which they advised they plainly showed that, in 

 their opinion, sufficient grounds for depending upon cork, &c., 

 for stability did not exist, and could not be shown to exist except 

 by large and well-considered experiments. Mr. Bamaby roundly 

 asserts that the Committee "did not agree with Mr. Reed's 

 view as to the necessary dependence of the ship upon her 

 armoured citadel for her floating power ; " but the extracts from 

 the Committee's Report which he adduces in support of the 

 statement by no means bear it out. The Committee, for some 

 reason or other, advert to Mr. Reed's plan without mentioning 

 his name, but, while nowhere implying any dissent from his 

 main principle, they plainly enough indicate that armour should 

 be employed to sufficiently protect buoyancy and stability, unless 

 "other means than armour-plating " could be found and proved 

 effectual. 



We shall defer to Dr. Woolley's very proper wish to restrict 

 his remarks to the two points above considered, and shall in no 

 way seek to connect them with the general question upon which 

 he has been appointed a judge. We may be permitted to observe, 

 however, that whatever the result may be, it is a satisfaction to 

 us to find that tlie Committee consists of gentlemen who are in 

 large part not merely masters of the science of the stability of 

 floating structures, and raised high by their individual repute 

 above the suspicion of partisanship, but who also, by serving on 

 the Committee of Designs of 1871, acquired very special fitness 

 for promptly considering the Inflexible case. They will know 

 how to go directly to the questions at issue, and after ascertaining 

 what stability the ship actually possesses without aid from cork, 

 or canvas, or other devices, .and what she possesses with such 

 aid, they will be able to declare with scientific confidence and 

 precision whether it is or is not sufficient, for they are themselves 

 the authors of the very standards by which that issue must be 

 decided. Nor will they forget that wh.itever demands for 

 stability existed in 1S71, still greater demands now exist when 

 we have the First I.ord of the Admiralty, in his place in Parlia- 

 ment, claiming for this very ship the ability to float and fight 

 even afrer three successive blows from Whitehead torpedoes. If 

 the result should be a disproof of our views of the subject, we 

 know that that disproof wii be based upon scientific grounds 

 that will commend themselves to impartial minds. If the result 

 should le to require that additional stability shall be provided 

 in such ships, a great public good will have been accomplished. 

 We need not say which result we anticipate. — Ed. Nature.] 



The Manufacture of Leading Articles 



There is a good old story told of a country editor who once 

 met a pressing demand for copy in a singularly ingenious manner. 

 At the moment of going to press, it was found to the consterna- 

 tion of the printer that a whole column was lacking. What was 

 to be done ? The whole staff was in confusion at the unexpected 

 discovery ; the editor alone preserved his wonted coolness. 

 Sending fur a copy of the Times, he clipped therefrom one of 

 the leaders and ordered it at once to be set up in type, prefaced 

 by the words " What does the Times mean by this?" 



This story recurred to me with some force on reading on 

 the front page of Land and Water last week, an article on 

 Soldiers' P'ood in War ; for the original, bearing my signature, 

 appeared on the front page of Nati'RE (vol. xvi. p. 157). In 

 this case, however, my other self seems to have had more time 

 on his hands than the country editor, since the article in question 

 has been paraphrased in parts, still with such care as not to 

 destroy the identity. H. Baden Pritchard 



July 24 



The Fish-sheltering Medusa 



Propably the species of fish to which Mr. Lawless refers as 

 seeking shelter under the swimming-disc of Aurelia aurita 

 (Nature, vol. xvi. p. 227) is Merlangus earbonarius (Cuv.), 

 popularly called boat-fish. At least I have seen the fry of this 

 species behaving as Mr. Lawless describes. 



The observation stated in the following words appears to me 

 one of great interest :—" Occasionally the Medusa turned in its 

 pulsations, so as tn bring the umbrella undermost, when the fish 

 would shoot liastily out, but the Medusa had no sooner righted 

 itself, than the fish returned." Now, if this occasional turning 

 on the part of the Medusa was not merely accidental, but, as Mr. 

 Lawless implies, a reflex act performed with the view of 

 escaping from the irritation occasioned by the fish, the fact 

 would show that the marginal ganglia of Aiirelia aurita are so 

 far coordinated in their action as to enable the anim.al to steer 

 itself in any required direction. For my own part, I have not 

 as yet been able to satisfy myself that such ganglionic co-ordina- 

 tion occurs in any species of covered-eyed Medusa ; so it would 

 be well worth while if Mr. Lawless could repeat his observation 

 a sufficient number of times to exclude the supposition of the 

 somersaults being merely fortuitous. 



I may take this opportunity of saying that the cut which 

 illustrates the abstract of my lecture on p. 232 of the same issue 

 of Nature as contains Mr. Lawless's letter, is intended to 

 represent the species of Medusa to which he refers, viz., Aurelia 

 anrila. The cut is about \ natural size. 



George J. Romanes 



Phyllotaxis 



I HAVE noticed in the laurel and the Spanish chestnut species, 

 in which the leaves have normally a distichous arrangement, that 

 when a vigorous shoot takes a vertical direction — for example, 

 after the stock has been cut down near the ground — the leafage 

 of such a shoot is often quincuncial. The phenomenon suggests 

 tliree possible interpretations. Is this to be regarded as a fixed 

 adaptive habit, the spiral phyllotaxis being the fittest for the 

 upright, the two-ranked for the more numerous lateral twigs ? 

 Or are the exceptional instances endeavours after greater 

 economy of space in the packing of the buds? Or, finally, ought 

 we to discern in the peculiarities of the more vigorous shoots a 

 reversion towards some ancestral condition ? W. E. Hart 



Drumaweir, Greencastle, July 20 



Printing and Calico-Printing 



As all that I am ever personally concerned to know is the 

 truth of a matter, I am glad to stand corrected by the writer of 

 the article on Calico-Printing in the " Encyclopedia Britannica." 

 The claim I made, however, for the author of the "Natural 

 History of Enthusiasm" was not my own invention; and it 

 would be of interest, I think, to the many who must still, even 

 in our day, revere his memory, to know more fully and accurately 

 what it was that engrossed so many years of his valuable life, 

 and what, if any, have been the practical results. 



Brcgncr, Bournemouth, July 23 Henry CECtl. 



